Stories from our past - part 2

After Violet finished school she got a job in Barton upon Humber which was located on the other side of the Humber from Hull. In those days there wasn’t a bridge, so Violet would take the ferry boat there and back, sometimes they would have dances on the boat during the crossing.

When Violet was 20 she moved back up to Bridlington for awhile and worked as a waitress at a Lunchroom called Oberon’s. She was obviously pleased to be able to renew her friendship with her step sisters. Violet had quite a few admirers but she eventually met and fell in love with a young man from Hull called Herbert Cyril Orwin, they married on the 31st July 1922. Violet and Herbert had three children, Cyril, Joan and Doreen. They had a happy life though sadly Violet’s Mother Rose died in December 1930 when the children where still quite young. Violet can remember seeing a rainbow around the Christmas tree on the day her Mother died.

Their youngest child Doreen was my Mum, she also shared some memories of her childhood. Her Dad, Herbert had a little car with what they called a dickey at the back where the children could sit strapped in, usually on a Saturday or a Sunday they would go for a drive to Hornsea or Withernsea, little seaside resorts. On their way home they would always stop at a wayside pub called 'The Jack of Hearts' and the children would sit outside by the tables and get a glass of lemonade and a packet of crisps. Doreen always loved this treat and sometimes if her Dad pretended to drive past the pub without stopping all three children would start yelling from the back of the car. Next to the pub was a farm and the lady who lived there got to know them quite well and would often bring over a glass of goat's milk for them to drink.

One of Doreen's stories from her growing up years is from when she was about 7 or 8 years old. The children living in her street, Spring Gardens in Anlaby near Hull, asked her if she would go to the shops for them on her bicycle, they said that they badly needed some elbow grease. Doreen recalls: "I agreed to go and get some, about 30 minutes later after having been in just about all the shops, I arrived back in the street to see my friends doubled up with laughter, it was then that I realized what elbow grease was, (elbow grease means hard work). Feeling very embarrassed, I fell off my bicycle and ended up with a very bad knee which took a few weeks to heal up, and I must say ended up with my friends feeling very sorry, but it was a laugh when I think how foolish I was."

In 1940 World War 2 broke out, with Hull being a big port it was very badly bombed during the war, Violet’s family had an air-raid shelter in the back garden with bunks and bedding and food, but it was not very nice having to sleep there every night and hearing the sirens and the bombs falling. Doreen usually received the hand me down clothes from her elder sister Joan, but once during the war she had received a brand new strawberry pink coat, she was so proud of it that she had it hanging in the living room to show to some friends, when her father came to warn them of an air-raid. They rushed to the shelter, it was very frightening as they could see the land mines coming down, thankfully the wind blew them further down the street and one of them landed in Rokeby Park in a lot of mud, but it caused such a big crater you could have fitted three houses into it, and the explosion caused all the windows to blow in and the plaster to fall from the ceilings. Luckily everyone was in the shelter so no one was injured but Doreen's new coat was covered with plaster and soot so she was most upset.

During the war Cyril enlisted in the RAF and often flew on missions to the continent, on one of these missions he was shot down above the Hoek of Holland and taken as a prisoner of war. This was a terrible time for the family, at first they didn't even know whether he was still alive until someone from the Dutch resistance was able to send word to the family. In the last years of the war Herbert was also called up to serve even though he was already in his 40's,he was sent to India.

Violet had lot’s of fond memories of Bridlington and would often visit her step sisters there in her later life.

Stories from our past

Stories from our Grandparents link us to the past they are like a bridge to an earlier time. My Grandmother Violet Popplewell, whom I called Nana, was born at the beginning of the last Century, on the 12th December 1900. Her Father, Harry Popplewell died when she was only two years old. He had worked in a coal mine since being a young boy of fourteen and the coal dust had infected and blocked up his lungs, he was only twenty six when he died. A year later Violet’s Mother Rose remarried, a widower with six young daughters between the ages of two and thirteen, Violet suddenly had six sisters to grow up with.

