Charles Markham Clerk
17 Britannia Street
Built Circa 1875

On April 14, 1875, Charles Markham is listed in the assessment records as the first owner of 17 Britannia Street. He lived there with his wife Annie and son James.

Charles was born in December 1879 in Yorkshire, England. His wife, Annie Campey, was also born in Yorkshire, England in February 1832. They married on June 20, 1853, in St. Marys, Beverley, Yorkshire, England. Their son James born in the same town on June 25, 1856. He supported his family by being an assistant grocer before the family immigrated to New York, United States on May 23, 1857, on the ship Northern Chief. They departed from Liverpool, England.

In 1861 Census of Canada, the Markham family is listed as living in a framed one storey house in Stratford, Ontario. His occupation is a clerk. The Census of 1871, they are listed as living on Albert Street. Charles died on July 20, 1877, in Stratford and is buried in Avondale Cemetery. Annie continued to live in the house until 1895.

Their son James, immigrated to Sacramento, California in 1865. He never married. In the 1900 United States census he is living at 806 P Street, Sacramento along with his mother Annie. His occupation is carpenter. On May 17, 1902, James, a foreman of a Southern Pacific Railway bridge

crew, was shot by a "footpad" (an old-fashioned word for a walking thief) at Eighth and N streets at 10:30 pm on his way home from the Street Fair Midway. A man wearing a false face stepped from behind a tree and commanded him to throw up his hands. Markham believed the man was a roisterer from the fair and paid no attention. He shot James in the abdomen. He did not fall from the shot, but walked to his home, he was later taken to the Railway hospital where he was attended by surgeon Dr. George L. Stevenson. He died two days later May 19, 1902. He is buried in Sacramental Cemetery.

Annie came back to Stratford, where she died on October 20, 1906, and is buried alongside her husband, Charles in Avondale Cemetery in Stratford