His birth certificate says his name is Arthur Clarence Robert Ransom but interchangeably through his life his documents sometimes have him as Arthur Clarence and other time Clarence Arthur. I have a feeling he went by Clarence but that is just the feeling I get.
Born on 26th October 1859 in Brentford, England. On the 1961 census he is listed as living at Thornton’s Yard, Brentford with his parents William and Ellen Ransom (nee Eyre). Both his parents are listed as Ag. Labs (Agriculture Labourer’s) and his brother James William Eyre Ransom who was 9 years old at the time is listed as a Scholar.
By the time of the 1871 census Arthur was no longer listed as living with his family. He was listed at the Brentford Union Workhouse, age 11 and listed as Clarence Ransom rather than Arthur, rank is Scholar. Also it is noted his status is ‘Deserted’:
At the same time as this 1871 Census Arthur/ Clarence’s brother James William Eyre Ransom who was now going by the name William, aged 19 and living with his aunt Frances Dear (nee Eyre). It was a busy household with Frances’s daughter’s Miriam and Ellen both living there with their husbands and children plus Clarence and a lodger called William White too. Frances’s husband Charles Dear was not present as he had been killed in 1862 on a barge accident on the river Thames near Cuckold Point.
So Clarence and William as they now went by were 11 and 19 respectively. Neither living with their parents. Clarence deserted, William was 19 so able to look after himself. What had become of the elder William and his wife Ellen?
William Snr died in 1884 and we don’t have a death date for Ellen so we don’t know if maybe she died and that is why the family broke up or some other reason.