Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch

Image with kind permission of Bromley Historic Collections

Reverend Ebenezer Joseph Welch was born in Wimbledon Surrey in 1856 and married Jane Steers in 1880. In 1886 Ebenezer graduated from the London College of Divinity and two years later was appointed curate of Clerkenwell from 1888-1899. Ebenezer and Jane were parents of five children all born in London before Ebenezer was appointed Chaplain to Bromley Union Workhouse at Locksbottom.
In the 1911 Census completed in his own hand all five of his children live in the Parsonage in Farnborough his eldest daughter is 29 and single. His wife's mother aged 86 is also resident with the family.
He served in his capacity as Workhouse Chaplain as well as Rector and Vicar of Farnborough parish  1904-1927 and his dedication to the Workhouse staff and inmates is borne out in Bromley Guardians Minutes. Welch established a Workhouse Library which was situated within the Workhouse Chapel and this work as Librarian was recognised by an annual honorarium by the Board of Guardians.
The Baptismal Register of the the Workhouse Chapel contains baptisms almost wholly conducted by Welch;the subsequent register of Farnborough Hospital is almost entirely the work of Welch. The Farnborough Parish Register 1908-1918 contains 799 baptisms and very few entries are attributable to Curate baptisms. The image above taken in the doorway of Saint Giles the Abbot Parish Church dates from 1927 when Welch died aged 71.
For the transcriber Ebenezer's handwriting represents a challenge and some of his spelling of surnames is rather approximate. However by comparing his spidery and inconsistent capital letters with other record sources and directories it has been possible to produce a complete transcript for Kent Online Parish Clerks which will be published online in due course.
Welch was an integral part of caring for inmates of the Workhouse in the first quarter of the twentieth century as well as fulfilling his parish duties as Rector. All baptisms at The Workhouse Chapel were copied by him into the Farnborough Parish Register of baptisms. The Workhouse Chapel baptisms are mainly illegitimate children from all parishes in the Union, although the Hospital Maternity unit also dealt with complicated deliveries and parishioners of Farnborough in the Northwest of the parish would also have new born children baptised there.

© Henry Mantell Farnborough Online Parish Clerk 2013-2019