A mystery which has exercised the little grey cells for a number of years has moved in a different direction recently.
The oldest surviving daughter of my 3 x great grandfather, the ancestor I call 'William of Newnham', was Anne Bird who was born in November 1803. In 1835 she married Francis Ross who was “a clerk in the Excise office” and they had a son named HENRY ROSS (see week 41) on 24th August 1838. Sadly, Francis Ross died on 13th March 1838, five months before the birth of their son , aged just 37 of “Decline” – which is possibly consumption or TB. The death took place at 8 Clapham Road Place in Lambeth which William had built and where his widow, Sarah, was still living. In all likelihood, this was where Anne and her baby lived for the next few years.
In 1840, another of William of Newnham’s daughters, Harriet Bird, had met and married John Coveney, son of a farmer from Borden in Kent. As far as we know, they never had any children of their own. Anne and her baby were living with them in nearby Key Street, Bobbing on the 1841 census. On subsequent census young Henry is living with the Coveneys and I have always assumed, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that Anne must have died leaving young Henry without a parent and that he was ‘adopted’ (not in the legal sense) by the Coveneys. However, I have never found Anne's death and I have now found a subsequent marriage which casts doubt on my whole theory.
In 1840, another of William of Newnham’s daughters, Harriet Bird, had met and married John Coveney, son of a farmer from Borden in Kent. As far as we know, they never had any children of their own. Anne and her baby were living with them in nearby Key Street, Bobbing on the 1841 census. On subsequent census young Henry is living with the Coveneys and I have always assumed, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, that Anne must have died leaving young Henry without a parent and that he was ‘adopted’ (not in the legal sense) by the Coveneys. However, I have never found Anne's death and I have now found a subsequent marriage which casts doubt on my whole theory.
The marriage certificate shows that a couple of years after the 1841 census Anne was living at 24 Upper Marine Terrace, Margate. She married a quite well known dissenting minister, John Styles, on 11th October 1843 at the Zion Chapel in Margate.
John Styles was twenty one years older than Anne, in fact his first marriage was in the same year that Anne was born. He was one of 17 children. He probably married four times :
- Sarah Hall Brown in 1803 at St Katherine Cree in the City of London, they had 5 children including a Mary Ann.
- Ann Cooper in 1813 at Streatham London, they had 3 children including another Ann.
- Ann (surname not known) in 1817.
- Then he married Anne Ross - the third Anne he had married !
John Styles must have had a 'thing' about the name 'Ann' as in December 1844 the newly weds had a child who they named Ann. She sadly died aged just 7 months on 12th June 1845 of "affliction of the brain". The place of death was 8 Clapham Road Place and Anne's mother, Sarah, was the informant on the little baby's death certificate.
John died on 22 June 1849 aged 67 of dropsy at the same address, Clapham Road Place. The informant on this occasion was Charlotte Davis, described as a "general servant" on the 1861 census.
John died on 22 June 1849 aged 67 of dropsy at the same address, Clapham Road Place. The informant on this occasion was Charlotte Davis, described as a "general servant" on the 1861 census.
Why wasn't Anne the informant on the death of her child ? You can understand that she may well have asked her mother to do this. But, what about on the death of her husband - why let the servant report his death ? My guess is that Anne died sometime between the birth of her daughter in December 1844 and her husband's death in June 1849. However, this is just the new theory and the lack of hard evidence is worrying.