Mary Hammond my maternal Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother
is the longest living of all my direct ancestors that is fully documented
Mary was born in Yapton in 1770 the first child of Henry
Hammond (1748-1800 ) and Sarah Munnery (1748-1821 ) and was baptised at St Mary’s,
Yapton 10th June 1770. She had 6
siblings, 5 sisters and 1 brother
On 16th July 1799 she married John Kewell from Sidlesham
(1777-1811) at St Mary's Yapton. After
their marriage Mary moved to Sidlesham where they had 3 sons John (1803-1892)
Edmund (1806-1844 ) and Reuben (1808-1886 )
Mary was widowed in May 1811 after being married for just 12 years, her
children were still young, the oldest only being 8 and the youngest just 3
She never remarried but I cannot find any record of her in the
years after her husbands death, while her boys were growing up going to the
parish for help. The later census' show her as a charwoman, so can only surmise
that she worked charring to provide for her children
Records are scarce and the next records I can find for Mary are the census' of 1841
1851 & 1861
1841 shows Mary living in Yapton, there is very little
information shown on this early census,but cannot see any names I recognise around her.
By 1851 Mary is living in Westhampnett Workhouse aged 81 and is shown as working as a charwoman.
Ten years later on the 1861 census she is also showing as living in the workhouse, unfortunately I cannot find any records that show admissions to the Westhampnett Workhouse so don't know whether she spent all of the last ten years in the workhouse, in this 1861 census she is shown as a field worker, so by the look of it that at the age of 92 she is working in the local fields, as others on the same page of the census are shown as "incapable of work"
By 1851 Mary is living in Westhampnett Workhouse aged 81 and is shown as working as a charwoman.
Ten years later on the 1861 census she is also showing as living in the workhouse, unfortunately I cannot find any records that show admissions to the Westhampnett Workhouse so don't know whether she spent all of the last ten years in the workhouse, in this 1861 census she is shown as a field worker, so by the look of it that at the age of 92 she is working in the local fields, as others on the same page of the census are shown as "incapable of work"
What I do find
disturbing is that whoever completed that 1861 census had very little, if any
respect for the inmates only completing the forms with just these poor peoples
initials
After what must have been a very hard life Mary died in the
Westhampnett workhouse in 1865 at the ripe old age of 96
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