Great x3 Uncle James Manning

My Great x3 Uncle James (1879 - 1887) was a younger brother of my Great Great Grandmother Grandmother Mary Ann 'Polly' Boobier (nee Manning) (1869 - 1916).

James was born in Oct/Nov/Dec 1878 in Exeter, Devon to William Manning (about 49), a general labourer, and Mary Ann Manning (nee Ireland) (about 38), a laundress.

James was baptised on 2nd February 1879 in St Leonard, Exeter. 

James was the seventh of nine children (five daughters and four sons):

• Emma  1865 - 1866 (11 months old)
• William  1868 - 1920 (51 years old)
• Mary Ann 'Polly' 1869 - 1919 (48 years old)
• Kate  1871 - 1916 (46 years old)
• Rose  1875 - 1877 (2 years old)
• Samuel  1877 - 1877 (11 weeks old)
• James  1878 - 1887 (8 years old)
• Unnamed Daughter  1880 - 1880 (0 years old)
• Frederick John  1882 - 1882 (6 weeks old)

Fourteen years before James was born, his oldest sister Emma had passed away, aged eleven months old, in 1866.

Two years before James was born, in August 1877, his older siblings two-year-old Rose and eleven-week-old Samuel both passed away. Did they both succumb to the same illness?

James's two younger siblings also passed away as babies: a unnamed baby sister in 1880 and six-week-old Frederick passed away in 1882.

1881 Census:

In Jan/Feb/Mar 1887, James himself passed away, aged eight years old, in Exeter.