0
0
b.1861-d.1909
Edith Annie Stokes was born on 5th May 1861, at 23, Lower Albion Street, Manchester the first of 3 children I found born to parents Edward Stokes and Ann Dudleston/ Duddleston.
Father
Edward was originally from Shropshire, his father was also called Edward, as stated on the marriage record below. From the documents I have found he was born in the Ellesmere area, in one he states Ifton Heath which is 5 miles west from Ellesmere. His actual birth year is not certain due to more than one Edward Stokes being born in the area within the time scale 1829-1836. Ancestry offers Sarah Perry or Jane Farnworth as his potential mother.
Edward married Ann on 28th October 1860. In St Andrew’s, Ancoats, Manchester.
Mother
Ann is pregnant with Edith when they marry, Edith being born in early May the following year.
The 1861 Census shows the couple living at 23 Lower Albion Street and whilst Edith’s father’s occupation was that of a groom at the time of her birth the census records his occupation as a gardener. I think we can safely assume that at this point he was in service.
Ann, Edith’s mother, was born in Rochdale and baptised on 31 Dec 1826. She was the daughter of Samuel Dudleston, a dye house porter, and Mary Murphy.
Edith’s Siblings
Jessie Ada was born in 1863 and Frederick was born in 1866.
In 1871 we find the family in a single occupancy, 3 Albion Place, Salford. Edward 40, is a porter for an ironmonger’s shop. Ann is 41, Edith 10, Jessie 8 and Frederick 5. All children are scholars.
Sadly, Edith’s mother Ann’s death is recorded in 1879.
The 1881 Census tells us that Edith is now out on her own, her occupation is a sewing machinist. She is boarding with a widow, Mary Gallimore, who is a charwoman and another boarder, Sarah Kitchen, a domestic servant, at 4 Mark Street, Hulme.
Her Father, Edward now a widower and still working as a porter, is living with his widowed sister Caroline Perkins along with his son Frederick, in Henry Street, Cotton Lane, Withington. I haven’t been able to find Jessie.
Later this year, on 28 November in Didsbury, Lancashire, Edward married for the second time Isabella Beamsley. There is no issue found from this marriage.
Ten years on, in 1891, I am unable to establish where Edith was.
Edward and Isabella are living on their own. Shortly after Edward died and his burial is recorded on 17 June 1891 in Withington.
1895
We don’t know what happened to Edith in the 14 years after the 1881 Census, where she was living or with whom she was associated. However, in the 4th quarter of 1895 in Chorlton Lancashire, we find her rather fortuitous marriage to Samuel Harold Steer-Webster a journalist.
Samuel, born in 1862, was from Maidstone in Kent, son of Frederick Webster a Cotton agent and Hariet/ Harrietta Steer, both from Derbyshire.
Further details of the Webster/Steer family will be added to the end of the story for added interest and not to take away the focus of Edith’s story.
In the 1901 Census we find the couple at 36 Cranmer Road, Kennington, Samuel, a journalist/reporter and Edith are both 39 years old. We learn later on that the couple moved to London around 1896 when Samuel started editorial work on the “London Morning” newspaper.
Booth’s maps show this to be a fairly comfortable area with good ordinary earnings. Two other families were living at the address. John Barton a Leash strapper/ horses, with a wife and 3 children and William Flatman, a journeyman baker, with a wife and 3 children. The road has been redeveloped and none of the original houses exist.
Booths maps
1907 – a decline in health
Edith was admitted to Camberwell Workhouse on 8 January 1907.
“Edith Annie Webster, b 1861, C of E, wife of Sam Hd a journalist. Alleged Insane”.
Edith was discharged on Wednesday 23 January 1907 to Horton Asylum. This corresponds to the lunacy register.
I am afraid there are no documents found for Edith as to the state of her mental health.
Less than a month short of 3 years later, Edith died. I obtained her death certificate which notes the following:
On 28th December 1909, Edith Annie Steer-Webster, female age 47. Wife of Webster occupation unknown of 305 Albany Road, Camberwell. Cause of death General Paralysis of the insane (untreated Syphilis) certified by D Ogivy. Registered by Samuel Elgee Acting superintendent of Horton Asylum, Epsom, on 4 January 1910, Ernest George Pullinger, registrar.
For whatever reason Edith’s body was not claimed by her family and she was laid to rest in Horton cemetery in grave no 655a.
Edith’s husband
In the 1st quarter of 1911 in the city of London, Samuel married for the second time Annie Edsall Dutton née Waters. Annie is the widow of William Henry Dutton (1861–1909) a builder’s clerk.
In 1911 the couple were residing at 286 High Holborn.
Samuel’s death was registered in the 4th quarter of 1915, I purchased a death certificate to see if he also had GPI and maybe he was responsible for Edith’s condition.
Surprisingly there is no mention of GPI. Samuel’s death was due to Carcinoma of the Oesophagus, Bronchitis and heart failure. I should imagine he had a very painful demise.
Samuel died in St Bartholomew’s hospital and was buried in Camden on 20 Dec 1915. Residential address, 13 The Approach, London Bridge, Southwark.
Below is a transcript of Samuel’s Obituary from the Nottingham Journal dated 21 January 1916. Although his career is extensively described there is no mention of either of his wives and very little about his personal life.
