SELF, Henry (1835?-1911) — London
Map and chart engraver.
Born in Stepney in or about 1835, Self was baptised at St. Dunstan Stepney 9 Aug 1837, the son of John Self, a mariner, and his wife Mary. By 1841, his father having presumably died or been lost at sea, his mother was living in Woolwich with Charles Thompson, a carver and gilder. By 1851, both mother and son were using the surname Thompson, now living in Prospect Row, Woolwich. As Self, he married Dorothea Sarah Palmer Jones (1838-1919), daughter of a Royal Navy boatswain from Plymouth, at Lewisham in 1859. Later that year, at the birth of a daughter, the couple were in Southampton. The 1861 census records Self (as Henry Thompson) working as an engraver for the Ordnance Survey, and living next door to John Darling. The family returned to London after the birth of a second daughter, and although Self was specifically recorded as a map engraver on census returns and elsewhere throughout his life, in 1871 was working as a gauger in Woolwich Dockyard. In 1881 he was resident in Morris Place with his wife and six of their dozen or so children. He had retired by 1911 and died 31 Oct 1911. He was buried at Greenwich 7 Nov 1911.
27 Alfred Street, Southampton — 1861
23 Harden Street, Woolwich — 1871
1 Morris Place, Woolwich — 1881
West Street, Woolwich — 1891
46 Durham Road, Plumstead — 1901
34 Tewson Road, Plumstead — 1911
Census 1841-1911.