If the Hatt fits…

When I first started investigating my family history as a teenager, Granny (my grandmother, Helen “Nancy” Blake nee Akeroyd) told me a story about her grandmother’s mother.  If you are already confused, don’t worry, there is a note at the bottom (spoiler warning!) showing the lineage so you can try and sort out how everyone fits in.  The story I was told was that the grandmother’s mother was the daughter of a gentleman and she eloped with a groom.  The story also said that her surname was Hatt and that the family was from Gloucestershire.  A Gentleman in this case meant someone who was gently born, that is, a wealthy landowner.  Naturally, I wanted to find out whether there was any truth to this story.

The grandmother was Harriet Partridge.  My research revealed that Harriet was born in 1852 in Duntisbourne Abbots, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Thomas Partridge, a carpenter, and Sarah Smith, the “Grandmother’s mother”.  You might think that is the end of the story, proven false.  However, a bit of digging raised some interesting questions.  The Partridge family once owned the manor of Wishanger in Miserden, Gloucestershire, so Thomas was the descendant of gentlemen.  Sarah Smith was Thomas Partridge’s second wife. Married in 1850 in Winstone, Gloucestershire, their brief marriage ended with Thomas’s death in 1853, leaving Sarah with some step children to look after along with her baby daughter.  In the 1861 census, Sarah, the head of her household, was living with Harriet, stepdaughter Ann Margaret Partridge and son William Smith, who was aged 18 and born (c. 1843) in Kennington, London. 

William Smith was the first hint of a scandal in Sarah’s past, an illegitimate child born a long way from home.  So maybe the story was true but the “Hatt” surname was wrong.  Trying to find William’s birth certificate was something of a lost cause, as there are far too many possibilities, so it was back to the census records and Sarah Smith’s past.  Curiously, William Smith was not living with his mother and step-father in Duntinsbourne Abbots in 1851.  I think he was living in nearby Winstone with the family of the local school mistress. Finding Sarah Smith in the 1841 census proved problematic due to places of birth not being included to offer vital clues.  Researching Smiths is never easy.

The next step was to look for Sarah Smith’s baptism.  Was she the daughter of a gentleman?  I knew from the 1861 and other census records that she was born in Arlington, a hamlet next to the village of Bibury in the Cotswolds.  Bibury is considered by some to be the most beautiful village in England and a very pretty stream divides it from Arlington.  A search of the Bibury parish register revealed that Sarah was baptised 6 June 1817, the oldest daughter of James Smith, another carpenter, and Elizabeth.  So, James Smith was not a gentleman.  Was this the end of the story?

Regardless of whether the story was true, I wanted to continue researching this family. I discovered that James Smith married Elizabeth Hatt by Licence on 17 December 1816, in Eisey, Wiltshire, where Elizabeth was living.  I found the Hatt from the story!  The marriage by licence told me a couple of things, firstly, they could afford a marriage licence and secondly, they had to get married in a hurry (Sarah was born less than 6 months later). 

My next thought was: did the generations in the story get muddled in the telling?  If you got confused at the beginning with all of the grandmothers and mothers, it is easy to imagine how the same could have happened to Granny and her mother.

I was now on the hunt for Elizabeth Hatt and pleased to have a much less common name than Smith to research.  Elizabeth Hatt was the daughter of John Hatt and Sarah Crew, baptised 29 May 1795 in Farringdon, Berkshire.  John Hatt was a yeoman farmer from the Swindon area in Wiltshire, not far from Farringdon.  At last I had found the gentleman!

So was the story Granny told me true?  I would say “sort of”.  It seems that the story was a generation out.  Elizabeth Hatt was the daughter of a gentleman and had to get married in a hurry, even if she didn’t elope.  Although James Smith was not a groom, perhaps he was working for Elizabeth’s family and that is how they met.  I think the lesson from this is that family lore shouldn’t be treated as gospel truth but it may point in the right direction. 

Of course, if I ever track down William Smith’s father, he might put another spin on things.

As for some of the other questions that are raised by this story, I think most of the ancestors mentioned here are worthy of having their own tales told in future blogs as I know a lot more about each of them.  Look out for more family history soon.

 

Note on Lineage: Me > Dad > Helen Francis Ruth Blake > Florence Ruth Kirby > Harriet Partridge > Sarah Smith > Elizabeth Hatt > Sarah Crew

Priscilla’s choices

This is a story of how a family dealt with some fairly typical problems that arose before the advent of modern social security.  The solutions, also typical, pose some challenges for family history researchers.

Priscilla Goodyear was born around 1800 in Stokenham, Devon.  Stokenham is located in a very remote rural corner on the Devonshire coast; a place that looks like prime territory for smugglers.  The Goodyear family lived in the area back to mediaeval times.  The eleventh of thirteen children of Richard Goodyear and Elizabeth Norris, Priscilla was baptised in the parish church on 25th January 1801.

It seems that Priscilla’s family were poor and her father’s probable death in 1806 wouldn’t have helped matters.  Because she would have been a burden on the parish, Priscilla, aged nine or ten, was apprenticed to a Joseph Randall by the Overseers of the Poor in 1810.  Some of her siblings were also apprenticed at young ages, including her sister Susannah, who played an important part in Priscilla’s story.  At the time, the church was responsible for looking after the poor and the church parishes tried their best to get someone else to take financial responsibility for the poor person, hence the apprenticeships.

Susannah Goodyear married John Camp Shephard* in 1813.  He was a labourer from Charleton, which is next to Stokenham.  In case you were wondering, “Camp” was his mother’s maiden name.  They had five children, the first two dying in infancy, before Susannah died in November 1821 leaving John with three toddlers to look after.  It may be that Priscilla, as a convenient single female relative, took on the duty of looking after the children.  This was a common solution for the circumstances. 

On Christmas Eve 1822, just over a year after Susannah died, John Camp Shephard and Priscilla Goodyear were married in Stoke Damerel.  Stoke Damerel is about 20 km from Stokenham, on the outskirts of Plymouth.

So, why did they marry so far from home?  At the time, and until the early twentieth century, it was illegal for brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law to marry. Presumably the local parish priest refused to perform the wedding, so they went to the nearest big town.  There, they could get away with pretending they were locals for a few weeks so that they could get married by banns before returning home.  They would not have been able to afford a marriage licence to speed up the process.  I have come across other ancestors who married under similar circumstances, so I think it was not that unusual even though the marriage wasn’t legal.  I assume that for most people, having a wedding was more important than worrying about the intricacies of marriage law.  Nor was it unusual for a widower with young children to marry so soon after the death of his wife, needing someone to look after the children while he went out to work.

With Priscilla and John, there was an additional reason for them to marry.  Jane Shephard was born early in 1823 and was baptised on 2 March that year, in Charleton, just over two months after the wedding.  Given how late in her pregnancy they married, I do wonder whether John was Jane’s father or whether he was the nearest eligible man who was willing to look after Priscilla.   Perhaps they and their families saw the marriage as a good way to solve a few problems and to ensure that the young children had two parents.  Alternatively, it may be that it just took them a while to work out how they could get married outside of their parish.

John and Priscilla had 6 children.  One son, George, died young, so they recycled his name and called their next son George too.  Again, it was not unusual to name a child after a dead sibling.  The second George is my ancestor.  He migrated to Australia as a young man.

In the 1851 Census, the family included Uriah Shephard aged one, listed as their son.  This would have meant Priscilla having a child at 49.  I know from many years of family history research that most women had their last child by the age of about 45, so 49 is a little old, which made me a bit suspicious.  Further research revealed that Uriah was actually their grandson, the illegitimate child of their daughter Susan.  Once again, a grandmother taking on an illegitimate grandchild as her own child was not unusual.  If the grandmother already had a household full of children, one more didn’t make much difference and it allowed the daughter to earn a living.

Priscilla died in 1867.

It took me a while to untangle this family and work out which children belonged to which parents.  Gaining an understanding of British marriage law and social history helped me understand some of the choices they made.

 

*Shephard is a surname with many varied spellings; I have chosen this spelling as it is the one used by more recent generations.

 

NOTE ON LINEAGE: Me > Mum > John Macdonald Charley > Walter George Charley > Mary Priscilla Shephard > George Shephard > Priscilla Goodyear

A Charming Scoundrel?

This story comes with a warning to any relatives: the subject did not lead an exemplary life.  Don’t read any further if you don’t want to know about the bad stuff.  On the other hand, if you enjoy a bit of scandal, read on.

Ambrose Rideout* caught my interest because of his unusual name.  Added to this, I have been fortunate enough to have found quite a few records that mention him and have discovered that he led an interesting life.  My feeling is that he lived and died long enough ago that his actions have no real bearing on anyone alive today, so I am not concerned about writing and sharing his story.

Probably born in Ashmore, Dorset, around 1775, Ambrose was the son of Thomas Rideout, a woodman (lumberjack).  A Thomas Rideout and his wife Martha Prence (a variation of Prince?) had several children baptised in the parish of Ashmore between c.1770 and 1791.  Having seen scanned copies of the original records, it wouldn’t surprise me if a baptism was not recorded and that Ambrose was their child.

The first definite record I have of Ambrose Rideout is an entry in the Dorset Prison Registers on 20 Dec 1793.  Ambrose and his future brother-in-law, Jasper Bennett (also my ancestor), were convicted of poaching and sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.  Ambrose was release early on the condition that he enter the Royal Navy with Lieutenant Lethbridge; probably one Thomas Lethbridge.  I haven’t found any record that he actually did join the Navy.  The prison register also told me that at 18 years old, Ambrose was 5 feet 8 inches tall, above average for the time and he hadn’t have finished growing, being an inch taller a few years later.

Sadly, that was not the end of Ambrose Rideout’s criminal record in Dorset**.  On 24 Jul 1801, he was in court on a charge of rape.  The hearing was postponed and Ambrose was released a few days later.  I haven’t yet found any other records relating to this matter so don't know the details of what he was alleged to have done.  At the time, rape was punishable by hanging, so either the case never went to trial or Ambrose was found not guilty.  Then, as now, it was a difficult crime to prosecute. 

On 10 Jan 1803, Ambrose was convicted of killing a pheasant and sentenced to 3 months imprisonment or a £20 fine.  His fine was paid by his master, William Galpine.

In between run-ins with the law, Ambrose married Charlotte Bennett, sister of Jasper, in Tollard Royal, Wiltshire, on 6 Apr 1795.  Tollard Royal is a neighbouring parish of Ashmore and both are rural areas.  Their first child, Ambrose, was born too few months later and baptised in July, in Tollard Royal.  They had three more sons: John Bennett born about 1797, James (my ancestor) born about 1801 and Philip born January 1803.  Philip was baptised 23 January 1803, the same day his mother Charlotte was buried.  I assume that she died due to complications related to child birth.  This was only a couple of weeks after Ambrose was convicted of killing the pheasant.  A difficult time for the young family.

By 1804, Ambrose Rideout left Dorset for Wootton in Bedfordshire, where a newspaper lists him as a game keeper.  As far as I can tell, he left his sons behind.  James and Philip were both convicted of poaching in 1820, still living in Dorset.  While in Wootton, Ambrose had a son, another Ambrose, with Ann Davis, baptised in Jul 1805.  Ambrose Rideout didn’t stay in Wootton for long.  I don’t yet know what happened to Ann and Ambrose Davis. 

In 1806 Ambrose was living in Great Bookham, Surrey, with Sarah Perry.  Ambrose Rideout and Sarah’s first child, Charlotte (named for his late wife? Or a Princess?) was baptised there in February 1807.  Ambrose and Sarah were married 2 March 1811, at St George Hannover Square, London. Between 1807 and 1824, Ambrose and Sarah had 9 children that I know of, and lived in Sussex, Buckingham, Northamptonshire, Kent, Hertfordshire and Norfolk.  I have been able to trace their movements through newspaper records of game keeping licences and thanks to baptism records that include the mother’s maiden name.  I have no records of Sarah after 1824.  By 1826, Ambrose, with or without Sarah, was living in London.  Sadly, his two youngest sons, William and Cornelius, died and were buried at Mile End Old Town, London, in February 1826.

The next record I have of Ambrose Rideout is his marriage 25 Jul 1837 to a widow, Mary Amour nee Maslin, in Bethnel Green, London.  In 1836, England introduced civil registration, so I have a copy of their marriage certificate that includes details such as Ambrose’s father’s name and occupation.  At this time, Ambrose was working as a shop keeper.  They had a daughter, Sarah, born in 1838 and may have had another child before April 1841.  The 1841 Census lists an unnamed baby boy living in their household.  Then, Ambrose was working as a fruit seller.

On 19 January 1842, Ambrose Rideout, of 16 Redmans Row, Stepney, died from lung disease; an all too common fate for my ancestors.  On the death certificate, he is once again described as a game keeper.  He was buried a few days later at Wycliffe Congregational Church.

So why do I describe him as a charming scoundrel?  Well, he was certainly a scoundrel with his criminal records and having at least 16 children by four women.  As for charming, he was twice able to get out of serving full prison terms and, again, four women and lots of children.  It wouldn’t surprise me if I found more criminal records or children scattered around England for Ambrose as more records are indexed and so more easily searchable.

Notes:

*There are a number of variations of Rideout plus it is sometimes miss-transcribed in indexes.  In earlier records, Rideout and Ridout seemed to be used interchangeably, but I have also found Rydout, Ridoubt, Riddout and other variations. I use Rideout because it is the spelling favoured by more recent ancestors.

**Another Ambrose Rideout, of Manston in Dorset, was transported to Tasmania in 1803.  Some care is needed when checking the records to make sure the correct man has been identified.

Notes on lineage: Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > John Henry Smith > Louisa Jane Jenkins > Caroline Rideout > James Rideout > Ambrose Rideout

An Unusual Name

Many years ago, when I first discovered my ancestors Ethelbert John Buss and his daughter Elfrida Mary Buss, I was very surprised by their unusual names.

Ethelbert John Buss was born in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, the son of James Buss and Anne Hill, on 15 January 1802.  Unlike most of his siblings, Ethelbert John was baptised as an infant, in August 1802, in Bury.

When he was about 10 years old, Ethelbert John’s family returned to London.  His parents had moved from London to Suffolk around 1800.

While Ethelbert John Buss should be quite a unique name to research, it seems that Ethelbert used his middle name and he appears in some records as John Buss.  Ethelbert had a brother John (John Gowing Buss), so I wonder if this caused any confusion in the family?  Another layer of confusion is that Buss is often miss-transcribed, often appearing in indexes as Bass, but also with other misspellings.

By trade, Ethelbert John was a bookbinder. I have not found him in lists of bookbinders from the 19^th Century so I assume he worked for someone else.  The 1841 census says J bookbinder (I think), so my guess is that he was a journeyman rather than a master.  One possibility that needs further investigation is whether he worked for George Buss, who was a bookbinder in London at the right time.  I don’t know of a connection but the shared surname is intriguing and Buss is not a common surname.

At the age of twenty, Ethelbert married a young widow, Elizabeth Austin Hart nee Bell (aged about 22).  They were married on 3 July 1822, in Christ Church, Southwark, which was destroyed in the Blitz in 1941.

Elizabeth had a son from her first marriage.  Ethelbert John and Elizabeth had at least seven more children.  Like his father, Ethelbert was somewhat slack when it came to baptising his children.  Ethelbert also followed his father’s approach to naming children and went for the unusual, including another Ethelbert John, Letitia, Charlotte Mathilda and Clara Julia.

The family lived in the East End of London around Bishopsgate.  In 1851, they lived at 27 Skinner Street, just across a park from the London Metropolitan Archives; convenient for a family history visit.

Ethelbert John did not live to an advanced age, dying in July 1857.  He was buried in Victoria Park Cemetery, which is now Meath Gardens, a park in Tower Hamlets, London; another place to add to my family history visit list.

Note on Lineage: Me > Dad > John Edward Blake > Alice Mary Elliston > George Elliston > Elfrida Mary Buss > Ethelbert John Buss

A Suffolk Farmer

On a recent visit to the record office in Bury St Edmunds (a lovely town), I was able to look at and even hold Robert Mumford’s will, which was written in 1779.  Being a records manager, as well as a family historian, this was a very exciting moment – it is rare to get access to originals when so many documents have been filmed or scanned.  As a bonus, the will was very informative.

Robert Mumford was born around 1733 and was baptised 22 April 1733, in the parish church of Edwardstone in Suffolk, England.  He was the second son of George Mumford and his wife Catherine (nee Collins).  Robert was one of eight children, two of whom died in infancy; a typical family of the time.

I don’t know any more about Robert Mumford’s childhood, although my guess is that he had a good relationship with his three brothers, George, John and William.  I think Robert’s father George Mumford died in 1759 and was buried 27 January 1759, in Groton, which is a neighbouring parish of Edwardstone.

