Help with the Sewell family

[Betty.W]

Sorry for the delay in replying, I have been reading and rereading everything that you all have sent.This has all been very helpful in confirming a lot of the information that I have.(the marriages of Martha Annie/Annie Martha,Alice,Annie/Annette, Sarah and of course Harriet who was my grandmother.
Not sure about the death of William James Sewell, there is also a death recorded in 1916 - Shoreditch.but again the age is wrong.
Given that the girls didn't seem to stick with one name, I am wondering whether Annie (born 1887) had another name as well. Goodness knows where she was in 1891, perhaps they forgot to put her on the census or maybe she was in hospital or staying with someone !! I know that she did marry and that her husband died when the Titanic sank. I have spoken to my one remaining aunt and she says that she only knew Annie as Annie and remembers my grandmother going to visit Annie in a mental hospital in Surrey which was where she went after the loss of her husband, I suspect that she was suffering from severe depression although back then it was said that she had lost her mind. I guess that I will have to look through all the Sewell births for that time to see if anything likely turns up, then look for possible marriages and checking against the Titanic victims.
Thanks for the help given.
Betty

[avm228]

Given that the girls didn't seem to stick with one name, I am wondering whether Annie (born 1887) had another name as well. Goodness knows where she was in 1891, perhaps they forgot to put her on the census or maybe she was in hospital or staying with someone !! I know that she did marry and that her husband died when the Titanic sank.

The trouble with so many of them using Annie (or variants) at different times is that it makes it hard to know which was the unlucky Titanic widow.

It definitely wasn't Annie Martha/Martha Annie, who appears with her husband Frederick Buckthorpe in electoral rolls through the 1930s.

Annie c1887 presents the difficulty which you pointed out earlier: a process of elimination suggests that if one of Ann's children died pre-1911, it must have been her.

So might the Titanic widow have been Ann/Annie/Annette, born 1878?

[carol8353]

The 1879 born Annie Sewell was the one who married Thomas Murray on 13th June 1897 when they were both 18.

Her father is listed as William Sewell a bookseller.

Is there a Thomas Murray on the TItanic?

[ShaunJ]

Biographical info on Titanic casualties http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/titanic-victims/

[Betty.W]

No Thomas Murray on the Titanic list, not that I have found anyway.

[avm228]

Not sure about the death of William James Sewell, there is also a death recorded in 1916 - Shoreditch.but again the age is wrong.

You're right, and I wondered about the Shoreditch death both because it includes the middle name and because his daughter Martha Annie Buckthorpe lived in Shoreditch.

However there are factors in favour of the Islington death too, most particularly the possibility that he died in the Holborn workhouse infirmary which fell in Islington registration district.

Obviously you'd need a certificate to be sure.

[carol8353]

I can't find Thomas and Annie Murray together in 1901 or later come to that.

But I think his dad James is in the workhouse in 1901 and here's the family in 1891.
At 10 Francis Court Clerkenwell.

James Murray head 34 newsvendor b Holborn
Elizabeth Murray wife 32 b Somerstown
Thomas Murray son 12 scholar b Clerkenwell
David Murray son 3 b Clerkenwell

Ann Watts widow charwoman b London

RG12/223 Folio 49 Page 6

[avm228]

Snippets of information on the children (including birthdates) appear from their school admission registers:

Laystall Street School*

Sarah Sewell born 10 July 1886. Admitted 14 June 1899. Father William Sewell of 211 Gray's Inn Rd. Previously at Hugh Myddleton (Spec) at which she completed Standard III.

Harriet Sewell born 12 Sept 1889. Admitted 14 June 1899. Father William Sewell of 211 Gray's Inn Rd. Previously at Hugh Myddleton (Spec) at which she completed Standard II.

Charles Sewell born 4 March 1893. Admitted 14 June 1899. Father William Sewell of 211 Gray's Inn Rd. No previous school.

Charles Sewell born 4 March 1893. Readmitted 28 Jan 1901.  Father William Sewell of 211 Gray's Inn Rd. Previously at Rosebery Avenue Infants'. Left 22 May 1902 "to Industrial St".

*Laystall St School is now Christopher Hatton Primary: see www.chrishatton.camden.sch.uk
and www.flickr.com/photos/14008620@N03/5977976185/in/photostream.

[avm228]

I must say I am increasingly wondering whether Annie c1887 ever existed, or whether in fact there was a transposition error on the 1901 census as between the ages of Ann(ette) b 1878 and Sarah b 1886.

It seems clear from both the school record and the post-1901 evidence (census, marriage) that Sarah would have been 14 when the 1901 census was taken.

Ann(ette) born Dec qtr 1878 would have been 22, so if the ages were transposed then 20 was not miles out for her.