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Henry William Freeland and Samuel George Freeland of Angmering

 

Henry William FREELAND (1819-1891) - A photographer based in Angmering from around 1866 to 1874. ( Active in Littlehampton from 1869 to 1874 ).
Samuel George FREELAND (1848-1898) - A photographer based in Angmering from around 1870 to 1874.
 
Henry William FREELAND (1819-1891)

Henry William Freeland was born in Deptford, Kent, on 6th June 1819, the son of Mary Ann Clark and Henry William Freeland and was baptised at St Paul's Church, Deptford on 27th June 1819. Henry's father, Henry W. Freeland senior (born 1797, Portsea, Hampshire), was a bookseller by trade. Henry Freeland senior had married Mary Ann Clark (born 1798, Deptford) in Newington, Surrey and Henry William Freeland was the first of eleven children.

On 12th April 1842, Henry William Freeland married Lucy Lee (1820-1888), the daughter of Harriet and John Lee of Havant, at St Mary's Church, Portsea in Lucy's home county of Hampshire. (Lucy had been baptised at the Church of St Faith, in Havant, Hampshire, on 23rd January 1820 ).

After their marriage, Henry and Lucy settled in Angmering, a village situated near the south coast of Sussex, between Littlehampton and Worthing. The couple's first child, Henry William junior, was born in 1843, not long after their arrival in Angmering (Henry William Freeland junior was baptised in Angmering on 12th November 1843 ). A second son, Samuel George Freeland was born in 1848 (birth registered in the 3rd Quarter of 1848), followed a year later by a daughter, who was given her mother's name - 'Lucy Lee' (birth registered as Lucy Alice Freeland during the 3rd Quarter of 1849).

When the census of Angmering was taken in 1851, Henry William Freeland is recorded as a "Whitesmith", aged 31, living with his wife Lucy, eight year old Henry junior, and his two youngest children, Samuel, aged two, and one year old Lucy.

In 1851, Angmering had a population of around a thousand and was served by a number of cottage shops that spanned The High Street (aka 'The  Street'), the village's main thoroughfare. Before the next census, Henry Freeland and his family moved into Commerce House, a grocery shop which stood in Angmering's High Street, between Water Lane and Weavers Hill. Henry William Freeland gave up his old trade and entered the grocery business. During this period,  there were two more additions to the Freeland family - Harriet Emma, who was born in 1853 (birth registered during the 3rd Quarter of 1853) and Alonzo Joseph Freeland, who was born around 1856. In the 1861 census, Henry William Freeland is shown as a "Grocer", aged 41, living with his wife and his three sons and two daughters at their house in Angmering.

 

[ABOVE ] A photograph of Commerce House in High Street, Angmering  (c1925).  In the 1850s and 1860s, Henry William Freeland ran a grocery store from this building. From around 1868, Freeland used Commerce House as the base for his photography business, which he operated with his son Samuel. By 1878, Henry Freeland had established a Chemist's shop at Commerce House. In the 1880s, Freeland's chemist's shop was also selling groceries and stationery. Commerce House then passed to the Heasman family, who continued the grocery side of the business. Between 1923 and 1930, the village's sub-post office was based in Heasman's Grocery Store. Commerce House was later demolished, but a residential house built on the same site was named "Freelands", presumably in honour of Henry Freeland.

 *

[ABOVE] The back of a carte-de-visite view  produced by H. W. Freeland, Photographer, Angmering, Sussex. (c1868)
 H. W. Freeland - Photographer

Henry William Freeland began to take photographs professionally in the 1860s. A number of photographic views carrying the details of "H. W. FREELAND, Photographer, ANGMERING, SUSSEX", provides evidence of his work in the late 1860s.* On 8th May, 1869, the Littlehampton News published the following advertisement :

FREELAND'S PHOTOGRAPHS OF TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD AT MARDONS

Freeland's Photographs of the Town and Neighbourhood - Supplied only at Mardon's, where a large assortment can be inspected. New Views Just Received.

                                                                                                                   Littlehampton News (8th May, 1869)

H. W. Mardon, was the publisher of Littlehampton's newspaper and proprietor of the West Sussex Stationery & General Stores in Littlehampton's High Street. Henry William Freeland was primarily a photographer of local views and buildings, but he is known to have taken photographic portraits.[The William C. Darrah Collection of Cartes-de-visite in Penn State University holds a carte-de-visite portrait of a young woman by H. W. Freeland of Angmering). From around 1870, Henry Freeland, or his son Samuel George Freeland, visited Littlehampton twice a week, taking portraits at Mardon's premises on the High Street of Littlehampton. This arrangement appears to have lasted for only a few years.

At the time of the 1871 Census, Henry William Freeland gave his occupation as "Photographer". Henry's twenty-two year old son Samuel George Freeland was also described as a photographer by the census enumerator. During this period, Freeland's small photographic views carry the collective name of "H. W. Freeland & Son" (Henry Freeland's first son, Henry junior, had died in 1866, in his early twenties). Henry William Freeland and his son Samuel George Freeland worked together as professional photographers for the next three or four years.

 

* H .J. F. Thompson, in his booklet The Picturemakers, mentions a carte-de-visite view of Surrey Street, Littlehampton, photographed by Freeland, which could be dated "within the narrow limits of 1866-68"

 

Gallery of Photographic Views by H. W. Freeland and Freeland & Son of Angmering

[ABOVE] The trade plate of Freeland & Son, Photographers, of Angmering, near Arundel (c1870).
 

