Roper's Roster and Research

ALDERSON John Alderson was vicar of Dent from 1891 until his death in 1909, age 49. In 1922 his widow bought 20 Heslop Road, London, SW12. She lived there until shortly before her death in 1937. Many people [in Great Britain] give their houses names - she named her house "Borley." In 1925 her sister Adelaide Mabel Bull moved into the house. She lived there until her death in a London hospital in 1936. In 1928, Alfred Richard Graham Bull moved in. He lived there until 1930.

PEARLESS Frank Charles Pearless. Born 10 November 1894 at 105, Long Lane, Bermondsey. This was the home of his grandfather, Michael Dumphrey, who is listed in the 1891 census as a Leather Finisher. His grandmother was Mary Dumphrey, listed as a Dress Maker. His parents were Charles Samuel Pearless, and Lucy Dumphrey. Pearless married Ada Ewens in 1918. Her father John Ewens was dead. Her mother must have remarried because I found a man called Wade in Tottenham, London who told me he was Ada's younger brother. Ada divorced Pearless in 1934 and moved with the three children to America. In the late 1920s, Pearless was living with a woman named Kate Emily Fernie in Wood Green, London. She was the mother of the boy Pearless brought to Borley (Francois d'Arles Jr.). He was born 31 July 1928. Pearless married Jessie Irene Dorothy Mitchell 4 August 1934. There was a son and daughter to this marriage. The daughter is living in Australia. I visited the son and met his mother who lives with him. She divorced Pearless in 1944, and died 10 October 1978. He married Jessie (Pring) Steed 10 November 1944. She was the divorced wife of Walter Arthur Steed. Sometime in the 1950s, they emigrated to Australia. They had one daughter. When I visted his sister in Tottenham, she told me her brother came home to die. He was so ill when he arrived, he went straight into hospital and died there about six weeks later (1966). I supplied Peter Underwood with the information and photograph of Frank Pearless which he used in The Ghosts of Borley.

SMITH There is a lot of misleading information about Guy Eric Smith in the Borley books. After leaving Calcutta University in 1907, Smith was employed by the government in the department dealing with shipping. At the age of 39 he gave up his secure pensionable work in order to come to England and train for the ministry. This was a three year course, but if you had been to an approved University it was only two years. He married Sarah Helen Mabel Hart late in life, 1 November 1924. Immediately after the wedding, they boarded a ship to come [to England]. Smith told Price their early married life was spent in India, but if you look at the marriage certificate you will see that they must have spent their honeymoon on the boat coming to England. Presumably the Indians do not approve of mixed marriage. He was ordained at the end of 1926. [Inducted to living at Borley 2 October 1928.] One of the people I wanted to talk to [about Borley] was Mary Pearson (Tatum). The family was still living in Sudbury and when I visited them I found Mary had died a few months beofre. The family was happy to talk to me about Borley, and then showed me some photographs. This is the photograph Peter Underwood used in his book The Ghosts of Borley. I was amazed to see he was an Indian. There were few coloured people in England before the war, so it must have been a shock for the Borley people to have a coloured vicar married to a white woman. In a small rural parish [it] must have been devastating. Died 3 August 1940.