John Rich

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. Mary-Ann Cook who writes:
John Rich was was a Cattle Dealer and Drover, and married Eliza about 1835. This may have been Eliza Chappell, with the marriage taking place at St George in the East (in London).
By 1841, the couple were living at 83 High Street with their first 3 children, John, George and Harriet. In 1851, they were living in Barrack Ground, by which time Sarah, Elizabeth, Charles and James had arrived. By 1861 they had moved again to "between cemetery and Pettits Lane", and there were 3 more children, Eliza, Ellen, Albert and Mary Ann. John must have been quite well-to-do, as he was living with his wife and youngest 7 children, together with a boarder, William Hunt who was a coachman from Southall in Middlesex, and two servants, Betsy Staff and Herbert James.
From 1863 to 1872, John Rich is listed in Kelly`s directory as the landlord of the New Mill in Romford High Street. It is recorded that the pub was rebuilt in 1870 after the original was destroyed by fire. By 1871, John is described as a Cattle Dealer and Innkeeper. Four of the children are still living with him, Charles, Eliza, Albert and Mary Ann, together with a nephew, William Rouse aged 4, a servant Annie Young, and 6 lodgers, including a husband and wife, presumably staying at the Inn overnight.
Although William is described as a nephew, he is more likely to have been Harriet`s son. She married a William Rouse, from either Warley or Romford in Q4 of 1862 in Bethnal Green. In 1871 Harriet and William were living in Mile End (where William junior was born) with their other two children. By 1881 the family were together again and living in George Street, Romford, (William senior was an agricultural labourer), but in 1891 William junior was back in Mile End, working as a Potman at the Prince of Wales pub.
John died in 1872, and his widow Eliza is described as the landlord of the New Mill in Kelly`s directory of 1874. She died in 1878. Their gravestone is still standing, hidden from view from the main road behind a hedge at the rear of what was a cemetery, now cleared of stones and situated 100 yds west of Romford library on A118.
The inscription reads:
Sacred to the memory of John Rich of this town who died July 24, 1872 aged 57 years. Weep not vainly for the dead for whose ransom Christ hath bled but in watchfulness and prayer labour to rejoin them there whither he is gone before and the faithful part no more.
Also Eliza Rich, the beloved wife of the above who departed this life December 14, 1878 aged 64 years. I heard the voice of Jesus say `come unto me and rest, lay down thou weary one lay down thy head upon my breast`. I came to Jesus as I was weary and worn and sad; I found in Him a resting place and He has made me glad.

John married Eliza Chappell in 1835. (Eliza Chappell was born in 1815 and died on 14 Dec 1878 in Romford, Essex England.)