Sophia and Thomas Berry

In the ’41 Census, Sophia and Thomas were living in a cottage at the lower end of Nibley Green, with their parents and elder brother, William. It was rented from Daniel Deane, a local farmer and is plot number 280 on the Tithe Map, circled in blue. Berkeley Cottage now stands on the site.

Their elder sisters, Mary Ann and Harriet, were working as a farm servants elsewhere in the parish. Two elder brothers had died young, one before he was 1, the other at the age of 3.

Thomas, an agricultural labourer, couldn’t afford the Vestry Rate in 1837 and 1838, or the Highway Rate in 1838.

In ’51, Harriet appears as a servant to a household in Marylebone, London, and, a year later, she married James Fenton. Sophia followed her to London, and, in ’61, is recorded as a servant in the household of Henry Lancaster, a Navy Commander on half pay, living in Paddington. In the same house was Maria Clay, another servant, 9 years older than Sophia.

The two women lived the rest of their lives together. They ran a Fancy Shop on Lower Vale Place in 1871. The road had disappeared by the 1890s, was was adjacent to the Hammersmith Road, near Regents Park. Touchingly, in the ’81 Census, Sophia is recorded as Maria’s friend. In ’01, they had relocated to St Marks Rd, Notting Hill.

Maria died in August 1916, and Sophia followed her a year later in December 1916.

They were buried together in Brompton cemetery. In the same plot was Sophia’s sister Harriet, who had died in 1888, and Harriet’s husband James, who had died in the Workhouse in 1904.

Thomas also seems to have had a varied life. He married Ellen Hayward in Gloucester, when he was 27, recording his occupation as gardener. In ’61 he was an innkeeper with his wife at the Mitre Inn in Wotton under Edge, and, in ’71, returns to being a gardener, living with Ellen and two of his daughters in Pembroke.

The Mitre Inn – then Mitre Cottage – just before demolition. With thanks to Nigel Mills.

When he died in 1879, he was recorded as being a farmer, and left less than £50.