The Making of Bessie Irene
By Karon Lorraine McBride 
Trent Cottages .....................................................2 Typhoid Fever ...................................................................................................................2
Harvey..................................................................4 Assault on a Crippled Wife ............................................................................................... 4 From Uttoxeter to Burton upon Trent ............................................................................. 5 A Penny Readings Row..................................................................................................... 5
Tharme .................................................................7 Neighbours’ Quarrels ........................................................................................................ 7 What’s your poison? .........................................................................................................8 American Cousins ...........................................................................................................13 Anna May Tharme’s Obituary.........................................................................................14
Collins.................................................................15 Warwickshire................................................................................................................... 15 Banished to Derby ...........................................................................................................15 Penitent Females’ Home ................................................................................................. 15
Tomlinson ..........................................................16 The Great Flood of 1875 ..................................................................................................16 Ale-arming Announcement ............................................................................................16 From Kings Norton to Rugeley and onwards to Burton ................................................ 17 Garden Robbery ..............................................................................................................17
IRENE (ÆTAT 13) ............................................................... 18
Dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Bessie Irene Tomlinson, 1910 - 1990. Karon Lorraine McBride Edinburgh, April 2016
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Preface This is not a biography of Bessie Irene Tomlinson. It is not the story of her life. It is instead a collection of information and stories about Bessie’s surroundings at the time she was born, and about her family, her forebears and the places in which they lived and worked. Content has been drawn from from official records, including the census, archived documents and press reports: these are true stories about the events, places, families and people that contributed to the making of Bessie Irene. It is in the nature of newspapers to report crimes, accidents and sad events. This collection reflects that bias. There are some moments of comedy but also one story of shocking, uncompromising tragedy. The stories are presented in four sections, one for each of the family names of Bessie’s grandparents: Harvey, Tharme, Collins and Tomlinson. It is almost impossible to say where a person is from. Each step back in the family tree takes you to another town or village and it is rare for a family to live in the same place for two generations or more. But a few places stand out as the places that made Bessie Irene Tomlinson and, surprisingly, none of them are Burton upon Trent. The Collins family hailed from Tysoe on the Warwickshire/Oxford border, moved to Whatcote near Solihull and then to Ladywood, Birmingham. The Harveys came from Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire. The Tharmes were from Colton, near Rugeley, also in Staffordshire and the Tomlinsons had moved from Kings Bromley to Rugeley, before heading for Burton. The hamlet of Stockwell Heath, near Colton, will turn out to be place of particular significance, but the story begins in two rows of terraced cottages between the Branstone Road and the River Trent. 
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Trent Cottages Bessie Irene Tomlinson was born in 1910 in Burton upon Trent to Jane (nĂŠe Harvey) and John Edward Tomlinson, known to some as Jinnie and Jack. Bessie appears on the 1911 census as an only child living with her parents at No. 14 Trent Cottages, Branstone Road, Burton upon Trent. The census form was completed and signed by Jack Tomlinson. This is Jack's handwriting.
Trent Cottages off Branstone Road had until about 1885 been known as Robinson’s Row. These were houses built in around 1870 by James Robinson, a horse dealer, at the back of what is now called the Branston Arms pub (but may then have been called the Waterloo Inn) on land he had previously farmed. Comparing the 1882 map (rectangle) and the circular extract from the 1900 map we can see that the farmhouse had been demolished, the hedges grubbed out and new houses built to the east in Leicester Street, a street that had not existed in 1882. The building of the Leicester railway line between 1867 and 1873, with its high bank and distinctive arch across Branstone Road, would have shifted the perspective of this area, hitherto part of the farming community of Branston village, towards the town of Burton.
Typhoid Fever Tamworth Herald - Saturday 08 June 1878
The Rural Sanitary Authority acted on reports from the Medical Officer of Health and Inspector of Nuisances of typhoid fever in Stretton and in Robinson's Row, Branstone [sic]. Orders were given for improving the water supply at both places.
