What Happened to Lucy?Copyright © 2004 by Victoria Rowe IntroductionNow this is what I think happened to Lucy and her son. In 1879, Lucy who was the second of five children, was living at home with her parents in Wolverhampton and she was probably the brightest academically of the five children as she became a school teacher. Not that I think teachers are bright but just thinking of the age in which she lived; her elder sister was a boarding-house keeper, her brothers were clerks. At the age of around 21/23 she became pregnant. I am absolutely convinced that the mans name was Powell and from what I was told he was quite well off. Anyway, I would like to think that my great grandmother was not so stupid to as to ruin her life for some lumbering, stupid peasant – so there! I imagine that all hell was let loose when her parents found out and I am pretty sure that they told her not to darken their doors again. Mr Powell turned out to be a real bastard. He didn't marry her, maybe he was already married – I just feel that he wasn't. The upshot of it all was that Lucy never lived at home again. She gave birth to her son on 22nd May 1880 at Chester Street, Brampton, Derbyshire. According to the birth certificate the father column was empty, mother was down as Lucy Emms, Schoolmistress and the informant was Lucy Emms, Mother of 37 Ablow Street, Wolverhampton on 31st July 1880 at Chesterfield Register Office. The name she entered for her son was Albert Edward Powell Emms. I am convinced that the reason she included the name Powell was because that was his fathers surname and I think that she was trying, in the only way open to her, to give her child an identity. 1881 CensusAlbert appeared on the 1881 census living with a family called Slack at Chatsworth Road, Brampton, Derbyshire :
She had brought shame on her family and also on herself so there was no way that she could return to the family home in Wolverhampton. She could not keep her son with her, she had to work to support him. After she had given birth to Albert, Lucy had obviously left him in the care of the Slack family in Brampton and she went to the Isle of Man where she got a teaching position at South Cap School. When he was 11 months old and he was with the Slack family, she was boarding with the Garrett family as follows (1881 Census):
I don't know what happened during the next ten years but I am convinced that Lucy made a decision that she must be closer to her son. She probably let a reasonable time elapse before she came back to the mainland but sometime between 1881 and 1891 she moved to Ashby St ledgers in Northamptonshire where she was appointed the school mistress. 1891 CensusIn 1891 Albert was still living with the Slack family as follows – 1891 census:
In the 1891 census Lucy is as follows:
(She was living alone, no house number but close to the Manor House) Perhaps she derived a lot of comfort knowing that her little boy was thriving and that at least she was a lot nearer to him. Whether she went to see him I do not know. It would have been a difficult journey for her to make – transport has changed a bit during the last 120 years! She must have sent money regularly to the Slack family, how she did that I haven't a clue. However, I think that around this time (1891) Lucy made a decision that she was going to have her son close to her, if not always, then at least occasionally because, sometime in the next ten years, she moved to Holme next Sea in Norfolk where she became the school mistress at the village school. She also made plans to bring her son back into the family fold. I don't know how she did it but she was successful Lucy Emms in Norfolk.I don't know when she moved to Norfolk but, remember I said that I had been told that he was "brought up by an aunt who was a school teacher in Lincoln/Norfolk" Albert must have been and stayed/visited with her for some time(s). So I think that sometime after 1891 she started to have regular contact with him. Someone taught him to play the piano and sing, the most likely person would have been his mother. He knew Gilbert & Sullivan, music and words, and could sight read music before he was married in 1905. I wonder how she felt when they sang G&S's HMS Pinafore:
Some time between 1891 and 1901, Albert went to board with his Aunt Sarah (Lucy's elder sister) in Wolverhampton. The only person who could have arranged that was his mother. 1901 CensusIn 1901 the census information is as follows: 16 Roseberry Street, Wolverhampton
Holme-next-Sea, Norfolk
You will see from the above census information that people changed their ages a little bit – it happened frequently. Birth and DeathThe reason I have doubts about when Lucy was born is because of the following records:
I guess you 'pays your money and takes your choice'. I do not know when or where or how Lucy died. Did Albert know whether Lucy was his mother or did he really believe that she was just an aunt? I think I know the answer to that, what do you think? Well, of course we will never actually ever find out. Anyway there are a couple of other little snippets which you may find of interest. ChanceryWhen my mother told me that her father had been born a bastard, she also told me that a case had been taken to chancery as there had been a lot of money at stake. Bearing in mind I was about 4/5 years old at the time, there is no way that my mother would have made such a comment just to shut me up. It was either true or she had been told that and believed it to be true. Assuming it was true then it would indicate that Mr Powell had died intestate and with no apparent heirs. In other words he was well off, unmarried, didn't recognise Albert as his true heir and presumably (sorry, pure conjecture here) would not marry Lucy because she was 'below' him. If ever any of you are sufficiently interested you could always check court records. If David or Christopher ever have to do a Project at school there's one for them. They certainly would learn a lot!! By the way, Lucy/Albert lost the case – no DNA then. Brampton 1881Brampton, where Albert was brought up as a small child, is on the Bakewell side of Chesterfield not many miles from where I live. I do not know how Lucy came to find a safe place for her child or why she chose to place him with the Slack family. But, the people who lived in my house for the previous 110 years were called Slack! Ashby St Ledgers 1891Ashby St Ledgers is a very English, lovely, tiny little village set in rural Northamptonshire. I know it well. The manor house is gorgeous and is currently being renovated – just in time, and the Church is wonderful; amazing paintings have been uncovered on the church walls. The manor house was the home of the Catesby family – Gunpowder Plot and all that. The reason I know it is because about 15 or so years ago, Kathleen and John Duggan moved there. Kathleen was Lucy's grand daughter. Kathleen most certainly had no idea that her grandmother had ever lived there. The village is so small that wherever it was that Lucy had lived, it could only have been a few doors away from where Kathleen and John lived. Life's little coincidences ?! And So....As a young woman with very little experience of the world, Lucy had been alienated and cast out from her family. Against the odds, she had delivered a healthy baby and found a safe home for him and then managed to get to know him as he grew up. She managed to create a career for herself and support her child without help from anyone. Then she had managed to get him back into her family from where he was able to meet and marry a woman 'of good background' despite the slur of bastardy. Remember, that was against the constraints of Victorian England. I think that Lucy must have been a quite remarkable, perhaps eventually, formidable woman.
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