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Frederick STOKES, who was born on 4 December 1845 in Bledington, and christened the following February.
He married Ann Rebecca DAY on 30 July 1870 at All Saints Worcester where they were living at the time; he in Blackfriars (now a shopping centre) and she on the street now called Dolday.
Frederick and Ann had six children, Fred, Annie, Susan, Bert, Kate and Reginald.
At some point in 1872/73, at least one member of family had caught smallpox. A newspaper article naming and shaming him for concealing the presence of smallpox was published in February 1873.
The Great Smallpox Pandemic of 1870-1875 was Europe's last smallpox epidemic and killed 2,167 people in England. The most likely small pox in the STOKES hoousehold was Constantine DAY, a carpenter (Ann Rebecca's 1st cousin once removeed), who died in January 1783 and was buried in Blockley. He may have been one of Frederick's workers.
The smallpox notoriety might have explained the family's departure to Broadway shortly after. By 1881 they were living in a house called La Quinta, in Broadway. It was one of the last houses on the north side of the High Street, heading east toward the London Turnpike, now the A44.
In a legal dispute of 1924 the house still called La Quinta is described as follows:
"The were four rooms, and a dairy on the ground floor. On the first floor there were four rooms and above four attics. ... Respondent said she had been living there since 1916. At that time it was owned by a Mr Edwards. The tenancy expired in March, 1919."1
Frederick continued the wheelwright business in the workshops where he was photographed with his workmen next door to La Quinta on the left-hand side; but these buildings have now been demolished.
Frederick STOKES died in 1917, aged 71, while staying with his daughter Annie Elizabeth, and her husband, Albert Parker EDWARDS. He died of hemiplegia - paralysis of one side of the body - which he had suffered for 1 and a half months, presumably caused by a stroke. He was described as a a Master Coach Builder.
