Matilda Edwards

[Phoenix]

Name - "official" name and what they were known as
Matilda Edwards
Far too fierce for any of the next generation to call her anything but Matilda! However, her (very much younger) sister in law, allegedly named after her, was called Till.
Date and place of birth
22 July 1859, Mill Street, Bideford, Devon
Names of parents
Adams Edwards and Mary Ann Parsons
Date and place of baptism - if applicable
Birth was reported in the Bideford Times, but father was non-conformist and neither Matilda nor her siblings were baptised at the Bideford parish church
Details of each of his or her marriages - if any
to William Horne on 26 March 1890, Wonersh, Surrey. Witnesses were Kate Tonge, a servant working in Wonersh who came originally from Andover and Elijah Carpenter, a blacksmith from Godalming.
Occupation(s) - if any
Employed as a companion to Eliza Foord
Military service - if any
None
Addresses where they lived
1859 Mill Street, Bideford
1861 Mill Street
1871 Hartland, Devon
1881 Wonersh, Surrey
1891 Ickenham, Middlesex
1893 Albury, Surrey
1901 Blackheath, Surrey
1911 Barnet Lane, Wonersh to 1940
1940 - 1944 Lexden, Essex

Date, place and cause of death
8 March 1944, Lexden, Essex
Date and place of burial / cremation.
Lexden
Details of will / administration of their estate - if applicable
Matilda's Golden Wedding Anniversary was used as an opportunity to distribute trinkets and momentoes amongst the family. I have a silver spoon, a dictionary that belonged to her father, a bible and some china fairings. Her husband had been an invalid for many years and they lived in their house rent free until they went to Essex to live with their youngest daughter, so the likelihood of a will is remote.
Memorial inscription - if any

[Katarzyna]

I take it you have all the censuses for Matilda?

[Phoenix]

That's a sore point, Kat!

I do have her for all the censuses, but for many years I thought she was in Portsmouth in 1881, living just round the corner from her sister Susan. In fact, she is with Mrs Foord in Wonersh, her surname mangled by the enumerator.

[Katarzyna]

[Phoenix]

Matilda with her children, photographed outside their home in Blackheath, Surrey.