Frank Cable’s Son – Frank Harry Cable

FOREWORD
Originally, I included details of FRANCIS (FRANK) HARRY CABLE, within the ‘biography‘ of his father, FRANCIS (FRANK) JAMES CABLE, who bigamously married my great-aunt, POLLY SHELLAKER in 1892., under the name of FRANCIS JAMES BROWN.

However, in August 2025 I received a plethora of fascinating information from XXXXXX XXXX regarding the son, FRANCIS (FRANK) HARRY CABLE.  XXXXXX XXXX is the great xxxx daughter of XXXXXX XXXXX, who is the xxxxxxxx [explanation of relationship to Catherine Feltham]. I am indebted to XXXXX XXXXX for further enhancing the complex, and often bewildering, story of the Cable family.

Consequently, I considered he, FRANK HARRY, the son, deserved a ‘biography‘ of his own but additionally, as both father and son were known as ‘Frank Cable’, it is my attempt to help the reader to establish which ‘Frank Cable’ to which I am referring in this narrative. To be honest I got confused a few times!

CHAPTER I

A Marriage in Peckham and a Birth soon after

1880 – THE MARRIAGE OF HIS PARENTS
On Tuesday 17th August 1880 Frank Cable, who 12 years later was to marry Polly Shellaker in Grantham, married CATHERINE SARAH FREDERICA FELTHAM at St. Mary Magdalene Church, Peckham, Surrey.

At the time of his wedding, Frank’s occupation was recorded ‘Dairyman’, and he was living at 25 Evelina Road. A copy of the wedding certificate of Frank Cable & Catherine Sarah Frederica Feltham is below.

Evelina Road is located in Nunhead, near New Cross gate between Peckham and Camberwell. However. the actual house, in which Frank Cable was living at the time of his first marriage in 1880, no longer remains.

Neither is the original parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, Peckham, still standing; it was built in 1841 but destroyed by German bombing during World War II on 21st September 1941, however a picture of this church is shown on the right.

Frank Cable & Catherine Sarah Frederica Feltham – Wedding Certificate 1880

On this wedding certificate Frank’s surname is recorded as ‘Cable’ and his age was given as 25 years old – this is a false declaration. Being born in July 1881 Frank’s correct age in August 1880 was 20 years (and about three weeks) and not 25 years. It is possible he falsified his age in order to reduce the age difference between himself and his bride. Catherine Feltham, whose age appears from this certificate as being 39 years is also incorrect – Catherine’s 40th birthday was two months prior to this wedding.

One additional and important fact – on her wedding day to Frank Cable in August 1880 – Catherine Feltham was around four months pregnant.

CATHERINE’S FIRST MARRIAGE
Catherine’s marriage to Frank Cable was Catherine’s second marriage. Her first marriage, 19 years previously, was on the 21st of October 1861 when she married WILLIAM FELTHAM at Hampstead Parish Church when she was 21 years of age. Her husband William Feltham was 24 years old, having been born on 5th November 1836.

The marriage od Catherine Sarah Frederica Bath to William Feltham – 1861

Catherine and William Feltham had at least six children together; WILLIAM HENRY born in September 1862, , FREDERICK CHARLES born in 1865, EMILY ELLEN EMMA born in 1868 and EDWARD born in 1870 and JAMES S, born in 1872.

Catherine’s first husband, William Feltham died on 9th January 1878 at the age of 41 whilst residing at 7 North Hatcham*, London, leaving Catherine a widow. This was her status when she married Frank Cable around two and a half years later in August 1880.

In the 1861 Census a Catherine Bath is recorded as an unmarried servant, aged 21 years, at the home of a 43 year old widow, Mary Hutchinson at 14, Chester Villa, Thistle Grove, Kensington. Also residing in the house are Mary’s children; Stepney, a 19 year old Solicitors Clerk and a girl also named Mary aged 17 years old. This may be a record of Frank’s first wife.

[*Hatcham was the former name of New Cross in the London Borough of Lewisham, 4 miles south east of Charing Cross. New Cross is near St John’s, New Cross Gate, Telegraph Hill, Nunhead, Peckham, Brockley, Deptford and Greenwich.]

FRANK HARRY CABLE’S MOTHER 
As shown on the birth certificate Frank Harry Cable’s mother was CATHERINE SARAH CABLE. Prior to the wedding her surname was FELTHAM, however her maiden name was BATH.

The Birth Certificate of Harry’s mother, Catherine Sarah Frederica BATH, 13th June 1840

1840 -Frank’s mother was born on 13th June 1840 as Catherine Sarah Frederica BATH. Her birth is recorded at St John, Westminster, Middlesex. When she was born, her father was 39 years old, her mother 37 years.

1841 – Catherine Sarah Frederica BATH is recorded in the 1841 Census, taken on 6th June of that year. She is recorded as living with her parents; Her father, Henry Fred Bath and her mother Sarah Bath, both have their ages as 35 years. However for this Census the ages for those under 15 were recorded accurately, but for those 15 and over, the age was rounded down to the nearest multiple of five. Her father was 39 years old, her mother 38 years. With Catherine are two siblings: Edward Bath aged 7 and Mary Elizabeth Bath, age 3 years. Also in the house was a ‘Elizabeth Larner‘, age 50 years. They lived in the parish of St. John The Evangelist, Westminster, Middlesex. The record indicates all three children were born in that county but both parents were born elsewhere.

