Great x4 Grandmother Mary Manning (nee Westcott)

My Great x4 Grandmother Mary (c 1796 - 1840's) was a housewife and mother of eight.

Mary was born around 1796 in Devon.

On 14th November 1821, Mary (about 25) married William Manning (about 26), an agricultural labourer, in Alphington, near Exeter. Both left only their mark, implying neither could write. Mary was about six weeks pregnant when they married - their first child Samuel being born on 27th June 1822.

Mary and William had eight children (four sons and four daughters):

• Samuel  1822 -
• Eliza  1823 - 1824 (1 year old)
• Harriot  1825 -
• Mary Ann  1826 -
• Benjamin  1828 -
• William  1830 -
• Thomas  1831 -
• Eliza  1834 -

Mary, William and their young family lived in the area of Alphington, Holcombe Burnell and Longdown (there is only a few miles between them). Their abode is listed as Longdown Cottage on the baptism record of their eldest son Samuel, who was baptised in Holcombe Burnell on 8th July 1822. Whilst the 1823 baptism record of their second child, Eliza, lists their abode as Longdown End, Alphington. Eliza was also baptised in Holcombe Burnell, on 12th October 1823.

Around 1824, they moved around five miles south-west to Dunsford. Their second child, Eliza, sadly passed, aged abour only thirteen months old. She was buried on 5th November 1824, in Dunsford. On her burial record, the family's abode is listed as North Midwinter. This unusual name was likely the name of their cottage, as my research has found there was also a South Midwinter Cottage in Dunsford at the time.

The family lived at Midwinter for about three years, from 1824 to 1827. Their abode is listed as such on the baptism records of their next two children, Harriot (born 1825) and Mary Ann (born 1826). Both girls were baptised in Holcombe Burnell.

Aroun 1828, Mary and her young family moved around ten miles north-west, making the return to her husband William's native Spreyton. Their next child, Benjamin, was baptised there on 12th October 1828. The couple's last three children were also baptised in Spreyton, showing the family remained in the village, throughout the early 1830's.

Sadly the 183 baptism record of their youngest child, Eliza, lists the family's abode as the Poor House. Thankfully by the time of the 1841 Census, seven years later, their abode is no longer listed as the Poor House, but simply Spreyton Village.

1841 Census:

Two key things happened to the Manning family in the 1840's: firstly, at some point, Mary passed away, in her late forties or early fifties, as her husband William is listed as a widower on the 1851 Census; also the family, at some point, moved from Spreyton about sixteen miles east to Exeter.