ABSTRACT
In the census for the year 1881 there is a London household, which is of particular interest to this history and that is 35 Fitzroy Road, St Pancras (actually Primrose Hill) where two families resided, one named Vert, the other Tillett. The oldest resident was Henrietta Vert, then aged 62 and a widow, and with her lived her daughter Manuella (aged 26), and her sons Narciso (36), Honorato (24), Pedro (22) and Fernando (19), with all four men's occupations described as 'musical agent'. Her other daughter, Henrietta Jeanetta (aged 31), also lived there with her two sons Pedro (aged 7) and John (aged 4), each described as 'scholar'. Their surname was Tillett. Curiously the boys' given ages were both incorrect, for in 1881 Pedro (born 1872) was nine and John (born 1876) five. Henrietta Jeanetta Vert was listed as 'head of the household' and as 'married', but her former husband, or at least the father of her two sons, did not live with his family but is found at 39 Mortimer Street, St Marylebone. His name is John H. Tillet (sic), his age 32 and his occupation 'musical agent', though as we shall see, quite what he did in life became something of a movable feast, for at the same address was Elizabeth Tillet (sic) aged 23 and listed as 'musical agent's wife'. Pedro and John's parents John and Henrietta had married at All Saints Church, Gordon Square (Euston) on 15 April 1870, at which point John's occupation is described as 'ironmonger of 139 Tottenham Court Road'. He was the son of George Tillett, commission agent (a middle man buying and selling on commission) and Henrietta Jeanetta Teresa Vert of 22 Grafton Street East, daughter of Honorato Vert, inlayer (a craftsman in marquetry). John senior's subsequent occupations were 'commercial traveller' as listed on his son Pedro's birth certificate in 1872, on John junior's birth certificate, four years later, he was described as 'commission agent', while on Pedro's wedding certificate in 1896 he had become a 'Theatrical Manager'.
