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b.1830-d.1911
Anna was born in Honiton, Devon, in 1830 or 1831 (we have not been able to find a precise birthdate for her). She was the youngest of several children born to schoolmaster William Stocker Guppy and his wife Rebecca.
After her father’s retirement the family moved to Totnes, and after her parents passed away in the 1870s Anna moved to the village of Heavitree near Exeter where she lived alone for many years. In the 1871 Census, we learn that she is living on income derived from annuities.
Married at 61 years old
In 1892 at the age of 61 (though her declared age was only 52), Anna married Richard Hawke Dingle in St Cleer in Cornwall. Her Cornish husband Richard was a dispensing chemist and was in charge of the Poplar Union Dispensary in Fairfield Road, Bow in London’s East End. Anna’s sister Sarah Ann and brother-in-law Charles Veysey witnessed the ceremony.
1900- Admission to Manor Asylum
It appears that Anna’s mental state soon started to deteriorate. When she was admitted to the Manor Asylum (from the Poplar Union Workhouse) on September 28th 1900, it was recorded that she had experienced her first “attack” some ten years previously.
Per the Reception Order:
“She is under the delusion that the people next door are conspiring to injure her……she says there has been a murder in the house next door and they are constantly insulting her: calling names, asking for Miss Johnson; when she goes out, she is watched and followed; says people want her to keep illegitimate children. Her husband says he has removed his residence three times to try to quiet her. She always accuses her neighbours of keeping houses of ill-fame and annoying her and plotting against her. She screams and talks incessantly and they could get no rest.”
She was considered dangerous to others, having threatened her neighbours. It was noted that one of her sisters had died in the Devon County Asylum.
The visitor book for Anna indicates that she was transferred to Private Class. We also learn that her husband, Richard did visit her.
Her condition must have improved temporarily, for she was discharged from Manor in January 1902. However in 1908 she was admitted to Horton Asylum at the age of 80. She died there, from pneumonia and an infection of the heart, on the 24th of April 1911. She was buried at Horton the following day in grave 1141a.
