Susan was born in Oct/Nov/Dec 1854 in Dolton, Devon, to William Vernon (about 25), a husbandman, and Martha Vernon (nee Dyment) (about 21), a housewife.
Susan was baptised on 28th January 1855 in Dolton.
Susan was likely named after her maternal aunt, Susan/Susanna Dyment, who alas passed away, aged only eighteen, in 1853 (the year before the younger Susan was born).
Susan was the eldest of twelve children (five daughters and seven sons):
- Susan 1854 - 1930 (75 years old)
- Thomas 1857 -
- William Robert 1859 -
- Sarah Ann 1860 -
- Silas 1862 -
- Mary 'Jane' Jane 1864 -
- Arthur John 1865 -
- Isaac 'Harry' Harwood 1869 - 1934 (65 years old)
- Martha 1871 -
- Louisa 1872 - 1874 (16 months old)
- Samuel 'Sam' Reuben 1875 -
- Ernest 1878 - 1903 (25 years old)
1861 Census:
By sixteen, Susan had left her family home to work as a general servant for the large Raymont family, headed by farmer Richard Raymont, at Barwisk Farm, Iddlesleigh.
1871 Census:
In Jan/Feb/Mar 1874, when Susan was nineteen, her younger sister, Louisa, passed away, at only sixteen months, in Hatherleigh.
On Christmas Day 1875, Susan (about 21), a farm servant, married Samuel Palmer (23), an agricultural labourer, in Hatherleigh.
Though Samuel left his signature on their record of marriage, Susan left only her mark, implying she could not write. Thomas and Sarah Ann Vernon acted as witnesses to the marriage - these were likely Susan's younger siblings. Again they left only their marks. I know my Great Great Grandfather Harry, their younger brother, couldn't read or write. I daresay none of the older Vernon children were ever taught to read or write. They may have never even attended school, as school attendance was only made compulsory in England and Wales until the age of ten in 1880. Susan's youngest four siblings - Martha, Louisa, Sam and Ernest - may then have attended school, as they were the only Vernon siblings of this generation who would have been under ten years old in 1880.
Susan and Samuel had ten children:
- Mary Jane 1876 -
- ?
- ?
- Robert William S 1881 -
- Henrietta 'Etta' 1883 -
- Frederick John 1884 -
- Ellen 1887 - 1895 (8 years old)
- George 1889 - 1895 (6 years old)
- Lucy 1890 - 1892 (12 - 18 months)
- Emily Martha 1893 -
The 1911 Census confirms that Susan and Samuel had ten children born alive (five at that point still alive). I have discovered the names of the above eight Palmer children, with a gap between 1877 and 1880. Unfortunately I cannot find the family on the 1881 Census which might have helped to fill the gap. The two following children, who alas passed away in infancy, are the two most likely missing Palmer children. Both were born and died in the district of Crediton. Ordering their birth certificates would confirm the identities of their parents (and I may do this at some point).
Their possible other two children:
- Male 1878 - 1878 (0 - 3 months)
- Ernest 1879 - 1881 (12 - 18 months)
The couple's possible second child, a boy, was not named. However, he must have been born alive to receive records of birth and then death. He may have lived only a few hours or days.
Apart from their eldest daughter, Mary Jane, who was born in the district of Okehampton, the rest of Susan and Samuel's children were born in the district of Crediton. The couple didn't have any of their children christened (at least I cannot discover any baptism records for the ten children).
According to the 1891 Census, their middle children - Robert, Etta, Frederick and Ellen (born 1881 to 1887) were born in Lapford. Susan and her family must have lived in Lapford for the majority of the 1880's, before moving to Chawleigh around 1889 (her next born children, George, was born in Chawleigh in 1889). The family would live at Rodgements, Chawleigh, from around 1889 to at least 1901.
1891 Census:
1901 Census:
In Apr/May/Jun 1903, when Susan was forty-eight, her mother Martha passed away, aged about sixty-nine, in the district of Crediton. Alas a short time later, on 10th July 1903, Susan's youngest brother Ernest, aged twenty-five, was tragically killed by a train at Stafford level crossing, a few miles from Exeter. This must have been a sad time for the family.
Sometime in the 1900's, Susan's widowed father William moved in with her and her husband, and their youngest daughter, at their new home of Hollow Tree, near Chawleigh.
1911 Census:
On 1st October 1917, when Susan was about sixty-three, her father William passed away, aged eighty-eight, at their home of Hollow Tree, Susan at his side. The cause of death was senile decay.
In Oct/Nov/Dec 1919, when Susan was about sixty-five, her husband Samuel passed away, aged sixty-six, in the district of Crediton.
In August 1930, Susan passed away, aged seventy-five, at Hollow Tree. She was buried on the afternoon of Monday 25th August 1930 at Chawleigh parish churchyard.
From Western Times of 29th August 1930:
