Great x3 Aunt Louisa Tonkin(s) (nee James)

My Great x3 Aunt Louisa (1878 - 1966) was a domestic housemaid, housewife, mother of two, and a younger sister of my Great x2 Grandmother Lucy Vernon (nee James) (1868 - 1897).

Louisa was born on 23rd August 1878 in Morchard Bishop, Devon, to Henry James (about 41), an agricultural labourer, and Louisa James (nee Edwards) (about 32), a housewife.

Louisa was named after her mother.

Louisa was the fourth 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 -
• Charles  1883 -
• Francis Robert  1886 -
• Gilbert  1889 -

Louisa and her siblings grew up in Morchard Bishop.

1881 Census:

When Louisa was in her late teens, two of her older siblings passed away. In July or August 1896, Louisa's older brother Edwin passed away, aged only twenty-one, in East Worlington. Less than a year later, in March 1897, Louisa'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. 

1891 Census:

Louisa (right), with her mother (left) and younger sister Emily (standing), c 1900

Close up of Louisa, c 1900.

Looking at the women's ages and the style of their dresses, I have guessed the photograph was taken around 1900, when Louisa and Emily would have been in their early twenties.

As a young woman, Louisa lived with and worked as a domestic housemaid for the Lee family, headed by James Lee, a yeoman engaged in agriculture, at the Manor House at Kennerleigh.

1901 Census:

In Oct/Nov/Dec 1902, Louisa (24), a housemaid, married Walter John Tonkin(s) (28), a railway porter, in the district of Crediton.

On some records, their surname is spelt with an 's' and on others without.

Louisa's brother-in-law, Harry Vernon, widower of her eldest sister, Lucy, remarried after her premature death. His second wife was Ellen Tonkin(s) - a cousin of Louisa's husband Walter.

Louisa and Walter had two sons:

• Walter Henry  1905 -
• Leonard James 1908 -

At some time between 1902 and 1905, Louisa and Walter moved to Honiton. There, their two sons were born in 1905 and 1908; and the family could be found in the 1911 Census, living at 29 Queen Street.

1911 Census:

By 1931, when Louisa and Walter's eldest son - also called Walter and also an employee of the railway, working as a signalman at North Tawton - married, Louisa and Walter were living at Tracey Cottages in Hontion.

On the evening of Thursday 15th September 1938, Louisa and Walter's younger son 30-year-old Leonard found the body of 21-year-old Alfred Channon in the River Otter, at the Honiton Swimming Club Headquarters. 

Channon had run a small general small and some 'rather heavy bills' were found on his possession but it was unknown if these or other factors particularly worried him. Though the coroner admitted 'there is no first-hand evidence at all of any motive for suicide', and family and lifelong friends had not noticed any recent change in his manner, the coroner concluded 'there was no sufficient evidence to tell the state of the deceased's mind' and gave a reluctant verdict of suicide by drowning, as 'he could find no evidence of an accident'.

Leonard had heard rumour in the day that Channon was missing. At 6.15pm he went for his usual swim and found a crowd of people at the bank searching for the missing man. A boy was said to have found something at the bottom of the river. Leonard hurriedly undressed and went into the water. After a brief search, he recovered the body.

By 1939, Louisa's husband Walter was a railway crossing keeper and the couple lived at Railway Cottage, Chaloner's Road, Braunton.

1939 Census:

By 1944, when Louisa and Walter's younger son Leonard married, Louisa and Walter were living at Railway Cottages, Holsworthy. Leonard was a member of the (No. 12 Platoon) Southern Railway Home Guard, who formed a guard of honour at the wedding. Brothers Walter and Leonard must have been close for they were each other's best man.

Both Louisa and Walter lived into their eighties. In Oct/Nov/Dec 1954, Walter passed away, aged eighty, in the district of Barnstaple. Louisa outlived her husband by over a decade. In Jan/Feb/Mar 1966, she passed away, aged eighty-seven, in the district of Exeter.