Great x3 Aunt Harriet Yeo

My Great x3 Aunt Harriet (1872 - 1893) was a domestic servant, and the youngest sister of my Great Great Grandmother Annie Sandford (nee Yeo) (1868 - 1948).

Harriet was born in Apr/May/Jun 1872 in the district of Okehampton, Devon, to George Yeo (about 37), an agricultural and quarry labourer, and Ann Yeo (nee Gliddon) (about 33), a housewife.

Harriet was the youngest of six children (one son and five daughters):

• Thomas 'Tom'  1863 - 1904  (40 or 41 years old)
• Mary 'Mary Anne' Gliddon  1864 - 1941  (76 years old)
• Emily Ann  1867 - 1872  (5 years old)
• Annie  1868 - 1948  (80 years old)
• Ellen  1869 - 1937  (68 years old)
• Harriet  1872 - 1893 (21 years old)

Harriet also had an older half brother, Joseph Gliddon (1860 - 1928) (67 years old), her mother Ann's illegitimate son born before her marriage. Joseph lived with his maternal grandparents.

In October or November 1872, when Harriet was only between four and seven months old, her older sister Emily Ann passed away aged only five years old. Emily Ann was buried on 8th November 1872, in Okehampton. About three months later, Harriet's father George passed away, aged thirty-nine, in 1873, in Okehampton. He was buried on 30th January 1873, in Okehampton. And about three months after that, Harriet's mother Ann also passed away, aged thirty-three or thirty-four. She was buried on 30th April 1873 also in Okehampton. I wonder if they all succumbed to the same disease. 

Unless relatives took them in, Harriet and her five remaining siblings (aged zero to nine) would likely have ended up in the workhouse. Indeed, in the next census (1881 Census), Ellen (11) and Harriet (9) can be found living in the Union Workhouse in Okehampton. I wonder if the other older siblings also entered the workhouse after their parents' early deaths, but by thirteen years old were deemed old enough to go out and work. 

1881 Census:

As a young woman, Harriet worked as a domestic servant at Hoe Grammar School, a boy's boarding school at 6 Lockyer Street, Plymouth, run by headmaster George Pearse Dymond. Dymond was later twice mayor of Plymouth.

1891 Census:

Harriet's employer, George Pearse Dymond, headmaster of Hoe Grammar School, 1906

Hoe Grammar School, Lockyer Street, Plymouth

It seems Harriet may have been suffering from Tuberculosis, as she passed away, aged only twenty-one, in October or November 1893, at St Barnabas' Home for Incurables, Brocket Hall, Haldon Road, Torquay. 'St Barnabas was a T.B. home (one of many in Torquay). It was run by the same Order of Nuns as St Lukes & St Raphaels, Torquay was chosen as it was widely believed that the climate and clean air was a cure for TB.' (source)

Harriet was buried on 1st December 1893, at Torquay Cemetery.