Violet’s step father, William Whiting and his daughters lived in the Seaside town of Bridlington, North Yorkshire. People around that time were just beginning to start taking vacations, they would usually travel with the train from the busy industrial cities to seaside places like Bridlington, for this reason Violet’s mother Rose kept a Bed and Breakfast establishment on Quay Road and William worked as a Porter by the Railway station. Violet told me that when the guests would leave at the end of their vacation, she and her sisters would line up by the front door and they would often receive a little tip. When Violet was old enough she attended school with her sisters at Oxford Street School. On this photo you can see a May Pole, the girls all learnt to do a little dance around the May Pole, each girl had a different coloured ribbon, Violet’s ribbon was red. After their performance Violet’s Mum, Rose brought a basket of little chocolate bars for all of the children.

At Easter the girls all received a new dress and bonnet, which Rose had sewed for them, they were white with a red ribbon and their straw bonnets where decorated with flowers. After church the girls asked whether they could go down to the beach, their parents gave them permission but warned them to stay on the promenade and not to go down to the sand. Once they where there it was much to tempting, one of the sisters suggested running along the sand from one set of stairs to the next before the tide came in. They all agreed but unfortunately they were not quick enough for the tide and they all got soaked, their beautiful new dresses were ruined because the red dye from the ribbons ran out over the white dresses.

One of Violet’s step sisters was called Fanny but she had a nickname, they all called her Joey, she was a year older than Violet and she was a bit of a tomboy. Violet and Joey got on really well together and Joey often thought up wild adventures for them to do. One day they borrowed a rowing boat and took it out into the bay, it was a beautiful sunny day and they had brought along a couple of books and a picnic to enjoy. Violet was a little bit worried about rowing out too far but Joey waved away her worries, they ate their lunch and then began reading their books and enjoying the sun and the solitude. At a certain moment, Violet looked up from her book and couldn’t see the harbour anymore, they had drifted far out to sea!Thankfully another boat had seen them and had notified the Lifeboat rescue service so they were eventually towed back to safety.

When the girls were a bit older they received bicycles, a relatively new invention which gave them the freedom to discover the surrounding countryside. One day one of their friends joined them for a bike ride, she had a brand new bike and Joey really, really wanted to ride that bike instead of her own. At first the friend didn’t want to swap but Joey was so insistent that eventually she gave in and Joey got to cycle on the brand new bike and the friend took Joey’s older bike. Everything went well until they started biking down a fairly steep hill and Joey couldn’t find the hand brakes to slow her decent, her friend’s new bike had back pedal brakes! Joey ended up crashing into a hedge at the bottom of the hill and learnt her lesson about being too bossy the hard way.

After spending most of her childhood and early teens in Bridlington with her step sisters, Violet’s mother Rose was divorced from William Whiting and Violet and her Mother and younger brother Hector moved down to the larger city of Hull.

Walking where our Ancestors walked

During my many years of genealogical research I have usually used a map of the area to find the villages or towns where my ancestors lived. I could then visualise how close they lived to other family members or to their future marriage partners. Even better than a map is being able to visit the places where they lived in person as you then can get a feel for the area and it’s surrounding countryside. My last blog was about my Matrilineal line which I have managed to trace back to the mid 18th Century to the small village estate of Elvetham. As I mentioned in my last blog, Elvetham was located close to the main coaching route from London to the West and some of my Turner ancestors who lived there where involved in the transportation business. Looking at a map of this area I discovered Turner’s Green Farm, Turner’s Pond and Turner’s Wood which suggests a definite link to this family. Elvetham village and Elvetham Heath are now split through the middle by the M3 motorway, and as we were driving down this motorway on our recent vacation to England we decided to take a small detour off the route and visit Elvetham. Pulling a caravan behind your car doesn’t make it easy to do spontaneous stops , but as the exit from the motorway was quite close to Elvetham we decided to go for it. We drove along the old London turnpike road and spotted an old milestone along the way, through the lovely village of Hartley Wintney and towards Elvetham Hall which is now a very expensive hotel. Thankfully just before the gates to the Estate there was a small unused road where we could park with the caravan. Leen Arie remained with the car and me and Leah (my granddaughter) went on an exploration of the Estate with it’s beautiful wooded grounds, the Hall and a lovely little church. The Hall was rebuilt after a tragic fire in the mid 1800’s and the little church was also restored, so it wouldn’t have been exactly as my ancestors remembered it, but nevertheless it was lovely to visit where they would have walked and attended church. Time restricted us (and having a caravan behind the car) from exploring further and looking for Turner’s Green Farm, but I definitely want to visit this area another time.

