Descendants of Alfred Mead Raymond

        On 9 July 1835, at exactly the minimum allowable age of fourteen years, he was bound as an apprentice lighterman to his father John as master at St. Saviour's and completed the seven year apprenticeship on 14 Jul 1842 ¹⁴. No apprentices were subsequently recorded bound to him. When aged 20 he was listed in "The Times" newspaper, through his father, as having donated five guineas (£5. 5. 0) to the industry's charity - "Almshouses for Aged, Decayed, and Maimed Watermen & Lightermen of the River Thames and their Wives and Widows" ⁶.
        As his father's business was in part that of corn merchant operated from the granary at Clink Street from early in life he would have had some experience in that line of business. Following his marriage in 1849 he entered into partnership with his father-in-law James Vogan and son James Vogan Jr. as a corn factor and successfully followed that occupation for the rest of his life ⁷.
        His father-in-law James Vogan was first noted listed in a 1820 London directory as a seedsman at 17 Tooley Street, Southwark, located near the Clink Street business premises of Alfred's father John, but on the opposite Bermondsey side of London Bridge. By 1841 he was listed at 31 Tooley Street as a corn dealer and by 1847 trading as James Vogan and Son. By 1850 the listing had become James Vogan Son & Raymond. In the 1851 Post Office London Directory Alfred's personal listing was given as - "Raymond Alfred Mead, corn merchant, see Vogan Jas. Son & Raymond". In directories from 1850 to 1855 the business was listed as - James Vogan Son & Raymond, corn merchants, Mill Wharf, Mill Street, Bermondsey and No. 1 Maze, Tooley Street, Southwark. By 1855 this company also traded from No. 68 New Corn Exchange and No. 60 Old Corn Exchange ⁷.
        Following his marriage Alfred resided at several addresses in an area that can be reasonably described as the suburb of Blackheath that are today (2007) within the Boroughs of Lewisham and Greenwich. The 1861 census gave his address as No. 4, Hyde Vale Villas, Greenwich, occupation as corn factor, and that his household employed three female domestic servants. At both the 1871 and 1881 census the number of servants was four. From 1870 until his death he resided in a three-storey family home at 14 Morden Road, Blackheath Park that by 2007 had been re-numbered from No. 14 to No. 18 ⁷. In the 1891 year of death the census listed his occupation as corn factor and that his household comprising five unmarried children and two female domestic servants. His probate notice in The Times stated he was late of 47, Mark Lane in the City of London and of 14, Morden Road, Blackheath Park and the executors of the will were civil engingeer son Sydney and nephew John Raymond who was the eldest son of Alfred's late barrister-at-law brother John Raymond (1817-1872). The estate valuation for stamp duty was a then substantial £26,736 ¹⁰.