A Sad Tale from the Rabbit Hole

Having determined recently that chasing odd people that aren't connected is a waste of valuable research effort, I couldn't resist telling one last story before I once again apply my nose to the genealogical grindstone.  It caught my eye because it begins in England's smallest county, where I had a very relaxing summer holiday about twenty years ago.  There's something attractive about Rutland's motto, 'Multum in Parvo' (much in little) and I remember that holiday every time I drive through the county.

Emma Barfield was born a labourer's daughter in the village of Wing in 1835, the second of five children listed in the 1841 census.  At the age of sixteen, the next census found her in nearby Morcott, one of three servants in the employ of 33-year-old, Lincolnshire-born, 'gentleman', George Whichcote.  In this post, she was accompanied below stairs by 25-year-old housekeeper, Mary Ann Southwell, born in Uppingham, and the 29-year-old William Judson, who was described merely as 'servant'.  Some time during the next few years, George decided to return to his native county.  He took his housekeeper with him and replaced Emma and William by another Rutland-born Emma as his housemaid, and giving lodging to another William who, it appears, spent much of his time working on a farm, perhaps owned by George himself.

No longer wanted as a servant, but with the experience those years had given her, Emma Barfield sought her fortune further afield.  Why she chose Norwich is a mystery, but it was there, early in 1858, that she married William Boden, a post office sorter.  By the end of the year, she had presented him with a son, William Samuel, and the trio are recorded in 1861 living in the unattractive-sounding Lollards Pit, in Thorpe Hamlet just by the city, with Emma working as a seamstress to supplement the family finances.

The next decade brought joys and sorrows.  William had been followed in 1860 by Robert, who died that winter just before the census; Then came Henrietta in 1862 and Emma Jane the next year, both of whom died in 1864.  Their other three children Amelia in 1865, Robert Francis in 1867 and Laura in 1870 survived, and the family were living in Spitalfields, Thorpe, in 1871.  Ten years later they were still there, and Emma was working as a laundress.

Thorpe didn't treat Emma well.  In the summer of 1882 her eldest son William died, followed a few months later by her husband.  In 1886, elsewhere in the city, Elizabeth Kent died.  She was the mother of Henry James Kent and his siblings, of whom I wrote last week; her demise left as a widower Henry James Kent senior, who was about the same age as Emma Boden, formerly Barfield.  How these two came to meet is another mystery (rabbit holes - like the rest of family history - are beset by mysteries!), but in the summer of 1887 they married, and in 1891 were living in Cowgate Street in the parish of St Martin at Palace, which is where the Kent family had been living, in one residence or another, for many years.  Both Henry and Emma were working as basket makers.

Their union threw apart what was left of Emma's family.  Laura, the youngest, had already left home, getting married in 1886, just sixteen years old, to Henry Read, a coal labourer some eight years her senior.  What Robert had done when his mother re-married is not known; he died in the spring of 1890 aged only 22.  In 1891 Amelia was living with Laura and Henry and their three-year-old daughter Florence.  They had had another daughter in 1889, but she had died before she was a year old.  At the time of the census, Laura was expecting her third child and no doubt Amelia's support was invaluable.  Lavinia was born in the June quarter of 1891.

Emma and Henry enjoyed about ten years together before Henry died in the September quarter of 1897.  Emma then moved to an apartment in the Barnard Building, located in the parish of St Peter per Mountergate.  In 1901 she was living there accompanied by her granddaughter Florence Read.  These two were both survivors of collapsed families.  Florence's parents had split up.  Laura was living as a charwoman in Essex Street, where she was hosting John Woods, a fish hawker, while her husband was lodging a mile away with a 49-year old widow and her two grown-up children.

When Emma died at the age of 71 early in 1906, she had outlived two husbands and five of her seven children.  I would like to offer a happy ending - or at least a conclusion - to the story.  However, like life itself, the story just goes on.  In 1911, Laura was living at a different address, but still playing host to John Woods, this time with a two-year old 'visitor' of unknown provenance, whose surname differed from them both.  Laura declared herself 'married 24 years, having borne three children of whom one had died'.  

Her sister Amelia, meanwhile, was a servant to an art dealer and his wife.  Maybe, still unmarried at the age of 45, she was the lucky one.