Mary Ann Ireland was born around 1842 in Farringdon, Devon to William Ireland, a labourer, and Mary Ireland (nee Riggs) (about 28), a servant and laundress.
Mary Ann was baptised on 14th August 1842 in Farringdon, Devon. Mary Ann's parents had only married in the February of that year, meaning her mother was about three months pregnant with Mary Ann when she married.
Mary Ann had an older half brother, John, the illegitimate son of her mother Mary, born in 1834. On the 1851 Census, he is listed with the surname of Ireland, but when he married as a young man in 1856 he was once more using the surname of Riggs.
Mary Ann was the eldest of three children (one daughter and two sons) born to William and Mary:
- Mary Ann 1842 -
- William Henry 1844 -
- Samuel 1848 -
Sometime between 1844 and 1848, young Mary Ann and her family moved from Farringdon about six miles west to Heavitree, near Exeter.
1851 Census:
Mary Ann's mother Mary was the head of the family by 1851, working and looking after her four children. Where was Mary Ann's father William? In February 1850, when Mary was about seven years old, her father William stole one sheep from a field in Heavitree. For this crime, he was transported to Van Dieman's Land!
Mary Ann's mother struggled to support her family. She found work as a washerwoman for laundress Mary Saunders of Clifton Street, Exeter. In the summer of 1855, when Mary Ann was about twelve, her mother Mary was sentenced to twelve weeks imprisonment, with hard labourer, for stealing a flannel petticoat (instead of returning the washed petticoat from the launderette to its owner, she pawned it) and for obtaining 4s 6d by false pretences from Rebecca Mudge.
With her mother imprisoned who looked after Mary (twelve) and her younger brothers, William (ten) and Samuel (six)? I wonder if their older half-brother, John Riggs, who would have been around twenty at the time, looked after his younger half-siblings.
I cannot find Mary Ann in the 1861 Census, meaning we know little of her life as a young woman.
Too I cannot find a record of marriage between Mary Ann and labourer and former soldier William Manning, but they were certainly together by mid 1864, when Mary Ann about twenty-two, for by April 1865 (9 months later) their first child, Emma, was born in Exeter. Record of her baptism the next month in Exeter list both parents.
Mary Ann and William had nine children (five daughters and four sons):
- Emma 1865 - 1866 (11 months)
- William 1868 -
- Mary Ann 'Polly' 1869 -
- Kate 1871 -
- Rose 1875 - 1877 (2 years old)
- Samuel 1877 - 1877 (7 or 8 years old)
- Unnamed Daughter 1880 - 1880 (0 years old)
- Frederick John 1882 - 1882 (6 weeks old)
Very sadly six (two thirds) of Mary Ann and William's children passed away in infancy. Their eldest child Emma passed away aged eleven months in 1866; over the next few years, they then had three children that survived into adulthood - William, Polly and Kate -; their fifth child Rose (two years old) and sixth child Samuel (eleven weeks old) both passed away in 1877; their seventh child James made it through his earliest years, but passed away aged seven or eight in 1887; their eighth child, an unnamed daughter, was born after a six months pregnancy in 1880 and passed away soon after; and their ninth and youngest child Frederick passed away at six weeks old in 1882.
Why did so many of Mary Ann and William's children pass away so young? My initial gut theory was syphilis, which can cause poor pregnancy outcomes. The mother can have many children, but few survive, as is the case here. However, William was dismissed from the army in 1865 for showing signs of tuberculosis. Did his illness affect the survival of his children? Did he pass it on to them?
Most persons with tuberculosis in the 1800's did not live long with the disease; however, after showing signs in his mid thirties in the mid 1860's, William went on to have nine children, and life for another thirty years, into his mid sixties. I wonder: did he indeed have tuberculosis and was the anomaly who lived long with it? Or was his misdiagnosed and suffered from another condition from which he recovered and lived for many years, or could more likely survive with for many years? Yet, even back then, tuberculosis was well known and easily diagnosed.
Later censuses list William as a labourer, however the females of the family - Mary Ann, her mother, and daughters - are listed too as laundresses or laundry maids. Mary Ann is listed as the employer - she is the running the launderette in her home, employing her relations. It seems likely her business was the family's main income, whilst ill William did the little labour he could.
Mary Ann's life was tough: she saw child after child pass away, and most likely cared too for an ill husband. It is reassuring to see her mother Mary living with the family, supporting her daughter.
1871 Census:
In the 1870's, Mary Ann's surviving children attended Rack Street Central School in Exeter's poor West Quarter. It was reported that many of the school's poor pupils started their day with a Farthing Breakfast at the Coombe Street mission, before walking to school.
1881 Census:
In 1882, when Mary Ann was forty, her mother Mary passed away, aged about sixty-eight, in Exeter. She was buried on Christmas Eve 1882 in Exeter.
Jubilee Street, where Mary Ann and her family lived, was at the bottom of Weirfield Road in Exeter, and consisted of rows of slum terraced houses, close to the River Exe. Sometime in the 1880's, Mary Ann and her surviving family moved from Jubilee Street just around the corner to 4 Colleton Grove.
1891 Census:
The 1891 Census lists Mary Ann's teenage daughter Kate as deaf.
In 1895, when Mary Ann was about fifty-two, her husband William passed away, aged sixty-five, in Exeter. He was buried on 9th March 1895 in Exeter. Eight months later, on 30th November 1895, Mary Ann's surviving son William, a porter, married in Exeter. Mary Ann acted as witness, signing her name on the marriage certificate.
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| Mary Ann Manning (nee Ireland)'s signature, 1895 |
1901 Census:
Mary Ann passed away, aged about sixty-six, in 1908 in Exeter. She was buried on 1st November 1908.
It seems her son William, listed as a laundry assistant in the 1901 Census, took over Mary Ann's laundry business after her death. The 1911 Census shows him living three doors down at 1 Colleton Grove (his laundress sisters remain at 4 Colleton Grove); there he is listed as a laundry man and employer, and his wife a laundress, running a launderette at their home, like Mary Ann had done before.
