Mary Jane HAINES
About the research for this story
Researching Mary Jane’s story presented us with some challenges. All we had to go on was her age from workhouse and asylum records (43 in 1898, which turned out to be incorrect- she was actually 55); that she had been an inmate of Paddington workhouse; and that she had a brother Thomas who in 1898-1900 lived at 704 Harrow Road in west London.
Unfortunately the brother had moved by the time of the 1901 census so that trail was cold.
We checked contemporary newspapers for mentions of her name, and this brief report seemed worth investigating:
Kilburn Times, 25 June 1897
That report led us to a Haines family from Melksham in Wiltshire. Harriet Haines from Melksham had married James Radford in Kensington in 1875 but her sister Mary Jane (born c. 1843) seemed too old to fit with our known “facts”.
Next we tried tracing Mary Jane’s brother, Thomas Haines, via the electoral rolls. He was a registered voter at 704 Harrow Road from 1896 t0 1900, but he wasn’t at that address in 1901. We then checked the 1901 electoral roll for the same area and found a Thomas Haines at 63 Ilbert Street. The 1901 census revealed that this man was also born in Melksham.
So our two speculative lines of research had now converged on the same Haines family from Melksham, but we still needed to connect this Thomas Haines from Melksham with 704 Harrow Road, to prove that he was indeed Mary Jane’s brother. So we looked for marriages of his children, and found that his daughter Rose had married in 1896, and the address on the marriage register was 704 Harrow Road. So now we had our proof that this was the right family.
Early life
Mary Jane Haines was born in 1843 in Melksham. She was the first child born to parents Charles Haines, a baker, and Mary Ann Ellis, who had married in Bath the previous year.
She was baptised in the Independent Chapel in Melksham on 13 August 1843.
Brothers and sisters
Records show that Mary Jane had at least 9 younger siblings:
- Elizabeth (c.1844)
- Thomas (c.1845)
- Edward (1849)
- Sarah Ann (1852)
- Martha (c.1854)
- Harriet (1856)
- Hannah (1860)
- Emily (1862)
- Kate (1864)
Census records
1851: The Haines family were resident at the turnpike toll house at Chally Mead, Melksham. Father Charles was a baker and mother Mary Ann was the toll collector. Curiously there was also a Jane Haines (aged 8, born Melksham) living with grandparents John and Sarah Ellis at the King Street turnpike, where Sarah was the gatekeeper.
We think this Jane Haines (of whom there is no other record) may be a duplicated enumeration of Mary Jane, who is listed with her parents at Chally Mead.
Mary Jane’s father – 1859 Melksham PO Directory
1861: Mary Jane was a domestic servant in the household of John N Clark, a retired clothier, in Trowbridge. Her parents and siblings were living at Canfold in Melksham.
1871: By April 1871 the Haines family had moved to Kensal Rise in London. Charles had been made bankrupt in 1867 and no doubt had moved to London to find work. Mary Jane was now working as a servant for Francis Blake ( a retired Surveyor of Taxes) and his wife at 6 Carlton Terrace in Paddington.
1881: In 1881 Mary Jane was still in service at 6 Carlton Terrace with Mrs Blake.
1891: Mary Jane was working as a domestic servant for Mrs Alice Martha Farey, a milliner, at 231 Regent Street.
Mary Jane’s employer in 1891
Insanity
The court case in June 1897 (referred to earlier) may mark the beginnings of Mary Jane’s dementia. She brought a prosecution against her sister Harriet, accusing her of stealing £8 from her. Her evidence was contradictory, and the prosecution failed. The magistrates said that she had lied and they did not believe a word of her evidence.
In August 1898 the medical officer at Paddington infirmary found her to be of unsound mind.
“She is continually talking nonsense alleging that a doctor is going to marry her & he has got a mansion, & a wife & daughter living at Clapton & I saw the end of him & of course I paid a good bit of money for laying him out.”
“She talks in a wild way saying I’ve got a house & the doctor says I’ve got to take milk & he might be back in 2 or 3 weeks & I had a lot of beautiful furniture & a lot of boxes & much similar rubbish.”
The London asylums were full at that time, and Mary Jane was sent to Fiddington House asylum at Market Lavington in Wiltshire (not Fisherton House as recorded in the Manor records). Ironically this was just 10 miles from her birthplace in Melksham.
When Manor asylum opened in 1899, she was transferred there.
“Incoherent, demented, has no idea of time or place, cannot answer the simplest questions intelligently, states that she is only 35 years of age, is querulous, noisy. It is impossible to make much out of her condition as she does not answer the questions asked, but rambles in an absolutely incoherent manner.”
Mary Jane died at Manor of a fatty heart and acute bronchitis on 29 January 1900. She was 57 years old, though the official record says 45.