Josiah Moorman, Esq.
(1779-1863)
31 March 1862

Volume 6, page 150, sitting number 7469. 

Born on 7 June 1779, the son of William and Ann Moorman, Josiah Moorman was baptised at St Luke’s Old Street on 2 July 1779. 

He was for a while in trade with his brother Thomas; when the partnership was dissolved, the two men were described as ‘ironfounders and saw-makers’ of ‘Old-street, St Luke’s, Middlesex’ (Ari’s Birmingham Gazette, 12 January 1818).

At a meeting at the Horticultural Society of London in 1843 Josiah was awarded a certificate for his pears, specifically ‘remarkably fine specimens of Beurré d’Arembert, Passe Colmar, Jean de Witte, Ne Plus Meuris, Merveille d’Hiver, Beurré Rance and Easter Beurré,' which he ‘kept in a dark hayloft (occasionally ventilated) and laid on horse hair’ (Proceedings of the Horticultural Society of London, 21 February 1843). 

When the 1851 census was taken he was living with his brother Thomas at 8 Clapham Road in Lambeth. Both men gave ‘Retired Smith and Iron Founder’ as their profession. 

Josiah appears on the 1861 census living at 1 Portland Place in Lambeth, the home of his niece Ann Scrivens and her husband Samuel. Josiah and Samuel both gave ‘land proprietor’ as their profession. The household included a butler and six other servants. 

Josiah Moorman, Esq., ‘formerly of Old-street, St. Luke’s in the County of Middlesex but late of 1 Portland-place, Clapham-road in the County of Sussex and of Bexhill in the county of Sussex’ died on 11 April 1863.

Josiah Moorman, Esq. ‘of Portland Place, Clapham Road, and Bexhill, Sussex’ died, aged 83, on 11 April 1863. He left an estate valued at £150. 

He was buried in Norwood Cemetery on 17 April 1863. 

[From an album probably compiled by a member of the Drought family of County Offaly in Ireland.]