!3 Cottage Name of Head of Family Number of Number residents
Cottage Name of Head of Number Family
Number of residents
1 Hannah Robinson
4
26 David Smith
1
2 John Jones
7
25 Francis Tomlinson
4
3 Herbert Taylor
2
24 William Taylor
5
4 Thomas Owen Pittam
6
23 Not occupied
0
5 Thomas Harvey
4
22 Thomas Adams
5
6 Charles Henry Matkin
6
21 George Hope
2
7 Edward Devlin
6
20 Robert James Bishop
3
8 James Gadsby
5
19 William Peace
5
9 Not occupied
0
18 William Harvey
3
10 Jane Dyche
5
17 William Thomas Johnson
5
11 Henry Dyche
3
16 Charles Causer
7
12 Mrs Stilgoe, Fanny
4
15 Albert Brown
7
13 James Mitchell
8
14 John Edward Tomlinson
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The extreme southern end of Branstone Road was transferred from Branston township to Burton borough in 1878. In 1905, the last remaining piece of unbuilt land in Branstone Road, temporarily in use as allotments, became the site for the relocated All Saints Church, thus completing the link to Burton upon Trent. Trent Cottages were demolished after the Second World War and eventually replaced by a single row of modern houses but the gardens still hint at their original footprint. The area behind the inn and the neighbouring lodging house became a travellers’ site. Frank Tomlinson, at No. 25, wasn’t directly related to Bessie despite sharing a surname but he was the father of her uncle Isaac Harvey’s wife. He was a joiner, originally from Derbyshire, and had spent some time in prison. He died in 1912. Bessie would have had many playmates with a large number of older children around to look after them as the babies became toddlers. Frank’s baby granddaughter Hannah, was about the same age as Bessie, as was Albert Taylor, son of William Taylor at No. 24, Robert James Bishop junior at No. 20, Emma Thomas, granddaughter of Charles Causer at No. 16, Ambrose Robert Brown at No. 15, and Mary Harvey at No. 5 (Bessie’s cousin).
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Harvey In 1911, Jinnie’s parents, Bessie’s grandparents, William (a labourer) and Frances Harvey, lived at No. 18 Trent Cottages and Jinnie’s brother Thomas, a bricklayer, had moved into No. 5 with his young family. Since the cottages were arranged in two facing rows, these two houses would have been across from each other. Further down the row, at No. 12, just across the road from Jack and Jinnie’s house, was the home of Jinnie’s sister Fanny. From the formal use of “Mrs Stilgoe, Fanny” on the census it seems that Fanny was still fiercely defending her married status although by 1911 she had been granted a legal separation from her husband, Arthur Stilgoe1. Significantly, her census form was completed and signed by her lodger, David Thomas.
Assault on a Crippled Wife Aberdeen Journal - Thursday 13 September 1906
In 1900, the Stilgoe family had moved to Cheadle (Cheshire2) when Arthur gained employment as a railway guard or shunter. Arthur, Fanny and the first of their two sons, Arthur William, appear on the 1901 Census living in Ash Street, Cheadle According to press reports, in 1906 at Stockport Fanny attested in court that Arthur “punched her, thrashed her, and tried to strangle her by putting both thumbs on her throat.”
By the time of the 1911 census, Arthur had been sacked from the railway for stealing a barrel of beer and was living near Burntwood under the assumed name of Stelgrove with a woman called Clare to whom he claimed, probably falsely, to be married. Later, in 1914, Fanny married the lodger, David Thomas, nine years her junior. Still at 12 Trent Cottages, she died at the beginning of February, 1927 leaving £211 1s to David Thomas in her will.
Fanny was described in the report as crippled, although it is to be noted that she did not enter an infirmity into the 1911 census form. Fined 10s 6d and ordered to pay 12s 6d a week, Arthur told Fanny to “clear out as he was tired of her.”
1 This is clearly syndicated news story and would have originated in a newspaper local to Stockport. Either that publication is not yet in the British Newspaper Archive or the auto-transcription is poor and this is preventing the original article being found by an electronic search. 2
There are two Cheadles. This one in Cheshire but there is another in Staffordshire.
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From Uttoxeter to Burton upon Trent The Harvey family moved to Burton from Uttoxeter but may originally have come from Bradley or Croxden to the north of Uttoxeter, between Alton (Towers) and Cheadle (Staffs). Strictly speaking, the Harvey branch should be called something else. Bessie’s greatgrandfather, Thomas Harvey, took his surname from his mother, Dorothy Harvey. The name of his father was not recorded. Thomas described himself as a stone mason. In 1826 at the age of 17, he had begun an apprenticeship with a man called Mark Mellor in Uttoxeter but Mr Mellor had died just a year later and it is not clear if Thomas formally completed his training. In the missing years before he reappeared in the records he somehow acquired a wife, Jane Bennett, from Dartford in Kent. In later life both Thomas and Jane made a living as net makers in Pinfold Lane, Uttoxeter3. Thomas and Jane Harvey had four sons and five daughters. The eldest son, Charles, was a bona fide stonemason who eventually settled in Worksop. The two youngest sons, Henry and William. both utilised a wider skill set and changed job frequently. Both moved by stages, first to Tutbury and then to Burton upon Trent.
