Great x4 Grandmother Ann Harris (nee Rogers)

My Great x4 Grandmother Ann (1792 - after 1841) was a housewife and mother of three.

Ann was born around 1792 in Coldridge, Devon, to William Rogers (about 39) and Ann Rogers (nee Down).

Ann was baptised on 23rd September 1792, in Coldridge.

Ann was the youngest of five children (three daughters and two sons):

• Grace  1779 -
• William  1781 -
• Thomas  1785 -
• Mary  1788 -
• Ann  1792 -

On 9th May 1819, Ann (about 27) married John Harris (about 25), an agricultural labourer, in their native Coldridge. On the same day as they married, their son William was also baptised. Might Ann have named her son after her father?

Ann and John had three children (one son and two daughters):

• William  1819 -
• Ann  1822 -
• Mary  1824 -

In 1825, when Ann was about thirty-three, her father William passed away, aged about seventy-one. William was buried on 24th August 1825, in Coldridge.

At some point, Ann and her family moved from Coldridge about four miles east to Lapford, where they can be found living at Cleave Cottage on the 1841 census.

1841 Census:

Ann's two daughters soon married brothers. On 12th June 1841, his eldest daughter Ann married elder brother George Edworthy, who, the 1841 census shows, lived with the Harris family at Cleave Cottage before their marriage; then, a few years later, on 26th September 1843, his youngest daughter Mary married younger brother William Edworthy. A few years earlier, Mary had given birth to an illegitimate daughter, whom she called Ann (likely after her mother and sister), and whose father may well have been William. The 1841 census shows the baby (not yet named at one week old) was part of the family, and seemingly accepted by grandparents Ann and John.

In the 1851 Census, Ann's husband John is shown still living at Cleave Cottage with their married daughter Ann, her husband George Edworthy (George now listed as the head of the household), and their three young daughters. John is still listed as married, but where was Ann? Ann may have passed away in the 1840's, and the census be incorrect on the married front, and John should have been recorded as a widower. Unfortunately Ann Harris is a common name; several Ann Harriss passed away in that general area in the 1840's, and it is impossible to work out which is our, but it is likely one is, as our Ann disappears from records after this time.