Cecile Jane Grayson




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Sarah Jane Grayson (a.k.a Cecile) was born in 1863, in Wispington, Lincolnshire. She was the eldest child of Thomas Porter Grayson and Caroline White. At the age of 18 (in the 1881 census) she was still known as Sarah Jane. Sarah Jane adopted the name of Cecile and was found in the 1891 census under the name Cecile Grayson. Her occupation was given as "Governess School".  At the time of the census she was a visitor to a home in Upper Norwood, Croydon Surrey (none of the other residents of that house are known to me). 

In the London Directory of 1995 she is using the name Cecile. Her address was 53 manchester St, an apartment building. She continued to live there until her marriage in 1899.

In 1899, at the age of 36, she married William Alfred Morling using the name Cecile Jane Grayson.

CJM&WAM

In all future references she used the name Cecile except in her death record where she is called Sarah Jane Morling.  William, born in 1868, was the son of Alfred Scrafield Morling.  Alfred  was an oil merchant in London.  Both William and his younger brother Charles were "commission agents and General traders" for Collins and Co with offices in London as well as Tientsin and Shanghai China. At the age of 21 William left London for Shanghai as a Clerk for Collins and Co., apparently not returning until 1892 (no travel record for WA Morling between 1890 and 1892). William Morling later became a partner in the firm of Messers Collins and Co.

After their marriage in 1899 William and Cecile travelled regularly between England and Tientsin, China where they made their home until 1923 when they returned to England permanently. There are travel records for William and Cecile between England and China in 1913, 1916, 1921 and 1922

In England they lived at 44 Ennismore Gdns in London. They left every winter and sailed to Toulon, France; Naples, Italy; or, in later years, to Australia.  Cecile and William Morling did not any have children.

William died in October 1938 and Cecile in December 1944 in Kensington.