Sarah Jane Wells (Week 5 - MMM)
 

Name - "official" name and what they were known as
Sarah Jane Wells - only ever known as Jane - I don't think any of her children were aware of her correct first name.

Date and place of birth
24th November 1857 at Hanworth Road, Twickenham, Middlesex

Names of parents
Richard Wells and Susan née Tyler

Date and place of baptism - if applicable
Not found

Details of each of his or her marriages - if any
16th April 1881 at St Mary's, Battersea, Surrey to John Leslie Gosden
19th April 1892 at St Botolph, Bishopsgate, London to Edwin Maynard (my g-grandfather). This marriage was probably bigamous. Her first husband was said to have gone to Australia after 1886 or 1887, but I have not been able to trace him.

Occupation(s) - if any
Housewife

Military service - if any
None

Addresses where they lived - and please list which censuses you have or haven't found him/her on.

I have her on all possible censuses.
1857-1871: Hanworth Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
1881: 17 Lion Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
1891-1892: 1 Claremont Villas, Arragon Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
1892-1901: 31 Arragon Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
About 1903-1921: Willowdean, 8 Queens Road, Twickenham, Middlesex
1921-1941: Springfield House (Asylum), Beechcroft Rd, Wandsworth, Middlesex

Date, place and cause of death
7th April 1941 of cardio vascular degeneration and senility, at the asylum where she had been incarcerated for the previous 20 years.

Date and place of burial / cremation.
Buried 18th April 1941 at Twickenham Cemetery, Twickenham, Middlesex.
Grave ref: 196 Special, section F, class A.

Details of will / administration of their estate - if applicable
Very much doubt she made one, as she was committed within a couple of months of her 2nd husband's death.

Memorial inscription - if any
Not known

Merry, the end of her life sounds quite sad, poor lady.

A John Gosden aged 71 died at Broken Hill, NSW, in 1929. He'd be the right age to be Jane's first husband, who appears to have been born in 1857.

Australian death certs usually show the parents' names; in this case they're not shown in the index, so they may not have been known to the informant. The cert should also show the deceased's place of birth, how long he'd been in Aus, and the names of his wives and children (if known to the informant).

http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/In...h?event=births

Not listed in the online Broken Hill cemetery records.

http://www.australiancemeteries.com/...htm#anchor6501

Mary - thanks for that.

I think I have that cert (need to do some rummaging!). It says he was born in Australia, but I seem to remember the informant was someone who probably wouldn't have known any personal details. I couldn't dicide when I got the cert how likely it was to be the right one.

Erm.....are there lots of John Gosdens on the electoral rolls? :confused:

I checked the Australian electoral rolls, but he isn't there. The online electoral rolls for NSW start in 1930, by which time he'd died.

You can contact the Ask a Librarian service and ask them to look for him in earlier electoral rolls; however, they haven't been digitised yet, so unless you have an idea where he was living, they may not be able to find him. Might be worth asking them to try the Broken Hill area, though.

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/services/ask/

By the way, I checked the birth index, and there's no John Gosden born in NSW around 1857.

I have a bad feeling there was very little wrong with her (at least when she went in):

She was admitted for having a fight in the street and had a black eye. Her early life and first marriage were quite different to her life with my great-grandfather and their children were all very 'proper'. I'm afraid my great-uncle (her son) had her committed because she didn't fit in. She had a child with John Gosden who always retained her 'cockney' roots whilst the younger children were distinctly middle class. My gran (her daughter) disowned her mother, always refering to her as her step-mother. My mother grew up knowing this woman was in the asylum, but thought it was her aunt's mother rather than her grandmother. My mum only found the truth years after Sarah Jane died.

My name is Sarah Jane too, which is just a fluke as no one knew she wasn't originally just Jane. My gran would spin in her grave if she knew!

I have cousins in the states who have a photo of Sarah Jane, but they will not let me have a copy of the picture, for reasons unknown. It might be because their mother at least acknowledged Sarah as her mum, whereas my gran disowned her mother - I don't know. All very sad. :(

Thanks for that (and thank you for checking the births!)

It seems increasingly likely that the 1929 death is him. My family did think he was alive when my great-grandparents married, but they assumed there had been a divorce. The marriage cert says my g-grandmother was a widow whilst the census a year earlier says she was a married woman.

I also checked the marriage index, but it doesn't look as though he remarried in NSW.

There are two men born in the 1920s to father John Gosden, but he'd be a bit old if it was him, although it's obviously not impossible.