1851 Census Listing for Samuel Ricketts, daughter, Mary and son, James
Samuel is sixth entry from the top of the page
On census day in April of 1851, Mary Ricketts, age 16, was living in Arley Kings, with her father, Samuel, still a widower, and her younger brother, James, aged 11. No occupation is listed for Mary, while James is listed as a "scholar," that is attending school of some kind. The next documented fact is over three years later on November 4, 1854 when Samuel married Ann Wilcox, a widow, six years older than himself. Both husband and wife were laborers, living in Arley Kings and both made a mark rather than sign their names. Ann Wilcox was a long time resident of Arley Kings and a widow since at least early 1851.
No record survives as to where Mary was living at the time of the marriage or at any point after the 1851 census. The next time Mary appears on the public record is upon the birth of her son, James Ricketts (Winder), who was born on January 3, 1857. Interestingly James was born in Astley (neighboring village to Arley Kings) which is also listed as Mary's residence, fairly strong evidence she was no longer living with her father. Of course, the father of greater interest at this point is the father of baby James, who was conceived some time in the second quarter of 1856. According to British military records, William Winder was in Aldershot, some 125 miles from Astley from January 1 to June 30, 1856.
Arthur Henry Ricketts Birth Certificate
To date no information about Mary and James whereabouts has been found for the next four years. Very recently, however, I learned that on January 11, 1861, Mary Ricketts gave birth to a second child, another son, Arthur Henry Ricketts. The child was born in the Union Workhouse in Martley, Worcestershire, 6 1/2 miles from Astley. The Martley Workhouse was the place of last resort for the poor, sick and elderly for a regional area including Astley so it would have been the logical place for Mary, if she had no where else to go to give birth.
1861 Census for Martley Workhouse - while it's hard to see Mary Ricketts (MR) is the seventh person up from the bottom with sons, James (JR) and Arthur Henry (AHR) right below her
The discovery of the workhouse birth helped resolve a long standing mystery - where Mary and James were on the day of the 1861 census. To date I had had no success in finding them anywhere, but if Arthur was born in the workhouse on January 11, 1861, there was a reasonable chance they were still there on census day in April. It turns out the census pages for the Martley Workhouse list only initials, not full names, which explains why a search for either Mary or James didn't find anything. This made identification in the workhouse census difficult, but when I found MR (aged 24, born in Astley), JR (aged 4, born in Astley) and AHR (three months, born in Martley), it was pretty clear they were our ancestors. The census lists Mary as a laundress and James as a scholar, although what kind of education he got in the workhouse remains to be seen.
William Winder and Mary Ricketts 1862 marriage certificate
The final piece of documented evidence (also recently found) is that William Winder and Mary Ricketts were married on July 3, 1862 at the Angel Street Congregational Chapel in Worcester, a leading non-conformist chapel in Worcester. Both are listed as living on Hounds Lane in the parish of St. Andrew in Worcester, but no street numbers are provided so it is impossible to know if they were already living together. William is listed as a pensioner of the 80th regiment while Mary's occupation is charwoman. As usual William made his mark, but Mary signed her name. From that point on William became James and Arthur's father-in-fact, but was he the biological father of either or both boys? Speculations and conjecture in the next post.
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