Bernard Edward Owen (1866-1926/7)
Edward and Jane’s son Bernard Edward Owen who was born in 1866 [Birmingham, 1866, 2nd qt]. He too became a hosier and on Wednesday, 27 September 1899 at Carrs Lane Chapel, a Congregational chapel in Birmingham, he married Mary Evelyn Carr. Mary was the daughter of Deodatus Carr, a wholesale provision merchant of Somerset House, Gough Road, Edgbaston and his wife Ann. Witnesses of the marriage were Mary’s twin sister Emma Jane and Bernard’s cousin Morgan Maddox Morgan-Owen. Bernard was then living at Maenol, Tennyson Road. Mary was about five years older than Bernard – she was 38 when they married - and they had no children.
In 1901 they were living at 110 Gough Road, Edgbaston. In 1905 Bernard's widowed father died so presumably Bernard inherited a substantial share of his estate of almost £4000. Nevertheless, Bernard was made bankrupt two years later; it seems he may have over-stretched himself. As well as running businesses from 77 and 78 Coleshill Street, he was also, at that time, operating from 404 and 406 Coventry Road, all in Birmingham. In 1911 only Mary was living in Edgbaston and with her was her unmarried sister, Ada Matilda, her mother, Ann, a visitor, Annie Maud Leigh, and two servants. It would appear that the couple had separated. In the 1911 census Bernard was living alone at 8 Caerau Road, Newport, Monmouthshire, working as a hosier’s assistant. Bearing in mind how many of this Owen family were involved in the church, it was interesting to discover some advertisments in the Abergavenny Chronicle (e.g. 20 February and 1 May 1914) which stated that Bernard, of Newport, would be preaching at the Wesleyan Church the following Sunday.
Bernard died in Newport, aged 60, in the winter of 1926/7 [Newport Magma 1927, 1st qt].
When Mary died on 10 June 1936 she was a widow living at Woodbury, 12 Britwell Road, Wylde Green, Warwickshire; Wylde Green is in Sutton Coldfield. Probate was granted to a solicitor and his clerk and not to any family members and her effects were valued at £1 946 6s 11d.