A Penny Readings Row Staffordshire Sentinel and Commercial & General Advertiser - Saturday 06 February 1869
Thomas Harvey was thrown out of the Penny Readings at Uttoxeter on 29 January 1869. Witnesses testified that Thomas had been “causing a great disturbance in the room” by banging his cane instead of clapping. The magistrate agreed that the organisers were justified in putting out disorderly patrons. Despite that, the man who ejected him, Robert Wild, was fined 14s for ripping Thomas’ trousers.
3
The site of the house in Pinfold Lane, Uttoxeter was later reused as a cheese factory, then the first JCB factory and is
currently undergoing major redevelopment.
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In 1876, William Harvey (b. 1852) married Frances Tharme, whom he may have met in Kirk Langley, Derbyshire, where Frances was in service. Frances and William, who were to be Bessie’s maternal grandparents, married in Burton but returned to Derbyshire in about 1880, leaving their two young children with Frances’ parents. They are missing from the 1881 census but their second daughter’s birth certificate places them in Chesterfield in 1882, where William was working as a bricklayer. By 1884 they had returned to Burton where William found work as a general labourer. Their youngest daughter Jane (Jinnie) was born at 119 Branstone Road, Burton upon Trent in 1888.
Map of Uttoxeter in 1900.
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Tharme The surname Tharme is from an Anglo-Saxon term for someone who prepares intestines to make skins for faggots and sausages. Thomas Tharme (b. 1822), Bessie’s great-grandfather, was born to farm labourer Joseph Tharme and his wife Mary in the hamlet of Stockwell Heath, Colton, near Rugeley. Thomas married Charlotte Bull at Lichfield in 1847. He was a carter and general labourer. Charlotte and Thomas began married life in Stockwell Heath but soon moved to Walsall where Charlotte made a living as a greengrocer. In about 1865 they moved to Stapenhill. Charlotte and Thomas had eleven children together. Frances, Bessie’s grandmother, was their third daughter; she had been born in Newlands, near Colton. The 1901 census indicates that Frances had followed her mother’s example and was making a living from her own greengrocery business in Branstone Road. Frances (Fanny) Tharme was married to William Harvey. Their youngest daughter, Jane Harvey, was Bessie’s mother.
Neighbours’ Quarrels Derby Daily Telegraph, 7th Feb 1882
The wide track down to Robinson’s Row, later to be called Trent Cottages, ran between the pub and her house. It is now the pub car park. Her assailant John Astin, or Aston, also lived in Branstone Road. Aston had to pass Charlotte’s house to get to his brother’s lodgings. Given the size of the fine, he probably crossed to the other side of the road on future visits. At the time of the assault, Charlotte Tharme was 56 years old, although on the census she claimed to be five years younger. She lived in the cottage to the left of the Branston Arms as you look at it from the road.
The press report gives no indication of what John Aston had said to cause Charlotte to take the broom to him. Perhaps he expressed a view about the moral standing of Thomas’ youngest sister. For in 1856 Eliza had inadvertently made the Tharme name famous, or possibly infamous.
