Mary NASH
Early years
Mary Nash was born Mary Ann Sawkins on 3 October 1846 at 3, Upper Albany Street in London. Her parents were James Sawkins, then a Private in the 1st Life Guards, and his wife Mary Ann Rowan.
Her father James was imprisoned for a month for assault in 1849:
In the 1851 census, aged 4, Mary is being looked after by her Sawkins grandparents in Hinton Ampner in Hampshire. Her place of birth is stated as “Knightsbridge”.
Her father James left the army in 1852 and took up employment, like his father George, as a gamekeeper.
Mary is found with her grandparents again in 1861 at The Dean in Hinton Ampner, By this time she is working as a domestic servant.
Marriage
In October 1864 Mary married Henry Nash, a gardener from nearby Privett, at the parish church in Hinton Ampner. Mary was just 18, but the register records that both were of full age.
There were to be no children from the marriage.
Henry and Mary moved to London: in the 1871 census they are listed at 54 Richmond Road in Kensington, and in 1881 at 77 Harcourt Terrace in the same area. In both of these censuses, Mary is named as Marion Nash.
1880s: first signs of mental illness
According to a statement made to the medical officer at Fulham infirmary in 1902, Mary had always been “of weak intellect” and had spent 4 months in Wilton asylum (in Portsmouth) circa 1885.
1890s
In the late 1880s and early 1890s, Henry was gardener to John May, the consul general for the Netherlands. Henry and Mary lived in at May’s home at Blenheim House in Parsons Green, Fulham for 9 years, before moving to 2 St Mark’s Road (opposite St Mark’s College on Fulham Road).
1900s: assault on a neighbour; prison; admission to Manor asylum.
In June 1902, Mary was taken into custody after violently assaulting a neighbour, Louisa Boreham.
The medical officer at Holloway prison found her to be of unsound mind and she was taken to the Fulham infirmary, where her insanity was certified and she was ordered to be admitted to Manor asylum.
“Patient has a silly, vacant expression; she laughs without apparent cause; she rambles in conversation about great wealth she has been deprived of & complains of her husband’s present conduct with his former sweetheart.”
Her husband Henry had requested that she be placed somewhere where he could visit once a month:
The infirmary record notes that Mary’s mother Mrs Sawkins was still alive and living “Salisbury Way”. (In the 1901 census the mother Mary Ann Sawkins is living in Broad Blunsdon in Wiltshire with daughter Emma).
Mary was admitted to Manor Hospital in July 1902, and remained there until her death thirteen years later.
Visitors
Mary repeatedly told the hospital staff that her marriage was no good and that her husband was carrying on intrigues with other women. Yet Henry seems to have been very attentive: he journeyed from Fulham to Epsom to visit her, usually twice a month, for thirteen years.
She also received visits from her brother Thomas Sawkins, a niece (Mrs Eames), and various friends from St Marks Road: Mrs Haslett, Mrs Davis, and May Cook.
Death
Mary Nash died on 5 August 1915 from heart disease and congestion of the lungs, and was buried at Horton in grave 1811 on 1o August. She was 69 years old.