occupation

Grocer and tallow chandler

dates

Born: 29 Nov 1830, Oxford

Married: 4 May 1853, Elizabeth NICHOLSON, Dublin, Ireland

Died: 8 Oct 1873, Oxford

residence

Oxford

submitted by

Bridget UNDERHILL
(great-granddaughter)

Background information

He was the youngest son of Oxford grocer Michael and Eleanor UNDERHILL, and known as William. On 30 January 1852 he was listed on the Oxford Freemen Index 1663-1997 as a grocer.

He married Elizabeth NICHOLSON of Dublin at York Street Independent Chapel in Dublin on 4 May 1853 in a service taken by Rev W. Urwick. The couple settled into 14 Beaumont Street, Oxford where they were to have 20 years of married life together and gave birth to ten children.

William worked in the family grocery business in High Street Oxford and was also a tallow chandler. On 2 November 1863 he was made an Oxford City Councillor (West Ward).

By the 1871 Census William is listed as a grocer and junior partner living with Elizabeth and five of their children, and his father-in-law Charles Benson NICHOLSON of Dublin.

At the age of 42 William suddenly contracted Erysipelas of the head and face - a painful infection easily cured with antibiotics if caught early enough. Tragically he died after a seven-day illness on 8 October 1873 at home at 14 Beaumont Street.

In Jackson’s Oxford Journal, dated Saturday 11 October 1873, William’s name appears on page 5 among the list of deaths of that week:
“October 8 after a short illness, Michael William Underhill, of 14 Beaumont Street, aged 42.”
And his probate stated:
“Michael William Underhill otherwise William Michael Underhill probated 27 Oct 1873 effects under £4000, late of Beaumont St, Oxford wholesale grocer, died 8 Oct 1873 at Beaumont St. Proved by Elizabeth Underhill of Beaumont St widow and the relict and one of the executors."

Elizabeth, his widow, moved to 21 Park Crescent, Park Town, Oxford, and raised her children single-handedly. One son served in the Boer War, two sons became Preparatory School Headmasters, one daughter a teacher, and one son, my grandfather, an electrical engineer trained by Sir Charles Bright and engaged in two cable laying expeditions on the West Coast of Africa in the mid 1880s.

Two family treasures dating back to William UNDERHILL are two highly decorated Victorian Valentine’s Day cards he sent to Elizabeth NICHOLSON in the early 1850s - two love poems written in tiny meticulous handwriting.