Great x3 Aunt Emily 'Em' Maude Trigger (nee James)

My Great x3 Aunt Emily 'Em' (1880 - 1967) was a domestic housemaid, housewife, and a younger sister of my Great x2 Grandmother Lucy Vernon (nee James) (1868 - 1897).

Emily was born on 4th October 1880 in Morchard Bishop, Devon, to Henry James (about 43), an agricultural labourer, and Louisa James (nee Edwards) (about 34), a housewife.

Emily was baptised Christmas Day (25th December) 1880 in Morchard Bishop.

Emily was the fifth of eight children (four daughters and four sons):

• Lucy  1868 - 1897  (29 years old)
• Bessie  1869 - 1946 or 1956  (77 or 86 years old)
• Edwin  1875 - 1896  (21 years old)
• Louisa  1878 - 1966  (87 years old)
• Emily Maude  1880 - 1967  (86 years old)
• Charles  1883 -
• Francis Robert  1886 -
• Gilbert  1889 -

Emily and her siblings grew up in Morchard Bishop.

1881 Census:

1891 Census:

When Emily was a teenager, two of her older siblings passed away in their twenties. In July or August 1896, Emily's older brother Edwin passed away, aged only twenty-one, in East Worlington. Less than a year later, in March 1897, Emily's eldest sister Lucy passed away, aged twenty-nine, of TB, in Kennerleigh. I wonder if brother and sister both succumbed to the same disease.

Emily as a young woman.

Emily is stood centre, with her mother Louisa sat left, and older sister Louisa sat right, c. 1900.

Close up of Emily as a young woman, c 1900

As a young woman, Emily moved to Exeter, where she worked in service. The 1901 Census shows twenty-year-old Emily working as a domestic housemaid for and living with the Osmond family - elderly retired land agent Edward Osmond and his spinster daughters Ellen and Bertha - at The Hermitage, 31 Union Road, Exeter. Emily was one of two live-in servants - the other being seventeen-year-old Mary Frigger [or Trigger? possibly a sister or cousin of Emily's future husband Samuel Trigger], a domestic cook.

1901 Census:

On 7th September 1904, Emily (23), a domestic housemaid, married Samuel Trigger (24), a carman for the Great Western Railway, at St James's in Exeter. 

From the Western Times of 8th September 1904:

At the 1908 Exeter Annual Cart Horse Parade, reported to have been a 'splendid show', Samuel was one of three winners of The Shire Horse Society's silver medals, offered for the best heavy breed carthorses engaged in town work.

The 1911 Census shows Emily and Samuel, by then in their early thirties, living at Cowley Cottages, Upton Pyne. They had no children.

1911 Census:

On the afternoon of 21st March 1920, whilst out walking along the Stoke Canon Road in Exeter, Emily and Samuel were knocked down and badly injured by a speeding St John's ambulance. The driver was drunk. Samuel was knocked down from behind, thrown into the air and pitched on his head. He was rendered unconscious. His head was cut and both shoulders and one leg were damaged. One tooth was knocked out. He was very much bruised and cut. Emily was thrown into the hedge and very much shaken.

From the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette of 29th April 1920:

1939 Census:

In Apr/May/Jun 1966, when Emily was eighty-five, her husband Samuel passed away, aged eighty-seven, in Exeter. About a year later, on 2nd June 1967, Emily herself passed away, aged eighty-six, also in Exeter.