Category: Norfolk

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

I nearly gave up with my researches into this family, as I was struggling to find anything of much interest relating to William Ford and his wife Mary Ford. That is, except from the very sad nature of the lives mentioned on the gravestone. Mary Ford, William’s wife, died in 1845 at the age of 58, having already lost their daughter Lucy in infancy, but then their children Hannah and Marianne both died in 1846, at the ages of 18 and 17 respectively.

I also struggled to work out where this couple lived in 1841, as I found a census record, but Mary was listed as Lucy, so I assumed it was a different family as there were no children and they only lived with their housemaid Emily Stacey. Although, everything else fitted together. William Ford worked as a shoemaker in Norwich and had premises at Colegate Street, St. George’s and he lived at Heigham Cottage.

Given the lack of obvious story, I thought I’d abandon this one, until I paid attention to the name of Emily Ford at the base of the gravestone. Emily was born in 1823, which didn’t quite make sense to anything in terms of being a child or sister of William. It then transpires that she was William’s second wife, marrying him in 1852 and living with him until he died on 23 October 1858.

Emily died on 20 December 1881, at the age of 59, and she appeared in the 1861 and 1871 censuses with her occupation being listed as living off property income. But then, something about that strange 1841 census came back, namely I realised that William had married his much younger housemaid. That’s quite impressive, marrying someone who is thirty years younger, but I wonder what Mary Ford would have thought about this arrangement.

Emily died when living at 32 Queen’s Road in Norwich, where by all accounts she lived a life of such comfort. Her death was reported in the local paper, noting that she was the relict (the archaic word for widow) of William Ford, but giving no more information. And, once again, I do wonder what Mary would have thought that her former housemaid would end up sharing a grave with her.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This grave tells a story immediately, the death of a mother aged just 21, with her baby dying shortly afterwards at just a few months old. It commemorates the life of Emma Jane Sendall, born as Emma Abel and baptised on 27 July 1851. She was the daughter of James and Martha Abel of the Cranworth with Letton parish and she had a sister.

At the age of 9, she was listed on the 1861 census as living at Gressenhall, as a pauper in a workhouse. She was with her father and sister, with her father being an agricultural labourer. That children were living in workhouses was ridiculous, but she was there just too early, as it wasn’t until the late 1860s that Thomas Barnardo started to open homes for impoverished children to live.

This couldn’t have been a pleasant life for Emma Jane, but by the time of the 1871 census, she was living at Hammond’s Yard with her grandparents and sister, back in Cranworth, near to Mitford.

In the late 1860s, a man called James Sendell married a local lady in Mitford, and I wonder whether Emma Jane somehow met his brother at that time, Arthur Sendall (born in around 1847). She married him in 1872 and perhaps this was looking like a new start for Emma Jane, something a little more positive. She had a child with Arthur in early 1873, named Herbert Sendall. Unfortunately, Emma Jane died in April 1873 and her only child died on 11 June 1873, with both being buried in the same grave.

It’s perhaps possible to think of Arthur standing by this grave, mourning the loss of his wife, with perhaps their child also present. And then Arthur would have been back just weeks later, to bury their child. There was never much chance of any information being available about Emma Jane given that she spent much of her life as a pauper. And she would have likely remained anonymous, had it not been for her marrying Arthur, who seemed to have had at least a little money so that he could pay for a gravestone.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This grave commemorates the lives of three people, Hannah Swindell, her husband Thomas Swindell and his second wife, Caroline Swindell.

Thomas Swindell was born on 1 February 1815 and was baptised at the Baptist Church in Knutsford on 26 February 1815. He was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Swindell and he married Hannah Witter on 4 February 1843. They had five children, which I’ve listed on the post I wrote about Hannah, with Thomas working as a Primitive Methodist Minister.

There’s a mass of material on Thomas, not least that provided at https://www.myprimitivemethodists.org.uk/content/people-2/primitive_methodist_ministers/s-2/thomas_swindell where there’s a photo of him. There’s no point my copying material over from that very useful site (which also has information about his son, Theophilus Witter Swindell who became an important figure in Great Yarmouth), but it’s of note that he travelled around the country with his preaching, including Preston, Bolton, Wrexham, Great Yarmouth, Docking, Upwell, Aylsham, Swaffham, Cambridge, Thetford and ending up in Norwich in 1875.

At the 1871 census, Thomas was living on Arnold Street in Lowestoft, along with his wife Hannah and three of their children. He had moved to Norwich in the 1870s to live at Bloomsbury Place, before moving to Essex Street in Norwich by the 1881 census, when he lived with his son Arthur Swindell (by then a Professor of Music) and his second wife, Caroline Swindell. Hannah had died on 23 January 1876, with Thomas marrying Caroline Simpson (1828-1899) in the summer of 1878.

