Emma Brealey was born in 1855 in Holy Trinity, Exeter, Devon, to George Brealey (24), a carpenter, and Joanna Brealey (nee Sampson), a former servant.
Emma was baptised on 8th April 1855 in Holy Trinity, Exeter.
Emma was the eldest of three children (two daughters and one son):
- Emma 1855 - 1924 (68 or 69 years old)
- Charles 1857 - 1923 (65 years old)
- Eliza 1859 - 1860 (13 months old)
When Emma was four, nearly five, her younger sister Eliza passed away, aged only 13 months old.
For all of Emma's childhood, she and her family lived at 5 Trinity Place, near South Street, Exeter.
1861 Census:
1871 Census:
As a teenager, Emma worked as a dressmaker.
When Emma was seventeen, her mother Joanna passed away, aged fifty-three, in 1872, in Exeter. Four years later, when Emma was twenty-one, her father George remarried. In 1876, George Brealey (35) married Charlotte Mary Filleul (30) in Exeter.
In her twenties, Emma moved about twenty-one miles south from Holy Trinity, Exeter to Ellacombe, Torquay. There she worked as a serving maid for John Awdry Jamieson, the vicar of Ellacombe. In an article in the Hastings and St Leonard's Observer from 11th August 1900, Rev. J.A. Jamieson is described as working for the welfare of the local people and "most popular". It continues: "He is a strict Evangelical, and often takes an important part in the Protestant campaign against sacerdotalism, presiding at meetings and speaking powerfully for the party. He shows special interest in temperance matters, and is an enthusiastic and practical supporter of home and foreign missionary work." I wonder what this religious man was like as an employer.
1881 Census:
Sometime in the late 1880s, Emma moved back to Exeter. There she gave birth to her and her future husband George Mutter's first daughter, Charlotte Irene Mutters Brealey, in 1888, about three months before they married. Did Emma name her daughter Charlotte after her step-mother?
On 2nd December 1888, Emma (33) married George Mutters (23), a mason, in Holy Trinity, Exeter. At the time of their marriage, the couple were living in Centre Street, Exeter. Also at the time, Emma was not working, likely because she had a very young baby to look after.
Both Emma and George were able to sign their name on their marriage certificate. Here are their signatures:
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| Signatures of George Mutters (23) and Emma Brealey (33), 1888 |
Emma and George had seven children (four daughters and three sons):
- Charlotte Irene 1888 - 1890 (1 year)
- Henry George 1889 - 1889 (0 - 3 months)
- Lily Emmeline 1890 - 1970 (79 years)
- Charles 'Charlie' George 1892 - 1970 (77/78 years)
- Violet Grace 1894 - 1953 (58 years)
- Anna/Anne 1896 - 1896 (0 - 3 months)
- William 'Willie' George 1898 - 1910 (11 years)
Alas four of their children passed away in childhood.
Around 1889, Emma and her family moved about twelve miles north east from Exeter to Cullompton.
1891 Census:
Times were tough. The couple's first two children passed away young. Their third child Lily was very small. George was a patient at Exeter Hospital, an institution for the sick poor. Whilst Emma lived in Cullompton, away from family support.
1891 Census:
Thankfully their situation improved. George returned to his family, and they moved around 1892 about sixteen miles south west to George's native Woodbury. The couple had more children who survived infancy.
1901 Census:
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Photograph or Globe Hill, Woodbury, 1904
Emma and her family lived on Globe Hill in the early 1900s.
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On 12th March 1910, when Emma was fifty-five, her youngest son Willie passed away, aged only eleven years old.
1911 Census:
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| Photograph of Globe Hill, Woodbury, 1914 |
Emma was nearly sixty, when the First World War began. Sadly her husband George passed away before the war's end. He passed away, aged fifty-two, on 20th April 1918 in the district of Neath, Glamorganshire, Wales. Though her died in Wales, he was buried in Woodbury. Emma herself passed away, aged sixty-nine, on 9th May 1924, in Woodbury. Emma and George are buried together.
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