Great x3 Grandmother Sarah Ann Sandford (nee Willis)

My Great x3 Grandmother Sarah Ann (1840 - 1897) was a lacemaker and mother of seven.

Sarah Ann Willis was born in 1840 in Colyton, Devon, to James Willis (31), a blacksmith, and Mary Willis (nee Richards) (about 27), a lacemaker.

Sarah Ann was baptised on 29th December 1840 in Colyton.

Sarah Ann was the fifth of fourteen children (four sons and ten daughters):

• William Richards Needs  1831 -
• John Needs  1833 -
• Clara Elizabeth  1834 -
• Mary Ann  1839 -
• Sarah Ann  1840 -
• James  1843 -
• Keziah  1845 -
• Judith Maria  1846 -
• Susan Armenia  1848 -
• Leah  1850 - 1850 (2 weeks old)
• Emily  1851 - 1852 (1 year old)
• Eliza Ann  1854 -
• Catherine  1856 -
• Philip Henry  1856 - 1857 (8 months)

Sadly three of Sarah Ann's young siblings died in infancy. In 1850, when Sarah Ann was nine, her younger sister Leah passed away, aged only two weeks; in 1852, when Sarah Ann was eleven, her younger sister Emily passed away, aged only one years old; and in 1857, when Sarah Ann was sixteen years old, her youngest son Philip Henry passed away, aged only eight months.

Sarah Ann and her many siblings grew up in and around Colyton and Shute.

1841 Census:

1851 Census:

By the 1860s, Sarah Ann, a young woman, was living with her elder married sister Mary Ann and her family in Kilmington.

1861 Census:

Photograph of Silver Street, Kilmington, c 1960

Sarah Ann lived here 100 years earlier, around 1860, with her elder sister Mary Ann and her family

In the 1860s, Sarah Ann had two illegitimate children:

• William  1864 -
• Mary  1868 -

William and Mary lived with Sarah Ann's parents. By 1871, Sarah Ann was also living back at home, in Colyton, with her parents. Sarah's future husband, George Anley Sandford, lodged with Sarah Ann and her family, before they married.

1871 Census:

On 7th May 1871, Sarah Ann (30), a lacemaker and single mother of two, married George Anley Sandford (27), a farm labourer, in Colyton.

Sarah Ann and George had five children:

• Mark  1872 -
• Jane Mary  1873 -
• Alice  1877 -
• Susan  1882 -
• Henry 'Harry'  1884 -

The family moved gradually west. Around 1880, they moved from the Colyton area around fourteen miles west to the Payhembury area.

1881 Census:

The family soon moved again. First in the early 1880s from Payhembury around 26 miles west to Zeal Monachorum.

They moved again in the late 1880s from Zeal Monachorum east five miles to Morchard Bishop.

1891 Census:

In 1897, Sarah Ann passed away aged fifty-six, in the district of South Molton.