Born c1829 in Bristol, the brother of William Gale (61C).
| 1851 | Labourer, 1 Wilmotts Crescent, Temple parish (21), living with his widowed father James, a labourer, and siblings (51C). |
| 1861 | Potter’s labourer, 11 Hamilton Court, Thomas Street, St Mary Redcliffe parish (32), living with his wife Elizabeth (38) born in Bristol, and children (61C). |
| 1871 | Engine driver, 4 Merchants Court, Castle Precincts, St Peter’s parish (42), living with his wife Eliza (47) and children (71C). |
| 1876 | Elizabeth Gale died aged 55 in Bedminster (Ancestry website). |
| ‘James and William Gale were in the employ of C. & J.R. Price … from about 1856 to the end of their days, having the care of the two steam engines; and mills and machinery attached. They were both hard-working, reliable and intelligent men – especially William. James had a poor unfortunate wife who always looked dazed, the picture of despair and wretchedness: always in rags and dirty. Her husband always made allowances for her want of care of the home, the children and herself: want of any care in spending his wages all of which he regularly put into her hands. I never knew of his ever saying a sharp word to her or of her, although the misery of the home and waste of his money was sad and depressing. He screened her from blame. His early affection for her has never waned or tired, but he was always excusing her and bearing with her want of cleanliness, her forgetfulness, her silent cheerlessness and sadness with an appearance of satisfied resignation. They had three sons and two daughters: [William] James, Henry and John; Mary Ann and … [This is probably a mistake, as they had 3 sons and 1 daughter, Elizabeth]. She [his wife] died about 1876 from burns through upsetting a paraffin lamp in her room. Her husband who was at his work at the time was heart-broken for many months. He died from bronchitis about 1882. His sons [William] James and John remained on at the Pottery for some years; [William] James as stoker and John as kiln fire-stoker and cleaner. [William] James lost his place through repeated neglect and, after many moves, took to work as a dock labourer. John also soon lost his place and could never get another and with his wife and child had to subsist on street jobs’. (Taken from a memorandum written in the late 1890s by Samuel Newell Price, a partner in Price’s Pottery). | |
| Children: Elizabeth/Eliza, born c1851 in Bristol (61C, 71C), William James, born c1855 in Bristol (61C), Henry, born c1857 in Bristol (61C), John, born c1860 in Bristol (61C) |