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On 14th July 1808, at the age of fourteen, William was apprenticed as a waterman, to his father William. He received his freedom of the Company of Watermen and Lightermen on 3rd of August 1815.2 William was the first of the Brownfield brothers to marry into the Munyard family, when on February 3, 1817 he married MARY ANN MUNYARD at St. Alphege’s Church3. Mary Ann had been born on November 30, 17964 in Deptford, but her family had moved to Greenwich in about 1800 and were living in London Street, where her father had a currier’s business. The wedding was a few months before her 21st birthday so the entry in the marriage register records that she was a minor and that the marriage was under a licence with the consent of “her natural and lawful father” George Munyard. The witnesses at the wedding were:5
George Munyard, Thos. Arbuthnot William Brownfield
Thomas Arbuthnot was a Currier and close friend of the bride’s father, George Munyard. The two boys had been apprentices together under the instruction of John Hodges in 1793. He was also to be a witness at the wedding of George’s second daughter Sarah to Thomas Brownfield.On the entry in the St Alphege’s marriage register in 1817 William gives his occupation as Waterman6, but like his father he worked to improve his position and in 1816 he had bought a share of a “flush decked brig” the “Hope” and gave his occupation as Pilot7 although he was not to receive his Trinity house Warrant until 1826.8
The Board of Trade register “London Coasting Trade”, Entry No. 17, dated 2nd May 1816,9 states:
Owner: Edward Savage and others, including William Brownfield of Greenwich, Pilot, who held 1/32 share.
Vessel’s name: Hope
Of what place: London
Captain: Thomas Herbert
Built: Chester
Launched: 16th March 1816
Builders: Mulvey and Evans
Burthen: 154 tons
Length: 73’ 3”
Breadth: 22” 2¼”
Type: Flush decked brig
Figurehead No
Galley No
It was usual for men training to be pilots to have experience at sea, but there is no record of where William did this, however on 17th of January 1826 the Corporation of Trinity House granted William Brownfield a pilot’s warrant.10
Licence Number: 351
Residence: Greenwich
Qualification: “From London Bridge to Gravesend and back again to London Bridge.”
Description: “5 feet 5½ inches high, dark complexion, wears his own thin dark brown hair”
On the 4th of August 1829 he was examined again and certificated for:
“Vessels above 14 feet Draft of Water”
In the 1841 Census, William is shown living in Crowley’s Wharf next door to his brother Thomas’ house, but in the baptism records at St Alphege's, for 11 of William’s 12 children, including Augustus in 1842, they are recorded as living at Ballast Quay; only Charlotte in 1827 is recorded as being born at Crowley’s Wharf. Crowley’s Wharf is continuous with Ballast Quay and it is possible that the names were used indiscriminately rather than the family was moving up and down the road. In the house on census day, June 611, were seven of William’s nine surviving children, and Jane Williams a female servant aged 20. Mary Ann, William’s wife and Emily their 11 year old daughter (she was recorded as aged 5 in the census) were not present because they were staying with Mary Ann’s parents, George and Mary Munyard at Terry’s Lodge in Ash, Kent.
William’s children recorded at Ballast Quay were:
Mary (Ann) aged 20
Robert aged 18
Charlotte aged 15
Sarah aged 9
William aged 7
Samuel aged 5
Caroline aged 3
In the will of George Munyard,12 signed in 1846, of which William was an executor, it states that William was ‘late of Crane Street’. It is possible that the family moved briefly into his father’s house in Crane Street after his death in March 1845 and before they moved to Gravesend. William and Mary Ann left Crowley’s Wharf in about 1845/6, which may have been following the auction of his Father’s properties on Monday November 3, 1845, as included in the sale were: “Six extremely well situate private residences, with a warehouse adjoining on Crowley’s Wharf, Greenwich, commanding the most extensive views of the river and surrounding country; let to old and respectable tenants at net rentals amounting to £119; held under Morden College for a long term of years at an extremely low ground rent.” James and Jane also left Crowley’s Wharf and moved to Gravesend at about the same time.
In the 1847 Poll Book for Greenwich, William is shown as living at 10, The Grove, Gravesend, so he had presumably only just moved.13 The Grove is a road containing large detached and semi-detached villas, in the centre of town, leading up from the Clock Tower,.
By 1851, William and his family had moved again, to 5 Milton Place, Milton next Gravesend. Recorded in the census return which was conducted on Sunday March 30145, were:
William 57 Pilot
Mary Ann 53 wife
Charlotte 23
William (Henry) 19
Samuel 15
Augustus 9
Maria CURTIS 18 a house servant.
Emily Brownfield (20) and unmarried was staying with Mary Ann (Hall) her sister at 6 Darnley Terrace, Gravesend.15 Brothers Robert and George were married and living next to each other at numbers 29 and 31 Wellington Street, Gravesend.16 Caroline had been left behind at school in Greenwich17 and William Arbuthnot18 and Emma19 had died as children.
Number 5 Milton Place was a substantial terraced house with a fine view across a park to the River Thames. From the front windows it would have been possible to see ships making their way from the entrance of the estuary into the river, ready to pick up a pilot at Gravesend, for the journey up to London. Opposite the house was Holy Trinity Church, which became the family church as St Alphege’s had been in Greenwich.
