Great x3 Aunt Mary Fisher

My Great x3 Aunt Mary (1865 - 1???) was the older sister of my Great Great Grandmother Alice Browncombe Easterbook (nee Fisher) (1868 - 1929). 

Mary was born in Mar/Apr/May 1864 in the district of Barnstaple, Devon to Richard Fisher (20), an agricultural labourer and horseman on a farm, and Elizabeth 'Bessie/Betsy' Fisher (nee Brownscombe) (22), a work woman on a farm.

Mary was baptised on 5th June 1864 in Parracombe, Devon. 

Mary and her younger siblings spent their childhoods at the family home of Westland Cottage in Challacombe, and their parents would live there for many years more. Their cottage was a real home for over sixty years! There is a Westland Farm in Challacombe still today. I wonder if Mary's parents and later her brother worked as labourers at Westland Farm.

It seems Mary's father Richard was a lovely man. In a eulogy to Richard in the North Devon Journal on 15th August 1929, he is described as: "A man of a bright and happy nature, he had a smile and a kindly word for all".

Mary was the oldest of three children (two daughters and one son):

• Mary  1864 -
• John  1866 -
• Alice Brownscombe  1869 -

1871 Census:

As a teenager, Mary lived at and worked as a domestic servant at Wistlandpound farm in Kentisbury. Mary's father Richard also worked there, for the Smyth family, for over fifty years! Mary and Richard's employer was Frederick Smyth was a farmer of 1000 acres and the manager of the Exmoor estate owned by the Knight family.

1881 Census: 

Wistlandpound Farmhouse

Wistlandpound Farmhouse from above

Sadly, I am presently struggling to find Mary on records after her teenage years. Hopefully I will find something in the future.

 

What we do know is that Mary predeceased her father Richard, who died in 1929, as his death was reported in the local newspaper and his only surviving child is given as his son John.