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b.1873-d.1922
It would appear, from the evidence provided by censuses and baptismal records, that our subject, Emma, grew up in a stable family environment with her parents and five siblings. There was nothing in her early life to suggest that she would spend her last years in an asylum.
Emma’s parents
Emma was the eldest child of Benjamin George Robinson Shearman and his wife Emma Elizabeth (née Sheppard). According to later censuses, both parents were born in Bexley Heath, Benjamin in about 1846 and Emma Elizabeth in the 3rd quarter of 1844. Emma Elizabeth was the daughter of letter carrier George Sheppard and his wife Anne (née Lee) of Viners Alley in Bexley Heath.
It has not been possible to find a birth or baptismal record for Benjamin. However, in the 1861 Census we find Ann Shearman, a widow and laundress, and her two children, 16 year-old Benjamin, a fruiterer, and Mary, aged 25, living in Hanover Street, Lewisham at the home of blacksmith James Hodges and his wife Ann.
Mary went on to marry labourer Humphrey Ewings on the 27th of May 1861 at St Nicholas’s Church in Deptford and the wedding register states that her deceased father, Thomas, had been a gardener. As Benjamin was later employed as a florist and nurseryman, could we cautiously assume that the Benjamin in the 1861 Census was, indeed, our subject’s father?
Benjamin and Emma Elizabeth were married in St Nicholas’s Church, Plumstead, on the 5th of June 1870 and in the 1871 Census we find them living at Hope Nursery, Bexley Heath. Benjamin’s occupation is given as ‘florist’.
A growing family and a tragic death
Our subject, Emma Ann, was born in the 1st quarter of 1873 and baptised in Christ Church, Bexley Heath on the 11th of February 1873. The family’s address is given in the baptismal register as Main Road, Bexley Heath.
In the 1881 Census we find another daughter, Maud Alice, whose age is the same as Emma’s which suggests they could have been twins. However, it has not been possible to find any evidence of Maud Alice’s birth in the public records. Emma Ann was the only female Shearman whose mother’s maiden name was Sheppard (or similar sounding variations of those names) born between 1871 and 1876 so we do not know if Maud Alice was, indeed, Emma Elizabeth and Benjamin’s daughter or if she had, perhaps, been adopted.
Emma Elizabeth gave birth to her first son, Benjamin George, in the 1st quarter of 1875. He was baptised in Christ Church on the 18th of July 1875. By the time of his baptism the family had moved to Upton Road, Bexley Heath. A second son, Tom Ernest, who was born in the 1st quarter of 1877, tragically died in the 4th quarter of 1879 aged just two.
Earlier that year, in the 2nd quarter, Emma Elizabeth had given birth to her third (second?) daughter, Lucy Hannah, who was baptised in Christ Church on the 25th of May 1879. In the baptismal register the Shearmans’ address is given as Denmark Cottage, Upton Road in Bexley Heath.
A move to Foots Cray – and two more children
By the time of the 1881 Census the family had moved to 13, Longlands Cottages, Foots Cray in Kent. Benjamin is still described as a florist. His immediate neighbours in Longlands Cottages included a gardener, a nursery foreman, another florist, a florist’s assistant and a florist’s boy which would suggest they were all employed by a nursery. (This is confirmed by a reference in an 1888 baptism register which gives the family’s address as 12, Nursery Cottages, Longlands, Foots Cray. In the 1891 Census they are living at 1, Nursery Cottages.)
In the 4th quarter of 1881, Emma Elizabeth gave birth to a third son, Walter Edmund. Emma Elizabeth and Benjamin’s last child, a daughter called Winifred Alice, was born in the 1st quarter of 1888 and baptised on the 1st of April 1888 in the Church of St John the Evangelist in Sidcup.
The 1890s and 1900s – and the death of Emma’s father
Our subject, Emma, was the first of Emma Elizabeth and Benjamin’s children to leave the family home. In the 1891 Census we find her working as a servant at Hope Park Lodge in Bromley, the home of Charles Eden, private secretary at the GP Office in London. Back in Foots Cray, Emma’s sister Edith was working as a dressmaker and her brother Benjamin was employed, like his father, as a florist.
