William Freestone was born at Needham Market, Suffolk. He was christened in the church of St. John the Baptist on the 25th of December 1834, the son of Thomas and Sarah Freestone. He was the eldest of six children.
1841 Census
King Street, Needham, Hamlet of Barking.
Thos Freston (sic), 30, Ag Lab [Agricultural Labourer],
Sarah Freston, 26,
William Freston, 7, Henry, 2.
1851 Census
Friars Bridge Road, St Nicholas, Ipswich.
William Freston [sic], 17, Porter Pipe Office, born Needham.
[PB: Others in the same building but different households were a journeyman butcher, 68, and his wife, 65, and a nurse, a widow, 8.]
Enlisted at Ipswich on the 27th of November 1852.
Age: 19 years 11 months.
Height: 5' 8".
Trade: Labourer.
Sent to Scutari on the 27th of October 1854 and rejoined the regiment on the 19th of January 1855.
[PB: Is it possible he was wounded in the Charge at Balaclava, 25th October 1854?]
His obituary and funeral report, which appeared in a local newspaper of the time, stated that he rode in the Charge, but nothing can be found to substantiate this and he is never known to have attended any of the veterans' functions or to have ever been a member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society. (See copy of this report, and a portrait, taken from the Wandsworth Borough News of the 8th of April 1910 in the 4th Hussar file.)
Marriage registered
William Freestone and Sarah Paget, Jan Quarter 1859, Aston.
[PB]
Discharged, "time expired", from Dublin on the 30th of December 1864.
Served 12 years 2 days.
Conduct and character: "good".
In possession of two Good Conduct badges.
Entitled, according to the medal rolls, to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
A Crimean medal with the clasps for Alma, Balaclava and Sebastopol, was sold at a Glendining's auction in 1912.
In 1998 it was learnt that a similar medal and a Turkish Crimean medal was in the possession of the Officers' Mess of the Royal Irish Hussars and had presumably been there since last being sold.
After his discharge from the Army William Freestone served several years in the Metropolitan Police, but was discharged following an accident at Ascot Racecourse when, during an attempt to stop a runaway horse, he suffered concussion. He was later Gatekeeper at Wandsworth Gas Works for over 20 years, until his death (in Bolingbroke Hospital) following an accident there.
Lived at 4, Morie Street, Wandsworth Bridge Road, London, near Wandsworth Town Railway Station.
[1976] The house is still standing.
[PB, 2015: Not any longer. It appears have been demolished and replaced by the "Morie Street Business Centre". Curiously, he lived a stone's throw from the "Alma Tavern", a substantial public house on York Road (now called Old York Road). There is an photograph here.
When exactly was he living in Morie Street? Presumably when he was working at the Wandsworth Gas Works, i.e. some time between 1890 and 1910, the year of his death. But the 1891 and 1901 Censuses place him in Warple Road.]
1871 Census
8, Turnpike Road, Price's Place, Barking.
William Freestone, 36, Police Constable, born Needham.
Elizabeth Freestone, 24, born Ramsgate.
William Freestone, 12, born Manchester.
Elizabeth Freestone, 8, born Kildare, Ireland.
Thomas Freestone, 4, born Croydon.
1881 Census
Park Shot, Richmond.
William Freestone, 48, Police Constable, born Needham.
Sarah Freestone, 28. born Ilford.
Thomas, 15, born Croydon.
Lilley, 6, born Ilford.
George, 4; Elizabeth, 1; Alice M, 2 Months; all born Richmond.
Marriage registered
William Freestone and Fanny Stratton [sp?], April Quarter 1888, Wandsworth.
[PB]
1891 Census
32, Warple Road, Wandsworth.
William Freestone, 57, Gatekeeper, born Needham.
Fanny Freestone, 34, born Fulham.
Ernest, 14, born Twickenham.
Elizabeth, 11, born Richmond.
Rosie, 8, born New Cross.
Edwin, 6 and Lilian, 4, born Richmond.
Robert,2 and Emily, 8 months, born Wandsworth.
including 1 boarder.
1901 Census
32, Warple Road, Wandsworth.
William Freestone, 67, Gate Keeper, born Needham.
Fanny Freestone, 44, born Fulham.
Elizabeth, 22, born Richmond.
Rose, 18, born New Cross.
Edward, 16; Lillian, 14; Robert, 12; Emily, 10; William, 8; Frederick, 5; Phyliss, 2; all born Richmond.
Death registered
William Freestone, aged 76 years, March Quarter 1910, Wandsworth.
William Freestone died on the 26th of March 1910, aged 76 years, and was buried with full military honours in Magdalen Cemetery, Wandsworth, on the 2nd of April 1910. He was buried in a public grave space, No 288a (no headstone was erected) which is now [1976] levelled to lawns with seats and flowers. (There is a photograph of the area in the 4th Hussar file.)
From the Wandsworth Borough News, 1st of April 1910:
Crimean Veteran's Death
Sad accident at the Wandsworth Gasworks. At the Battersea Coroner's court on Wednesday, Mr, C. R. Troutbeck held an inquest relative to the death of William Freestone, aged 76, a gatekeeper at the Wandsworth and Putney Gas Co, whose death resulted from a fall downstairs at the Gas Works on Saturday.