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What’s your poison? The name of Bessie’s great-great-aunt, Eliza Tharme, would be known to everyone in Victorian society, Shocking events that took place in Rugeley in 1855 had led to the “Trial of the Century” and the readers of the British press were transfixed. Born in the summer of 1836 in Stockwell Heath, Eliza Tharme was the youngest of the eleven children of James and Mary Tharme. From New Year’s Day 1854 Eliza was employed as the servant of Dr Palmer and his wife Annie. They lived in Market Street, Rugeley. Dr William Palmer, a surgeon, may have killed his first victim as early as 1846. There is evidence that he then went on to murder his wife’s mother (and shoot her cats), euthanise his alcoholic brother and poison his wife. He ensured that all his legitimate children, except for the first son, Willie, died in their first year of life. He killed Alfred, his illegitimate son by Eliza, and may well have killed other illegitimate offspring. His final victim was John Parsons Cook, who died at the Talbot Hotel, Rugeley on 20 November 1855. Dr Palmer murdered for money to fund gambling and race horses. Sometimes he inherited wealth as a result of his crimes and on at least two occasions he perpetrated insurance fraud on a massive scale, although the murder for which he was finally hanged seems to have been largely in the spirit of investigation to test strychnine as an agent for future murders. People were too polite to think the worst of him, too polite to voice their doubts. But Cook’s step-father was not at all polite, he did think the worst and did indeed voice his doubts. Dr Palmer was tried for wilful murder at the Old Bailey in May 1856. He was found guilty, and at eight o’clock on 14 June 1856, at Stafford Gaol, in front of a crowd of 40,000 onlookers, William Palmer was hanged. Robert Graves (of I, Claudius fame) wrote a novel4 based on the life, crimes, trial and hanging of Dr. Palmer. In it he claims that the habit of offering someone a drink by asking “What’s your poison?” began with the Rugeley murders. 4
“They Hanged My Saintly Billy. The Life and Death of Dr. William Palmer” by Robert Graves, published 1957
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Although Eliza was called as a witness on the first day of the inquest into Cook’s death, held at the Town Hall, Rugeley before Christmas in 1855, she was not called at the subsequent Old Bailey trial. There was a reason for this. When Dr Palmer was arrested he gave Eliza his last £50 note, probably stolen from his final victim, John Parsons Cook. Asked to provide the note as evidence Eliza refused and threatened to sell intimate letters sent to Dr Palmer from Mary Burgen, the daughter of Daniel T Bergen, Staffordshire’s Chief Superintendent of Police, to the London press. As a result of this audacious but clever blackmail she not only got to keep the money but ensured she couldn’t be called as a witness by the prosecution and, although she might have been able to provide their client with a useful alibi, the defence team would have considered her to have been too easily discredited. At the inquest, under hostile cross-examination, Eliza had deftly sidestepped the matter of her relationship with Dr Palmer since her mistress’ death but agreed with the prosecutor’s suggestion that Dr Palmer would have taken advantage of her before Annie died had she encouraged him. Between the inquest and the trial, however, much had been written in the press about Eliza and her illegitimate child. Eliza’s reputation was in tatters.
The Suspicious Death of the Child Of Palmer’s Servant “Horrors on horror’s head accumulate.” So observes the Birmingham Journal, slightly misquoting Shakespeare, in response to one of the entries in Palmer’s diary. The horror concerning the Journal this time was ‘illicit intercourse’ with the servant girl, resulting in an illegitimate child born exactly nine months after the suspicious death of Palmer’s wife Annie. Palmer refused to acknowledge the child as his, making an offer of £20 if Eliza did not name him as the father. Eliza later unwisely accepted the offer of a weekly allowance instead, sealing Alfred’s fate. In his diary, Palmer had awarded the birth of Alfred seven stars. There was, however, no entry for the child’s death on 17 November, 1855. Palmer had provided medication for Alfred who died three days later. A deed to make heaven weep.
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Jim Myatt was a witness at the trial of Dr Palmer and was one of the few participants to emerge with reputation intact. After Cook’s death Dr Palmer made several attempts to disrupt the investigation and subsequent inquest, including trying to bribe Jim, the post-boy at the Talbot Hotel, to smash jars containing forensic evidence. Jim had refused to take the bribe and had later driven the fly in which the samples were transported, under armed guard, to the railway station at Stafford. It is difficult to understand Eliza’s motivations and actions. Over a period of time Eliza had administered a powder to her mistress, Annie Palmer, containing the antimony and strychnine that slowly killed her. Had William Palmer not been found guilty of Cook’s murder he would have faced a second trial accused of killing his wife, a Grand Jury at Stafford having decided there was a case to answer. Eliza’s testimony would have incriminated both of them and Eliza might have faced serious charges herself. The defence offered on her behalf, that she naively believed the powder to be a love potion purchased by her mistress from a wise woman in Abbott’s Bromley, is at odds with the picture of a worldly young woman
Screenshot from an ITV film about the Rugeley Poisoner
capable of threatening to tell all to the popular press. At the very least, Eliza knowingly provided the means for Annie to take her own life. Was Eliza an accessory to murder or did she assist suicide? Eliza’s father had died in 1847, leaving her mother Mary reliant on the parish. And then there was Eli. There is evidence that Eliza’s brother Eli had Down syndrome. Perhaps she saw an opportunity to make things better for her mother and brother by marrying money like her idol, Mrs Sarah Palmer. Eliza was described by Mrs Palmer, Dr Palmer’s widowed mother, as pretty, brave and good-natured, and from the many reports of Eliza’s choices in life a picture emerges of young woman who was determined, quick-thinking and loyal with many friends but also someone who could be manipulative and disingenuous. Someone perhaps for whom ends justified means.
