Sophia Anley Brice was born around 1821 in Culmstock, Devon, to John Anley Brice (about 18), a husbandman and labourer, and Sarah Brice (nee Guppey) (about 25).
Sophia was baptised on 16th September 1821 in Culmstock as Sophia Guppey (her mother's maiden name), though her young parents had married three months earlier on 4th June 1821, also in Culmstock. Some later records imply Sophia was born a few years earlier. It is possible, considering she was baptised with her mother's maiden name, though John and Sarah were married, and how young John was, that he wasn't her biological father; however, on all later records, he is listed as her father and she was brought up with him as her father.
The family's surname varies on documents: most often it is given as Anley/Anly (or Hanley/Hanly) and sometimes as Brice, with eventually some individuals, such as Sophia, using Anley as their middle name and Brice as their surname. Sophia's father John was the illegitimate son of an Elizabeth Brice. Was Anley his father's surname?
Sophia was the eldest of five children (four daughters and one son):
- Sophia 1821 -
- Ann 1823 -
- Sarah 1826 -
- James 1828 -
- Elizabeth 1830 -
All five siblings appears to have had survived into adulthood.
In 1831, when Sophia was about nine, her mother Sarah passed away, aged about thirty-six. She was buried on 3rd July 1831 in Culmstock. She left behind John, a widower in his early thirties, with five young children, all under the age of ten, with the youngest Elizabeth maybe not even one year old.
The motherless family soon relocated. They moved about twenty-five miles south-west, from Culmstock to Woodbury.
Five years later, when Sophia was about fourteen, her father John remarried. On 11th January 1836, widower John Anley Brice (33) married widow Frances Moore (nee Gittisham) (62) in Woodbury. Their age difference is surprising but appears, according to sources, to be correct.
Sophia had three stepmothers:
In addition to her four full younger siblings, through these following marriages of her father's, in her adulthood, Sophia gained fourteen younger step siblings:
- Martha Carter 1839 -
- Robert Watergate Hitchcock 1834 -
- James Hitchcock 1835 -
- Robert Watergate Hitchcock 1836 -
- Anna Hitchcock 1838 -
- Joseph John Hitchcock 1840 -
- Charlotte Hitchcock 1842 -
- Samuel Lockyear Hitchcock 1843 -
- Sarah Watergate Hitchcock 1845 -
- Henry Hitchcock 1846 -
- Charity Lockyear Hitchcock 1850 -
- Herman Hutchins Hitchcock 1852 -
- Harriet Hitchcock 1853 -
- Matilda Lockyear Hitchcock 1855 -
On 3rd January 1841, Sophia (19), a servant, married William Broom Sandford (26), a tanner, in Woodbury.
1841 Census:
Sophia and William had eight children (five sons and three daughters):
- George Anley 1843 -
- Jane Mary 1847 -
- Job/Jobe 1850 -
- Mark 1852 -
- Mary Jane 1855 -
- Kate 1857 -
- Thomas 'Tom' 1859 -
- Harry 1862 -
All eight appear to have survived into adulthood.
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| Photographs of Church Stile, Woodbury, 1910. Sophia and her family lived here around 1840. |
1851 Census:
1861 Census:
In the 1860s, Sophia, in her forties, and her family moved about 18 miles east, from Woodbury to Colyton.
1871 Census:
1881 Census:
In the 1851 Census, a young Sophia is listed as a lacemaker, a common occupation for labouring women in east Devon till recent history. Lace-making requires great skill and was often taught to girls from a young age. Later censuses list Sophia's daughters and granddaughters also as lace-makers. Did Sophia herself hand down her lace-making skills and knowledge to them?
In 1889, when Sophia was about sixty-eight, her husband William passed away, aged about seventy-five. He was buried on 12th August 1889 in Colyton. After William's death, a widowed Sophia moved about thirty-six miles west from Colyton to Morchard Bishop, where she moved in with their son George Anley and his family.
1891 Census:
Sometime in the early 1890's, an elderly Sophia moved from her native Devon to Somerset, there to live her her daughter Mary Jane Smith (nee Sandford) and her family at 6 Weir's buildings, New Cut, Bristol. There she passed away in October or November 1896, aged about seventy-five.
Her death was reported in the Bristol Mercury on 10th November 1896:
Wrongly named in the article with the surname 'Sims' rather than Smith, the Thomas William mentioned was Sophia's son-in-law (Mary Jane's husband), and the Florence her granddaughter (Mary Jane's daughter).
Though Sophia's death was sudden, for some time before she had been suffering from shortness of breath and became ill. It seems her death was one of old age, hopefully surrounded by some family.
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