1

Our Women Ancestors

• Else Churchill

• Genealogist

• Society of Genealogists

• www.sog.org.uk

2

Times Newspaper BMD Notice 1816

3

mtDNA Female Descent from Richard III

4

Compiled by John Ashdown-Hill

Every woman in her place

6

What to read

7

Essential reading

8

Women at Work – London Post Office Directory 1886

• Eliza Ann Kimberly (Mrs) Upholsterer

• Fanny Kimpton Kimpton (Miss) Bookseller

• Georgiana Kimpton (Miss)

Corset Maker

• Sarah Kinchin (Mrs) Lighterman

• Kindergarten Emporium – Miss E Frost Manageress

• Ann King (Mrs) Dressmaker

• Ann King (Mrs) Midwife

• Augusta King (Miss) White Lion

• Catherine Emma King (Mrs) Servants registry

9

Censuses

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Servants • 1901 -1,330,783

female servants

• 1 in 3 Victorian woman aged between 15 and 25 in service

• migratory

11

Search A2A, NRA & TNA Discovery

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VictorianLondon.org National Vigilance Association Reports into registries (NVArecords at Women’s Library)

13

14

Parish Apprenticeships Mary Harfoot aged 8

“housewifery” in 1775

15

Jane Radburn orphan of the Asylum in

the parish of St Mary Lambeth apprenticed in the art of housewifery

16

City of London Apprentices www.britishorigins.com

17

Apprentices of Great Britain 1710-1774 SoG Data & FindmyPast

Indexed Images of IR/1 1710-1811on Ancestry

• 1773 Ann Mulliner to Eliz Revel – Miliner

• 1764 Ann Mullens to Ruth Stacey – Mantua Maker

• 1763 Margaret Mullens to Edward Hobbs and Wife – Mantua Maker

• 1764 Mary Mullens to – Jane Nash –milliner

• 1764 Martha Mumford to Jos Smith – not specified general servant?

18

Returns of Papists 1767 (Durham)

19

Midwives licensed by the church

20

Women and marriage – a few statistics

• Mean age of marriage at least 26

• Earlier marriage in towns

• Significant numbers of spinsters

• Spinsters’ lives shorter

• Lots of cohabitation?

21

Church Courts

Bawdy Courts or Court of Scolds!

22

London Consistory Depositions Index www.britishorigins.com

23

In a very base and bawdy manner

“It being proved by Mary Fry and Ewen Kissack that Isabel Kissack reflected on Alice Kissack in a very base and bawdy manner calling her the wife of him that had the stone privy member “ Consistory Court of Sodor & Man

24

Schedules of Penance

• Isabel Kissack asks forgiveness of congregation 1721 (Consistory of Sodor & Man)

• Printed fornication before marriage form (Archdeaconry of Nottingham)

25

Nothing but occular inspection could enforce a stronger belief of criminal conversation in Seasalter

“They appear, and deny any criminous

conv. But say she is his hired servant

who lives with him as housekeeper”

Consistory Court of Canterbury

26

Separation from Bed and Board

Sarah Eves committed adultery with John Southam, an iron monger,

who was also found guilty of adultery at Warwick assizes prior to their appearance in the church courts. Witnesses noted Sarah’s tendency to leave the shutters open at night Consistory Court of Lichfield

27

Women on Hard Times

Poor Law Records

Illegitimacy

28

Examination of Mary Hall 1791

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Removal of Mary Hall

• Removed from Woodbridge in Suffolk to North Elham in Norfolk – presumably her place of birth – along with her two bastard children

30

Bastardy Order - against William Bridger father of Mary Morris’s child

31

Bastardy order against Elizabeth Cock & Horrace Neil 1819

Horrace Neil did begat the

bastard child and is ordered

by the Justices to pay for its

upkeep and the lying in of

Elizabeth. She is chargeable

to the parish in case she shall

not nurse and take care of the

child herself

32

Sessions Records

Neglected Affiliation Order 1867

33

34

Southwell Workhouse, Notts Punishment Book

35

MH 12 Poor Law Unions Correspondence

36

Trinity House Petitions at SoG Index on SoG Data Online & findmypast

37

Women in Court

Women in Court - Victims

38 Hereford Times, October 1839. British Newspaper Archives

Women in Court - witnesses

39

Mary Churchill, witness to child assault. Hereford Assizes,

Hereford Times 1864 (British Newspaper Archive)

40

Madams

41

Harris’s List

42

43

Elizabeth Haddock d 1752– Haddock’s Bagnios 1720-1740s

Wife of John Haddock “ Whoremaster General of Covent Garden” … kept a string of “coffee shops” or “millinery shops”, and bagnios at Charing Cross and Covent Garden. Elizabeth’s will and inventory shows a wealthy woman with properties at Worton in Isleworth. Fixtures and fittings of the bagnio in Covent garden included 32 beds and 14 dining tables, a wine cellar of £165 8s 5d and silver ware worth twice as much.

Fallen Women in Lime House 1871

44

The fallen women very often don’t know either the names or ages of those men who

sleep with them. Their ages therefore were only guessed at

45

Graduated poll tax for disbanding the armies granted by Parliament,

1 1641-1660 (TNA E179) described in Lists & Index Society Vols. 44, 54, 63, 75, 87. Laid down prescribed sums from every one over the age of sixteen and not in receipt of alms according to status in life. Lowest contribution six pence, the highest £100. Catholics paid double, widows a third. For printed returns see Texts & Calendars I & II (Mullins). Listed in Gibson & Dell.

2 This shows the assessment for Waddesdon “The Ladye Dormer being rated £20 being a recusant paid £40”. TNA (E 179/244/4)

•

46

Hearth Tax & Exemptions

47

Women in Chancery – Bernau Index

48

1.3m PCC Wills

144,302 widows

58,289 spinsters

13,515 wives

Women in Wills wives, sisters and daughters

• …unto my son THOMAS ARROWSMITH … my messuages …

situate in Tattenhall Cheshire [and] in Beeston … subject to the payment of the clear yearly sum of £12 … unto my loving wife Elizabeth (executrix)

• Son JOSEPH ARROWSMITH £400 (from brother)

• Daughter RACHEL ARROWSMITH £150

• Grandson THOMAS DOD £10

• Daughter ALICE wife of THOMAS CHALLINER 20sh

• Daughter ELIZABETH wife of JOHN FENNA 20sh

• Daughter SARAH wife of ROBERT HINTON

• Daughter MARY wife of Thomas FAULKNER 20sh

• Daughter MARTHA wife of JOHN BAILY

Will dated 24 November 1727

Probate 7 December 1730 @ Consistory of Chester

Testator died 11 November 1730

50

In the name of God amen

I give to the worst of women except being a whore

who is guilty of all ills , the daughter of Mr. Gramont

a Frenchman, who I have unfortunately married,

five and forty brass halfpence which will buy her a pullet

for her supper – a greater sum than her father can often make

for I have known when he had neither money nor credit for

such a purchase being the worst of men and his wife the

worst of women in debaucheries. Had I known their character I had

never married their daughter nor made myself unhappy.