Caroline and Mary Payne

Caroline (1838-1906)

Mary (1839-1882)

Published with the kind permission of Geoff Gwatkin

In the 1841 Census, William and Mary Payne were living house number 41 in the map above, rented from Charles Cogswell. It is now part of 24 Barrs Lane. William was a tailor, and there were five children in the household – Harriet, and Joshua Hewlett, aged 15 and 12, Jane, aged 11, Caroline Lavinia, aged 4 and Mary (also known as Marinetta), aged 2. Next door was their eldest daughter, Mary, a dressmaker, aged 20.

William’s wife Mary died in July 1841, but this was only one incident in a row of calamities that faced the poor man.

His father had died in 1822 and left 2 properties in North Nibley to his wife Ann, until her remarriage or death. After her death, they were to be shared between their 3 children, James, Harriet and William. Their mother, Ann, had died in 1837. In her will, she left not only her two properties in North Nibley (one of which was occupied by William) to William’s brother but also the money owed to her by William and his brother in law.

In 1842, William was declared bankrupt. In the Gloucester Chronicle of that year, his occupations were listed as ‘first tailor, shopkeeper, then tailor, shopkeeper and retailer of beer, and post-office keeper; then tailor, shopkeeper, baker and post office keeper; and late tailor and post office keeper.’ Perhaps these were are expression of a desperate need to keep financially afloat.

In the 1851 Census, William (now a master tailor) was living in Nibley with Caroline and Mary (now Marinetta). Their brother Joshua Hewlett had moved to Blackburn, Lancashire, and their sisters had left home – Jane to work as a servant in Bristol, and Harriet to work as a schoolmistress in Hampshire.

William died in 1877, aged 76, and was buried in the churchyard of St Mary’s. Wotton under Edge.

In 1861, Marinetta was, like her brother, living in Blackburn, lodging with a family and working as a bootbinder. Ten years later, she was living alone, employed as a dressmaker and milliner. In 1881, she was living with her brother, who was now a farmer of 17 acres, and his wife, in Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire. She died a year later, aged 43, and was buried at Emmanuel Chapel, Oswaldtwistle.

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Caroline was a servant in Nutfield, Surrey, in the 1861 Census.

Then, in 1865, she married Robert Monteith, a manufacturer, in Edinburgh. They lived in Tillycoultry, Clackmannanshire and had 4 children. Robert died in 1874. Caroline died in 1906, aged 68, and has a magnificent tombstone in Tillicoultry churchyard. In common with many Scots tombstones, her maiden name is included. Also, the Payne name was part of her two eldest sons’ name – William Sidney Payne and Robert Alfred Payne Monteath.