Oh Valda, tears of joy are flowing at this moment. For so long my great, great grandmother, Rachel, has just been a name to me. Wow, this is amazing – thank you so much for finding her baptism/parents, some of her family and a new county or two to explore - I’m still trying to take it all in.
You’ve found the link to Rachel through the baptism entries for Mary Ann’s
Peach cousins. This is wonderful. I noticed that Rachel’s sister, Mary Vickers (married to John Peach) died aged 50 in 1834. Rachel and she were probably very close in age.
Then there is Jane, married to John Frier who is almost certainly another sister, hopefully, she lived long enough to appear on some censuses……and that also means that my great grandfather, William had a sister, Mary Ann, and cousins Thomas, Marianne and Edward.
Finally, there is baby John, born to Rachel, who died so young…. how sad.
The name Viccars et al, certainly has many variations. Rachel could not write - she signed her marriage register with her mark. The witnesses to her marriage to Benjamin in 1819 were James Viccars, who signed his name and James Taylor. Benjamin died in 1835, there is an MI for him in Charterhouse Chapel burials……. Benjamin Matthews, husband of Rachel Matthews, a housemaid to the Charterhouse, 58 years. In 1841 census, Rachel was enumerated as a retired house servant, living in Charterhouse, East London nbic. Maybe that was why 15 year old Mary Ann was living with Thomas in 1841. On William’s baptism entry, Benjamin’s occupation was housekeeper so it all ties in. Up until a few days ago this was all I knew about Benjamin and Rachel and now........
Thank you so much Valda, this is just perfect.
Hugs,
Margaret
