Emma Bennett was born on 11th February 1871, just over the border in Nynehead, Somerset to Devonian parents, James Bennett (about 29), a railway labourer, and Sarah Ann Bennett (nee Andrews) (about 27). Did James' work for the railway take them into Somerset?
Emma was the second of two children (one son and one daughter):
- William 1868 - 1942 (73)
- Emma 1871 - 1944 (73)
When the 1871 Census was taken, 3 weeks old Emma was yet to be named by her parents:
From the Western Gazzette on 23rd August 1872:
Emma's young widowed mother Sarah Ann, left a pauper with two young infants, sought relief in Exeter, Devon. Sadly, they were not welcomed by the city, and its justices sought to have them legally removed to South Molton.
From the Western Daily Mercury on 2nd April 1874:
Census records imply Sarah Ann soon remarried, and Emma and her brother William gained a step-father in the form of Scottish veteran of the Crimean War James Clapperton. Yet it should be noted that I cannot find a record of marriage between Sarah Ann and James Clapperton, though they would live for years as husband and wife.
The family of Sarah Ann, her two infants, and her new husband did settle in Exeter; and Emma and William gained six younger half siblings (three brothers and three sisters):
- James 1874 -
- George Henry 1876 -
- Walter John 1880 - 1913 (32 years old)
- Minnie 1884 -
- Ada 1886 - 1888 (1 year and 9 months)
- Florence 'Florrie' Mabel 1889 -
In 1881, also living or staying with the Clapperton/Bennett family were the Miller family: Emma's uncle by marriage American Henry Miller, a fellow pensioner and porter of James Clapperton; his young wife Eliza, who was Sarah Ann's younger sister and Emma's aunt; and their baby daughter Mary Jane, who was Emma's young cousin.
1881 Census:
When Emma was about fourteen, her younger half brother James, around the age of eleven, alas turned to stealing. And not being a fast runner, he was twice caught. On 31st August 1885, James, 11, acted as watch-out, as his young friend Charles Henry Green, 9, stole threepenny worth of sweets from a shop at 54 Richmond Road, the property of a Miss Osborn. Their crime was witnessed by a William Kerslake, who subsequently caught James. Charles said James, the older lad, had told him to steal the sweets. Only a week later, on 7th September 1885, James attempted another steal with Charles, and another lad, Frederick Charles Hookaway, 10. They stole 50 prawns, worth 1s 6d, from a fish shop at 15 Paris Street, the property of a Mrs Smith. She ran after the boys down the street and once more James was caught. He was sentence to three weeks in prison, to be followed by five years in a Reformatory School.
Sometime between 1885 and 1888, Emma and her family moved from Little Clifton Street to New Cheeke Street, also in Exeter. Young Mary Jane Miller stayed with the family. Were Emma and her cousin Mary Jane friendly? Did Emma get on with her younger half siblings? Did she help look after them?
Tragedy struck seventeen-year-old Emma and her family in 1888: as an accident involving a lorry killed her father, so an accident involving a tram killed her younger half sister, Ada. On the evening of 11th April 1888, Ada was only a toddler, out of her mother, Sarah Ann's sight for barely a minute while she fetched water from the house next door, and watched over by an older brother; but in a passing moment a younger brother left the front door open and little Ada wandered out, just when the older brother wasn't looking, and just when a tram came pass. The tram-driver braked suddenly, but too late. The elder brother, oh how racked with guilt and shock and sadness he must have been, when he then ran to his mother to tell her. The sons in the article aren't named. Was the younger brother Walter, aged about eight, going out onto the street to play with friends? The older brother James, aged about fourteen, maybe, or George, aged about twelve, running to tell poor Sarah Ann?
From the Western Times on 17th April 1888:
1891 Census:
Emma's was a military family. Her step-father James, older brother William, her younger half brothers, and her son George all served in the army...
Emma's older brother William, aged twenty, joined the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry as a private on 27th July 1889. He served in India for four years from 26th November 1892 to 14th February 1897, and then again from another year from 3rd August 1899 to 21st December 1900. Finally he served in Ceylon from 22nd December 1900 to 21st July 1902. William's Army Service Record gives a physical description of him as a young man: he had sallow skin, grey eyes, brown hair, and was only 5' 3 1/2''. Did Emma have similar colouring to her brother?