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Eliza and her sister Barbara make frequent appearances in William Palmer’s diary until early November 1855 when his finances unspooled and his attention was consumed by increasingly desperate attempts to stave off debtors’ prison. Killing little Alfred reduced his outgoings, killing his friend Cook amounted to nothing more than some bridging finance and a technical step towards killing his remaining brothers so that he could inherit all of the considerable fortune left by his father. Eliza was caught up in the life of a man who convinced others by first convincing himself. The idea of an open relationship with Eliza, while exciting at first, would have palled quickly and perhaps had already done so. Pregnancy was an occupational hazard for young women in service, and clearly Eliza was not prudish, but neither was she prudent. The press had decided Eliza was no better than she should be but other young women in service at the time may have held more sympathetic views. Consider Mary Tomlinson, general servant at the Swan Hotel, Stafford, for example. Mary, sister of Thomas, Bessie’s great-grandfather, was Eliza’s exact contemporary on the Tomlinson side of the family. She had grown up in Rugeley and may have known Eliza. Her son, Richard Tomlinson, was being brought up by his grandmother, Elizabeth, passed off as one of her own although she would have been 55 when he was born. Mary would have understood the attractions of the house, carriage and trips to Buxton but would she have fed her mistress poison, slept with her employer or stayed after her child had died? William Palmer had a psychological need to take increasing risks. The lack of emotion, considered by some observers to be a strength, was an indicator of man destined for serial murder. Eliza would undoubtedly have been his next victim. A lucky escape. But there are no happy endings. After the trial, Eliza was employed by Mrs Palmer as young Willie’s nursemaid. Mrs Palmer promised to remember Eliza in her will but it isn’t clear if Eliza inherited anything. When she died in 1861, Mrs Palmer, said at one time to have been worth more than £70,000, left just under £4,000 to her son George. Young Willie was then sent away to school in Liverpool and Eliza was back in service, this time working for Mary C Gold, a lodging house proprietor, in London. Barbara married Jim Myatt in January 1857 but joy was short lived. Their daughter Mary Eliza was born in May 1857 but Barbara passed away eighteen weeks later due to “debility from lactation.” Eli died of heart and kidney failure in 1859, aged 24. In 1869, Eliza Tharme entered a charitable institution, All Saints Home, in London and died on 5th October of cancer of the uterus, aged 33.
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Photograph of Lucy Tharme, b. 1830
Eliza and Barbara Tharme were the youngest sisters of Bessie’s great-grandfather, Thomas Tharme. There are no known photographs of Eliza or Barbara but there is a picture of their sister Lucy, taken in the early 1850s. It may be her wedding photograph, in which case it would have been taken in 1852 when Lucy was 22. The photograph is owned by one of Lucy’s descendants.
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American Cousins After the shocking events of 1855, and the very public trial in 1856, the Tharme family scattered, running from notoriety, hiding from tragedy. Of the nine Tharme siblings still alive in 1856, all born and raised in Stockwell Heath, only Ann remained nearby, settled in the remote farming hamlet of Hamley Heath. Barbara and Jim went to Stafford, Lucy to Colwich and Eliza, of course, went to London. John moved to Leicestershire, Thomas went via Walsall to Burton and George relocated all the way to Iowa, USA. Perhaps this inspired the next generation to head west too. Arthur Tharme, the youngest child of Thomas and Charlotte, emigrated to St Joseph, Missouri and Anna May, born in 1849, their eldest surviving child, travelled to Nebraska where she married James Albert Moss in 1873. Another sister, Mary Hannah, had also moved to Iowa but had died quite some time before Anna May, which explains why she isn’t mentioned in the obituary.