1852 – Her mother SARAH (née PAGE) was born around 1803 and died at the age of 49 years on 18th June 1852 at 7 Bury Street, Chelsea.

1853 – Catherine’s Father is declared a Pauper, and he and his young family are ‘moved on’
The year after her mother died, Catherine’s father is recorded in a ‘Settlement record’ on 25th December 1853. In this document, issued by one of the ‘Guardians of the Poor of the Parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, in the said County of Middlesex’, Catherine’s father, Henry Frederick Bath, ‘now residing at No. 10 Radnor Street, Chelsea’, and is now receiving Relief from the said parish’  is declared a ‘Pauper‘.

He is instructed to be removed from the parish, together with his ‘four lawful children namely Catherine, aged about Thirteen years, Ellen aged about Eleven years, Emily aged about Nine Years and, Edward aged about Five years’  and become the responsibility of ‘the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of the Parish of Saint John the Evangelist in the City of Westminster in the County of Middlesex’.

1880 – At the time of her marriage to Frank in 1880, nether of Catherine’s parents were alive; Catherine’s father was HENRY FREDERICK BATH, born around 1801 but he died at the age of 66 years on 25th April 1867 in South Norwood, Surrey. He was an Inspector of Stamps and Taxes.

1881 – JANUARY: FRANK HARRY CABLE IS BORN

Frank Harry Cable was born on New Years Day, 1st January 1881 at 75 Culmore Road in the Southwark/Peckham area of London, south of the River Thames.

His father is recorded as Francis Cable, a ‘Milk Carrier’, (aka, in later years, Frank Brown, who, eleven years later, bigamously married Polly Shellaker on 10th October 1892 at the Finkin Street Methodist Chapel in the Lincolnshire market town of Grantham, England). Frank Harry Cable’s mother is CATHERINE SARAH CABLE, ‘late Feltham, formerly Bath’.

The record of the birth of Francis (Frank) Harry Cable – recorded on the 10th February 1881

1881 – APRIL: CENSUS – FRANK HARRY CABLE
Less than 7 months after his wedding to Catherine Feltham, Frank’s son, Frank Harry Cable is recorded on the 1881 Census taken on the night of the 1881 Census on 3rd April.

He is recorded as a three-month-old boy, living with his mother at 75 Culmore Road, the location as recorded on the record of his birth.

However, his father is not staying in that resident on the night the 1881 Census was taken. He is recorded as being seven miles away in Islington, North London at the home of Walter Odams, a 30 year old Carpenter at 15, Durham Road, Islington. Frank Cable is recorded as being a married man, born in Camberwell, Surrey, as a ‘Milk Carrier’ and aged 24 years – this is incorrect, as at this time Frank would be 20 years old. His 21st Birthday would be in July of that year. Additionally, the fact Frank is listed as a ‘Boarder’ would suggest a degree of permanency in this arrangement; people who, on the night of the Census, are only staying in a property a few days would probably be recorded as a ‘Visitor’.

  1881 Census – Catherine Cable, her children including Francis H. Cable, the son of Frank Cable (‘Brown’)

[NB: The name of the boy aged 7 years on this census recorded as ‘James D’ is actually ‘James Samuel’ and he was born on 16th June 1872 which makes him 8 year old at this time. Transcription discrepancies are not uncommon on census records, sometimes in error but often deliberate.]

This young boy, Frank Harry Cable, was presumably the explanation for Catherine Feltham’s marriage to Frank. As the Census was recorded at the beginning of April, the birth of young Francis H. Cable must have occurred around January of that year, the child being born around four/five months after the marriage of his parents. He is recorded as being born in Peckham, Surrey.

In addition to his mother, Catherine Cable, the young Frank Harry Cable shared the dwelling with Catherine’s other children who have the surname ‘Feltham’ and self-evidently are the product of Catherine’s first marriage to the late Mr. Feltham; William, aged 18 years a carpenter born in Hampstead Middlesex, Frederick aged 15 years who is a Venetian Blind fitter, born in Lewisham in Kent, a daughters Emily aged 12 and a son James 7 years old, the latter two children are both recorded as ‘scholars’ born in Battersea in Surrey.

This house at 75 Culmore Road was split into four separate households one of which was a Mr. Cooke, a carpenter living with his wife, another household contained a Mrs. Skyern from Wales with her eleven year old son, and lastly Mr. Jackson, a widower from Bourne in Lincolnshire, with his two young daughters, both recorded as “scholars”.

[Culmore Road in Southwark/Peckham, in south-east London, is now re-developed, and no Victorian houses remain.

A Public House, Asylum Tavern, stands at the end of Culmore Road. However, the pub that now stands at the end of the street was built in the 1930.

The original pub was built in 1856, image right, was contemporary to the 1881 Census, and consequently would have been seen by Frank Harry Cable].

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