Please help me find Martha Locke!

[AbbieRose]

Hi everyone,

You all helped me with this previously a few months ago. Martha Locke is a distant direct relative of mine whom was quite a mysterious person. She claimed her only child, Ellen, was an illegitimate child of a 'Lord Ashton' whom she was a servant for.
This story went down for many years and I set out to prove once and for all whether it was true, or simply words of a woman fantasizing.

With a lot of assistance from you lovely members of Roots Chat, we discovered that she was indeed a servant for a number of years, including in the 1891 census. One of you found an article from 1892 of her being in a carriage incident with the same family she worked for in the 1891 census. She then appears to have moved on. Another article we believe relating to her shows a Martha Locke/Lock who was arrested for stealing clothes from a family she was a servant for in Manchester.

After that, she completely disappears until the 1901 census, where she is found in a workhouse in her homeland, Worcestershire. There she resides with a baby, Ellen.

What we know beyond that is she married a man with the surname Nash and he took Ellen on as his own, but Martha always told her about how her real father was a Lord Ashton who sent her to the workhouse.

Now, I found it interesting that she was sent to a Worcestershire-located workhouse rather than Manchester as I would have thought her employers would have sent her to the nearest one to have her illegitimate child. This made us consider that perhaps the reason she was sent so far away was because the child was indeed that of a lord's child. However, we have no proof of this.

I know that there was a Thomas Gair Ashton that was located in Manchester at one point. Also, dare I say it, my grandfather looks VERY much like him. If this is to be true, Thomas Gair Ashton would have been his grandfather.

The problem is, I can't find Martha in between 1896 and 1901. I need some sort of proof she did indeed work for a 'Lord Ashton'. Someone suggested finding employment records underneath Thomas Gair Ashton, but I just don't know where to look.

Can any of you help me once more?

Thanks,
AbbieRose

[PaulineJ]

Previous posting to save  going over old ground.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=776068.msg6297046#msg6297046

[isobelw]

Wasn't it common practice for paupers to be the responsibility of their birth parish even if they resided elsewhere?  This may be the reason she ended up in the workhouse in Worcestershire.
Isobel

[AbbieRose]

Previous posting to save  going over old ground.

http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=776068.msg6297046#msg6297046

Thank you, I didn't know how to find the original post. If anyone wants to refer to this to see what we originally found out, please do!

[AbbieRose]

Wasn't it common practice for paupers to be the responsibility of their birth parish even if they resided elsewhere?  This may be the reason she ended up in the workhouse in Worcestershire.
Isobel

That's what I thought, but we found it was apparently common practice for employers to send them to the nearest workhouse so that they could return to the workplace afterwards. Not only was Martha sent very far away, but she never returned, which we found odd.

[AbbieRose]

To give a little context, I tried the following that people suggested with no results:

The National Archive
Local (Manchester) Researcher
Manchester Archives for Family Research

I don't know if there's anywhere else that may hold employment records for Thomas Gair Ashton or anyone that would know where to look to find who Martha's employer was between 1986 and 1901.

[Milliepede]

Would there be a biography of him about that might give details of where he was at what time - to put him and Martha together.

What date was Ellen born?

He has a son born in 1901. 

[isobelw]

Something is not quite right here. I believe your interest is in Martha Ellen Locke who married William Nash. In 1911 she is shown as born c1875 in Northfield, Worcestershire This lady is almost certainly the Martha Ellen Isabella Locke born in 1874 in Kings Norton and living with parents Charles and Elizabeth in Bromsgrove in 1881, place of birth Northfield.
Martha M Locke listed as a servant in 1891 is age 19 ( Ancestry say 14 and FindMyPast says 17 but looking at the image closely it is 19) and was born Wick, Worcestershire. She is almost certainly Martha Maria Locke born in Pershore ( which includes Wick) in 1872.
These appear to be two different people.
Isobel

[AbbieRose]

Would there be a biography of him about that might give details of where he was at what time - to put him and Martha together.

What date was Ellen born?

He has a son born in 1901.

Ellen was also born in 1901. I am sure I found a pdf document that placed him in the manchester area in a house that belonged to his family. His wife and children were located in London at the time on a census, but he was not listed there. This makes me question as to whether he remained in his family house, which I believe is now a school?