During our vacation we also spent a week in Cornwall where my Patriarchal line came from, in fact our campsite was located in the village of Gwinear, next to the farm where my 6th great grandmother Bridget Pryor lived and grew up, Trenoweth Farm. As we arrived at our campsite I felt like I had arrived back home, maybe a bit sentimental or maybe something in my genes. Whilst staying at this campsite I was able to go on several walks along centuries old public footpaths. From Trenoweth Farm to Coswinsawsin where Bridget later lived with her husband Robert Stickland and along the close by located farm of Penhale where my 4th great grandmother Mary Penhale probably came from.

There was also a public footpath along the back of Trenoweth Farm which took me over ancient stone stiles along fields full of daffodils and along the lovely old house of Lanyon whose family also come into my family tree via Elizabeth Lanyon who married John Arundel in 1639 and from whom another Prior family descended, Arundel Prior the grandfather of my 3rd great grandmother Grace Morsehead who married John Stickland.

Eventually I arrived in the little village of Angarrack where the widowed Grace Stickland lived with her daughter Wilmot and son in law and nephew John Stickland and where the tragic events of my Blog from June 2016 - Skeletons in the Cupboard occurred. Leen Arie and Leah met up with me here and we ate a delicious Sunday Lunch in the Angarrack Inn which was built in 1755 and was originally known as ‘The Lamb’, It owes its establishment to the Angarrack tin smelting house, which once operated nearby and was owned by William Tremayne the uncle of my 4th great grandfather Robert Stickland.

So many family connections in this small area of Cornwall, and even though so much has changed, being able to walk where they once walked brought me closer to my ancestors and also helped me to realise that a distance that looks really close on a map or travelled by a car is completely different when you walk that same distance over fields and footpaths.

