In Search of a Glemsford Family

The Martha and Minnie Letters

Sandra has transcribed a whole sheaf of letters.
The first set are from members of her family to Araminta, 3 from Martha, and 2 from mother, Susannah.
The rest - the major batch - are those sent from Emma Savage to her "dear friend", Araminta.

Martha was born Martha Asenath Brown on 17th May 1880. She appears on the 1881 Census, at the age of 10 months, when she, George, Susanna (sic), Artementer (sic) and William were living at Earl Street, Skerton, Lancaster.

It is interesting that her birthplace is given as Glemsford, which suggests that the family moved to Lancashire between May 1880 and March 1881, when the Census was taken.

Gershom, the next surviving child (recorded as being 6 in the 1891 Glemsford Census) was also born in Glemsford, so the stay in Lancaster must have been relatively short.

Martha is somewhat elusive. She is not recorded as being with her parents in the 1891 Census, but, after much searching, we have placed her, as a servant, at "Brick Kiln Cottage", on the Lower Road. She is recorded as being 13. An early example of Creative Accounting, perhaps.
The only other person registered there in 1891 is a 17 year old servant, called:
Arraminta Brown.
Both girls are recorded as being born in Glemsford.

Brick Kiln Cottage assumes a central role as the story develops, creating a link between the Browns and the Savages.
It seems clear that both Martha and her older sister, Araminta, were employed by the Savage family at Brick Kiln, in 1891.

Araminta, who is the focus of a whole batch of later letters, was born on 15th March, 1874. She was with her parents in Lancaster, at Brick Kiln in 1891, and, in 1901, appears as a "visitor" at the home of William Kelly, 37 Hainworth, Keighley, Yorks.
She married, in Yorkshire in 1902, John McGuire.
More of the Yorkshire connection later!

The first three letters are from Martha Brown to her Sister Araminta ("Minnie"), and, if we believe the earlier censuses, and the offical registers, she was only 14 when she wrote these letters home. The next two letters are from Susanna Brown to Araminta, her daughter:Almost all the rest of the letters are from Emma Savage to Araminta.

Even just taken on their own, these are three fascinating documents,telling a brief story of life "below stairs" at the end of the nineteenth century.

We have tried to reproduce these letters as accurately as possible. We have left the spelling as it appears in the original.
Where there are doubts about words, we have shown this with question marks or [square] brackets.

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Read about what we know about the
Brown Family History
and
something of their progress
later in the 20th Century

 		  

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

Return: HOME
Brown Family story index

 
© 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
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