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1857-1911
née Emma Virginia Neale
An initial search for Emma White, with the details given on the Horton Cemetery burial records, didn’t produce any results.
From her Horton address book, I was however, eventually able to find her daughter “Mrs Walsh”, with her “son-in-law, Bertie Walsh” in the 1911 census. The address matched at 168, New Kent Road. With them was Charles Alfred White, Emma’s son, who interestingly was listed as a lunatic attendant in Surrey County Asylum. Was he working there when his mother was a patient?
From this census, I knew that Emma’s daughter was Eliza Virginia. I then found her in the GRO index, with the mother’s surname as Neale. Emma’s other children from the address book were then matched, with the Neale surname.
Our subject was born Emma Virginia Neale in 1856 – September quarter – in Lambeth.
Her parents
Emma’s parents were Emma Sherard, (she was previously married to a George Smith, who was 30 years older than her) and Hiram Neale. On the 1861 Census Hiram, aged 46, is listed as a solicitor (but there are no servants which seems unusual for a man of this position and the neighbours have manual occupations).
Hiram had also been arrested in 1854 for contempt of court. His job at the time was “attorney’s clerk”.
Emma senior is aged 40, having given birth to Emma when she was 35. We find the family at 7, Elizabeth Place, in Newington. Our subject Emma appears to be the eldest child. She has two sisters, Victoria, three, and Annie Eliza, aged two, both born in Southwark. (I couldn’t find baptism records for any of them).
Her mother is stated as being from Newington and the father from Middlesex, although I subsequently found his birthplace to be Littlehampton. I couldn’t find any record of their marriage.
There is a possible death record for Emma’s mother in December quarter 1867. If this were she, our subject Emma would have been only 11 and her sisters nine and seven. What would have happened to them after this?
I couldn’t find any evidence of the family in the 1871 census.
1881
In the 1881 census, there is a record of an Emma “Neil”, with the occupation as laundress, at 1 Richmond Terrace in Lambeth. Her age is 24, which would be correct and the birth place is Lambeth, which is also correct. She is living with a family called the Kemps.
On July 8th 1882, at the age of 26, Emma marries Charles White, at St Peter’s Church in Vauxhall. Charles is a potter; his father is John White, a carpenter. The address for both Emma and Charles is 17, Goding Street.
Charles was also from Lambeth, we see him in the 1861 Census with his mother Mary, his father John and five siblings, who have all been born there. They were living at 11 Union St. There is a birth entry March quarter, 1854 for Charles White, Lambeth (CLOWSLEY).
In 1871, he was living with his mother. John must have died, as Mary was a widow. Charles was then a labourer, his sibling Henry was also a labourer. They were living in a shared house in Broad Street, Lambeth, a short distance from the Thames foreshore. Broad Street, was later renamed Black Prince Road. (https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/broad-street-lambeth-2/
I couldn’t find him, in the 1881 Census.
A growing family
In 1883 Emma and Charles have their first child, Charles Alfred. He was born October 1 and baptised on October 31st at St Peter’s Vauxhall. Their residence was then, 50 Auckland Street, Lambeth.
By December 1884, they had a daughter, Eliza Virginia White. She is also baptised at St Peter’s. Their address is now 1 Burnett Street, which was just around the corner from their last residence – see
https://boroughphotos.org/lambeth/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Lambeth14474.jpg
In 1886, there is another daughter, Mary Ellen born in April. She was baptised at St Peter’s on April 28. The family had moved again to 24 Miller’s Lane. It must have been hard on the family, having to move all the time. It appears that Mary Ellen died, in the September quarter that year.
In 1887 another son is born, John Hiram White, baptised at St Peter’s on June 29th . Charles is listed as a potter in the church records. Their address has changed again to Arnoldson’s Walk. John died in 1888 (December quarter) aged only one.
Losing two babies so close together, must have been very hard for Emma and the family.
Their final child, Edith Catherine is born on 15th November 1890. The family are at 16 Malmsey Place then and Charles is listed in the Parish Register as a labourer. P
Lambeth Potteries
On April 5th 1891, when the census was taken, Emma, now just called Virginia, is still living in 16 Malmsey Place in Lambeth. Charles is a potter’s labourer. Lambeth was long synonymous with pottery production. The potteries were concentrated near the Thames, between Vauxhall Bridge and Lambeth Bridge. By 1891, the industry was in decline. Malmsey Place was a short distance to his place of work. Many of their neighbours were also potters’ labourers.
Emma is now 34, Charles is 36. With them are Charles aged eight, Eliza aged six and baby Edith, is five months.
Case Notes for Emma
We are lucky to have case records for Emma, which show that on November 8th 1895, she was admitted to Fisherton House (Asylum) in Salisbury. She was previously in Lambeth Infirmary. (I couldn’t find any records for this.)
At this stage, her youngest child Edith would have only been five. By 22 June 1899, she is transferred to Horton, with the “not improved” column marked in the lunacy register.
She is 43 when she enters Horton.
On admission the condition notes tell us, there is “nothing physically abnormal” about her. Observations on her mental state say she “does not know her age or where she came from”. From the Medical Certificate it appears “she is very depressed, thinks people are talking about her” and “has loss of memory”.
The diagnosis is “dementia”, which seems strange for someone in their early forties. According to dementiauk.org, there is such a thing as young onset dementia.
In her progress nots,s which start in September 1899, it is mentioned she does not speak and “smiles in a silly way”. While she was there, she worked in the kitchen. The notes repeat, that she keeps silent and is in “fair health”.
Charles dies
In November 1905, they include that she “has been informed of the death of her husband but did not take any notice of the news”. There is an entry for Charles White, December quarter, 1905 in the death index. He was 52, so confirming his date of birth as 1853.
The notes continue to tell us she is “dull”, “vacant” and “seldom speaks”, as the years go by. She does, however, appear to be working in the laundry.
Emma dies
In December 1910 on the 12th day, she deteriorated quickly and was put to bed with “an irregular temperature” and jaundice. On the 28th December she died. She was 54 and had been at Horton for 11 years.
The primary cause of death was congestion of the lungs, (was this pneumonia, at the worst time of the year?) The jaundice may have been due to liver disease, as her death certificate lists renal cirrhosis.
She was buried on 2 January 1911 in plot 959a of Horton Cemetery.
Interestingly the burial spreadsheet shows her at Manor Hospital but the case notes say Horton.
Emma’s visitors
The address book also shows her sister Mrs Coulthard, who was Annie Eliza. She married Thomas Coulthard at All Saints, Newington in 1881. Annie stays in Lambeth and dies in 1935.
Her other sister Victoria also appears as Emma Victorine, born 1857 December quarter, and marries William Jabez Bentham in 1883. William was a pork salesman, but they seemed to have had a hard life. In 1911, they are living in one room, in Carlsbad Street, Islington. They had had 11 children but only four survived. She dies in Islington in 1922.
With regard to her children, the records I could find were:
Eliza Virginia marries Bertie Walsh in St Matthew’s Church, Newington in 1908. Records suggest that Bertie died in March quarter 1914. Eliza remarries in 1925 to Charles Dyer and dies in Surrey in 1974 age 89.
Edith Catherine White, aged nine in 1899, she was transferred back to Lambeth and possibly her father’s care, after being registered as an abandoned child with St Saviour’s Union.
In 1901, however, it is their mother’s sister, listed as Mary Couthald, (this must be Annie Eliza) who has Emma and her sister Eliza in her house, suggesting Charles could not look after them.
There were no additional records I could be sure of after this.
