Reuben Osborne and Explosion at Powder Mills 1835

 

Reuben Osborne was born in about 1791 and he died on 19 April 1835, aged 44 at the Powder Mills.  He is buried at Leigh.

The MORNING ADVERTISER London, dated Friday 24 April 1835 reports:

FATAL ACCIDENT:  The corning house of Mr Burton’s powder manufactory, at Tunbridge blew up on Thursday last, with a frightful explosion: when two of the workmen, one named Reuben Osborne, the other Benjamin Bravery, unfortunately perished.  Osborne when found was quite dead; Bravery survived about two hours, in great torture.  He was able to give little account of the catastrophe, further than that it occurred through their own carelessness.

 

We can only glean a little about Reuben Osborne from records as he died before the first census.   But we know he married Charlotte Haysmore at Shipbourne St Giles on 8 November 1814, where it states they were both of the parish.

 

In the Birth Marriage and Death (BMD) index that we have for Leigh post 1813, we have the children of Reuben and Charlotte born at Leigh (various spellings of the surname):

Charlotte bapt 20.4.17

Reuben Osbon bapt 25.12.23

James bapt 29.1.26

Stephen bapt 20.1.28

Frances Osbon bapt 9.5.30

Edward bapt 24.2.33

Sophia bapt. 10.5.35  (Sophia was born shortly before her father’s death).

 

But the BMDs also show two other Osbourn families at Leigh:

Children of William and Ann Osbourn (marriage of William Osborne and Anne Reed at Shipbourne in 1812):

Thomas bapt 5.10.17

Elizabeth bapt 24.9.20

Edward bapt. 22.12.22

Ann bapt. 25.12.24

Robert bapt. 21.10.27

Charlotte bapt 14.2.30

Mary Ann and Maria bapt 13.5.32   (cannot say if they are twins, or were just baptised on the same day.

(There is a probable son William given in the 1841 census also, aged 25 (ages inaccurate) so possibly another son born Shipbourne? between 1812 and 1817)

 

Children of Henry and Sophia Osbourn:

William bapt 13.12.18

Henry Bapt 2.5.3.21

George bapt. 8.6. 23

James bapt. 29.1.26

Sophy bapt 7.9.28

 

These families may be connected.  At Shipbourne there is an entry for William OSBORN baptised 26 August 1787, parents Edward and Elizabeth and in the 1841 census we find Henry Osborne 45, an ag lab, (no wife listed) with son James and Daughter Sophia living at Rushets, Leigh.  We also find William 50 and Ann 50, with children William 25, Thomas 20, Robert 13, Charlotte 11, Maria 9 living at Tonbridge Hollenden Lane (near Half Moon pub) – he is an ag lab also.  We also find Charlotte Osborne aged 40, widow/pauper and children Fanny 11, Edward 8 and Sophia 6.   Charlotte went on to marry William Pucknell a few years later.

 

Before 1813, there were other Osbornes at Leigh, going back to 1693.  However, there appears no immediate connection with the Osbornes of Shipbourne.

 

Joyce Field (March 2025)