18.7 4xgreat grandaunt Mary Sporne: Shopkeeper’s wife

My 5xgreat grandparents Thomas Sporne and his wife Mary Beck married in 1796 and had eight children, including my 4xgreat grandmother Margaret Sporne (b1799) in Norfolk. 

Their third daughter and sixth child was Mary Sporne, who was baptised at Burnham Norton on 5 February 1809. She was 18 when her father Thomas Sporne died in 1827. Three years later, she married James Gant, on 8 April 1830, at Burnham Sutton. Both were single and ‘of this parish’.

A Thomas Gant was baptised at Burnham Sutton in 1830, son of James and Mary, and two years later, the same couple baptised another son, William. The father is described as a Horsebreaker. It seems that young Thomas died in infancy, as they baptised son Thomas Sporne Gant in 1838 – his father again described as a horsebreaker. By the time of the 1841 census, the couple is living at Burnham Sutton, where James is still working as a horsebreaker (The Genealogist):

They have three surviving children at home; they had two more daughters, Ann Sarah and Louisa, in 1843 and 1846 respectively. They are all still at home with their parents by the 1851 census, living at ‘Road near the Church’ in Burnham. James has changed occupation, now being described as a Grocer. Ten years later he is a ‘Tobacco Dealer’, and in 1871, a Shopkeeper. On his daughter Ann’s marriage certificate of 1881, he is described as a Boot Maker.

James Gant died aged 71, and was buried at Burnham Sutton on 5 February 1876.

The Lynn Advertiser of 12 August 1876 carried a notice of the sale of a ‘Dwelling House and Shop’ in Burnham Ulph cum Sutton ‘in the occupation of James Gant’:

The widowed Mary seems to have left Norfolk after her husband’s death to move to London, where most of her children were already living. By the 1881 census she is living (or visiting) with her daughter Anne and her husband George Wright, a Hackney Cab driver, and their family, in Islington. 

It is possible that she returned to Norfolk, as there is a death index entry for the October quarter of 1890, in Mitford, Norfolk, for Mary Gant, aged 81.

The children of Mary Sporne and James Gant

I have not found any records for their second son, William Gant, born in 1832, after the 1851 census, when he is 19 and ‘at home’ with his parents.

Harriet Gant and Edmonds Matsell – beer sellers on the wrong side of the law

Daughter Harriet Gant, born in 1835, married the unusually named widower Edmonds (also Edmond) Matsell in 1865 in Burnham Sutton. By the time of the 1871 census, they are resident at The Prince of Wales public house in Burnham Westgate, where Edmonds is described as a Coal Dealer and Beer Seller. They have three children aged 22 months-four years. An Adelaide Gant, aged 13, is also described as ‘daughter’ and is presumably Harriet’s illegitimate child, born when she was about 23. Her husband is some ten years older than her. Norfolk Public Houses website records that Edmonds Matsell was licensee at the Prince of Wales between 1864 and 1872. In 1864, the site notes that he was “found guilty of drawing beer during the hours of divine service and was fined 2s 6d and 12s 6d costs”. Interestingly, he was declared bankrupt – as Beer Seller of Burnham - in 1867 (London Gazette) and FindMyPast has a report of Petty Sessions (Norfolk News, 5 Feb 1870) where Emonds Matsell, amongst others, was fined for selling beer in ‘deficient’ measures:

Two of the defendents were ‘represented’ by their wives – ie they stood in the dock in place of their husbands. Whether one of these was Harriet Gant or not is not clear, but Edmonds seems to be – if not a hardened criminal – someone who is not averse to breaking the law. It is likely they found it hard to make ends meet.

It seems that these weren’t his first brush with the law; Ancestry also has a record of him being sentenced to three months hard labour after being found guilty of perjury on 13 December 1855.

His first wife, Mary Ann (Sharpe), was sentenced to one month. FindMyPast has a clipping from the Norwich Mercury of 31 October 1855 which gives the background to their conviction:

They are accused of lying to the court about seeing a man charged with poaching to help him avoid conviction but were themselves charged with perjury and, unable to raise bail, were taken off to jail at Walsingham. They were subsequently convicted and sent to prison. At the time, Edmond was a small farmer at Stanhoe.

At the time of the 1881 census, the family has moved to Middlesborough, where Harriet is a Midwife, and Edmonds is a Hairdresser – rather a move from beer selling, but perhaps his former brushes with the law caught up with him, prompting the move and change of career. He died in 1901; in the 1911 census, Harriet is still living in Middlesborough, aged 78, described as ‘Grandma’ to head of household Francis Crinion and his wife Harriet. She died in 1912.