In the 1901 Census we find 28 year-old Emma working as a waitress at the White Lion Hotel in Cobham, Surrey.
 | The White Lion dated from the 16th century. In the 1820s, it was one of the best coaching inns in the country. Post chaises and horses were hired out.Today it has been converted into housing. |
Emma’s parents are now living at 9, Railway Road, in the village of Meopham in Kent, with their two youngest daughters, Lucy and Winifred. Benjamin is now described as a nurseryman gardener and Lucy is employed as a domestic servant.
In the 3rd quarter of 1906 Benjamin’s father died aged 60. His funeral took place on the 21st of July at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Bexley.
The onset of Emma’s physical and mental health problems
In the 1911 Census we find Emma, described as a hotel waitress, visiting her sister Edith (now Verralls) and her family at 15, Belgrave Road in St John’s Wood. Her mother, Emma Elizabeth, is now living alone at 3, Priory Villas, Standard Road in Bexley Heath.
We lose sight of our subject after the 1911 Census until the 4th of June 1917 when, sadly, she is admitted to Constance Road, Workhouse, Camberwell, from Havil Street Infirmary in Camberwell. We do not know how long she had spent in the Infirmary. The admissions register states that she is suffering from ‘mitral disease’ and is ‘mental’. (Mitral valve regurgitation is the most common type of heart valve disease. In this condition, the valve between the left heart chambers does not close fully. Blood leaks backward across the valve. If the leakage is severe, not enough blood moves through the heart or to the rest of the body.)
On the 9th of June 1917 Emma was transferred from Constance Road Workhouse to Long Grove where she would remain for the rest of her life. Unfortunately we do not know the nature or severity of the mental health problems that necessitated her admission to Long Grove. Neither do we know if she was ever visited by her family – as we will see below, her mother and two youngest siblings emigrated to Canada some time before her death.
Emma died in the 2nd quarter of 1922 aged 49. She was buried in Horton Cemetery, grave 144a, on the 12th of May 1922.
Emma’s mother and siblings
In the 1st quarter of 1900 Benjamin married Blanche Mary Tasker (née Mercer), the widow of Stephen Edward Tasker who died in the 4th quarter of 1898 after the couple had been married for just five years.
In the 1901 Census Benjamin, described as a nurseryman, is living with Blanche, their daughter Hilda Amy, aged five months, and Blanche’s daughter May Blanche Tasker, aged five. Tragically, Benjamin’s wife died the following year. In the 3rd quarter of 1904 Benjamin married Emily Miles, a woman twenty years his senior.
In the 1911 Census we find the couple living with May and Hilda in Hither Green in Lewisham.
On the 17th of August 1915 41 year-old Benjamin enlisted as a pioneer in the Labour Battalion of the Royal Engineers, serving until the 20th of March 1917. (Historically, the primary role of pioneer units was to assist other arms in tasks such as the construction of field fortifications, military camps, bridges and roads. Prior to and during the First World War pioneers were often engaged in the construction and repair of military railways.)
Benjamin died in the 4th quarter of 1938 aged 59.
In the 4th quarter of 1896 Edith married police constable William Edgar Verralls. During their marriage the couple lived in various places in Kent and had at least three children together, Edgar (born 1898), Gladys (born 1902) and William Arthur (born 1914). William Edgar died on the 9th of May 1947 and Edith died in the 1st quarter of 1959 aged 86.
Lucy married coachmaker Alfred Thorn in St Barnabas’ Church, Marylebone on the 10th of March 1910. It would appear that they had no children. In the 1939 register Alfred is described as ‘incapacitated’ and Lucy is a ‘domestic worker’. Lucy died in the 1st quarter of 1951 aged 71.
Sometime before 1921 (and before our subject Emma’s death in 1922) both Walter and Winifred emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, with their respective spouses and their mother, Emma Elizabeth. Winifred and her husband, gardener Frederick Levitt were married in Bexley Heath in 1910 and Walter married Ada Drury in Dartford in 1907. Walter and Ada had at least two children together, Edmund (born 1908) and Winifred (born 1910).
Emma Elizabeth died on the 16th of November 1936 aged 92. Walter died on the 19th of April 1966 aged 84 and his sister Winifred died on the 6th of February 1976 aged 88. All three are buried in Vancouver.
