Bank House, Melcombe Regis, now part of Weymouth, where George VOSS and his wife kept a boarding house and raised their son Albert, and Albert in turn his son Edward George VOSS

An outline of George’s life can be gleaned from census records.  In 1841 he was residing in Grosvenor Place, Melcome Regis, and present were his wife Frances, their young son (George) Albert and as lodger Ann BULLEN, Frances’ sister.  He describes himself as cabinet maker.  By 1851 he was running Bank House as a boarding house, and he stated his birth place as Weymouth.  In 1861 he was still at Bank House and a boarding house keeper and he stated his place of birth as Melcombe Regis.  In 1871, now widowed, he was with his son Albert again in Bank House and as boarding house keeper.  Again he states he was borne in Melcombe Regis.  By 1881 he had retired, and was living near by at 3 Hardwick Terrace with Ellen Wicksteed, his late wife’s sister.  He died in 1883 and was buried with Frances in Wyke Regis, her home church.

In all the census records he stated he came from Melcome Regis or Weymouth, although I recall in one he said  ‘Came’, but I cannot now find that again.  Came would refer to the Came Hills south of Dorchester and the village of Winterborne Came. There and in the surrounding area there had been Vosses for generations.  Although George’s marriage and subsequent children and grandchildren are recorded in the registers of Melcome Regis, there is nothing for George’s baptism.  However, there was a likely baptism at West Knighton (at the eastern end of the Came Hills) on 4th August 1811.  There we find George VOSS (f) and his wife Ruth (née Rogers) baptised:

1. Thomas (q)   8th April          1804   (died before birth of namesake in 1807?)
2. Ann  (b)     25th December   1805
3. Thomas (x)   28th June          1807
4. William (c)    6th January      1809
5. George (d)    4th August       1811
6. Eunice               October       1813
7. June Samways    17th Sept     1815
8. Elizabeth (aj)    17th January  1819

George VOSS (f) lived long in West Knighton, where he was Parish Clerk for 40 years and he is buried there, as is his father Thomas VOSS (e).