The Matrilineal Line

When most people begin researching their family history they begin with the Paternal line, and indeed when I wrote my family history book 15 years ago it was about my Paternal line, 'Moments in Time - A history of the Stickland/Strickland family of Cornwall'. With your Paternal line the name remains the same and it is a familiar, comfortable name, the one you grew up with and was known throughout your younger years, and if you are male or never marry, the name that you still go by and use. The Matrilineal lineage is the line that follows your Mother's maternal ancestry, this line consists entirely of women, it traces your mother, her mother, her mother's mother and so forth back into history. This line is sometimes known as the umbilical line and corresponds with the path of transmission of the mitochondrial DNA. Some people say that Judaism goes by matrilineal descent because we always know who a person's mother is and we can't always be certain who their father is. With your Matrilineal line the name changes with every generation which can make research more difficult, especially if a Mother's name isn't mentioned on a baptism record or you only have a first name for her because you can't find a marriage record. I have been able to trace my Matrilineal line back seven generations to Elisabeth Cotterel who was christened on the 31st July 1721 in Tadley, Hampshire. Her father was George Cotterel but the name of her mother wasn’t mentioned on the christening record and as yet I haven’t found a marriage record for her father George. During her youth Elisabeth and her family moved to Elvetham, Hampshire a small hamlet next to Elvetham Hall, an Estate that was once owned by the Seymour family and was visited by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Elisabeth Cotterel married Thomas Lowman on the 22nd July 1747 and lived in Elvetham with her husband and children until her death and burial at Elvetham on the 3rd July 1785 aged 64. Her youngest daughter Ann Lowman was christened at Elvetham church on the 30th December 1770, she also grew up in the hamlet of Elvetham which must have been closely involved with the affairs of Elvetham Hall. Apparently the Estate had fallen into disrepair during the latter half of the 18th Century and was eventually leased out to various tenants who did minor improvements. In 1792 the Landscape designer William Emes took a 21 year lease on Elvetham, living there at least 3 years in which time he made significant changes to the Elvetham’s park land as well as a few architectural improvements to the house.   Also in 1792, on the 21st of February, 21 year old Ann Lowman, my 4th great grandmother married John Turner at Elvetham Church. John had also been born and had grown up in Elvetham and after their marriage they continued to live in this small hamlet where Ann gave birth to eight children. Several of their children died in infancy but their seventh child, a daughter, who was born in 1810 and named Eliza Turner became my 3rd great grandmother. Eliza also grew up in Elvetham but when she was 23 she married Henry Challis in St. George’s Church in Ramsgate, Kent on the 10th November 1833. I don’t know how Eliza met Henry or what brought her to Ramsgate, a seaside town located about 120 miles from her home and on the other side of the great city of London. The only connection that I can find is that Eliza’s brother William was employed as a car man and the Challis family were also in the transportation business and Elvetham was located on the main thoroughfare from London to the West Country. After Eliza’s marriage to Henry they continued to live in Ramsgate and Eliza gave birth to and raised eight children, two boys and six girls. In their later years Eliza and Henry moved to Dover where they became the proprietors of the pub Neptune’s Hall. After Henry’s death Eliza carried on running this pub with her daughter and son in law Eleanor and William Bumstead. Eliza died in her 72nd year and was buried at St. Mary the Virgin Church in Dover on the 10th April 1882. Eliza and Henry’s fifth child was my 2nd great grandmother, she was born in Ramsgate on the 24th May 1842 and named Eliza Lowman Challis, Eliza after her mother and Lowman after her grandmother’s family name. My previous blog was all about Eliza Lowman Challis, her marriage to William Frederick Tozer and his untimely early death leaving her a widow and mother of three children at the age of 29. Her move up to Hull in East Yorkshire where she worked as a housekeeper, her failed second marriage and her death in 1927 aged 85. Eliza’s third child was my great grandmother Rose Tozer whom I have also wrote about previously. Rose was born on the 9th October 1871 in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, her father died when she was 7 months old so she wouldn’t have had any memories of him. When she was 10 years old her mother was working as a housekeeper for a Polish Jewish man who generously left them well provided for after his death. Rose was employed as a Domestic Nurse in her twenties and married when she was 28 to 23 year old Harry Popplewell, Rose was three months pregnant when she married. They married on the 2nd June 1900 in Hull and after their marriage went to live in Harry’s home town of Batley, West Yorkshire. Their child, my grandmother, Violet Popplewell was born on the 12th December 1900. Sometimes it seems like history repeats it’s self, Rose lost her father as an infant and Violet lost her father as an infant. Harry Popplewell had worked in the coal mines of West Yorkshire since being a young boy of 13 or 14 and his lungs had been damaged by the coal dust, this is possibly the reason that he had been living for a short while in Hull in order to convalesce, when he met Rose. After returning to Batley he resumed his work in the coal mine and in February 1903 he died of silicosis of the lungs at the young age of 25, his daughter Violet was two years old. Rose eventually remarried a widower, William Whiting and father of six daughters and moved to the seaside town of Bridlington, North Yorkshire where she also helped to run a Bed and Breakfast. Life wasn’t easy for Rose, she had three more children to William Whiting but eventually he left her for someone else and in 1918 he divorced her. After her divorce Rose lived with Violet and her youngest son Hector, her other two children having been kept in the custody of their father which must have been heartbreaking for Rose. Eventually she moved in with a man called Joseph Cant whom she lived with for the last 10 years of her life. Rose sadly ended her own life when she was 59 years old by laying her head on a cushion in her gas oven and gassing herself, her body was discovered by Joseph Cant. My Grandmother Violet Popplewell married Herbert Cyril Orwin on the 31st July 1922, exactly 201 years after Elisabeth Cotterel, our Matriarchal forebear was christened. Violet and Herbert had three children, the youngest of whom was my Mum, Doreen Orwin. This Matrilineal line continues on through myself and my sisters and through my daughters and granddaughters. A line of strong women who I am proud to share my DNA with.

