Hi again, Sylvia,
And thanks so much for all this information. I've only this morning received by e-mail from Australia from (hopefully) descendants of this family that a Lucy wrote a letter saying she was a younger (and only) sister of Vernon Mary Ann HART, remembering that her elder sister went to Australia with her husband of 1846, John NOTT, and she didn't see her for another 35 years.
These facts exactly tally with what we know so far about the family...
I think the Joseph HART here is possibly the man who married an Elizabeth GOODE in Hereford in 1821, and who may be the individual who was baptised in Longhope, Gloucs, in 1779, parents Anth. and Ann HART.
So, seem to be getting somewhere at last. I don't suppose there might be an 1869 gravestone in a churchyard or cemetery in Abergavenny bearing Joseph HART's (aged 93) name. I'm certainly going to see whether he left a will, and if so, send away to York for it...
But very interested to read all the details about what kind of place Abergavenny was in the early Victorian era, many thanks for those links,
keith
p.s Does Tudor Street still exist, by the way, anyone with local knowledge?
p.p.s. This Lucy HART became a Mrs JENKINS, I think, sometime after 1861 - any local marriages that would fit the clues?