Thursday 19 March 2020

Great x4 Grandmother Jane Andrews (nee Perkins)

My Great x4 Grandmother Jane (1820 - after 1901) was a servant, housewife, and mother of ten.


Jane was born around 1820 in the county of Kent (likely Dartford in Kent; else in Shoreditch, London), to Robert Perkins (about 25), a labourer and worker in a London oil mill, and Elizabeth Perkins (nee Cooper) (about 29).

Jane was baptised on 11th February 1821 in Shoreditch, London.

Jane was the third of four children (three sons and one daughter):


  • John  1817 -
  • William  1819 -
  • Jane  1821 -
  • George  1823 -


Jane's parents, Robert and Elizabeth, had married in Dartford, in Kent, on Christmas Eve 1815. Their first two sons, John and William, were born and baptised in Dartford, in 1817 and 1819 respectively. It seems the family then moved to Shoreditch, London, for there Jane was baptised in 1821. Whilst in London, her father Robert worked in oil mills there (his occupation as such is given on his youngest son George's baptism record). Come 1822 and the family were living down in Upton Pyne, Devon. There Robert and Elizabeth were buried, and their youngest son George baptised in 1823.

When Jane was nearly two years old, her father Robert passed away, aged only twenty-seven. He was buried on 27th October 1822 in Upton Pyne. At the time of his death, his wife, Elizabeth, was about two or three months pregnant with their fourth child.

Only eight months after her father passed away, when Jane was about two and a half years old, her mother Elizabeth also passed away, aged about thirty-one. Elizabeth was buried on 29th June 1823 in Upton Pyne. Elizabeth had given birth for the last time only the previous month - might she have passed away as a result of the birth?

All later censuses, taken was Jane was an adult, say she was born in the county of Kent, however no town or village is ever given. Given that her parents died when she was one or two years old, and her brothers were about six years old, four years old and one month old, she may not have known where she was born, but may have been told her family came from Kent.

Upton Pyne, 1823; who was looking after the four little Perkins orphans? Whilst their mother, Elizabeth, may well have been from Kent; it seems their father, Robert, may have been a native of Upton Pyne. A Robert Perkins, son of John and Mary, was baptised there in 1795 (the year according to Robert's burial record he was born). So paternal relations may likely have taken the children in. It also makes sense that Elizabeth would go to her husband's place of birth, around the time of his death, for it would be that parish which would (if any) have a duty to give aid to her and her children, for she and her children, as a man's wife and children, would thus be of his parish. Also, at Jane's wedding in nearby Exeter, nearly two decades later, a James Perkins acts as witness. This James was likely her uncle, her father Robert's younger brother.

Come 1840 and Jane, now a young woman, could be found living in Bartholomew Street, Exeter, working as a servant. On 18th October 1840, Jane (19 or 20) married William Andrews (22), an agricultural labourer, in St Olave, Exeter. At the time, William, though a native of Morchard Bishop, was also residing in Bartholomew Street. On their record of marriage, Jane and William left only their mark, implying neither could write.

It seems Jane was about five months pregnant with the couple's first child, when they married.

Jane and William had ten children (four daughters and six sons):


  • Mary Jane  1841 - 1843 (about 2 years old)
  • John  1844 -
  • Sarah Ann  1847 -
  • George  1851 -
  • James  1854 -
  • Mary Emma  1856 -
  • William J  1859 -
  • Eliza Jane  1861 -
  • Jane  1864 -
  • Elizabeth  1865 -


The couple's oldest child, Mary Jane, was baptised in William's native Morchard Bishop in February 1841, implying the young family moved back there from Exeter around late 1840, early 1841. Sadly Mary Jane seems to have passed away young.

Come the 1841 Census, the family had moved again, about nine miles south-east, from Morchard Bishop to Mills Cottages, Shobrooke, Crediton.

1841 Census:


However, within a few years, they were back down in Exeter. At the time of their son John's baptism in 1844, the family resided in Cowley Road, Exeter.

A few years later, and they had moved again, about four miles north from Exeter to Stoke Canon, where they resided at the time of their daughter Sarah Ann's baptism in 1847. They were still there come the 1851 census.

1851 Census:


Sometime in the early 1850's, Jane and her family moved again, about thirteen miles north-east from Stoke Canon to Sampford Peverell, where the younger children were born and baptised.

Unfortunately I cannot find the family on the 1861 Census; however, baptism records imply the family were still living in Sampford Peverell at the time.

Sometime in the late 1860's, Jane and her family moved once more: this time over the border into Somerset! They moved about fifteen miles north-east from Sampford Peverell to Allerford, Hillfarrance, Somerset. They would remain in the area for twenty/thirty years until their deaths. Lodging with the family was Emma Bennett, the older sister of James Bennett. the husband of Jane's daughter Sarah Ann.

1871 Census:


In August 1872, Jane's daughter Sarah Ann was suddenly widowed, when her husband James passed away as a result of an accident at work. In his role as a packer for the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company, he aimed to unload a truck. Alas he attempted to get into the truck while it was still in motion; he missed his step and his leg got entangled in the wheel!

It seems Jane and William were either unable (or chose not) to support their widowed daughter and two infant grandchildren. Sarah, with no obvious means of support, was left a pauper and sought relief in Exeter. Sadly, she and her children were not welcomed by the city, and its justices sought to have them legally removed to South Molton. But Sarah did soon settle in Exeter, with her second husband, Scottish veteran of the Crimean War, James Clapperton, by whom she had more children.


1881 Census:


On 18th October 1890, Jane and William celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. The local newspaper at the time that the elderly couple had "worked hard all their lives, and brought up a [large] family of children".

From the Weston Mercury of 1st November 1890:


1891 Census:


In January 1894, when Jane was about seventy-three, her husband William passed away, likely just short of his seventy-sixth birthday. He was buried on 21st January 1894 in Hillfarrance, Somerset. Jane, now widowed, moved in with their son, William, a groom, and his young family, in Taunton, Somerset.

1901 Census:


Jane's parents had been born at the end of the 18th century; Jane, in her old age, would live to see the beginning of the 20th century.

Although I cannot find a record of death, it seems likely Jane passed away, in her eighties, in Somerset, in the first decade of the 20th century, as she doesn't appear on the 1911 census.

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