Mary Jane Sturgeon was just 26 and her daughter Heather coming up to her 4th birthday when their happy life in the quiet Suffolk village of Botesdale was shattered by the news that their husband/father had been killed on the Somme. That memory would never have died, of course, but some degree of recovery would have come over the years and, towards the end of 1934 Heather was married. Her husband was one Richard Jacob Bartrum, and I wonder how much Mary Jane knew of him and his family, and the story that I've uncovered in these last few weeks ... and whether what she knew caused her comfort or fear.
(I have to break off just now to say that I've never been able to find anything about Mary Jane's life after the death of her husband. I've no idea whether she re-married, where she lived or for how long.)
Now, back to 1865, and the birth of Richard's father. Among a larger family in Wortham, Jacob Bartrum had two sisters, Gertrude, three years older, and Clara, three years younger. In 1882, Gertrude married George Smith, the fishmonger in Botesdale; thirteen years later, Clara married Joseph Uriah Ponting, a hay trusser from Wiltshire. By 1901, Clara and Joseph were living in Hertfordshire, where Joseph employed his Smith nephew to help in this work, but with two young children, he aimed for better things, and ten years later he was a railway shunter in Grantham.
George Smith, the fishmonger, died in 1908 and, as it happens, the previous year Eliza Sturgeon - aunt by marriage to the man who would become Mary Jane's husband in 1911 - had also died, each of them leaving their spouse with two small children. Widow and widower came to a very satisfactory arrangement, married in 1910 and, by the time of the census the following year, were comfortably settled in neighbouring Rickinghall Superior, with a 'made-up family' of six, comprising four children 11 and under and two older boys, one of whom was now running his late father's fish business. Meanwhile Clara's and Joseph's family in Grantham had expanded to embrace two nephews, a Smith who was a groom and fish merchant, and a Sturgeon who was a railway engine cleaner.
But what of Jacob Bartrum, the brother of these two obliging sisters? In 1885, he married 19-year-old Sarah Ann Francis from Thorndon. In 1891 they were living in Burgate, the next village to his native Wortham, with three small children; shortly after they moved to Surrey where, at the next census in 1901, we find them established in Horley. Jacob had become a cattleman (he had formerly been a mere farm labourer), and their eldest son was a telegraph messenger. They now had a total of seven children, the youngest being Daisy, just six months old. All seemed to be going well ... until one day Jacob met Ada.
Ada Budgen's origins might seem sad to us, but were probably not that unusual. She was born in East Grinstead in the summer of 1878 and appears on the 1881 census as the youngest of a family of six children living with widowed father 47-year-old Michael. Ten years later she was listed in a family headed by a 56-year-old widower, same birthplace, same occupation; that's where the similarity ends, however, for this man is called Richard and there are now two more, younger, children. Investigation revealed the full story; well, almost, for why Richard Budgen gave his name as Michael in 1881 remains a mystery Maybe it was simply a second name but, since he was born before civil registration began and baptismal records for the area are not available to search, I can't tell.
Richard married Harriett Stiles in 1859 and settled in their home village of West Hoathly, where they raised a total of eight children, of whom Ada was the last, for Harriett died, aged only 42, towards the end of 1880. Richard married Mary Ann E Hinde early in 1886; she had already borne one child (who appeared on the 1891 census as 'grandson') in 1884. Richard and Mary Ann went on to have three more children, the youngest of whom was named after her mother and died just before the 1891 census. Her mother had already died during the spring of 1890, leaving Richard a widower for the second time. His older children had left home and, at 12 years old, Ada took on the role of housekeeper to her father and the three younger children, while still a scholar herself.
Little wonder, then, that she soon left home to make a life for herself. What life-skills she learned in the next ten years we can only guess. When the next census was taken on 31st March 1901, she was a scullery maid at Brooks's, a gentlemen's club in St James's Street in the heart of London. In the next two years, Ada gave birth to two illegitimate boys, one early in 1902, the other late in 1903. How she managed to maintain herself and them is not known. Likewise, where and when Jacob and Ada met at some point in the next four years may never be known, but the effect was devastating. I can do no better than let the 1911 census tell the story.
Sarah and five children were living in Lumley Road, Horley. The two eldest girls were no longer at home; the census form was completed by William, her eldest son, who was working as a rural postman. His writing is immaculate, but shows corrections where he'd paused to ask his mother for her details. His brother Russell was working as a machine hand in a monotype factory and the three youngest children were still at school. Against Sarah's name was entered, 'married 25 years, 7 children, 6 still living, 1 died'.
Less than ten miles away, Jacob was was working as a farm labourer and living at Warwicks Wold, Bletchingley - close to where today M23 and M25 meet. Ada was his housekeeper and with them were her two boys, aged 10 and 8, and two they'd added, Richard Jacob, 3, and Daisy, 1. Jacob had entered against his name, 'married 26 years' and against Ada's, a dash for married and '4 children, 4 still living'.
It was this Richard Jacob Bartrum who married Mary Jane's daughter in 1934.
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