[ABOVE] View of Poling Church, a carte-de-visite  ( View No.14) by  Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)

 

[ABOVE] View of South Bersted Church, a carte-de-visite  ( View No.815)  by  Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)
 
 
 

[ABOVE] The parkland around Ecclesden Manor (View No.1209), a carte-de-visite by Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)
 

[ABOVE ] View of an Unknown House, a carte-de-visite (View 667) by H. W. Freeland, Photographer, Angmering, Sussex. (c1868)
   

[ABOVE ] View of an Unknown House, a carte-de-visite (View No.918) by Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)

[ABOVE ] Arundel Castle Entrance, a carte-de-visite (View No.41) by Freeland & Son of Angmering and Littlehampton (c1872) .
 
   

[ABOVE] The back of a carte-de-visite view  produced by Freeland & Son, Photographers, Angmering and Littlehampton, Sussex. (c1872)

 

[ABOVE] Unknown Chapel or Church, a carte-de-visite (View No.1041) by Freeland & Son of Angmering (c1870) .

 

 

H. W. Freeland and Samuel George Freeland after 1875

Around 1875, Henry William Freeland established a Chemist's shop at Commerce House. The 1881 census of Angmering describes Commerce House as a "Grocer's & Chemist's Shop". In the census return, Henry William Freeland gives his occupation as "Chemist, Druggist & Stationer". No mention is made of photography. Henry Freeland was assisted in the Chemist shop by his two unmarried daughters, Lucy Lee Freeland, aged 31, and twenty-seven year old Harriet Freeland. Henry's bachelor son, Alonzo Joseph Freeman, aged 25, worked alongside his father as a chemist, but he is also described as a "Dentist" in the census return.

Samuel George Freeland, Henry and Lucy Freeland's eldest surviving son, had married Mary Ann Constable of Slinfold in 1875. At the time of the 1881 census, thirty-four year old Samuel Freeland was living in Baker Row, Angmering, with his wife Mary and their two young sons - Henry Octavius (born 1876) and Reginald Albert (born 1878). Samuel Freeland, like his father, appears to have abandoned photography as a profession. Samuel Freeland gives his occupation as "Grocer's Assistant", so presumably he was running the grocery side of his father's business. Two more children were born to Samuel and Mary in Angmering - Theodore George in 1882 and Florence Gertrude in 1883.

At the end of 1883, Henry's youngest daughter, thirty year old Harriet Emma Freeland, married agricultural labourer Richard Doig, some seven years her junior. Harriet was widowed just over a year later when Richard Doig died, aged only 24.

In 1884, Alonzo Joseph Freeman married Mary Mason Holyland of Angmering. By 1886, Alonzo Freeland, and his wife  had left Angmering and had settled in the village of Kibworth Beauchamp, near Market Harborough, Leicestershire, where he continued to work as a chemist and dentist. Three daughters were born to the couple in Leicestershire - Mabel Lucy in 1886, Cecelia in 1890 and Vida in 1893.

Henry William Freeland's wife, Lucy Lee Freeland, died in Angmering in 1888 at the age of 68.

Henry William Freeland died in 1891 at the age of 71 (death registered in the East Preston District in the 2nd Quarter of 1891). Henry Freeland's eldest son Samuel George Freeland took over his father's chemist's shop, but within 8 years he too was dead. Samuel George Freeland died before he reached his 50th birthday during the 1st Quarter of 1898.

Commerce House finally passed to Henry Freeland's widowed daughter, Mrs Harriet Doig, who briefly ran the shop as a grocery store, before finding work as a dressmaker.

 

 

Freeland Family Postscript

At the time of the 1901 Census, Alonzo Joseph Freeman was working as a chemist and living with his family in the village of Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire. After the death of Samuel George Freeland in 1898, his widow and three of their children, Henry Octavius, Florence and Theodore left Angmering and came to live near Alonzo in Kibworth Beauchamp. In 1901, 17 year old Florence and her 18 year old brother Theodore were both employed as "hosiery hands" in one of the two local power-driven hosiery factories, which had recently been built in Kibworth Beauchamp. (In the early 20th century, Kibworth Beauchamp was regarded as a "small centre of the mechanized hosiery industry".**) Henry Octavius Freeman, Samuel Freeland's eldest son, was engaged in manufacturing mineral water. Samuel Freeland's second son, Reginald Freeland, remained in Angmering and, in 1901, he was working as a carpenter in the village.

Lucy Freeland, H. W. Freeland's eldest daughter, never married. At the time of the 1901 Census 51 year old Lucy was still living in Angmering and gave her occupation as "Housekeeper - Not Domestic". Lucy was probably "keeping house" for her younger widowed sister, Mrs Harriet Doig at Commerce House in Angmering.

 **From: 'Kibworth', A History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume 5: Gartree Hundred (1964),  pp. 167-87.

 
 

 

[ABOVE] View of  Lyminster Church (No. 1099), a carte-de-visite by Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)

[ PHOTO COURTESY OF NEIL ROGERS-DAVIS]

 

[ABOVE] A view of West Chiltington village, near Storrington, (No. 181), a carte-de-visite by Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)

 

 [ABOVE] View of  St Mary's Church, Aldingbourne, (No. 816), a carte-de-visite by Freeland & Son of Angmering, Sussex. (c1870)

[ PHOTO COURTESY OF DEBORAH HERBERT]

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

 Thanks to Deborah Herbert ( a descendant of Joseph Clark Freeland, a younger brother of Henry William Freeland ) for providing details of Henry William Freeland's family background and information on his early life. Acknowledgements also to Stephen Griffiths ( a descendant of Cornelius Julian Freeland, another brother of Henry William Freeland ). A special thank you to Neil Rogers-Davis and the Angmering Village Life website for supplying information about Angmering and some of the photographs featured on this page.

SOURCES : The Picturemakers  by H .J. F. Thompson

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For more information on the history of Angmering, please visit the excellent website Angmering Village History Centre by clicking on the link below :

 Angmering Village History Centre