[Jean Macdonald > Rosamond Edwardes > Marjorie Kent > couple 24]
Rev George William Kent
BIRTH: August 18, 1856, England
DEATH: after 1934 (Boston, MA?)
Frances E Comstock
BIRTH: 13 Dec 1857, Jamestown, Chautauqua, New York, United States
DEATH: after 1920 (Harvard, MA?)
George Kent
George William Kent was born (possibly, needs justification) to William Hardy Kent (1819-1907) and Eliza Maria Kent (1830-1858) in England. He immigrated to the United States around 1872 (per 1900 Census).Frances E Comstock
Frances was born in December 1858 in New York, to Daniel C Comstock (1812-??) and Eliza Andrews (1818-??), father born in Mass, mother of Ireland.
Daniel and Eliza had the following children:
1. Henry J (1835-??, b. Erie County NY)
2. George (1840-??, b. Michigan)
3. Adeliza (1843-??, b. Michigan)
4. Frances E "Fanny" (1857-??, b. Chatagua)
5. Ichabod (d. infant, listed in Comstock Book)
1855, Henry in Ellicott.
In 1865, Daniel was a clerk. They had 4 children, with just Adeliza (22, b. Michigan) and Frances E (8, b. Chataugua) living with them at the time.
In 1870, Daniel (56, Grocery Clerk) and Eliza (57) had three kids at home, George (30, news dealer), Adeliza (27), Fanny (13), and a Swedish domestic servant. They lived in Ellicott, in the Jamestown, NY post office district.
In 1880, Frances "Fannie" was living in Jamestown, which would have been where George would have met her. There she lived with "D C" (68, an upholsterer), Eliza (62), and her sister Addie (38) and their family (husband Morgan, 39 clerk in dry-goods store, children Burt, 13, Frank, 8, Georgia, 4, and Janie 9 mos).
See the Comstock Book for more information on the family (free Google ebook).
Life Together
George and Frances were married in 1883, and had the following children (only 4, according to 1900 census):
1. Dorothy F (1884-1972) m. John Mckey (1885-??)
2. Marjorie (1885-1979) m 1910 Charles Lawrence Edwardes, Jr (1874-1940)
3. William (1887-aft1910)
4. George Eric (1896-aft1940) (married and divorced between 1930/1940, an insurance agent)
1878. George is ordained a minister.
1900 Census, they lived in Worcester at 4 Benefit Terrace (the neighborhood has gone downhill in the last 100 years!), and they had a domestic house servant from Ireland named Delia.
The family moved to Rhode Island later in 1900, and by 1905 Census they record 5 years at the new post. They lived at 602 Public Street. They record 10 of 12 months in town, which allows for 2 months down at Cape Cod each summer. William was living at 612 Public St, which may indicate he worked as a house boy.
1907, George made a trip abroad aboard the SS Republic from Liverpool, leaving 11 September, 1907. George had his wife, and three of his children Dorothy Frances (23), Marjorie (21), George Eric (10). William may have been working already
1910 Census they lived in Providence, RI at 125 Adelaide Avenue
with the church right across the street. The Reverend ministered at the Westminster Congregational Society on Adelaide Ave. In that year, Marjorie was a school teacher (24, a new one, nonetheless. She taught for 7 weeks in 1909). Dorothy had already moved away.
Marjorie (24) married in 1910 (Nov 3) to Charles Lawrence Edwardes (34), a Salesman of Newton, MA, with Reverend George Kent officiating.
Unitarian Newsletter as of October 1911 indicates that he resigned from the Westminster Church, Providence, to acced a call to New Orleans.
From the New Orleans' church website,
Rev. George Kent, a native of England, became minister in 1911. Under his leadership, the church attracted numerous young families, prospering even during World War I. Prominent in the congregation at this time were Kate and Jean Gordon, local suffragists and civic reformers. For more information on the Gordon Sisters, their work in New Orleans, and the stained glass window in their honor, click here.
Rev. Kent retired in 1920, but returned to the pulpit in 1929 following a series of three short-lived ministries, and served until 1934.
As of the 1920 Census they lived in New Orleans, LA, without any children. George (63) and Frances (61) indicate that George was born in London, and Frances' parents were from New York and Ireland (census taker mistake, perhaps). They lived at 1606 Peters Street.
From the Unitarian Register, in the gap between 1920 and 1929, at least for part of it, he retired to Harvard, Mass. The link describes the acquisition of the "Hale-Kent" window now at the church in New Orleans.
October 1920 was the date of relocation to Harvard, Mass, where he was minister from 1920-1924.
He later attended a bicentennial reunion at Harvard in 1933, and it appears he had relocated to Boston.
From Worcester of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-eight: Fifty Years a City
: a Graphic Representation of Its Institutions, Industries, and Leaders
(Google eBook)) Reverend GW Kent minister of the South Unitarian Church of Worcester was born in London, England and educated there taking his course in divinity however in America at St Lawrence University in New York. Ordained in 1878 when only twenty two years old, he has preached in the twenty years since at Jamestown New York, Peoria Illinois, Halifax Nova Scotia, Reading Pennsylvania, and Worcester. During the five years of his ministry at Halifax his was the only church of liberal Christian faith in the province and he gave himself with characteristic energy to the missionary service called for his sermons and addresses being widely published. At Reading he was successful in securing the building of a new church; a window in which commemorates his services. Coming to Worcester about seven years ago as the first pastor of the South Unitarian Society, he found the little congregation worshiping in an improvised hall an unoccupied store having been supplied with reading desk and chairs. Minister and people have worked together with such unanimity and zeal that two years ago the beautiful brownstone church on Main street was erected and the society has become one of the substantial working forces of the city. Mr Kent's services are in frequent demand as a lecturer; he is also active in the work of his denomination and is at present secretary of the old Worcester Association in which the Unitarian clergy of the county have found an intimate and helpful fellowship with one another for more than a century. Mr Kent was married in 1883 to Miss Frances Comstock of Buffalo and four children contribute to the charming domestic life of this one among the many happy homes of Worcester.
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