2. William HUSSEY (William ) was born 1 May 1797 in Castleisland, Co. Kerry. He died 27 Nov 1870 in 9 Mayfield Place, Kensington, London.

As a young man William moved from Kerry to London where he worked as a policeman. Although family lore has it that William was born in the Dingle area of Co. Kerry, we now know from his police discharge papers that he was born in Castleisland, Co. Kerry. The discharge papers also tell us that he joined the Metropolitan Police on 19 May 1831 (this was only three years after its formation), and left the force (Kensington division, also known as 'T' division) on 29 April 1852 "on account of infirmity of body"; we're also told he was 5ft 9inches tall with brown hair, grey eyes and a fair complexion, and that he had "a bad leg". The papers also give his parents' names. In the 1861 census William is listed as a "police pensioner" and appears to be living with a daughter, Mary Wright, and her husband at 26 Newland St., St. Mary Abbots, Kensington. William died in 1870 at the home of his son Thomas. The cause of death was "paraplegia, 6 years; effusion (secondary), 7 days", "effusion" meaning an abnormal build-up of fluid. On his death certificate William's occupation is given as "assistant to a builder", presumably to his son Thomas who was a builder.   

Regarding William's police work, there was a court case at the Old Bailey in London in January 1832 in which a policeman named William Hussey appeared as a witness in a case involving a theft of a gown from a washing line in Kensington the previous month.  This William Hussey could well be our William. On trial was twenty-year-old Charles Affleck who was charged with stealing the gown, worth three shillings, belonging to Ann Hawkins. A transcript of the case follows:

Ann Hawkins: I am single, and live servant to Mr. Marks, in Gore-lane, Kensington. On the 13th of December about three o'clock, I hung a gown to dry in the garden at the back of the house; I missed it about six - this is it; the prisoner lives within two doors of us.

William Hussey: I am a Police-constable. I took the prisoner in Gore-lane on the 13th of December, between seven and eight o'clock; I saw he had something under his jacket - I asked him to let me see what it was, and he would not; we had a scuffle, and this gown fell in the road.

Charles Affleck: I went home at twenty-five minutes before eight o'clock; I went into the yard - I saw this gown between our premises and the master's premises; I took it up, went out with it, and was taken - I did not prevent the officer seeing it, but I said if he would go to a fit place, I would let him see it.

William Hussey: He said if I would go to his father's he would let me see what it was, but I told him he must go to the watch-house; he would neither do one thing nor the other, and I knocked him down.

Charles Affleck was found guilty and transported to Australia for seven years.

William married Ellen FOLEY in prob 12 May 1828 in St. James, Westminster, London. Ellen was born about 1800 in Ireland. She died prob bet 1851 and 1861 in prob Kensington, London.

We know from the 1851 census that Ellen was born in Ireland and that unfortunately is all we know of the Foley family although it does appear that other members of the Foley family may have been living in London around the time of Ellen's marriage in 1828 as witnesses to the marriage were [name illegible but one possibility is Michael] Foley and Mary(?) Foley.

We also know that Ellen and her husband, William Hussey, and their children were living at 29 New St. in Kensington at the time of the birth of their daughter Ellen in 1838. By 1851 they were living at 13 Campden St., St. Mary Abbots, Kensington.

Note: The Foley surname comes from the Irish surname 'Ó Foghladha', from 'foghlaidh' meaning 'pirate' or 'marauder'. The name originated in Co. Waterford and from there spread to counties Cork and Kerry. The name is most common now in these three counties, although it's numerous generally throughout the southern half of the country. Given the strong presence of the Foley name in Co. Kerry and seeing that Ellen married a man from Kerry, could our Foley family have hailed from Kerry?

Marriage Notes:

Only one record of a marriage between a William Hussey and an Ellen Foley around this time was found in the Westminster Archives. This marriage took place on 12 May 1828 in the parish of St. James in Westminster (now St. James's, Piccadilly). The date ties in perfectly with our William and Ellen in that their eldest child - or the child we believe to have been their eldest - was born in February 1829. However St. James's in Westminster was an Anglican parish which doesn't tie in with the Catholic beliefs of our William and Ellen. If the St. James's record does indeed relate to our William and Ellen, their Anglican marriage can be explained by Lord Hardwicke’s Marriage Act of 1754 which had made marriages outside the Anglican Church illegal (although Quakers and Jews were exempt). While marriages continued to take place in Catholic churches they were not valid, and it wasn't until the introduction of Civil Registration in 1837 that "non-conformist" churches could be licensed for marriages.

Assuming the above record relates to our William and Ellen, witnesses to their marriage were [name illegible but one possibility is Michael] Foley and Mary(?) Foley. Both Ellen and Mary(?) signed with an 'X'. Note that before Civil Registration, information on age, occupation, address or fathers’ names did not appear on marriage records.