In Search of a Glemsford Family

Martha's Letters

Feb 28th 1894

Miss Brown

c/o Mrs Booty

Waterloo Road SE

London

Dear Sister I received your letter alrigh[t] and glad to hear you are alright. My fingers are better I have had another one and I had a boiling hot poultic[e] on and the Missus held it on while I danced and screamed and she pricked the top and let the bad matter out. I went to the Trafalgar on Monday twice but did not see Mrs Savage because she was not in but they who were there said I was grown. The name of the park is St James and the church St John’s they sing more like they do at home.
I have been taking Miss Flora to school and I have seen Owen Charman and he go to the same school Miss Flora do. He was with a girl as big as me and she says he used to say when he saw me I was the girl who lived near his Aunts before I knew it was him till Miss Flora told me. He says he know Minnie at his Auntie Emma’s he saw her milk the goats and Rillo. This girl lived near London and Mrs Charman saw her at an hospital when she took [Owen?] this girl was with her sister she says she will be 14 in March 13th & she will have been there three months. My Mrs is ill in bed with Rhumatic in the head and legs she has had it 5 or 6 days.
Tell dear mother I cannot write to her just yet because Miss Booty don’t know wither the place is taken up yet there are four people the mother son and 2 daughter it is a business house but the youngest daughter do the cooking & they have a boy in to do the windows & knives and she will have a present from all of them at Christmas time & tell her I don’t know wither she can get the place if it isn’t taken up because crossed eyed and they won’t take a girl they think it is unlucky. I hope dear mother & father are well and Olive and all of them I thank you very much for the stamps and dear father too.
I have not taken my money yet but I shall not send it home because the Missus has a machine and she is going to help me make a new dress when I buy one for 4 or 5 shillings because she says she generally have to pay as much for making one as for buying it & now I must conclude with love from your loving Sister
Martha
To Minnie

  • This reference to the Trafalgar and Mrs Savage have turned out to be a major clue in our search for the Savages.
    We now believe The Trafalgar to have been at 60 York Road, Lambeth, SE (off Waterloo Road).
    Mrs Savage was Emma Savage, wife of the proprietor, and writer of all the Dear Minnie letters.
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  • It took us a long time to spot that "Owen Charman" was more than a passing reference.
    In 1891, when he was 1, his parents ran "Sharmans Hotel" on Stamford St, SE - a road which is the continuation of York Road after it crosses Waterloo Road.
    His mother was Ellen Sharman, née May, who was Emma Savage's niece. Emma was Owen's (great) aunt. Read on!
  • Rillo - Martha's brother Florillo William Brown.
    BACK
  • At the moment we don't know for whom Martha's mother was looking for a job. Perhaps it was a member of the extended family. The reference to "Cross-eyed" is a reminder of old superstitions.
    BACK
  • Olive was the youngest daughter at the time, born 1893.
    These final two paragraphs give us more of an insight into the realities of life in service for a young girl of the 1890s.

This is the last of Martha's 3 letters that Sandra owns. After it, she again becomes elusive, although there is a hint in the 1901 Census that she was still in service, and living in Battersea, off Lavender Hill.

Read about what we know about the
Brown Family History

 		  

Follow the search for the
Savage family
of Cavendish, with several twists and turns,
or go
straight to the start of our findings.

  

Susanna's first letter to Minnie

A list of all the
letters from and to the Browns

 
© Tracey Foulds, Sandra Poole and Stephen Clarke
September 5 2005
None of this material may be published in any form
without the express permission of the authors
with the exception of material to be used for single copies for personal research