The story of two John Alfreds, part 2

In a previous post I looked at the life of the first of Alfred Pearson Bentley's sons to be named John Alfred. He was born in Salford, England, in 1873 and died there in 1933. Now it's time to look at the second John Alfred.

Boston docks about 1900

As we've seen, Alfred P. Bentley left his first wife and family in England in the middle of 1879, and married Annie Jane Smith a few months later in America. Their first and only child, John Alfred, was born in Boston several years later on 21 January 1884.

It seems strange that the boy was given the same name as his older half-brother, who was still alive and well in England. Could it be that Annie, unaware of Alfred's other family, wanted to call the baby John after her father, John Smith, and Alfred because it would be natural to give him his father's name? Did Alfred find himself unable to explain why "John Alfred", the perfectly obvious name for this child, was not a good choice? Or did Alfred and Annie perversely choose to name him John Alfred, both fully aware that Alfred had another son with this name?

Return to England

Whatever the case, the young John Alfred lived in Boston until he was about 6 years old. Then the family moved back to England. When the 1891 census was taken they were living in Runcorn in Cheshire. For the first time in his life John Alfred would have had aunts, uncles and cousins around him, since this was Annie Jane's home county.

After leaving school John Alfred found work as a clerk. He was still living at home with his parents and working as an insurance clerk when the 1911 census was taken. As far as I can tell he never married. His mother Annie died in September 1914 when he was 30 years old, just after the first world war began.

I haven't been able to discover what John did during the WW1. If he enlisted, there's no clear record of it. That's not to say he didn't enlist, but none of the many records for men named John Alfred Bentley or John Bentley have details such as a date of birth, parent's name, or an address that would confirm that they belong to him.

John Alfred disappears

In fact his whole life becomes something of a mystery between the age of 30 and when he died at the age of 87. His father Alfred's name was listed (posthumously) in the 1923 Kelly's directory for Cheshire, still at the same address in Woodhey, Higher Bebington as in the 1911 census.  Although there's no mention of John at that address in the directory, Alfred's will indicates that he still lived there.*

Alfred died in September 1922, leaving all of his estate of £1509 18s 1d to John. After this, John disappears from the records. I can't find him in the 1939 Register of England and Wales, created at the beginning of WW2. He was no longer living at his old address, and his name doesn't appear using his exact date of birth as the search term. Could he have migrated overseas - back to the USA perhaps, or to Australia? Was he an inmate in an asylum or prison? So far I haven't found any trace of him.

Cheshire Lunatic Asylum in the 1830's,
later became the West Cheshire Hospital
now known as Countess of Chester Hospital.

The next confirmed record of John's existence came with his death on 20 September 1971. His probate record shows that he died in the West Cheshire Hospital, Liverpool Rd, Chester, which at the time was an asylum for the mentally ill. According to his death certificate, he died of broncho-pneumonia. Despite being of "no fixed address", he left an estate of £12,000.*

Even allowing for the change in value of the currency over time, this was a fortune compared to the £278 4s left by the first John Alfred in 1933. The younger John Alfred lived nearly 30 years longer than his older half-brother. He had the benefit of being an only child and living with both parents rather than with a "widowed" mother who was struggling to make ends meet. He may have lived quite comfortably. Yet there are hints that his life was a rather lonely one. Perhaps if we knew more about those missing fifty years the impression he gives might be different.


*Details supplied by my cousin David.