By the time of the 1891 census, Thomas was living with Caroline at a property on Grove Road in Norwich. He was still living at this residence when he died, on 8 November 1897. Caroline was to die a couple of years later, but I can sort of picture her at Rosary Cemetery at what was likely a well attended funeral given the size of Thomas’s family and his reputation in the Methodist Church.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This gravestone, which is leaning forwards hence the slightly strange camera angle, commemorates the life of Hannah Swindell. It’s in rather good condition, other than where the weeds have attacked the base, and also commemorates Hannah’s husband, the Reverend Thomas Swindell and his second wife, Caroline Swindell. More on these two other individuals in separate posts, as I find it a little unusual that they’re all on one grave.

Hannah was born on 20 March 1819, the daughter of Thomas Witter and Mary Witter. She was baptised at the Baptist Church in Knutsford on 25 April 1819 and she met her husband Thomas Swindell and they were married on 4 February 1843 in the same church (I mean the same church she was baptised in, obviously the husband and wife were married in the same church….).

Hannah and Thomas had five children, Mary, Thomas, Theophilus (a marvellous name), Frederic and Arthur. Hannah died on 23 January 1876, at the age of 56. The inscription on her grave reads “she was a Christian of unblemished reputation, considerable usefulness and eminent piety, and now sleeps in Jesus till the morning without clouds shall dawn”.

There’s one thing that’s evident here, which is that there is reams of material on Thomas Swindell, her husband, and his work and contribution to society. There’s nearly nothing relating to Hannah, so I’d say that in terms of who she was as a person, the best we have to go on is that inscription on her gravestone and that she seems rather dutiful. Thomas travelled extensively during his career, and perhaps that “usefulness” was in supporting him with his work. Too often women are a footnote in history, and that’s happened here as well, so hopefully I’ll find out at some point in the future some more information about her as a person. Indeed, I’m quite intrigued as to what she would have thought about Thomas’s second wife being added to her headstone.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This is the grave of Richard Andrews, and I’m guessing (from the damaged section of the stone) also that of his wife Ann Andrews, the parents of James Andrews whose gravestone is nearby. I don’t feel that I could really tell the story of James, there’s just not enough information I can find beyond when he was born and died.

Richard Andrews was born in 1786 and I mentioned when writing about their son, James, where Richard and Ann were at the 1841 and 1851 censuses. James was born on 14 August 1814 and died on 18 August 1837.

I can find details of only one Richard Andrews born anywhere near Norwich in 1786, a child baptised on 12 February 1786 at Great Hautbois church. He was the son of William Andrews, who worked as a farmer, and the christening was probably at St Theobald’s, a church now in ruin. I can’t write with any certainty that it’s the same Richard Andrews though….

Richard married Ann (nee Long) on 25 November 1812 at Taverham. The actual marriage register, still visible at Norfolk Record Office, notes her name as Anne, but we know from later censuses that the wife of Richard was born in Taverham, and Richard’s home parish is noted as St. Michael Coslany Church, which is where his son was christened a couple of years later.

Richard died on 11 October 1861 at the age of 75, with this being reported in the Norwich Mercury the week after, noting his address as Lame Dog Road, which matches with the census records. Unfortunately, the newspaper didn’t report anything else about his life, so I feel that this is yet another story where nearly everything of note  is left untold.

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

I found this grave a little difficult to read (and I can’t make out the bottom section), but it commemorates the life of James Andrews, the son of Richard (born 1786) and Ann Andrews (born 1788). James was christened at St. Michael Coslany Church in Norwich on 14 August 1814, a church which is now redundant but is still standing.

James died on 14 August 1837 (the same date as his christening), at the age of just 23, and he was buried on 18 August 1837, with his death record noting that he was a dissenter. His burial here was one of the cemetery’s earliest, and his family wouldn’t have had much choice as they weren’t members of the Church of England congregation.

James died a few years before the first national census, but in 1841, his parents lived alone at Charing Cross, by St. John Maddermarket in Norwich. In 1851, they were living on Pottergate Street in the same part of Norwich, this time with Sarah Ann Cordy, who was listed as their 30-year old daughter and a widow.

By the time of the 1871 census, Ann was still alive, living at Lame Dog Road in Norwich with her daughter, now listed as Sarah Ann Johnson, and her two grandchildren Richard Frank Johnson and Fanny Johnson. This was because, in 1851, Sarah Ann had married a Francis Johnson, from Redlingfield Hall.

Something has gone wrong in my telling of this story so far, as I don’t know why Sarah Ann Cordy was living with Richard and Ann in Norwich back in 1841. She wasn’t their daughter, so I had wondered whether she had married their son, James Andrews. But, I can find no record of that. Which gives me a problem in trying to picture who would have stood at this spot when James was buried, certainly his parents, Richard and Ann, but I’m unsure who else might have been there. And, I can find nothing about the life of James, just when he was born and when he died (but no knowledge of why he died), a total lack of a story which I find quite saddening. Hopefully, someone somewhere knows more…..