Photograph of Anna May and James Thomas Moss on their wedding day, 27 February 1873 
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Anna May Tharme’s Obituary From the Wolbach Messenger, Wolbach, Nebraska, Thursday, December 20, 1917
“Anna May Tharme was born in Burton on Trent Staffordshire, England, May 18, 18505 , and died at her home in Wolbach, Neb., December 12, 1917, being 67 years, 6 months and 24 days old at her death. “She came to America in 1868 being 18 years old without relative or acquaintance on the ship. She came to Rock Island, Ill. In 1872 she moved to Grand Ridge, Ill. In 1873 she was united in marriage to James A. Moss. To this union there was born two girls and two boys: Eva May Perry of Wolbach, Nebraska; Florence Charlotte McCar ty, Seattle, Wash.; Alber t Cunningham Moss, Wurner, South Dakota; Thomas Marshall Moss, Valley, Nebr. “In the winter of 1879 and 1883 she moved with her husband to Wahoo, Nebr., and in 1901 came to Wolbach, where she resided until her death. “No death until now having ever occurred in the family, she leaves to mourn the loss, her husband, J. A. Moss, her two sons and two daughters and eleven grandchildren, one brother in St. Joe, Mo., one brother and two sisters in England. “At the age of 14, she was confirmed in the church of England. In 1878 she united with the Presbyterian church. February 22, 1914 she united with the English Lutheran church of Wolbach. 5
“As a member she was faithful to her duties. She will be sorely missed in the Ladies Aid Society in which she was always active. By her faithful attendance of the services of the church and attentive hearing of the Word, she was a great help to the pastor, who feels keenly the loss of a good parishioner. “She was a faithful member of the Rebecca lodge of Wolbach, and will be very much missed by this organization. “She was always ready to help any one in need. The great consolation of us all is that our loss is her eternal gain. She expressed herself ready and willing to meet her Master if it were his will to call her at this time. “Funeral services were held at the Lutheran church, Tuesday, December 18, 1917, at 2 o'clock p.m. The body had been kept in [illegible] until all the children were enabled to arrive for the funeral. “The church proved too small for the vast congregation and some were unable to gain admittance. The Rebecca lodge attended in a body. Floral tributes were numerous, large and beautiful. “The services were conducted by the pastor, Rev. R. A. White. The singing was by Odd Fellows, Rebeccas and Lutheran choir. “The body was laid to rest in the Hillside Cemetery. The family have the profound sympathy of the entire community.”
Actually she was born in 1849 and baptised at Colton in the October.
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Collins Warwickshire During the 19th Century, the Collins family gradually moved west from Tysoe on the Warwickshire/Oxfordshire border via Whatcote to Ladywood in Birmingham. Originally employed by landed gentry to support traditional sporting pursuits, they became general agricultural labourers. Some of the land they farmed is now under the runway of Birmingham International Airport. In 1853, John Collins married Eliza Jane Tranter from Barston, near Solihull. They had four daughters and two sons. Their eldest daughter Eliza Collins (b.1860) moved from Birmingham to Burton and married John Edward Tomlinson in 1883. They had a daughter, Lizzie, in 1885 and their first son, also called John Edward, was born in 1886. John (Jack) married Jinnie Harvey.
Banished to Derby The census of 1991 finds Fanny Collins, the youngest sister of Eliza Collins, as a ‘servant in training for service’ in Derby. Fanny is one of 21 teenage girls living in ‘The Home’ in Bass Street, Derby. This establishment took in girls from across the Midlands including many, like Fanny, from Birmingham. Fanny might have been sent there by the Courts or by her family. Many of the girls who were sent there were unmarried but pregnant. On leaving ‘The Home’ Fanny married Joseph Hurdman in Burton upon Trent. It isn’t clear what happened to Joseph. In 1901, Fanny appeared on the census in service in Breadsall, Derbyshire having reverted to her maiden name and the following year she married Thomas Ayres, a servant in the same house. They settled in Barton on Trent, where Thomas worked as a farm labourer. They had no children. On the 1939 Register, Fanny and Thomas are listed as living in Repton. Fanny died in 1941.
