James Milner Underdown
206 Lower Street
Occupation: Gentleman
According to Bagshaws Directory James Milner Underdown is living at 206 in 1847 and listed as a Gentleman.
He married a Caroline Corbett in 1795 and with her had three children before Caroline’s death in 1806. None of their children seem to have lived to adulthood. James then remarried in 1812 in Canterbury to a Caroline Loop who according to the Kentish Weekly Post dated Tuesday 24 February 1824 died in Rotterdam on 16 February.
Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal – Tuesday 24 February 1824
James died in 1849 in Bridge. What exactly he was doing there is unknown though his niece Louisa Hardeman nee Wilkins was living there with her husband. With them, according to the 1851 census is Ann Wilkins, Louisa’s widowed mother and her spinster sister Rebecca Underdown, both are listed as ‘companions’, probably meaning to each other. Ann dies in 1862 followed by Rebecca on January 9 1864. Both are buried in St Peter’s Church, Bridge.
Louisa was living at 206 when she married watchmaker William Hardeman a widower from Bridge in 1841. Interestingly there were six witnesses to their marriage. One of which was John Bell the others were – Mary Ann Wilkins, William Wilkins, E. Underdown, E. H. Verrier
206 Lower Street as indicated by the arrow
This image was taken from South Street and facing up towards Broad Street