Mary Taylor (OH's MFFM)

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Name - "official" name and what they were known as
Mary Taylor

Date and place of birth
12 Jun 1830, Cranbrook Kent

Names of parents
Thomas Taylor and Charlotte Ades (daughter of Moses and Ann, not daughter of Thomas and Sarah born about the same time)

Date and place of baptism - if applicable
not found (although older siblings were "baptised" at the Chapel on the Hill Independent, Cranbrook, according to the IGI, so presume they just haven't indexed 1830)

Details of each of his or her marriages - if any
2 April 1852 to Edward John Tanner, Tunbridge Wells Kent

Occupation(s) - if any
housewife, nothing recorded in the census

Addresses where they lived (including county if in UK) - and please list which censuses you have or haven't found him/her on.
1841 - Crane House, Cranbrook Kent, with parents, father Thomas a ropemaker
1851 - a lodger in Staplehurst Kent, I didn't write down who she was lodging with.
1861 - 9 Barden Cottages, Speldhurst Kent
1871 - Prong St, Tunbridge,Kent
1877 -Wellington New Zealand (where youngest child Grace Miriam Tanner was born)
1883 - per "Wakatipu" to Sydney NSW
1904 - "Langton, Morwick St, Burwood

Date, place and cause of death
28 OCt 1924, at her daughters residence, "Tasman" Marcelle Ave, Randwick.

Date and place of burial / cremation.
buried at St Thomas CofE graveyard, Enfield.

Details of will / administration of their estate - if applicable
none known

Memorial inscription - if any
"in loving memory of
Edward Tanner
1831-1904
also his wife Mary Tanner
1830-1924"

Hi Marquette,
I see your ancestor was at Barden Farm, Speldhurst, Kent - an ancestor of mine was also a tenant but from 1780 to 1809, his name was Robert Smith and the next two generations lived at Speldhurst, Bidborough, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells before they came to Australia in 1838. We have quite a few similarities don't we? Cheers Julie

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Hi Julie

we do indeed - although the Tanners were carpenters and builders rather than farmers. I am told that some property owned by the Tanner/Hardwick family in the Speldhurst (or perhaps Penshurst) area still belongs to part of the family.

Di

[TasG]

Hi Marquette,

I was seeking some extra information on Mary Taylor (for my wife's line) and was grateful to have found your site. You noted that you had them in "1883 - per "Wakatipu" to Sydney NSW".

I've had trouble finding them on any vessels so was really pleased to see this. Do you have any other information to put them on this particular boat as I see that it only lists a Mr and Mrs Tanner and children? I'd also love to know if you have any photos of this couple and of Mabel Emily Spencer (nee Tanner) their daughter as I, unfortunately, have nothing!

Hope to hear from you soon,

Cheers

TasG

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Hi TasG

Currently I don't have any photos of the earlier Tanners but have asked Aunty Val if she has any. I do have photos of the graves at St Thomas Enfield, including the Spencers.

Do you have Mary Taylors parents and further ancestors ?

I have no proof of that the Tanners on the Wakatipu are "ours" but they are the only Tanner family travelling in the time frame 1877-1885. I am trying to find out when they arrived in Wellington, but that's a more difficult task

Regards for now

Diane

Hi Di, In looking through some material I bought in Uk I found a booklet called "A Walk in Old Speldhurst" by Mary Campbell. It is in black and white and goes around the village giving a brief description of the old buildings including the church. What is especially interesting is No. 12 Barden Mill Furnace "The village smelter is believed to have produced cannon balls used during the Armada. The mill stream forms part of the parish boundary." "No 13. Barden Cottage Now located just outside the village boundary. A wartime bomb landed in the fields nearby shattering the windows and damaging the roof tiles." "No. 14. The Old Gardens. At one tme this part of Speldhurst was nearly all market gardens. This was the home of Tom Thorpe, the last to run the Barden Road Gardens". This is interesting to me because my ancestors moved from here to run a greengrocer's shop in Tunbridge Wells before they migrated to Aus.
Speldhurst's claim to fame is that a non-denominational chapel was built by Samuel Morley of the knitwear company that was credited with the invention of silk stockings.. So lots of interesting snippets including from canon balls to silk stockings lol ... I will email you.

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Thanks Julie,

Speldhurst seems like an interesting place. Mary's husband Edward gave is birthplace as Langton or Langton Green, at the southern end of the parish. You will see on his father on the 3xg grandparent thread. Edward's half brother Edmund Hardwicke was the blacksmith after his father William Hardwicke, while his brother Frederick Hardwicke had the Spotted Dog Inn at Penshurst. One wonders how long the Hardwicks had been blacksmiths there, may be they even made some of the cannon balls !

Haven't found any Smith connections - but I will look further. Hardwicks married into the Dier, Twort and Allen families, but the Tanner family left Speldhurst completely.

Diane

Our ancestors would have known each other for sure Di. Blacksmiths did a lot of travelling around and had a lot of people come to them from around the district. Often times it was where the men met and gossiped lol waiting for their horses to be shod, waggon wheels fixed etc. My Kent/Sussex Smiths were also blacksmiths going back, I will have to check exactly where, but it was in the vicinity. So How do Neighbour lol

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Between us, OH and I have several blacksmiths in the family. And lots of carpenters and builders. OH's other Sussex/Kent ancestors were the Ades of Seddlescombe, and the Sheathers of Brede and that area and the Tanners from Buxted originally. Mine only Sussex ancestors were from the west - Brighton and Graffham/Woolavington.

Di