Mr Gosden watched the case on behalf of the Wandsworth and Putney Gas Co., and expressed the sympathy of the directors with the widow and relatives of the deceased. Deceased, he said had served through the Crimean War and he was a trusted servant and had given the greatest satisfaction. The Coroner returned a verdict of "Accidental Death" on Mr. Freestone, who died in Bollingbroke Hospital following an accident at 3 p.m. on the 26th, at the Gasworks where he was employed as a gatekeeper. He was 76 years old at the time of his death.
A fellow employee gave evidence that he went with the deceased to an upstairs room to collect a gas-meter. The witness then left the storeroom and descended the flight of eleven wooden stairs, leaving Mr. Freestone to lock the door. He then heard a crash, and saw the deceased lying at the foot of the stairs. He appeared to be unconscious. Later that day Mr. Freestone died from a fractured skull. His wife, Mrs. Fanny Freestone, then stated that her husband was in good health and had not seen a doctor for two years.
The jury raised the question of the absence of a handrail and Mr. Carr, the engineer at the Gas Works, said that the men usually had both hands occupied when going up and down stairs, and it was therefore hardly considered necessary.
[PB: There is an article on the Wandsworth and Putney Gaslight and Coke Company and successor companies here.]
[PB: Cambridge Independent Press, 8th of April 1910:]
At the Magdalen-road Cemetery, Wandsworth, the funeral took place on Saturday, with full military honours, of William Freestone, a Crimean veteran, who took part in the charge at Balaclava. The War Office sent a gun carriage from Woolwich.
1911 Census
62, Jews Road, Wandsworth.
Fanny Freestone [wife], 56, widowed, Shop Keeper, born Fulham.
Robert Harry, 22; Emily Sarah, 20; William Earnest, 18; Frederick George, 15; Phyllis Belinda, 12; all born Wandsworth.
n.b Total children born alive, 5 and 5 still living.
[PB: The following needs an edit.]
In August 1968 William Freestone's grandson, Mr C.L. Freestone, living in Roehampton, contacted the Wandsworth Borough News in an effort to find out more about his grandfather. It had always been believed in the family that William Freestone had ridden in the Charge. (See copy of a local newspaper report of the time in the 4th Hussar file.)
In 1998 another family descendant has carried out considerable family research. She is a great-granddaughter through Edwin Charles, a son of William Freestone and his widow, Fanny (nee Stratton), who was born at Richmond in 1884, when his father was aged 51 and his mother 21. She has provided further information showing quite a complex individual in William Freestone — hardly in keeping with his being a pillar of the local church as represented at his funeral, and has discovered a minimum of four and possibly five "marriages", legal or otherwise is not yet clear (which produced a minimum of ten and perhaps more children.)
She believes her grandfather had four siblings born presumably from Fanny (nee Stratton) but has also been told of another "liaison" which produced four, or more, children. Another great-granddaughter through a son, William Frederick, born circa 1859 when his father was 26, believes there are other siblings from the same mother, but no record of this marriage can yet be found and the mother's name is unknown.
In 1881, William Freestone, then aged 48, was said to be living in Croydon with his wife, Sarah, aged 28, and five children, the eldest born at Croydon and 15 years of age and of the others one was born at Ilford in 1875 and the others at Richmond between 1877 and 1879, yet in the following year, 1882, Freestone was living in Putney with one son, William. During his police service he is known to have been attached to six different locations between 1864 and his retirement in 1882. His son, Edwin Charles, took after his father and was definitely a bigamist and another of his sons, Charles, was known in the family as a notorious womaniser.
A re-check of the 1881 Census however shows him as living at Park Shot, Richmond, Surrey, a Police Constable, aged 48 years, born at Needham, Suffolk with his wife Sarah, 28, born at Ilford, Essex, and five children, Thomas, 15, born at Croydon, Lilly, 6, born at Ilford, George, 4, Elizabeth, 1 and Alice, aged 2 months, all born at Richmond, Surrey. (Some credence to other marriages or liaisons is possible as the eldest son, Thomas, aged 15, could not have been the child of Sarah, Freestone's wife at this time.)
Additional Census information for 1841, 1851, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, and the registration of WF's death kindly provided by Chris Poole.
[PB: Check Wendy Leahy's Shades of Time site. Could the other, older, Freestone (Thomas) shown in her records be William's father? At first, it seemed possible, particularly as Williams's father's name was also Thomas. But presumably not, given that Thomas, William's putative father, was said to be an agricultural labourer in 1841, when Thomas was still in the army. When exactly was Thomas Freestone discharged?]
Thomas Freestone
1st REGIMENT NO: 123
2nd REGIMENT NO: 124
TROOP NO: Dec 1821: Troop 7
1822: Troop 3
Jan 1824: Troop 4
Jan 1826: Troop 4 Kaira
1831: Troop 4
TROOP CAPTAIN: 1831: Captain John Baker Spooner
RANK: 1821-1822: Private
1824: Private
1826: Private
1831: Private
1834: Private
1839: Private
1841: Private
EMBARKATIONS: 31 12 1821 Dunira Gravesend England
DISEMBARKATIONS: 16 05 1822 Dunira Bombay India
TRANSFERRED FROM: Volunteered from 17th Light Dragoons at Depot 25 12 1821
TRANSFERRED TO: 14th Light Dragoons 30 09 1841
TNA SOURCES: WO/12/634-637
WO/12/641
WO/12/644
WO/12/649
WO/12/651
BL SOURCES: IOR/MAR/L/B21
[Source: Shadows of Time: William Freestone (1)]