Thomas Sporne Gant and Isabella Wright: From Fishmonger to Cab Proprietor

Thomas Sporne Gant, named after his mother’s father, was born in 1834 and moved to London between the 1851 census and 1865, when he married widow Isabella Webb at St Marylebone. She was daughter of John Wright, Horsedealer, while Thomas is described as a Fishmonger. There is a Thomas Gant of the right age, born in Burnham Sutton, living at The Apollo pub in Paddington and working as an Under Barman, which might possibly be him. He is still a Fishmonger at the time of the 1871 census, but ten years later he is described as a Cab Proprietor and living in Kensington. In 1901 he is a Cab Proprietor and Groom. His wife Isabella died in 1895, and he followed her to the grave in 1902.

Anne Sarah Gant and George Wright: Wife of Cab Proprietor

Anne Sarah Gant was born in 1843 and married Cab Driver George Wright in London in 1864. George was the son of John Wright, a Horse Dealer and it is likely that he was the brother of the widow Isabella Webb, née Wright, who married Anne’s brother Thomas a year later. By the time of the 1881 census they have moved from Grays Inn Road (where they were living in 1871) to Islington, where George is described as a Hackney Carriage Driver. They have six children, and Anne’s widowed mother Mary is living with them. Anne died in 1890.

Louisa Gant and Edward Waller: missing husband, early death in the Islington workhouse

The youngest child of Mary Sporne and James Gant was Louisa, born in 1846. It seems she had a hard life after marrying Edward Waller, a Painter, in Burnham in 1865. By the 1871 census she is living with her parents, shown as married, aged 25, with two young children. There is no sign of her husband, although there is an Edward Waller, Painter, lodging in Dersingham. He gives his age as 24 (b1847) and birthplace East Rudham, Norfolk. He presumably returned to Louisa between 1871 and 1881 as their third child, a female, unnamed at the time of registration of birth, was born at the end of 1879. In the 1881 census, she is still living in Burnham, but shown as widowed. I have not found a death or burial record for Edward Waller, and although there are several criminal records at FindMyPast for people named Edward Waller, none is around the time that he seems to disappear from Louisa’s life and subsequent censuses. There are no obvious emigration records for him either.

Louisa’s three children are Harriet, Edward Arthur and Anne (six months). Could Anne be the female child registered at the end of 1879? It seems unlikely, so perhaps that baby died and another was born, although I have not found any later birth registration with mother’s maiden name Gant. Louisa is described as a Hawker – otherwise known as a peddler, someone who sold easily carried goods and often living on very tight margins. The Lynn News & County Press at FindMyPast carried a brief report of the School Board at Burnham, Norfolk, on 4 June 1881, where Louisa Waller is ordered to be warned in respect of the ‘state and non-attendance of her son’. This is presumably Edward Arthur, then aged 11. After losing her husband – through death or abandonment – Louisa seems to be finding it difficult to cope with three children on her own; her siblings have by then all moved either to London or elsewhere in the country, and her mother is living with her married sister Anne Wright in Islington.

 

 

 

 
Perhaps Louisa decided to join her mother and siblings in London. Later in 1881, there is a record at Ancestry for the discharge - on 20 August - of Louisa Waller, a Tramp, and her children Harriet, 13, Edward, 11 and Ann, 1 from the Lewisham Workhouse in London. Just over a month later, Louisa, daughter Harriet and son Arthur are admitted to Islington Workhouse Infirmary. Her occupation is now given as Charwoman. There is no sign of the youngest child, Ann. Louisa was admitted to the Islington Workhouse Infirmary again in January 1883 and again on 28 March 1883, both times on her own. Her death in the institution was recorded on 13 June that year and Deceased Online has a record of her burial at St Mary, Islington, on 18 June, her residence shown as Islington Workhouse.

Her daughter Harriet Gant Waller was about 17 when her mother died in the Islington Workhouse. She married aged 18 in London to Edward Amos Giddy, a Bricklayer’s Labourer. In later censuses she is described as ‘Wardrobe Dealer’, and in the Restaurant business, or Restaurant Proprietor. She and Amos had five children. The youngest, Arthur William Harold Giddy, b1896, joined up in 1916, aged 20. He was a Motor Mechanic and joined the Army Service Corps. He died on 17 August 1917 in Lahana, Greece during the Thessaloniki Campaign, his death the result of disease (intestinal obstruction) rather than direct enemy action. Edward and Harriet lived long lives and died in 1947 and 1948 respectively, both leaving wills, the administration of which was granted in both cases to Francis Albert Giddy, Café Proprietor. Louisa Gant’s son Edward Arthur Waller was born around 1870, and is listed with his mother and sister in workhouse records for 1881, where he is known as Arthur. I haven’t found any further obvious records for him, although there are several other records for an Arthur Waller of around the right age in Islington Workhouse 1882-1883. 

For the sources mentioned in bold, see blogpost: MyRoots: Lesly's family history: Sources and resources: A quick view