Potential Great x3 Grandmother Frances 'Fanny' Batchelor (nee Branson)

My potential Great x3 Grandmother Fanny (c 1815 - 1876), was a (pauper) field woman and housewife, mother of ten, and the potential grandmother of my great grandfather William Batchelor (c 1882 - 1939).

(Several of my DNA matches on ancestry share the ancestors Mary Enoch and Benjamin Branson. It is most likely I am related to them via my great grandfather William Batchelor (c 1882 - 1939) and his father John Batchelor. Benjamin and Mary's daughter Fanny married a William Batchelor (c 1822 - 1850's) and had children - including a John Batchelor - so it is likely through this line, though I am yet to confirm just how they connect.)

Fanny was born around 1815, in Lower Boddington, Northamptonshire, to Benjamin Branson (about 32), an agricultural labourer, and Mary Branson (nee Enoch) (about 28 - 32), a housewife.

Fanny was baptised on 24th December 1815, in Boddington, Northamptonshire.

Record of 1815 Baptism:

Fanny had one older half brother, Samuel, from her father Benjamin's first marriage, born around 1807.

Fanny was the third of seven children born to Benjamin and Mary (5 daughters, 2 sons):

• Ann  1811
• Elizabeth  1813
• Frances 'Fanny'  1815 
• Jane  1817 
• Mary Ann  1821 - 1821  (at least 6 months old)
• James  1823
• John  1825

Interestingly around 1821, Fanny's parents seem to have converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. On 9th May that year, Mary and their daughters were baptised into that faith in Overthorpe, Northamptonshire.

Overthorpe is nine miles south of Boddington. We do not know if the family had moved to Overthorpe or traveled there to go to the Catholic church.

Public Catholic worship had been legalised in Britain, only thirty years earlier, in 1791.

Record of 1821 Catholic baptism of Mary's family:

However, they later buried their daughter Mary and baptised their son John in the local Anglican church. Fanny herself would only baptise half of her children, but those she did where in the local Anglican church.

Fanny had two illegitimate sons before she married.

In 1833, when Fanny was about eighteen, she gave born to her eldest son, Owen Bliss Branson. Four years later, in 1837, Fanny, about twenty-two, gave birth to her second son John Branson. 

(The 1841 Census shows an Owen Bliss (about 30), a sheep dresser (shearer), living with his family, two miles away, in the next village over, Byfield, Northamptonshire. Owen married Eliza Robertson in Oct 1837, and she gave birth to their daughter Mary in Oct/Nov/Dec 1837. Eliza passed away in 1839. In January 1842, Owen was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment with hard labour, after stealing four of his uncle's sheep.

Did Fanny name her son after him? Was he the father of her eldest son/s?)

Both sons were baptised in Boddington. Owen would live with his grandparents, Benjamin and Mary; whilst John would stay on with Fanny after she married.

Owen's 1833 Baptism Record:

John's 1837 Baptism Record:

At some point between 1837 and 1840, Fanny, in her early twenties, moved over fifteen miles north from Lower Boddington, Northamptonshire to Thurlaston, Warwickshire.

On 28th June 1840, Fanny (about 25), single mother of two, married William Batchelor (about 19), an agricultural labourer, in the next village over, in Dunchurch, Warwickshire.

1840 Marriage Certificate:

Fanny and William did not sign their names, leaving only their marks, implying they could not write.

At the time of their marriage, both Fanny and William were living in the village of Thurlaston, Warwickshire. Within a year, they settled 20 miles south in William's native Little Bourton, Oxfordshire.

Map of the local area

Fanny and William had eight children (3 daughters, 5 sons):

• Elizabeth  1840 - 1841 (about 2-3 months old)
• Elizabeth  1842
• Elijah  1845
• Sarah Ann  1847
• Levi  1849 
• Robert  1851
• Frederick  1855
• John  1857

Their eldest daughter Elizabeth passed away as a baby in 1841. On 19th January 1841, she was buried at St Mary the Virgin, Cropredy, Oxfordshire.

They gave their next daughter the same name.

All their children's births were registered in the district of Banbury, Oxfordshire. Censuses give their birthplace as the village of Little Bourton, Oxfordshire.

Fanny and William only had three of their children baptised: their eldest Elizabeth, Levi and their youngest John. All in Cropredy - a village less the two miles north of Little Bourton, where the family lived.

1841 Census:

In 1847, Fanny's eldest illegitimate son Owen, aged about 14, was charged with stealing a tame duck and sentenced to a fortnight's imprisonment.

From the Northampton Mercury of 8th January 1848:

In 1849, Fanny and William's house in Little Bourton was sold. Being a poor labouring family, I assume they rented a small cottage - sadly it is called a 'hovel'.

From the Banbury Guardian of 8th November 1849:

Fanny's husband was the only William Batchelor living in the village on the 1851 Census, so I assume this article from 2 years earlier is regarding their family home.

1851 Census:

The 1851 Census describes Fanny's second illegitimate teenage son John Branson as having impaired faculties and being a cripple. Fanny was likely the primary carer for her disabled son.

In Jul/Aug/Sep 1856, Fanny's eldest illegitimate son Owen (who lived with her parents) passed away, aged twenty-three, in the district of Banbury, Oxfordshire. 

He was buried on 7th Sep 1856, at St John the Baptist, Upper Boddington, Northamptonshire.

There is a possible death registered for her disabled son John Branson in Oct/Nov/Dec 1856, in Banbury, Oxfordshire. [No age is given though]

1861 Census:

On the 1861 Census, Fanny is listed as married, but William is not present. On the 1871 Census, Fanny is listed as a widow. William passed away either in the 1860's or 1850's.

There are two deaths registered for William Batchelors in the district of Banbury, Oxfordshire: one in 1862, another in 1863.

Her husband absent, Fanny worked in the fields. Her sons would go on to be agricultural labourers.

One of Fanny's daughters - likely Sarah Ann - had an illegitimate son called William Batchelor in Oct/Nov/Dec 1869, in Bourton. On the 1871 Census, William is listed as Fanny's son (very unlikely as she would have been in her mid fifties and her last child was born over a decade before) and on the 1881 Census, he is living with Levi and his wife, and listed as his nephew.

1871 Census:

At the time of the 1871 Census, Fanny's married eldest daughter Elizabeth and her family lived next door.

In July 1876, Fanny passed away, aged about sixty-one, in the district of Banbury, Oxfordshire.

At the time of her death, she lived in Great Bourton, Oxfordshire.

On 15th July 1876, Fanny was buried in Great Bourton, Oxfordshire.

1876 Burial Record: