Louis lived his entire life under the reign of Queen Victoria, she had already been on the throne for five years when he was born, and she reigned for a further seven years after his death. 1842 was also the year that China ceded Hong Kong to Britain, the Afghans massacred over 16,000 British soldiers in the Khyber Pass, and the Florida doctor John Gorrie pioneered the first experiments with ammonia for air conditioning and refrigeration.
Louis had a traumatic childhood, his father died when he was six, and his brother when he was eleven. His mother remarried when he was thirteen. At the age of 22 he married Mary Ann Nelson, a stonemason's daughter, his sister Helen was a witness. Mary had a brother named George Horatio Nelson! Their first son, John Henry was born 9 months and 1 week after the wedding. But did he name his son after the father he hardly knew, or the church that had supported his family through its most traumatic period?
Louis worked as an iron moulder, and Foundry Street, Neithrop still exists. In 1881 he was living at 39 Oxford Road, a 0.8 mile walk from Foundry Street.
They had four further children:
- Winifred Ellen was born and died in 1870
- Charles Vincent was born in 1873 but died 15 years later
- Albert Louis was born in 1877, married Ada Jane Bray, and had a surviving son, Bernard Charles
- Mary Agnes, was born in 1883, and married Arthur George Hancox, an innkeepers son
In 1891 Louis died aged 48 of inflammation of the lungs and dropsy, industrial disease from working in the foundry. With his father dying at the age of 32, life expectancy for the male breadwinner of the family had taken a dramatic tumble since the days of William the Jersey Coomber who survived until 77 despite ending his days in the workhouse!
His widow became an innkeeper at the 7 Stars, 26 Box Hedge, Neithrop, until 1896 when she married Andrew Jarvis the Innkeeper of the Duke of Wellington at 3 Warwick Road until she died in 1927 aged 81. The pub still exists.