Pieter Joseph Crombet 1839-1909
| Parents | Thomas Marcus Crombet (1799-1871) | Sara Cornelia Vergouwe (1807-1843) | |
| Siblings | |||
| Partners | Anna Beolens (1844-1898)
(m.22.02.1865) (Had no children) |
Anna Margaretha Boelens (Never Married, but had his children) | Eleanor ‘Nelly’ Lucy Taplin (m.15.09.1906) |
| Children | Thomas Peter Crombet (1883-1913)
Otto Cornelius Crombet Boelens (b. 1888) |
(1888-1966) |
Peter Joseph Crombet Boelens (1890-1972) |
Pieter Joseph Crombet was Born February 19th 1839 at Den Hague Netherlands. His father was Thomas Marcus Crombet (1799 – 1871) and his mother was Sara Cornelia Vergouwe (1807 – 1843) who was the only surviving child of five. At the age of 14 (1853) he became a ‘Klerk. Between 1853 and 1863 he was residing at Kalverstraat 266’s-Gravenhage (The Hague).
On Febrary 22nd 1865, at the age of 26, he married Anna Boelens in The Hague. The couple emigrated to Great Britian but we have no record of the date. However, the family story is that they left in some kind of disgrace. Pieter could speak seven languages and had worked as a Klerk translator. Anna was a seamstress.
23rd April 1866 Pieter commenced work as Telegraph Clerk, at the Electric & International Telegraph Company, at a wage of 24 shillings a week. (It is unclear whether this was in England or the Netherlands).
What we do know is that by 29th January 1870 he was a Telegraph Clerk at the Post Office in St Pancras London and was earning a wage of 32 shillings and 6 pence a week. He was Clerk 1st class by 1st September 1871 the pay scale for which was 100 pounds – 130 pounds per annum. By 1st June 1878 he had become Senior Telegraphist at £140 p/a rising to £150 p/a by 1st. April 1881 150. He became Assistant Superintendent (19th October 1888) at £200 p/a and his salary rose on 27th September 1890 to £260 p/a. and in 1894 to £310 p/a. He retired when Superintendent at the Central Telegraph Office in London in 1898 with a pension of one hundred and sixty pounds, 15 shillings per annum.
Pieter also ran some sort of hotel or boarding house in Brighton after his retirement. We know this because my (Jean) granddad (Peter Joseph) told me that he and his brother Otto shined shoes for the occupant there. Pieter’s first wife Anna, in spite of being ill, had a hosiery and dress making company, she could not have children. Pieter’s second wife, Nelly Taplin, also had a shop.
Around 1881 Pieter’s Father in law, Otto Boelens, arrived in England with his youngest daughter, Anna Margaretha Boelens. We presume she came over to look after her older sister who was in ill health and who could not have children. In 1882, Pieter’s first child is born, registered by Anna Margaretha with his wife as witness. Maybe this was a family agreement as the two sisters were obviously close because Anna much later on, was a witness at Anna Margaritas wedding to Christopher Whitlock.
In 1882 Pieter’s first child is born to Anna Margaretha. His and most subsequent children are registered with the surname of Boelens. However, in each case, their third Christian name is Crombet. Family tradition has it that this was an acknowledgment that he married one sister, and the other bore his children.
At the age of 43 Pieter has a son Thomas Peter Crombet Boelens on June 20, 1882 at Kentish Town, London. In 1889, by which time Pieter is 50 his twin sons, Otto Cornelis,Crombet Boelens and John Marcus Crombet Boelens are born in Islington, London. In 1889 his son Peter Joseph Crombet Boelens is born somewhere in London.
According to the census of 1891 he was living at 237 Hampstead Road, London, London, England. In 1898 his wife Anna Boelens died in Stenning, Sussex. In the 1901 census he is living at Speranza, Underdown Road, Portslade, Southwick, Sussex (on the edge of Brighton).
On the 15th September 1906 Pieter re-married, his new wife was Nelly Taplin who was aged 38. This was at a registry office in East Preston, Sussex. He was then resident at Piran Villa, Pavilion Road, Worthing in Sussex
Pieter was 70 when he died on Aug 23 1909 and was buried at Middleburg, Zealand in the Netherlands.