On 19 October 1759, Robert Mumford married Ann Sparrow by licence at Edwardstone parish church.  The witnesses were his older brother, George Mumford, and Richard Wright.

Robert and Ann had four children, Ann, Susannah (my ancestor, also known as Susan), Robert and Mary.  All four were baptised in Great Waldingfield.  Sadly, wife Ann died in August 1771 some months after their youngest child, Mary, was born.  Robert’s mother, Catherine, also died in 1771, so it must have been a difficult time for the family.

Robert Mumford was a farmer.  He acquire by means currently unknown to me, land in Whelnathan and a property called Sandfords in Great Waldingfield, both in Suffolk.

In January 1776, Robert Mumford married for a second time, to a widow, Elizabeth Lugar, of Acton Hall.  Unfortunately, this marriage didn’t last long as Robert died, aged only 48, in January 1781.

Oddly, Robert Mumford was buried with his first wife, Ann, rather than with his second wife.

Robert’s children were all minors when he died, so his property was left in trust to them.  His will names his brothers, a brother-in-law, Thomas Frost, and one John Brewster, who was a connection of Elizabeth Lugar.  Perhaps in a move that would seem unfair to modern sensibilities, Robert’s property included Acton Hall, his second wife’s house.  It was left to his son Robert, along with £200.  Altogether, Robert Mumford’s property was valued at around £300 – quite an impressive sum in 1781.

Another Robert Mumford of a similar age lived in the same part of Suffolk.  Until I had read Roberts’s will, with its list of relatives, I wasn’t certain which Robert was my ancestor.  I was very pleased to be able to solve this mystery.

Notes on Lineage: Me > Mum > Daphne Madge Smith > Esther Ilma Lees > Fanny Sarah Eliza Briggs > Henry Sparrow Briggs > Susannah Mumford > Robert Mumford

The Diary – Part 1

Back when I was a teenager and first started researching my family history, Pop, my paternal grandfather, told me about the Blake “Diary”.  This diary had been written by his grandfather, James Jesse Blake, and was passed down to the oldest Blake male in each generation.  It was then (and still is) in the possession of a cousin.  I was soon able to get a copy of the diary and my father transcribed it, so I have an electronic version.

 

The document is not actually a diary.  It is an autobiography called “An Epitome of My Life”, written by James Jesse Blake, probably when he was bout 70.  I subsequently discovered that he wrote copies for at least two of his children, James William Blake (my great grandfather) and Elizabeth Ann Flanagan nee Blake.

As a teenager, I didn’t fully appreciate how fortunate I was to have this document.  It is truly amazing to have the detailed story of my ancestor’s life and life in general in the East End of London in the second half of the nineteenth century, when so many who lived there would have been illiterate.  James Jesse Blake also recorded his personal philosophy and justification of decisions he made.  I suspect it might be the later that led him to writing the story; there were things that he wanted to explain to his children.  I will cover the details of James’ life in another blog post.

Apart from having my ancestor’s life story, I also have a document that contains some good lessons for all family historians. 

There are factual errors in the story, events where James’ memory differs from official documents.  He recorded the time of day his wife, Eliza Blake nee Todd, died but got the year wrong, recording it as 1890 instead of 1891 as per the death certificate.  Another puzzle is that one of his children seems to have died twice in the story.  Several close family members died within a few years of each other, so perhaps it is not surprising the details got a bit jumbled in his mind years later.  It is good to keep in mind that family stories might not always be accurate.

At one point in the diary, there is an intriguing clue.  In referring to his grandmother, James wrote Mrs Gilbert, crossed it out and then wrote Mrs Blake.  How could he get his beloved grandmother’s name wrong?  Well, the answer is, he didn't!  At one point she was almost certainly Mrs Blake, although I am yet to find a marriage record.  She later married John Gilbert, a ships caulker, and had been widowed twice by the time she became a grandmother.  Searching for Elizabeth Gilbert instead of Elizabeth Blake filled in some gaps in my family history.  Also, for some reason, James Jesse Blake is recorded in the 1871 census as James Jesse Gilbert.  What at first appeared to be a mistake turned out to be valuable information.

