Agnes Weaver 1872 - 1942

Thomas was one of twelve children and had a twin sister, Alice. He worked as an agricultural labourer. He was a heavy drinker and eventually Thomas and Agnes seperated. He died at his sister Mary's home aged 54 of Acute Lobar Pneumonia as a result of Chronic Asthma. I have never seen a photograph of Thomas, if you have one I would love a copy, please get in touch.

Agnes died aged 70 of degeneration of the heart and cancer at Dingle Combe, Brentry.

As well as the four children from the marriage to Thomas, Agnes also had an illegitimate child before she was married. Edith Agnes Lervey Weaver was born 19/11/1893 at Bell Hill, Saint George, Barton Regis. The family story is that Agnes was sent away to have the baby and arrangements were made for the child to be 'fostered' by a family believed to have been in a neighbouring village. Agnes's mother, Martha, refers to Edith in her will as 'Edith Weaver or Brown born before my said daughter's marriage'. Was Brown the name of the family who brought her up or a possible reference to her father? Another clue is the middle name of Lervey. It was a common practice in the 19th century to give an illegitimate child the father's surname as part of their given names. In the 1881 census there were only 11 people listed with this spelling of the surname. Six of these were a family in Cumberland but the other five were a family at Bedminster, Somerset. By the time of Edith's birth, the head of this family, George Lervey, would have been aged 40 and his sons Walter 18 and William 16.

Edith Weaver has not been found in the 1901 census but a possible Brown family was listed with a daughter Edith at Compton Martin:

In 1891 Frederick and Avis were living in Saint George, close to Bell Hill where Edith was born. There is no trace of the above Edith Brown in the GRO birth index but there are three deaths for babies with the surname Brown listed in the December quarter for Barton Regis. Often a baby would be placed with a mother who had recently lost a child so she would be able to 'wet nurse' the baby.

Edith married Egbert Halliday on 7th August 1916. The marriage certificate states father 'unknown' but one of the witnesses was a Frederick Brown.

Edith died aged 85 on 20th March 1979. Her death certificate gives her maiden surname as Brown.

---- Many thanks to David and Sally Brown for confirming the above connection ----