Louisa Edwards was born around 1845 in Morchard Bishop, Devon to William Edwards (about 32), a mason, and Susannah 'Susan' Edwards (nee Passmore) (about 27), a hand loom weaver (serge).
Louisa was baptised on 9th November 1845 in Morchard Bishop.
Louisa was the sixth of seven children (four girls and three boys):
- Ann Ellen (known as Ellen) 1836 -
- Mary 1837 -
- Richard 1839 -
- Henry 1841 - 1843 or 1849 (as a young boy)
- George 1843 -
- Louisa 1845 -
- Eliza 1849 -
Louisa and her siblings were all born and grew up in their parents' native Morchard Bishop.
It seems Louisa's older brother Henry passed away as a young boy, either a few years before Louisa was born or when she was about four years old.
1851 Census:
Louisa's parents passed away when she was young. In Jan/Feb/Mar 1855, when Louisa was about nine, her mother Susannah passed away, aged about thirty-six, in the district of Crediton. And in Oct/Nov/Dec 1859, when Louisa was about fourteen, her father William passed away, aged about forty-six, in the district of Crediton. Orphaned, what happened to Louisa and her siblings?
Though only a teenager, Louisa was old enough to work. Less than two years after her father's death, the 1861 Census shows Louisa, aged fifteen, working as a general servant, for widower Maria Davy of a 100 acre farm, at Lower Southcott, Oldborough, Morchard Bishop.
1861 Census:
In Jul/Aug/Sep 1866, Louisa (20) married Henry James (29), an agricultural labourer, in the district of Crediton.
Robert and Louisa was related by marriage. Robert's maternal uncle Roger Leach was married to Louisa's paternal aunt Frances Edwards.
Louisa and Henry had eight children (four daughters and four sons):
- Lucy 1868 - 1897 (29)
- Bessie 1869 -
- Edwin 1875 -
- Louisa 1878 -
- Emily Maude 1880 -
- Charles 1883 -
- Francis Robert 1886 -
- Gilbert 1889 -
1871 Census:
1881 Census:
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| Louisa (left), with her daughters Emily (standing) and Louisa (right), c 1900 |
On 25th March 1897, when Louisa was about fifty-one, her eldest daughter Lucy passed away, aged twenty-nine, of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Sometime in the 1890s, Louisa moved with her husband and their youngest sons from their native Morchard Biship to East Worlington, where they can be found in the 1901 Census:
By 1911, Louisa and Henry's youngest son Gilbert supported his elderly parents, living with them back in Morchard Bishop and working, as his father had done before him, as a farm labourer.
1911 Census:
Louisa's husband Henry lived to see the beginning of the First World War but not its end. In Jul/Aug/Sep 1816, when Louisa was about seventy, Henry passed away, aged seventy-nine, in the district of Crediton. Thankfully their youngest son Gilbert could continue to support his elderly and now widowed mother Louisa, as, when conscription was introduced in 1916, Gilbert was given exemption as he was needed at home on the farm, being head horseman at Brownstone Farm.
From the Western Times on 20th October 1916:
Louisa would live for another twelve years. In July 1928, Louisa passed away, aged eighty-two, in Morchard Bishop.
Her funeral was reported in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette on 26th July 1928:
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