Great x4 Grandmother Maria Brownscombe (nee Popham)

My Great Grandmother Maria (1819 - 1899) was a servant, housewife, charwoman, glover, domestic cook, and mother of three.

Maria was born around 1819 in Huntshaw, Devon, the illegitimate daughter of Mary Popham.

One ought to consider: prior to the twentieth century, in Britain, the name Maria was more commonly pronounced as the modern Mariah.

Our Maria was baptised on 20th June 1819 in Huntshaw. Her abode is listed as Huntshaw Moor House.

As a young woman, Maria found work as a servant. The 1841 Census shows Maria working as a servant for publican Thomas Liverton, in Bratton Fleming. Bratton Fleming is over fifteen miles north-east of Maria's native Huntshaw.

1841 Census:

In Oct/Nov/Dec 1841, Maria (about 22), a servant and charwoman, married Thomas Brownscombe (about 22), a sawyer, in the district of Barnstaple. I wonder if they met at the pub at Bratton Fleming.

Maria and Thomas had three daughters:

• Elizabeth 'Bessie/Betsy'  1843 -
• Mary Ann  1846 -
• Katherine 'Kitty'  1850 -

The three girls were baptised and brought up in their father's native Bratton Fleming.

1851 Census:

In Oct/No/Dec 1859, when Maria was about forty, her husband Thomas passed away, aged about forty, in the district of Barnstaple. Maria was left a widow, with three young daughters, aged sixteen, thirteen and nine.

Two years later, the 1861 Census shows, Maria's eldest two daughters, though still only teenagers, living and working as domestic servants on local farms. Meanwhile, Maria worked as a glover. Alongside her youngest daughter Kitty, she lodged with elderly widow Elizabeth Huxtable, at 4 Bratton Down, in Bratton Fleming. Elizabeth interestingly had independent means. Was she somehow related to Maria, a friend who had taken her in after her bereavement, or simply her landlady?

1861 Census:

All three of her daughters having flown the nest, come middle age, Maria could be found working as a domestic cook for the household of Rev. Humphrey Senhouse Pinder, the "generous" rector of Bratton Fleming. She would work for the family for many years to come. Pinder was described as "a dynamic character who made a big difference to the Village. He built a new rectory... restored the church and had the Village School built... His family owned sugar plantations [in Barbados]... This enabled him to be generous with improvements in Bratton Fleming".

Photograph of Maria's employer, Rev. Humphrey Senhouse Pinder, 1884

1871 Census:

After the Rev. Pinder retired and moved his family down, nearly forty miles south-east, to Exeter, Maria moved with the family.

1881 Census:

The Rev. Pinder passed away in 1888. Three years later, 1891 Census shows an elderly Maria back living with her youngest daughter, Kitty, now a dressmaker. The mother and daughter lived together at Pottington Cottage in Pilton, which is only about seven miles south-west of Bratton Fleming, where Maria spent most of her life and brought up her daughters. Maria is described as 'living on own means' - had she worked to save up money, those years as a cook?

1891 Census:

In Oct/Nov/Dec 1899, Maria passed away, aged about eighty, in the distinct of Barnstaple. She just missed seeing the new century. She had outlived her husband, Thomas, by forty years!