John Samuel COMPTON

• Born - 7th September 1840, Gloucester (per family Bible).
• Baptised -
• Died - 27th February 1917. Buried at Bubbling Well Cemetery, Shanghai, China.
• Parents - James Compton and Elizabeth (born 1817?).
• Married [1] - Eliza? (died pre-1892?) in China?
• Married [2] - Ellen Jane Mesny (1872-1937) on 17th October 1892, Shanghai, Kiangsu, China (per (IGI)
• Children [1] (see table below) - ?? James, ?? John
• Children [2] (see table below) - Elizabeth Gladys (1893-1975), Violet May (1895-1972, married Vincent Moore?), Charles Edward (1896-1994?), Lilian Dorothy (aka "Dolly", b.1898, married T.B.Price?), Nellie Winifred (1900-1978), Evelyn Ella (1902-1910), William Samuel (b.1904), Harold Mesny (b.1906), Cyril Raymond (b.1908?), Joseph Michael (b.1914).
• Occupation - At the time of his second marriage he was the "HBM Consular Constable at Wenchow".

The above photograph was, according to the note on the back: "Taken on the verandah, Tientsin, 1920". On the right is Charles Ellerton (who married Nellie Winifred Compton), with possibly one of Winnie's brothers.

A family bible recorded that John was born in Gloucester in September 1840. The closest entry in the GRO Index is a John Compton birth registered in 1842/Q1 at Cheltenham (possibly registered late?).  

The June 1841 Census shows "John Compton, aged 9 months" living at Northgate Street, Gloucester, in the Parish of St. John the Baptist, with his mother Elizabeth (aged 24; shown as being born outside Gloucs.) - but no mention of his father.

At the time of the March 1851 Census "John Compton, aged 10" was living at 3 Aldate Square, Gloucester, in the Parish of St Aldate, with his grandmother Sarah Compton (head; aged 58; "married" - but husband not shown in the same household; born in Middlesex).

There is no obvious trace of John in either the 1861 or 1881 Census returns, so it is possible that he had already migrated to China by that time. It seems possible that he had two sons by a first marriage as two Compton births were listed in the Consular Births Indexes - see table below.

John was 52 at the time of his second marriage in 1892, with his wife Ellen just 20. At the time of the birth of their last child John was 74 years old (!) and living at 48 Boone Road, Shanghai.

All of John's children from his second marriage were born in China. A search of the Consular Births Indexes at the FRC revealed that no less than 13 children with the surname Compton had been born in China between 1871 and 1915. All except the first two in the table below (James and John - possibly children from John's first marriage) were children of John/Ellen, and are shown in the Compton family Bible [details courtesy of Barbara Compton]. The details in the first four columns are from the Consular Index; all others are from other sources.

I have not yet been able to check the "Consular Marriages" for Compton and Mesny, as the relevant file was missing from the FRC archives at the time of my research.

Click here to go to a schematic tree of the Compton family.

Note: The GRO Index shows a "John Samuel Compton, born 16/9/1813, London" who could have been related.

Page last updated: June 2007