Penitent Females’ Home Derby Mercury, 6th Sep 1865
Relatively well-funded, and certainly not the worse of it’s kind, The Home - or the Penitent Females’ Home to give it its full title - was set up in about 1860 “to rescue from a life of vice and woe, and introduce to a position of virtue
and social usefulness as many as possible of the depraved daughters of dissipation and sensualism, and this to ameliorate the condition of that errant part of the community.” The girls worked in the laundry that provided much of the funding for the home and were given training in domestic service and a home until the “obstructions” preventing their return to their parents were removed.
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Tomlinson The Great Flood of 1875 Torrential rainstorms in the July and October of 1875 caused severe and damaging flooding in the centre of Burton upon Trent. The photograph shows New Street, looking towards Christchurch, which at that time still had a spire6 . Some of the people in the picture may be Tomlinsons. The move out to new housing in Uxbridge Street, hopefully somewhat drier than New Street, had already begun but the new houses were small and some children had to be boarded out with relatives. Few of the buildings in the picture still stand, the cottages to the left, where the Tomlinsons had lived, were replaced by Edwardian shops. Flood markers can still be found on bridges and buildings recording the height reached by the water. The floods, however, had caused over £100,000 damage in the town and may have contributed to water-borne diseases like typhoid fever (see p. 2). Although it accelerated the move of population from the centre of town to Burton Extra, food had to be distributed free to avoid famine.
Ale-arming Announcement From the Staffordshire Sentinel Monday 25 October 1875
“The Trent has bottled up its waters,” announces the Staffordshire Sentinel in a spirited attempt restore a sense of humour after the 1875 floods disaster. 6
The spire of Christ Church was demolished in 1944 due to damage caused by the Fauld explosion.
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From Kings Norton to Rugeley and onwards to Burton John Edward Tomlinson (b. 1860) was the only grandparent of Bessie born in Burton upon Trent. His father, Thomas, had been born in Rugeley, moving to Burton on his marriage to Elizabeth Ames in 1858. Thomas was an iron moulder and Elizabeth worked as a dressmaker. The Tomlinson family had moved to Rugeley from Kings Bromley where several of the family had worked for Lord Bagot as gamekeepers. This was more dangerous than it sounds because poachers, if caught and convicted, could be deported for seven years. There are alarming press reports of Tomlinsons being injured as they faced down armed men. It is understandable then that when employment opportunities arose in the new iron foundries the Tomlinsons moved to Rugeley and, eventually, to Burton. In Burton it is difficult to ignore the beer. Thomas’ sons found employment as painters and decorators working almost exclusively for the breweries. From feudal and agrarian economies to the heavy industries of industrial revolution, dressmakers, maids, bricklayers and painters, all contributed to the making of Bessie Irene Tomlinson.
Garden Robbery Staffordshire Advertiser - Saturday 16 October 1869
John Ames, brother of Elizabeth Ames, Bessie’s great-grandmother, lived in Duke Street.
In 1869, red cabbages were stolen from his allotment by Arthur Dyche and John Cross, both of New Street. Having been previously convicted of similar offences, Arthur Dyche was imprisoned in Stafford Gaol. Cross was fined. In 1910, at the time of Bessie’s birth, Arthur Dyche’s youngest brother, Henry, was a resident of Trent Cottages
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IRENE (ÆTAT 13) Printed in The Star - Saturday 28 January 1888
I. Among the purple mountain folds I sought, And sought in vain for peace. I sought in vain In dreamy woods; along th' enchanted main: In kindly hamlets. Then with books I wrought, Seeking for peace in toil, which only brought Dull discontent and weariness of brain. "Where are thou, Peace?" I cried : "Oh, soothe this pain Of tearful longing and of throbbing thought!" A sweet voice answered. Laughter glad and clear Set the birds singing. Beautiful bright eyes Made a new dawn? A sweet voice answered "Cease From farther ruthless searching. I am here — In flower of flesh and blood, of perfect size, Quite loving — Your Irene! I am Peace!” II. Peace, with her chatter and infectious glee; Peace, swinging mad-cap on a springy bough; With bright hair blown and tumbled anyhow; Peace, paddling in a shoal of summer sea; Peace, at high revel up an apple tree; Peace, reading with a bent and dreamy brow; Peace, on a footstool — very peaceful now — Listening with hands clasped fondly on my knee! No abstract noun, no mythic shape divine, No sweet elusive dream of who knows what, But just a child, she brings my heart surcease Of care; and, when she puts her cheek to mine, Bliss, and complete content with my lot, Yes, this is my Irene — this is Peace. by William Canton, 1887