Charles Reeves

• Birth date            1815 at Fordingbridge, Hampshire
• Baptism                7 March 1815 at Fordingbridge
• Marriage              14 September 1847 to Frances Westcott Withers (1817-1901) daughter of Richard Withers at Romsey
• Death date            6 December 1866 at Halterworth, Romsey
• Burial                  14 December 1866 at Romsey

Charles Reeves was born at Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in early 1815 the son of William Reeves and his wife Dorothy, and was baptized there on 7 March 1815. He studied under Thomas Loader of Romsey and Richard Suter and Annesley Voysey of London before commencing independent practice. Later he entered into partnership with Henry Annesley Voysey 1847-52, and with Lewis G Butcher from 1853.

In 1843 he was appointed architect and surveyor to the Metropolitan Police, for whom he designed and superintended forty-four new police stations, some with police courts attached. With the passing of the County Courts Act in 1846, the Home Office also gave Charles Reeves responsibility for the erection of new buildings for hearing small debt cases. Between 1847 and his death in December 1866 he designed or adapted no less than sixty-four new court buildings across the country. He was succeeded as County Court architect by his assistant, Thomas Charles Sorby (qv).

On 14 September 1847 Charles Reeves married Frances Westcott Withers (1817-1901) the eldest daughter of Richard Withers of Haller North Farm, Romsey, at the Abbey Church, Romsey. There were three children - Elizabeth D Reeves, born 1850; Frances A Reaves, born 1853; and Charles William Reeves, born 1854 and recorded as an architect and surveyor in the 1911 census.

Address
1847-1866      102 Guilford Street, London, 

Reference        Liverpool Mail 25 September 1847 page 7 - marriage
Reference        Probate Records 1866
Reference        Dictionary of National Biography