On April 7, 1861 when the next census was taken, William was living back in The Grove, at No. 2, with his wife Mary Ann. This was an even more imposing house very close to the centre of the town. It is near the corner by the clock tower, where the post office now stands. He was aged 67 and still recorded as a pilot. Also in the house were Charlotte an unmarried daughter (Charlotte was married in September the same year, just before her father died) and their disabled son William Henry, with a 20-year-old general servant Ann Mead.20
William was recorded in the Trinity House records as being superannuated in 1863,21 but in fact had died on 31st October 186222 at the age of 68 and on his death certificate his occupation is described as a retired pilot. The informant present at his death was recorded on the certificate as an H. Brownfield, but there is no H. Brownfield of an appropriate age on my database. (Could it have been the disabled William Henry, who might have been known as Henry?) The cause of William’s death was exhaustion due to the effects of a carbuncle, which he had had for ten days. William was buried at St John’s Church Meopham on November 6th 186223
This is the last Will and Testament of me William Brownfield of 3 Grove Gravesend in the County of Kent Pilot First I direct the payment of my just debts funeral and testamentary expenses as soon as conveniently may be after my decease I give and bequeath to my dear wife Mary Ann Brownfield all my household goods and furniture linen china plate glass and other effects in my house at the time of my death for her own use and benefit during her natural life and after her death I give and bequeath the same equally between my two daughters Charlotte and Emily if they shall then be living and unmarried or to such one of them as shall then be living and unmarried for their or her absolute use and benefit but if both of them my said daughters Charlotte and Emily shall be dead or married than I direct that the same shall fall into and become part of the residue of my property and go therewith as hereinafter mentioned And as to all the rest residue and remainder of the property Estate and Effects whether real or personal and of what kind whatsoever the same may be of which I may die possessed of or entitled to I give devise and bequeath the same to my Sons in Law Windover Edmund Fry and George Edmeads Tolhurst my Executors hereinafter named and appointed Upon the trusts following that is to say Upon trust to get in and convert the same into money as soon as conveniently may be after my decease and to invest the same in the purchase of Government Stock or Annuities at the Bank of England or lend the same on mortgage of Freehold or Leasehold Securities in England in the names of them the said Windover Edmund Fry and George Edmeads Tolhurst and Upon further trust to pay to or permit and suffer my said wife to receive the rents and profits to arise from my residuary estate and effects as aforesaid for her own absolute use and benefit during the term of her natural life and after her decease Upon trust to pay thereout the sum of one hundred pounds Sterling to my son William Henry Brownfield and which legacy I give to him free of legacy duty for his absolute use and after paying the legacy aforesaid to my said Son William Henry Brownfield Upon Trust to pay distribute and devise all the said trust monies and promises equally between all and every my child and children (including my said Son William Henry and my said daughters Charlotte and Emily) who shall be then living share and share alike for their respective absolute use and benefit And I hereby nominate constitute and appoint my said sons in law the said Windover Edmund Fry and George Edmeads Tolhurst Executors and trustees of this my Will And I hereby revoke all former Wills Codicils or Testamentary dispositions by me made and do declare this only to be my last Will and Testament In Witness whereof I the said William Brownfield the Testator have to this my last Will and Testament contained in this and the preceding sheet of paper set my hand this twenty seventh day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty two - William Brownfield - Signed and declared by the said William Brownfield the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who were both present at one and the same time and who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses attesting the same –
Tho. Munyard 1 Miles Terrace Greenwich Kent
Charles Brownfield 152 Wellington Street Gravesend
Proved at London the 24th Novr. 1862 by the Oaths of Windover Edmund Fry and George Edmeades Tolhurst the Executors to whom Admon was granted
Probate was granted on his will on 24th November. The will was erroneously indexed under the name of Bownfield, the record states:245
“William - under 1000 pounds. The will of William Bownfield otherwise Brownfield late of 3 Grove Gravesend in the County of Kent, pilot deceased who died 31 October at Meopham in said county was proved at the Principal Registrar by the oaths of Windover Edmund Fry of 4 Clements Lane in the city of London gentleman and George Edmeads (sic) Tolhurst of Laurel lawn in the parish of Caversham in the county of Oxford, gentleman, the Executors”.
Windover Edmund Fry and George Edmeades Tolhurst were the husbands of William’s daughters, Sarah and Caroline.
When William died, he must have just moved with Mary Ann Brownfield to Alma Villas, Meopham, a village 4 miles south of Gravesend as on his death certificate and in the probate record (above), his death is recorded as being at Meopham. After his death, Mary Ann went on living at the same house in Meopham. Living at Alma Villas with her in 1871, were their unmarried daughter Emily and disabled son William Henry, with a new servant Mary Harben aged just 14.25 A young maid would have been much cheaper to employ, than a trained woman, which suggests that like most widows at this time, when the breadwinner died she lived in very reduced circumstances. No head of the household is recorded, as Mary Ann was not present when the census was taken on April 2. Alma Villas consisted of two houses on the opposite side of Meopham Road from the George Inn and Meopham Vicarage.
In 1881, William Buck a retired farmer and his wife Mary Ann lived in the other half of the house (this could have been difficult when William Brownfield and his wife Mary Ann lived next door). 26
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