“Death of Mr. S H Steer- Webster. The death of Mr S Steer- Webster, a popular and familiar personality has been removed from Fleet Street journalism, and still another gap created in the ranks of those old Nottingham journalists who have successfully climbed to position in the Metropolis. At the time of his death, the deceased was a leading member of the Law Courts staff, of the Exchange Telegraph Company, and his intimate friends numbered many well-known members of the bar, and some, even, who have won judicial eminence.
Mr. Steer. Webster was Nottingham lad and commenced his journalistic the old ‘Nottingham Journal.’’ which is now incorporated with this paper. By the terms of his indenture with the Messrs Bradshaw, the then proprietors, he became a Freeman of Nottingham, and had he survived would, as one of the old school, have come into a very substantial Freeman’s part.
At that time “old Job Bradshaw.” was familiarly known, was the chief proprietor of the Journal and under his vigorous editorship the paper became a great power and influence in the city and county, as it had been for generations. Before or just about the time the deceased had concluded his seven years apprenticeship. Mr. J. M Barrie made his notable advent into the office, and with the famous litterateur Sam Webster –as he was known colloquially —was contemporaneous in the town. The characters in Barry’s first novel, ” When a Man’s single.” were his daily chorus and though he had not the doubtful honour of figuring in that work himself he was wont to say, when chaffed upon it, and drawing his six feet one inch to its full height. “Barrie knew better than lampoon me.”
After spells of work in Birmingham and Cardiff. Mr. Steer Webster went up to London nearly twenty years ago. He was on the editorial staff of old “London Morning.” the first halfpenny morning paper in London. When the paper was bought by Mr. E. Cooke, then proprietor of the Sheffield Independent and other old papers – himself an old member of the Nottingham Daily Express’ staff and blossomed forth as the “Morning Herald.” the deceased held an important position on the editorial staff for some considerable time, under his old Nottingham colleague. Subsequently he joined the London editorial staff of the “South Wales Dally News” with which journal he was associated with when in Cardiff and left that position for the quiet and seclusion the Law Courts and the leisure associated with appointments in it.
Two of the deceased’s brothers are well known journalists in Fleet Street —Mr. C. J. Webster of the Press Association, and Mr. F. Steer. Webster, who is known in French journalistic circles, having followed his profession in Paris, and who is now Leader writer for the “North Star” Darlington- Both the brothers were, in their early years, on the staff of the journal. Still another brother, who died young, was on the staff of a contemporary in the city, whilst the mother of this journalistic family who was a regular writer for the Press in the county. She was nee Steer and was the third daughter and co-heiress of the late Mr. Samuel Steer, of Derby and Littleover and Michelover in that county, and it was upon the death of their maternal grandfather that the members of the family assumed his name jointly with their own. The deceased’s father a Derbyshire man, who was a yarn merchant and lace manufacturer in our city, and in his very early years was goods manager on the original Nottingham and Derby Railway. which formed the nucleus the present Midland Railway Company.”
What is interesting here is that Edith’s husband spent some time working with the famous writer J M Barrie who wrote “Peter Pan”. Biographical details on J M Barrie shows he was working at the Nottingham Journal in 1884. There is also a suggestion that Barrie’s book “When a Man’s Single” was loosely based on Samuel, although Samuel himself denied this.
Edith’s siblings
Jessie Ada: I haven’t been able to positively identify Jessie Ada in the available records.
Frederick: In 1891 Frederick married Anna Marie Thomas in Chorlton. I have found 6 children born to the couple.
The 1921 Census shows that Frederick is a self-employed Glazier and decorator in Ecclesall, Yorkshire. His death was in 1922 and his burial date was 12 April 1922 in North Yorkshire.
Steer- Webster Family
Out of interest I quickly looked at the Steer Webster family.
The father Frederick Webster was a Rag dealer, Cotton agent and then changed completely to become a newspaper manager in the 1891 census. His wife Harriet Steer was well connected in Derbyshire, and she was the youngest child of Samuel Steer. Together Frederick and Harriet had 6 children, the eldest William died aged 17. Frederick, Charles and Samuel all became Journalists, Alfred an Advertising agent, and daughter Margaret a teacher of shorthand.
Samuel’s brother, Frederick, married Louisa Quick and by 1911 she was principal of a private school and had 6 children.
One of their children was Vassel Frederick Charles Steer Webster who had been wounded WW1 in 1914. During WW2 he became a Colonel in the Royal Artillery. He was the deputy director of Experimental Engineering. The department were tasked with finding the means of landing troops and supplies onto the beaches of Normandy. The results were the Mulberry Harbour, towed in sections across the channel. He was almost every day in contact with Sir Winston Churchill.
The full story can be found on the Friends of National Libraries, ‘The Steer Webster Collection relating to the Mulberry Harbour’
Frederick also was in the newspaper himself after falling on the underground lines in Aldgate and lived to tell the tale.
My Thoughts
Sadly, there is very little known about Edith. A large part of her life is missing. Maybe this would have given some light into how she unfortunately became infected by Syphilis. This was such a terrible end to a life, especially now when it’s treatable with Antibiotics. Was this also the reason no children were found born to her, blighted by Syphilis?
She married well into a very educated family with many members in the newspaper industry. It appears the family were well connected and respected. How she came to meet Samuel and in what circumstances are very intriguing.
We have no Asylum records to know if any of the family visited her. We do know that her body and mind would have been terribly affected before her sad demise.