Eliza Lowman Challis, her life in Hull

In January 2019 I wrote a bog about my maternal great great grandmother Eliza Lowman Challis, about her childhood and her marriage to William Frederick Tozer. My blog about her ended when she was 29 years old, the mother of three young children and a recent widow after the untimely death of her husband. This blog will be about the rest of her life until her death in 1927 at the grand old age of 85. When Eliza's husband died in 1872 they were living in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire and William had been running a prosperous painting and decorating business which his father William Henry Tozer, who was also a painter and decorator was able to take over and continue. In 1881 William Henry and his wife Maria were registered as living in the former home of their son and William senior employed 4 men and 2 apprentices. I don't know how long Eliza remained in Wellingborough with her three children and how her relationship with her in laws was, Eliza and her children weren’t mentioned in William Henry Tozer’s last Will and Testament which he made in April 1901, so I assume that they didn’t have any contact. In 1881 when the census was taken she was living in Hull, East Yorkshire and she was employed as a Housekeeper to a Jewish, Prussian born, Broker and General Dealer called Solomon Henry. Eliza and her three children resided in Solomon's home which was 70 Gibson Street, a side street of Cannon Street which is located near the centre of Hull just off of Beverley Road.

Eliza's younger brother Joseph Robert Challis was also residing in Hull with his family as were some other distant Challis relations and it was probably through her brother Joseph's influence that Eliza decided to move up north to Hull, a distance of around 200 km from Wellingborough instead of back down to Kent where her Mother was still living and other family members. Possibly Joseph had heard that Solomon Henry was looking for a housekeeper and he recommended his sister for the job. Solomon Henry had been charged in January 1866 by his wife Sarah with brutally assaulting her and had received 21 days imprisonment, hopefully he treated Eliza and her children better than his wife. I am not sure when Eliza moved up to Hull and started working for Solomon but it must have been for a few years because when Solomon Henry passed away In December 1881 aged 59, he left all his household plate, linnen, China, paintings, books, ornaments and furniture to his housekeeper Eliza Lowman Tozer as well as two hundred and fifty pounds, which was quite a large amount at that time and makes you wonder whether Eliza's relationship to Solomon was more than just a housekeeper. With this money Eliza would have been able to comfortably support her self and her children. Just as an intriguing side note, I have a slip of paper in my Mum's handwriting which she wrote down after interviewing her own mother years ago about her family. My Nana told Mum that her auntie Maggie had showed her a Will belonging to her grandma, Eliza and that it had a red seal. The story was that some relation, a Silversmith had loaned Eliza some money and they had claimed the Will as security, Eliza was saving to claim back the Will but was a year short of getting it. Nana only saw the document after her Grandma died. Interestingly one of the Executors of Solomon's Will, was Frederick Larard who was a Silversmith. Could Eliza have lost her claim to this money? The Probate was issued in March 1882 and around this same time Eliza's mother Eliza Challis passed away in Dover, did Eliza maybe borrow money to travel down to Dover? So many questions. What I do know is that within the next ten years her eldest son William Henry enlisted in the military and in 1884 when he was 17 was sent to fight in the Sudan campaign, later in 1899 after his marriage he also fought in South Africa in the Boer War. In the Summer of 1889 her 19 year old second son Frederick was married to Annie Ellerington and in the beginning of the following year his wife gave birth to a baby boy whom they named Cyril, Eliza had become a grandmother. Shortly before this event, on the 14th December 1889 Eliza, who was 47, married a 38 year old widower called George Dunn. George was a tailor and had been a widower for 5 years and was the father of five children, the eldest of whom was 13 and the youngest 6. Eliza's youngest child, my great grandmother Rose would have been 18 when her mother remarried and was working as a domestic nurse. Eliza's second marriage doesn't seem to have been a success, in February of 1891 George's eldest son died and when the census was taken in the Spring of 1891, George was living with the Mother of his deceased wife, his two daughters were living with his sister's family and his two surviving sons with his own parents in South Cave. Eliza was living on her own means with friends. In March of 1892 there was a court case and a charge was brought against George Dunn for not supporting his estranged wife Eliza Dunn. Apparently an order had been granted 12 months previously in which he had to pay 5 shillings per week towards her maintenance and he was now 16 shillings and 6 pence in arrears. During the court case Eliza admitted that she had gone to the Spring Bank Methodist Chapel where her husband attended and on one occasion had sat behind him and his mother in law, though she denied having sneered at said mother in law when she turned around. She did admit to asking him for money outside of the place of worship and told the court that her husband frequented public houses and put his money on horses. Eliza also denied having written insulting letters about her husband to others. George was eventually given a respite of 8 days in order to pay the half of the owed maintenance otherwise he would face imprisonment. During the coming years more grandchildren were born, Frederick had a total of eight children though four of them died as babies and his youngest daughter died when she was 3 years old. Eliza's eldest son William Henry married Margaret Cass (this would have been the auntie Maggie mentioned earlier) in 1897 and they had 6 children though three of these also died as babies and his youngest daughter also died when she was three years old. The death of all these grandchildren must have brought much sadness into Eliza's life. Eliza's youngest child Rose didn't get married until 2nd June 1900 when she was 28 years old, after her marriage she moved with her husband Harry Popplewell to his home town of Batley, West Yorkshire, where their daughter Violet Popplewell, my Nana was born on the 12th December 1900.

