Frederick Ephgrave, Redbourn bakers and the London Colney mystery

It took me some time to track the birth and early life of my great-grandfather Frederick EPHGRAVE, born 1872, because he was illegitimate and registered under his mother's surname as Frederick Hipgrave SCRIVENER (the Hipgrave presumably a reference to his father's surname). Although I filled in some gaps a few years ago, there were still some mysteries remaining, including finding him in the 1891 census, but I have now succeeded!

Frederick's parents Jesse and Harriet (nee SCRIVENER) only just managed to marry before the birth of their second son Edward in 1873, but Frederick does not appear to have lived with them, at least not at the time of the various censuses.

In the 1881 census he appears (living or visiting, I don't know) in the household of his grandmother and her second husband (Mary DEXTER, formerly EPHGRAVE, nee HEDGES, and Edward T DEXTER) at Redbourn Common in Hertfordshire. Edward is a Baker, as were Frederick's father Jesse and grandfather Frederick (who died in 1858). Frederick's parents and their other four children Edward, Arthur, William and Clara are living at Albert Road, St Alban's, at the time of the 1881 census. Jesse is described as a Master Baker, born in Redbourn.

Frederick was born in his maternal grandparents' home in Stuart Street, Luton. In the 1871 census, Frederick's father Jesse is unmarried and working as a journeyman baker, boarding with Charles Cooper, Baker, and his family at 23 Bute Street, Luton. As far as I can tell from maps of the area, the two streets are less than a mile apart.

Frederick's parents and his brothers and sisters are living in Redbourn in 1891. It has taken me a while to track Frederick himself down in this census, but I have finally found him working as a Baker's Assistant, lodging as a servant with a Mr Edwin PARSONS, Baker, and his family of young sons at 'Swan Inn', london Colney, St Alban's. 

The rather odd address gave me pause for thought, but fortunately it had also puzzled other readers of the fantastic Hertfordshire Genealogy resource, which has a page on London Colney so I now know that it is a village some three miles from St Alban's and that The Swan Inn was demolished in the 1950s after 300 years as a pub. 

Frederick marriage my great-grandmother Phoebe Caroline GIBSON in 1896 in Hoxton, by which time his baking career appears to have come to an early end, as he is described as a 'cowman' on their marriage certificate, and the 1901 census gives his occupation as 'milk sterilizer', as 'dairyman' on his daughter Jessie's marriage certificate of 1929 (by which time he has died), and 'Engineer Fitter' on his own death certificate of 1923.