Richard Samuel Whitbred Goymer

8 Lower Street
46 1/2 Lower Street
7 Griffin Street
27 Duke Street
1 Sondes Road

Occupation: Grocer and Letter Carrier

Bankruptcy

Sometime after the 1841 Census was taken Richard had taken on a hotel. Which hotel and where this was is currently unknown but by May 1849 Richard found himself bankrupt and a prisoner in Dover Castle Gaol. On August 11th he appeared before the court in the hope that he would be released but this was denied him on the grounds that he had made false pleas and had impudently denied the charges against him. He would not, therefore, be released until his property had been sold and the debt cleared. So on August 18th all his  ‘valuable household goods’ were put up for auction. 

By 1851 Richard he has again taken up his former occupation, as a grocer and was living in Griffin Street. In July 1850, to supplement his income, he applied to become a Letter Carrier. Thomas Hodges Esq. M.P. provided the necessary recommendation and once qualified he took up this post in which he remained, at least until 1871 when he gives, or at least the census enumerator for that year transcribes, his occupation as an accountant.

The imprisonment of Richard may account for the lack of baptism for Ellen, his youngest child, who was born between May and July of  1849. Ellen remains a spinster, living with her elder sister Eliza who had also remained unmarried, until her death in Deal in 1932 leaving in her will £262 9s 2d to Annie White and Henry Thomas Pain a printer.  Eliza herself died in 1922 leaving everything in her will to Ellen.

Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser Saturday 11 August 1849

Dover Telegraph and Cinque Ports General Advertiser 18 August 1849

Sources and further reading:
British Postal Service Appointment Books, 1737-1969
Newspaper image © The British Library Board. All rights reserved.
With thanks to The British Newspaper Archive (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)