In 1901 I believe that Eliza was living on Thwaite Street in Cottingham, a small village on the outskirts of Hull where she is recorded as being a shopkeeper and grocer, she would have been 59 at this time. Her estranged husband George Dunn was living with another woman whom he called his housekeeper on the census though he appears to have had several children by her. He eventually passed away in 1905 and Eliza officially became a widow again. In September 1910 Cyril Tozer, Eliza's eldest grandson was married and a year later her first great grandchild was born and named Frederick Tozer. In the following eight years five more great grandchildren where born though three of these died as babies. In 1911 Eliza was still living in Cottingham and was working again as a housekeeper for a Mr. Henry Kirk at Pigeon Cote Hill, Hall Gate, Cottingham, Mr. Kirk's son Robert and his 8 year old grandson were also living with them. In February 1914, a few months before the First World War began, Eliza's eldest son William Henry Tozer passed away, aged 49. He was buried at the Western Cemetery, Spring Bank Road with full military honours. Around 1917 Eliza's daughter Rose returned to live in Hull from Bridlington after being divorced from her second husband William Whiting. Her granddaughter Violet (my Nana) would have been 17 at this time and remembers her grandma Eliza as being petite with long black hair, not grey and being very pretty, Eliza would have been in her seventies at this time. In June 1922 Eliza would most probably have attended the wedding of her granddaughter Violet Popplewell and a year later would have been pleased to hear about the birth of her great grandson Cyril Orwin, followed by the births of great granddaughters Joan in 1924 and my Mum, Doreen in 1926. She would also have been saddened to hear about the death of her eldest grandchild Cyril Tozer who passed away at the age of 34 in 1925. In 1927 Eliza was living at the Gas Room Almhouses, on Fountain Road, Hull. She was beginning to suffer from senile decay (dementia) and possibly fell out of her bed and fractured her left leg, this fall resulted in her death on the 8th July 1927, an inquest was held on the 9th July with a verdict of misadventure. Eliza was survived by two of her three children, eight of her eighteen grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.

Memories of Dad

Today the 19th December 2021 would have been my Dad’s 94th birthday but sadly he passed away 4 years ago, a day before his 90th birthday. In the week before he died I was able to visit and be with him. As my body was still adjusted to European time I offered to sit with Dad during the night so that my sister could get some much needed sleep. I would lay on the couch next to his bed and hold his hand, a treasured memory. My niece Breanna had put a playlist of golden oldie songs on Dad’s telephone so that he could listen to some background music. Sometimes during the night I could hear him softly singing along or tapping with his hand to the beat. Whenever I hear some of these songs they bring me back to this moment and to memories of my Dad, golden memories. One song in particular was very poignant ‘If ever I would leave you’ by Robert Meadmore from the musical Camelot, hear are the lyrics - ‘If ever I would leave you, it wouldn't be in summer. Seeing you in summer I never would go. Your hair streaked with sun-light, your lips red as flame, your face with a luster. That puts gold to shame. But if I'd ever leave you, it couldn't be in autumn. How I'd leave in autumn I never will know. I've seen how you sparkle, when fall nips the air. I know you in autumn, and I must be there. And could I leave you running merrily through the snow Or on a wintry evening when you catch the fire's glow If ever I would leave you, how could it be in spring-time Knowing how in spring I'm bewitched by you so Oh, no! not in spring-time. Summer, winter or fall. No, never could I leave you at all. No, never could I leave you at all.’ Sadly Dad, you had to leave us, but now Mum is with you again and your memories will always live with us in our hearts.