Emma's younger half brother James, the one who stole the sweets and prawns as a boy, served in both the Boer and First World War. Unfortunately I cannot find his service record for the Boer War, but his service record from the First World War gives us some information of his previous service. It informs us he served in the Devonshire Regiment for ten years, leaving around 1903, meaning he must have joined around 1893, aged about nineteen. James, who rose the rank of Sergeant like his father before him, reenlisted on 19th November 1915, aged forty-one, as a Sapper and Line Telegraphist. He then served in the Royal Engineers on the British Eastern Front from 29th May 1916 to 14th December 1916. He was discharged on 28th May 1917, suffering from gas poisoning. His conduct in the war was described as "very satisfactory" and his character "very good". In appearance, James seems less the viking Clapperton and more perhaps like his mother Sarah Ann: he had a fresh complexion, hazel eyes, dark brown hair, and was 5'4''.
Emma's younger half brother George also joined the army. On 11th March 1896, George, aged nineteen, joined the Devonshire Regiment as a private. George served in the East Indies from 28th February 1898 to 20th September 1899, and in South Africa from 21st September 1899 to 21st May 1903. Again George's Army Service Record gives a physical description of him as a young man: in contrast to his older half brother William, George had fresh skin, blue eyes, fair hair, and was 5' 5 1/2''. His colouring was very much like his father.
Emma's youngest half brother Walter, served as a private in the Royal Marines Light Infantry: Plymouth Division for thirteen years, from 1898 to 1911. Walter enlisted on 28th December 1898, aged eighteen. The fair Clapperton colour came through: Walter had blue eyes, light brown hair and was 5'8''. His general character was found to be "good".
In Jul/Aug/Sep 1891, Emma (20), a domestic servant, married Francis 'Frank' George Wright (22), a tinman, in Exeter.
Emma and Frank had twelve children (eight sons, two daughters, and two unknown):
- Francis 'Will' William 1891 - 1967 (76)
- George Charles 1893 - 1918 (25)
- Unnamed Stillborn Child 1894 - 1894 (0)
- Unnamed Stillborn Child 1895 - 1895 (0)
- Charles Arthur 1897 - 1897 (5 weeks old)
- Thomas 'Tom' Edwin 1898 - 1977 (78/79)
- Walter Henry 1900 - 1986 (85/86)
- Ernest 'Len' Leonard 1905 - 1981 (76)
- Samuel 'Sam' John 1908 - 1977 (68)
- Florence 'Florrie' Ellen 1910 - 1999 (88)
- Doris May 1912 - 1991 (79)
- Harold Reginald 1914 - 1985 (70)
Alas, Emma gave birth to two stillborn children, after one another, in 1894 and then 1895. Emma and Frank paid 5s for each child to be buried at Exeter Cemetery. Her next born, a son, was born alive. Sadly, baby Charles, would pass away at only five weeks old, in 1897.
I wonder if Emma's oldest son was named for his father, Frank, and for Emma's brother William. Might Emma's children George, Walter and Florence also have been named after her younger half siblings? Notably, the name James, the name of her father, step-father, and step-brother is not used.
In the 1890s, Emma's husband, Frank, alternated between working as a tinman/tinplate worker and plumber.
Originally Emma and Frank set up home with or near Frank's family in Prospect Place in Exeter's poor West Quarter; however, in late 1892/early 1893, they moved from Prospet Place to 5 Mermaid Lodge, also in Exeter's West Quarter. Yet, by early 1897, they were back living at 10 Prospect Place. Around 1899/1900, the family moved again to nearby 6 Teigh Place, another small court off Rack Street. The 1901 Census shows Frank's elderly widowed mother Sarah lived only two doors down at 4 Teigh Place, and Emma's step father James lived with the family.
The marriage between Emma's mother Sarah Ann and her stepfather James had broken down, with James being violent toward Sarah Ann. I cannot find any record of Sarah Ann after 1899. Emma and her half siblings seem to stick with James: he lodges with Emma around 1901, and his reported funeral in 1907 is highly attended by family.
From the Western Times on 27th April 1899:
1901 Census:
In April 1906, Emma's younger half sister Florrie, 17, having been out on a Sunday evening with her friends Alice Crocker, 18, and Emma Batchford, 17, they were summoned for having used obscene language. Said a policeman: "They were behaving in a disorderly manner, and their screaming could be heard at a great distance. They pushed against people, and opposite the Guildhall they surrounded some soldiers, who swore at them." Florrie, like her brother James, proved not a fast runner: when the policeman spoke to them and they ran away, Florrie was the one caught. Each was fined 2s 6d.
