Andrew Dwyer : Short Biography

He was my great great grabdfather

According to details from public documents he was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. What the documents don’t say is if he was born in Kilkenny Town or Kilkenny County, that lack of information contributes to a huge brick wall.

Here’s what I know for sure about him.

Andrew Dwyer said he was born in c 1837 in Kilkenny, his father was called John. On 29 January 1854 he married Susan Crocker, and he died in Canning Town Essex on September 7th 1895. Andrew and Susan had 13 children in 20 years.

In the records there is considerable discrepancy in his year of birth, from 1834 on his marriage certificate at age 20, to 1845 on his death certificate. On the four census records that he appears on his birth year ranges between 1836 and 1837. Susan was the person who notified his death and can be forgiven for probably getting his age wrong, because if he was indeed only 50 this would give him a birth year of 1845, making him just ten years old at his marriage.

Susan was born in Bristol of Irish Parents.

Not unusually they both have the same address on the marriage certificate, that of Roscoe Street, Plaistow Marsh, Westham. This meant that they only had to pay for the reading of the banns in one parish. Their witnesses were Thomas Crocker and Catherine McCarthy.

I cannot find Andrew on the 1851 census, but he is on the 1861 at Chemical Cottage, North Woolwich Road, Westham. Occupation Chemical Works labourer. The different birthplaces of the two children indicates that they had previously lived in Poplar.

While I cannot find exactly where the Chemical Cottages were that the family lived in along North Woolwich Road, nearby were many chemical companies including the Gibbs Manure and Vitriol factory. The advantage of living so close to where Andrew worked would have far and away been outweighed by the stink that emanated from them. In one of the articles I read it was described as a 'very powerful pungent odour’ and an ‘empyreumatic odour’. 

The 1881 census shows that the family had again moved, this time to 27 Brunel Street, Westham. With his occupation as iron labourer he could have still be employed at The Thames Ironworks. Andrew and Susan’s family had grown and this census finds their married daughter Annie Pirret living at home, as well as Andrew’s cousin Isaac Hayes

On  the 1891 census , married daughter Kate, (Gibson) and her two children were living at home along with Andrew, Susan and three of the other children at 34 Brunel Street Westham.
Sadly, the next time I find information about Andrew is his death, just four years later in 1895. Cause of death, jaundice of five days. His wife Susan appears to have given his age as 50, but he would have been closer to 60, and at this age was still labouring in a gas works.