James Jesse Blake had a life full of adventures that don’t show up in the official records.  He had a habit of falling into rivers and canals, including an accidental dip in the Thames on a foggy January day.  He was rescued by a Swedish sailor who later tried (and failed) to convince him to migrate to Queensland.  On other occasion, he found himself caught in a Canadian snow storm.  This makes me wonder what happened to my other ancestor that I may never be able to find out about.  However, I hope that through writing this blog I can put a bit of flesh on the names and dates that form the bones of my family’s history.

Notes on lineage: me > Dad > John Edward Blake > James William Blake > James Jesse Blake

The photo is of James Jesse Blake.

A Very Kind Soul

James Jesse Blake, my great great Grandfather, said of his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Todd nee Macro:

I liked her very much then, and still think her to be a very kind Soul. I regretted her death (and she outlived my wife) very much, quite as much as the loss of my own mother. She was a good woman, was Mrs Todd, my mother in Law.

How I know he said this will be the subject of another post.

So who was Elizabeth Macro?

Betsey Macro (AKA Elizabeth) was baptised at the parish church of Denham near Bury in Suffolk on 27 Aug 1820.  She was the fourth of five children of Charles Macro and Ann Ashman.  Charles also had a daughter from a previous marriage and Ann had lost an illegitimate infant not long before she married Charles.  So they were a blended family who had experienced some tragedy. 

Just to make things a little confusing, there are two Denhams in Suffolk.  The Macro family lived in the hamlet of Dunstall Green near the Denham that is near Bury St Edmunds and not the one near Eye.  The area was, and is, farmland.

Elizabeth Macro fell pregnant to a Thomas Smith in 1839, possibly a scandal in a small village where everyone would have known everyone.  At the end of that year, their daughter Emma Macro was born.  Emma grew up in her mother’s family and was well known to her brother-in-law, James Jesse Blake as Mrs Ginn.  As for Thomas Smith, in the 1841 Census, there is a Thomas Smith living in Denham who was a married young man with two very young children – he seems to be the most likely candidate.

In 1841, Elizabeth Macro and young Emma were living with Charles and Ann.  Charles was working as an agricultural labourer.  Listed on the same census page, as few houses away, was one James Todd, also an agricultural labourer.

Agricultural labourers did seasonal work on farms.  It is likely that all of Elizabeth’s family did this work, not just her father.  Children could be employed from a very young age doing things like collecting twigs for kindling.  It wasn’t an easy life.

Elizabeth Macro married James Todd on 11 February 1843, in the parish church in Denham.   Their first child, William, was born in August that year.  I will leave the reader to do the maths… James and Elizabeth had seven more children, the last born in 1861: Ann, Eliza (my ancestor), James, Arthur, Selina, Charles and Albert, who all survived to adulthood.  I am not aware of any children who died and at a time when it was normal to loose children, Elizabeth and James did well to successfully raised nine.  While Elizabeth and her family continued to live in Dunstall Green, they changed to attending the church in the neighbouring parish of Dalham.  Eliza and all of the younger children were baptised there. 

Sadly, the 1851 census is missing for this area, which has left a frustrating gap in the history.

In 1861, all of the Todd family were living together in Dunstall Green, according to the census.  The 1860’s was a tumultuous time for Elizabeth and her family.  Her husband, James, died in 1866 and daughter Ann died in 1868.  By the time of the 1871 census, only Charles and Albert were living at home with their mother.  Emma and Eliza had both moved to London, and Selina to Newmarket, to work as servants.  William and James had moved to Horningsea near Cambridge, while Arthur may have been living elsewhere and suffering from small pox.  It must have been a hard time for the family. 

Another ten year later, in 1881, Elizabeth was once again surrounded by her family and four of her children were married.  The census lists four sons and three grandchildren living with her.  The grandchildren included Elizabeth Blake, daughter of James Jesse Blake, who was born deaf.  Perhaps her helping with a difficult child was one of the reasons why James thought a lot of his mother-in-law.  James noted that during his marriage, his family often went to Dunstall Green to spend Christmas with his wife’s family.  I wonder if it was anything like the current Blake family’s Christmas gatherings; I hope so.  I like to imagine Elizabeth as the beloved matriarch surrounded by her many children and grandchildren.

Elizabeth Todd nee Marco died in 1895.

 

NOTE on lineage: Me > Dad > John Edward Blake > James William Blake > Eliza Todd > Elizabeth Macro