On 18th January 1907, Emma's step father James passed away, aged seventy-one, in Exeter. His death was reported in the Western Times on 23rd January 1907:
Emma and the family attended his funeral on 24th January 1907 at Exeter's Higher Cemetery. Owing to his military service, his funeral was highly attended and reported in the Western Times on 25th January 1907:
Emma and her family remained at 6 Teigh Place, as seen in the 1911 Census:
Around 1912, some fifteen to twenty years before the clearing of the poor West Quarter, Emma and her family moved from the area to nearby 11 Clinton Street, Exeter.
In 1913, when Emma was forty-two, her younger half brother Walter passed away. In the Royal Marines for thirteen years, Walter had served on many ships, before being invalided out on 16th November 1911. Eighteen months later, he passed away, aged thirty-two, in April 1913.
His death was reported in the Western Times on 8th April 1913:
Emma's second son George served in the First World War. After four years in the Territorial Royal Army Medical Corps, George, aged twenty-one, joined the 7th Reserve (Cyclist) Battalion of the Devonshire Regiment as a private, on 17th December 1914. George passed away, aged twenty-five, in March 1918, in Exeter, when his mother Emma was forty-seven.
My father recalls being told that an uncle of his mother, Delma, struggled after his experience in the First World War, and lived in a shed in the bottom of the garden, and wouldn't go in the house. Emma's son George seems to be the only uncle of Delma who served in the First World War, so it seems likely that my father's story is alas about him.
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| Photograph of Emma and Frank in middle aged, c 1920 |
On 17th October 1937, Emma's 19-year-old grandson Phillip (son of Emma's eldest son Will) passed away. The young man had been in a motor bike accident on 23rd June. He lay unconscious in hospital for three weeks, but appeared to gradually improve and was discharged and returned home to the care of his paternal grandmother (Emma) on 6th August. Then on the morning of the 16th October, he suddenly took a turn for the worse, complaining of pains in his head and feeling giddy. He was readmitted to the hospital that evening unconscious. He passed away on the evening of the 17th. A post-mortem revealed the cause of death to be meningitis following fracture of the skull.
Phillip had been brought up by his grandmother - his mother Lina having passed away, when he was a baby; and his father Will, according to a 1939 newspaper report, was living and working in Canada. However, by 1939, Will was back living in the Wright family home in Clinton Street, Exeter.
...
Like father, like son: as Emma's stepfather James abused his wife and Emma's mother Sarah, alas so did Emma's younger half brother James abuse his wife Elizabeth. Throughout the 1920's and 1930's, he was repeatedly charged: with abusing his wife, with being drunk and disorderly, with stealing, with failing to pay maintenance to his wife, later separated from him, for the care of their ten children. He seems have been a bad egg. Talking about eggs, he stole four hens eggs in 1930 and was caught. Part of him was ever the boy stealing - be it a handful of sweets or prawns or eggs - and ever getting caught; part of him was the man of the military, like his father, his violence let out on his wife.
Emma's husband Frank thankfully seem seems to have been a nice man. Frank would not live to see the Second World War. He passed away in January or February 1939, aged seventy, at their home of 11 Clinton Street, Exeter. Emma would have been nearly sixty-eight. After his death, Emma and her family posted this in the Express and Echo on 13th February 1939:
At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Emma could still be found living at her home of 11 Clinton Street in Exeter, with her sons Will and Sam, and her older brother William.
1939 Census:
In Jan/Feb/Mar 1942, when Emma was seventy or seventy-one, her older brother William passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.
Alas Emma also did not live to see the Second World War end. She passed away, aged seventy-three, in Oct/Nov/Dec 1944, in adoptive home of Exeter.
Emma's husband Frank thankfully seem seems to have been a nice man. Frank would not live to see the Second World War. He passed away in January or February 1939, aged seventy, at their home of 11 Clinton Street, Exeter. Emma would have been nearly sixty-eight. After his death, Emma and her family posted this in the Express and Echo on 13th February 1939:
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| Who Frank Left Behind: The Wright Family, c 1940 Stood from left to right: Walter, Doris, Florrie and Harold Sat from left to right: Sam, Tom, Emma, Will and Len |
At the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Emma could still be found living at her home of 11 Clinton Street in Exeter, with her sons Will and Sam, and her older brother William.
1939 Census:
In Jan/Feb/Mar 1942, when Emma was seventy or seventy-one, her older brother William passed away, aged seventy-three, in Exeter.
Alas Emma also did not live to see the Second World War end. She passed away, aged seventy-three, in Oct/Nov/Dec 1944, in adoptive home of Exeter.
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