A Veritable Amazon

In his 1930's book about Kent Windmills and their Millers, William Coles Finch interviewed an 81 year old miller called John James Freeman who recounted stories about his Freeman 'Miller' ancestors and particularly mentioned his grandmother Sarah Freeman whom he recalled was a "veritable amazon", had 21 children and lived to be 101, a masterful woman of wonderful personality." The author also said that he gleaned so much information about Chatham windmills from John J. Freeman and that he never saw eighty-one years set more happily on a man than they did upon him - active, robust and with a memory far more ready than his own in recalling the past. John J. Freeman's grandmother was my 4 x great grandmother and through historical research I have indeed confirmed that she lived to the grand old age of 101, she was born in 1771 and died on the 13th February 1873 leaving a last Will and Testament which I will later discuss. As yet I haven't been able to find all her 21 children, 13 children where born and baptised in the Frinsdbury, Strood area where her husband William worked as a Miller, but considering the fact that she would have been 28 when the eldest of these was born then I am sure that she would have had more children before this time, probably born in another location. As I said Sarah was born in 1771 probably in Southwark, London, which lies south of the river. On the 1851 census though, her birth place was given as Strood in Kent, her age was given as 79 and she was residing with Thomas Godden and his wife Martha in Frindsbury, Kent, I am still trying to find a connection between Thomas Godden and Sarah as he was also one of the Executors in Sarah's Will. In both the 1861 and 1871 census her birth place is given as London, and the 1861 census is more specific in mentioning Tooley Street, Southwark which is also the area known as Bermondsey. In 1861 Sarah was a lodger by Ebenezer Moulton and his family together with her Grandaughter Mary Ann Freeman in Chatham, Kent. In 1871, aged 99 she is residing with her daughter Hester Duly in Rochester, Kent. I have surmised and changed Sarah's maiden name many times during my research, for a long time I thought that it was Sarah Lester as the name Lester is used many times within the Freeman family, but I have been unable to find a marriage between a William Freeman and a Sarah Lester. I now believe that Sarah's birth name was Sarah Walker who was born in Bermondsey on the 26th July 1771 to Thomas Walker and Sarah Richards. I have also found a marriage of a Sarah Walker to a William Freeman on the 3rd May 1787 also in Bermondsey, Southwark. Sarah would only have been 15 at the time of this marriage and William is recorded as being a widower so until I find further proof this is still a surmise.

What I do know about Sarah, my 4th great grandmother is that she married a Miller, William Freeman, and that for a large portion of their married life they lived in Frindsbury, Kent, which is a small village on the banks of the Medway opposite the lovely town of Rochester. William was probably the miller of the House Mill which was built in 1819. A very sad occasion in Sarah and William's life was reported in the 1813 edition of the local newspaper when their young son George Edward Freeman a toddler of two and a half years wandered away from home and was struck by the turning sails of the Windmill. This must have been a very traumatic time in Sarah's life, as well as the other times when her children died before her.

Sarah's husband William passed away in 1841 when she was 69, Sarah outlived him for another 32 years and when she eventually died only five of her many children where still alive. As I mentioned Sarah left a Will which she made on the 18th April 1868 when she was 96 years old and still sound of mind. Her daughter Hester Duly and good friend Thomas Godden were her Executors. All her household furniture, books, plates, wearing apparel, linen, china, prints and other articles were left to her daughter Hester Duly as well as 300 pounds. Her two surviving sons Thomas and James Freeman also inherited 300 pounds each and her dear daughters Maria Dunham and Sarah Orwin inherited 50 pounds each. Sarah Orwin was my 3x great grandmother who had been living in the North of England in Hull since 1840, I wonder how often she was able to travel down to Kent to visit her Mother. Sarah also left 100 pounds to her Grandson James Duly, 30 pounds to her friend Martha Godden and 10 pounds to Thomas Godden. She also requested to be buried at Frindsbury Parish Church and that a head stone would be placed on her grave.

Even though Sarah was a widow for more than thirty years she was an independent woman of sufficient means and as her Grandson described her a masterful woman with a strong personality, a "veritable Amazon".