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This page draws mostly upon material from documents supplied by Mr. John Bathurst of Quebec from his Collection of Genealogical, Biographical and Historical Records of the Family of Bathurst, and appears here by his kind permission. The John Bathurst Collection [JBC] assigns to each individual Bathurst a unique four-digit reference number prefixed by a #.
Delia Diana Bathurst [JBC: #4996] was born on July 4th 1839 at 10, Bacon Street in St. Matthew parish, Bethnal Green to parents Robert (2) Bathurst and his third wife Mary (nee Frost). Her birth was not registered until exactly six months later, on January 4th 1840 [Birth Index: Bethnal Green II 55, 1840 (March)]. The informant was her father, described as a willow manufacturer of 10, Bacon Street. She was doubtless named after her mother's sister Delia Diana Lucina Frost, who was christened at St. Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey on July 27th 1817 and married in Sussex in 1843 [Marriage Index: Battle 7 339, 1843 (June)].
She was baptized at St. Matthew on July 28th 1839, the register mis-rendering her first name as "Amelia".
The 1841 Census finds her at age "2" living with her parents at 10, Bacon Street.
The 1851 Census finds her at age "11" living with her parents at 27, Orange Street in Bethnal Green, and (seemingly in error) cites her birthplace as Spitalfields.
In 1857 she bore an illegitimate son Joseph, and was then living at 6, Tapp Street in Bethnal Green.
She married John (2) Cheese at St. Peter, Stepney on September 18th 1859 [Marriage Index: Mile End 1c 1010, 1859 (Sept)]. The marriage appears also on the IGI [IGI: Batch M042681]. They both gave their address as 3, Essex Street, the home of her father. Her husband, a butcher aged "23", was the son of John (1) Cheese, by then deceased. The witnesses were her half-sister Sarah (2) and John Aldridge, whose connection is unknown.
In December 1864 Delia gave evidence as a witness in a court case heard at Worship Street in which the defendant was convicted and imprisoned for torturing and killing a dog; Delia was living at the same house as him, 10 Selby Street in Waterloo Town, Mile End [The Evening Standard, issue of December 8th 1864].
The 1871 Census finds Delia at age "33" living with John (2) aged "34" and two sons at 11, Northampton Street in Bethnal Green. John (2) was still occupied as a butcher.
The 1881 Census finds Delia at age "42" living with John (2) and the same sons at 54, Cleveland Street in Mile End Old Town. Her occupation was brush polisher and John (2) was a general labourer aged "55". The record gives her forenames as "Mary D.", suggesting that she disliked "Delia" and adopted the name of her mother or sister.
John (2) appears to have died in 1888 at age "57" [Death Index: Shoreditch 1c 119, 1888 (March)].
The 1891 Census apparently finds her as "Delia Diana Frost", widowed and aged "50", lodging at 72, Ansdell Road in Camberwell with the family of another widow Emma S. Wooton. Her birthplace is given as Spitalfields and her occupation as a monthly (sick) nurse. It appears that she was disinclined by now to use either her Bathurst or Cheese surnames, and had reverted instead to her mother's maiden surname. It may be that she resented the fact that neither she nor her sister Matilda had been left anything in her father's Will, and had severed her connection with his name. She may further have disliked her former married Cheese surname, or had ill-feeling towards her late husband. It may be significant that Ansdell Road was only about a mile and a half from Bovill Terrace where her son Joseph Samuel (1) was then living, and only a few hundred yards from Howbury Road where Matilda had been living in 1881.
The 1901 Census apparently finds her as "Delia Frost", widowed and aged "60", living at 19, Bellevue Road in Battersea with the family of a dentist Walter Whitehouse. Her birthplace is given here as Bethnal Green and her occupation as a general domestic servant.
The 1911 Census finds her as "Mrs Delia Diana Cheese", aged "71", living in a single room at 51, Ormeley Road in Balham together with a grand-daughter Caroline Elizabeth Cheese. Her birthdate was noted on the form as July 4th. Her occupation was "trade, plain needlework". She signed the census form as "Delia Dianna [sic] Cheese". Caroline, described as a schoolgirl, was born on April 21st 1901 [Birth Index: Bethnal Green 1c 188, 1901 (June)]; in 1929 she married Arthur J. Kempen [Marriage Index: Shoreditch 1c 262, 1929 (Sept)]; she died aged "80" in 1981 [Death Index: Chelmsford 9 1664, 1981 (Sept)].
Electoral Registers show that during (at least) the period 1918-1925 Delia lived at 62, Bellamy Street in Wandsworth together with George Isaac Balcombe and Elizabeth Mary Balcombe, for whom she was probably employed as a servant.
Delia died at the Swaffield Road Institution (Workhouse) in Wandsworth on February 7th 1928; the institution's Register of Deaths records the cause of her death as cardio-vascular degeneration and her age as "87", noting also that she was buried at Wandsworth Cemetery on February 10th; the GRO index [Death Index: Wandsworth 1d 784, 1928 (March)] names her as "Delia Cheese" and gives her age as "89".
John James married Annie Auger in 1883 [Birth Index: Bethnal Green 1c 448, 1883 (March)]. Annie was born in 1864 [Birth Index: St. Luke 1b 610, 1864 (June)]. The 1891 Census finds them with three children - Samuel Joseph, Annie and William - living at 32, Tusdale Street in Bethnal Green. The 1901 Census finds them with these same children and four others - Adela Rosina, John Henry, Henry and Thomas (the last two apparently twins) - living at 76, Sale Street in Bethnal Green. John James was still occupied as a labourer. He died very soon after this census, aged "36" [Death Index: Bethnal Green 1c 141, 1901 (June)].