James Brock Family Website
     
               
         

                                     
                                 

     
              My Great great grandmother, ANN BROCK (1828 - 1877), had two        
              children, JAMES OLIVE in 1845 (Who appended the name BROCK        
               whilst serving in the Somerset militia in 1872),  and JOSEPH ARTHUR        
              OLIVE BROCK in 1851. She eventually married their father JAMES        
              OLIVE (1825 - 1856), but the year they married (1856) he died from        
              epilepsy. She remarried in 1859 to JOSEPH SMITH.  A shoemaker        
              and factory owner in Stapleton Bristol, but there is no mention of any name        
              change. And indeed all the census's taken from then onwards, she was          
         

Family History
    either OLIVE or  BROCK as the fancy took her.        
                               
         

Home Page
    JAMES OLIVE worked in his father's business in Bristol, as a wine        
                      and spirit merchant. But I have the original parchment document that        
         

Background
    awarded his father, JOSEPH OLIVE (1795 - 1854), the freedom of        
                      Bristol as a Burgess man in 1818, as an iron founder.        
         

Research
    I have not been able to find out why he changed from iron founding to                
                      business as a Wine & Sprit Merchant as yet.                
         

History
                                     
                      My Great grandfather, JAMES OLIVE BROCK (1845 - 1899) retired from the militia after a full career, serving in Canada, India      
         

Gallery
    and Ireland.      
                      He and Great grandmother, ALICE JANE SEABORNE (1858 - 1897) bought the Hop Pole Inn, in 1888, situated on Upper       
         

Trees
    Bristol Road, Bath, from her father, JOHN SEABORNE (1820 - 1890) Cooper and Licenced Victualler) who had run the pub      
                      since the 1850's.      
         

Surnames
    One of his sisters, ANN SCULL (1815 - 1886) either bought or leased the pub first, then John took over and later owned the      
                      pub outright. The Hop Pole Inn is still trading, owned and run by Bath Ales!      
                             
                      They obviously didn't have a happy life. Their first child, JAMES ARTHUR JOHN BROCK (1879) was born in Twerton 1879,      
                      and died three months later from convulsions. They progressed to have four other children, ALICE AMELIA BROCK in 1881.      
                      She died in a Brighton workhouse in 1902. My grandfather, WILLIAM JAMES OLIVE BROCK in 1882,  ANNIE ROSE BROCK      
                       in 1885 and NELLIE FRANCIS BROCK in 1887.      
                                                       
                      My grandfather WILLIAM JAMES OLIVE BROCK lived rather a full life. He was in the Royal Navy in 1898 as a signaller, also      
                      trained as an engineer and a deep sea diver in Devonport.      
                      He married AGNES RUDMAN in 1905, who was an actress with Fred Karno's Circus playing the leading lady in 'THE NEW      
                      SLAVIES', stage name of Agnes Roselia.      
                      They worked with Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sid Chaplin, EricCampbell, Tittie Collier and Little Zola, Sid Walker      
                      and Maidie Scott.      
                                                       
                      As an engineer he wandered all over the world, working for railway companies in Hong Kong, Burma, China, Siam, Nova Scotia      
                      and Colombo to mention but a few. He was called up in 1917.      
                      Apparently he was a changed man when he returned and much given to mood swings, (he probably had shell shock). His sight      
                      failed him several times over the next decade or so, which meant his painting career took more of a hobby position instead of      
                      commercial as he was unable to work as a professional artist.        
                                                       
                      They had four children; AGNES VERA BROCK (1906), (Married JAMES CHAPMAN 1935); VIVYAN NOEL BROCK (1907)      
                      (Married MURIEL GOVERD 1936, then EILEEN MARSHALL); RAYMOND WILLIAM BROCK 1910.(Married CEINWEN      
                      JAMES 1940) and my father DUDLEY BASIL BROCK born in 1914.      
                                                       
                      Dad had two children from his first marriage to DOROTHY CLARE PATRICIA WILLIAMS. The marriage ended in divorce.      
                      Dad married my mother, JOAN WALKER (Born 1926) in 1949. He worked for many years as an accountant in the farming      
                      industry for Newcombe Brothers, which  was bought out many times and renamed often, until it became Spillers, whence      
                      Dad  was made a Company Director.      
                      He died in 1986 after a short illness at the age of 71.      
                                                       
                      I married in 1972 to Gertraude Katherine YOKSHA, we have a son Rhys James (1974). This marriage ended in divorce,      
                      then I married Anna MEZCIEMS (1991). This also ended in divorce. I married DAWN BEVERLEY TAYLOR in 2001.