#52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 10: 'Strong Women'

Week 10 Prompt: 'Strong Women'

Mary Ann WALL was one of my GGGrandmothers on my mother’s side and I believe was a strong woman. 

She married Esau PALMER on 01 June 1841 at the Ross Baptist Chapel. Mary Ann was 28 and Esau 34 - so an older couple for those days.  They are found on Census night 06 June 1841, at The Hill Hotel in Bakewell, possibly on their honeymoon.       It was not unusual for wealthier couples to take a "bridal tour", sometimes also accompanied by friends or family, to visit relatives who had not been able to attend the wedding. (Wikipedia)  I do  not know if this was the case for Mary Ann and Esau but I would like to think that they had a nice break before the busy and sad times ahead.

Esau was a tin man/brazier and worked in his father-in-law’s ironmongery business and warehouse, which he later ran.  

Mary Ann and her family were devout Christians belonging to the Baptist Church. 

They lived in 37 Broad St (the main street) Ross on Wye, above their ironmongery.  

They had nine children in ten years, and I wonder if something happened that there is a gap in 1848 !  

When Esau died on 3rd January 1857 from dropsy, Mary Ann was 44 years old and she became the Ironmonger taking over the ironworks.

At the time their oldest child Mary Sophia was 15 years old and the youngest Herbert William only six.

Notice in local paper. 10 Feb 1857

Mary Ann only lived until 6th April 1862, five years longer than Esau - but I think those years would have been very tough or her.  Bringing up all her children by herself,  living and working in a man’s world in those days and towards the end being in pain from her illness.

Mary Ann wrote out in her neat handwriting, a three page Will on 10th February, two months before she died suffering from cancer. This ensured that, on the youngest child attaining the age of 21, all children would reap equal benefits from her business and assets and that in the meanwhile, they had the family home to live in and were assisted through apprenticeships, where chosen. 

Broad Street, Ross on Wye

The Ironmongery was on the left where the street kinks out.

(Photos courtesy of Kath Gillespie)