Lived in a row of houses in Holloway, side by side with his wife's 3 sisters: Bennett, Carling, Hall and Tolham. One couple (Mr & Mrs Hall) were so poor that Charles and his wife bought their house for them.
When his first wife died, he married again. His new wife didn't want anything to do with his sons. Charles and Jack had to leave Highbury College, find themselves lodgings and work as waiters to support themselves. Tom had to leave school so ran away to sea. Ada was also made to leave school and became an unpaid servant to her step-mother. There was one daughter from the second marriage, but Charles didn't live long and his widow put Ada into an orphanage and took all his assets for herself and her own daughter.