JOSEPH JAMES HUGGETT KNIFTON 1857-1927

Carman of Tottenham

ANNETTE EMERY 1857-1948

MARY CATHERINE ___ 1862-1913

SOPHIA JANE ADAMS 1876-1962

By Kevin Knifton 10th June 2025

Joseph James Huggett Knifton was born on 11th October 1857 at 1 Canal Road, Shoreditch, London. He was the son of John Knifton, a cow keeper, and his second wife Maria (née Johnston).

In 1861/62 the family moved to 30 Bartholomew Place, Hackney, and by 1871 they had moved to 22 Hertford Road, Hackney, by which time Joseph was working as a cloth finisher.

On 5th February 1877, Joseph married his cousin Annette Emery at St James’ Church, Bethnal Green. At this time Joseph was working as a labourer and living at Bethnal Green. Annette, also of Bethnal Green, was the daughter of Alfred Colby Emery, a gas fitter, and his wife Ann (née Johnston).

Within a year of their marriage, Joseph and Annette had a child who they named Joseph, who appears to have died in infancy. He was followed by another son, Jubal, who was born in the spring of 1879. However, soon after the birth of Jubal, Joseph left Annette and went to live with a woman called Emma Rose.

In March 1882, Joseph returned from a trip to America. In the evening of Tuesday 4th April 1882, Joseph, Annette, and Emma Rose, were in a public house near Hoxton station. Annette and Emma knew each other - they had spent the previous day together. Annette asked Emma to go and fetch Joseph from his mother's house. When he arrived, Annette gave Joseph a drink, and then picked up and threw a glass of sulphuric acid mixed with beer towards Emma. Annette then ran after Emma and struck her. Annette was arrested and charged the following day at Worship Street Police court. She appeared before the Old Bailey on 3rd May charged with ‘feloniously casting and throwing a corrosive fluid upon Emma Rose, with intent to burn and disfigure her’ and ‘with intent to do grievous bodily harm’.

The Court heard that Emma, of 8 Howe Street, Kingsland Road, had been living with Annette’s husband at the time of the incident. Emma said she was unhurt by the liquid and did not want to charge Annette, but Joseph had encouraged her to do so. A police surgeon, called as a witness, said that after Emma had patches of bruises on her face and a few marks, the size of pin heads, perhaps caused by some fluid, and that her dress had been marked by the fluid. He also said that sulphuric acid would have made a very sever burn, but it may have been diluted ‘so as to produce a little inconvenience.’

Annette told the Court that she had mixed the vitriol with beer to frighten Emma because she had been living with her husband for two and a half years. She was found not guilty.

Annette and Joseph were not reconciled. In 1883, Annette and her son Jubal went to live with James Tricker. They married in 1926 and lived together for the rest of their lives. Annette died in June 1848, aged 90, and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, on 12th June.

Meanwhile, between 1882 and 1891, Joseph began to live with Mary Catherine (surname not yet known). Mary, who was 5 years younger than Joseph, was born at Fortin in Shropshire. At the time of the 1891 census they were living at 13 Lambeth Palace Road, London, and Joseph was working as a carman.

Joseph’s brother John (‘Jack’) Knifton died on 6th May 1896 at his home, the London Assurance pub on City Road. A newspaper article mentions that ‘besides his wife and children, his brother Joseph [and] two sisters...were present’ at his death.

While Joseph continued to live with Mary, and still legally married to Annette, in 1899 he had a child with Sophia Jane Adams. The child’s name was originally registered as Joseph John Adams but in 1925 it was re-registered as Joseph John Knifton. Sophia was born on 27th October 1876 at Moon Street, Islington, the daughter of Walter Adams and his wife Mary (née Brummit).

In March 1901 at the time of the census, Joseph, a ‘carman and contractor (builder)’ and employer, was with Mary at 20 Downham Road, Hackney. Less than 4 months later, on 15th July 1901, Joseph and Sophia’s second child, Ellen May, was born at 9 Eldon Road, Edmonton. She was followed by Ernest Albert on 17th June 1904: both Ellen and Albert’s names were originally registered with the surname Adams and then re-registered as Knifton in 1925.

Joseph and Annette’s son Jubal died in September 1910 aged 31 and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery.

At the time of the 1911 census, Joseph, still working as a carman, was with Mary at 153 Harrow Road, Paddington, together with a servant and a housekeeper. Sophia was at 1 South House, 20 Colsterworth Road, High Cross, together with her 3 children, and her sister Alice May Adams. Joseph, Mary, and Sophia were all recorded as being married and with the surname Knifton, but only Joseph and Annette were actually married: Sophia was actually Sophia Adams; Annette was also recorded as being married but with the surname Tricker, but she was actually still Annette Knifton.

Mary Catherine died in September 1913 aged 50 and was buried on 1st October at Abney Park Cemetery. Joseph and Mary never married and they had no children together.

After Mary’s death, Joseph, Sophia, and their 3 children lived at 103 St Loys Road, Bruce Grove, Tottenham. They saw their son Joseph James enlist with the Navy on 6th December 1917, and join the RAF on 1st April 1918; their daughter Ellen May marry Arthur Edwin Beales on 9th August 1925 at Holy Trinity Church, Tottenham, with Joseph and Joseph James both being witnesses; and their son Ernest Albert marry Lilian Edith Childs in 1925. On 1st December 1925, the births of Joseph James, Ellen May, and Ernest Albert were all re-registered with the surname Knifton.

Joseph James Huggett Knifton died at 103 St Loys Road on 29th June 1927 aged 69, and was buried in Abney Park Cemetery on 4th July. Probate for his Estate was granted to Sophia on 22nd December 1927 for £53 10s. 8d. Joseph and Sophia never married.

Sophia continued to live at 103 St Loys Road and found work as a kitchen maid. In 1939, her sister Alice May Adams, her married daughter Ellen May and her husband, were living with her.

Sophia died in the autumn of 1962. Her death, recorded as Sophia Jane Knifton, was registered in Wood Green, Middlesex. She is thought to have been buried in Tottenham Cemetery.

Joseph James Huggett Knifton
c. 1920

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