Mary Ann (or Marian) Symonds (1791-1867) and Ralph Newby (????-1881).
My 4th great-grand aunt and uncle.
Mary Ann – or sometimes Marian – was born just a few months after the marriage of her parents – James Symonds and Frances Ann Witchingham – in 1791. She was baptised at Holy Trinity & All Saints Church in Winterton, Norfolk, on 20 February that year.
Mary Ann married Ralph Newby at St Margaret’s Church in Lowestoft, Suffolk, on 27 December 1812. He came from Martham in Norfolk and while a baptism record has not been found, census and other documents point to his birth being between 1788 and 1793. Other Newby children were baptised in the village around this time but there was also a Newby family in Yarmouth.
Ralph was a widower. His first marriage, to Lydia George, took place at Winterton on 3 April 1810 but I’ve found no death record for her. There’s some confusion over Ralph’s working life too. A merchant seaman record dated 1845 in Great Yarmouth stated that he first went to sea in 1818 and was born on 25 December 1794, as well as the fact that he had dark brown hair, brown eyes and stood 5ft 9ins tall. However, the 1851 Census recorded him as a wheelwright living in Row 130 in Yarmouth with his family. The 1861 Census described him as a fisherman and by this point he was living in the Fishermen’s Hospital almshouses in the town with his wife. In 1871 he was still living there but as a wheelwright. My suspicion is that Ralph was a wheelwright by training but worked at sea to supplement his income. Indeed, baptism records of most of his children listed him as a carpenter – a term often also used when describing wheelwrights and their work.
It’s likely that he was the Ralph Newby who, with his son Robert and various others, was sentenced to six months hard labour for smuggling tobacco. The Lynn Advertiser of 30 October 1847 reported that they were on board the vessel Nancy heading towards Lowestoft when it was boarded by crew of the revenue cruiser Royal Charlotte. They found 3.5 tons of tobacco, which was described by the paper as one of the largest seizures made in a long time. All of the men pleaded guilty.
Mary Ann died an horrifically painful death from scalding in Great Yarmouth in February 1867 and the Norfolk Chronicle of 2 March 1867 reported on the inquest. Held at the Coachmaker’s Arms, it heard that Mary Ann was a long-time resident of the Fishermen’s Hospital almshouses – 14 years was mentioned in the report – and was in good health, if a nervous woman. On the Friday in question, another resident had opened her door suddenly and in fright Mary Ann had fallen against the fireplace. In the process she’d knocked a pan of boiling water over herself, which caused severe scalding from her neck down to the back of her knees. She died the following morning as a result of her injuries. The death was recorded as accidental and Mary Ann was buried in Great Yarmouth on 26 February. Ralph died in 1881 and was buried on 25 January, his address given as Row 97, Great Yarmouth.
The couple had a number of children:
- Mary Ann Witchingham Newby (1813-1899) was born in Winterton and baptised there on 19 October 1813. She married sailor John Brown Bristow in Great Yarmouth on 5 November 1837 at a time when she was working as a beatster. They had children but John died young and was buried in Yarmouth on 18 March 1847. She never remarried and later worked as a charwoman (1851 Census), beatster (1861, 1871 and 1881) and nurse maid (1891), all in Great Yarmouth. She died there in 1899 and is likely the woman buried on 29 September. Two women of the same name died in town in 1899 but one was younger.
- James Newby (1815-????) was born in Winterton and baptised there on 25 December 1815. It’s likely that he was the seaman James Newby sentenced at the Great Yarmouth Sessions on 2 September 1835 to seven years transportation theft. He’d previously been sentenced in 1833 to a spell in gaol for stealing shoes and a shawl (Norfolk Chronicle 27 April 1833), which was doubtless why he was sent abroad. He was already aboard the prison hulk Justicia moored on the Thames at Woolwich on 8 September. His age was given as 17 rather than 19. He arrived in New South Wales in February 1836 on board the Susan and received his Certificate of Freedom on 30 March 1843. But what happened to him after that is a mystery – no records have been found that match him. Note that he was one of several James Newbys born in Norfolk around the same time but census records after James’s transportation have accounted for them.
- Jane Elizabeth Newby (1817-????) was born in Great Yarmouth and baptised there on 15 December 1817. She usually went by her second name of Elizabeth, worked as a servant and married local man John Turner in Yarmouth on 17 December 1843. He was a cooper and his work took the couple and their children to various places including Overstrand in Norfolk (1851 Census) and Northfleet in Kent (1861 and 1871). Later they moved back to Norfolk and settled in Norwich, where they were shown from the 1881 Census. John died in Norwich in 1902 but I’ve yet to find to find a date for Jane’s death.
- Robert Green Newby (1826-????) was also born in Great Yarmouth and married Eliza Bowles, who came from the town, in 1845. They had a family and he worked as a fisherman. In 1847 he was sentenced to six months hard labour for smuggling with his father (see above) while the Yarmouth Independent of 17 May 1862 reported that he narrowly avoided prison for assaulting his wife, who appeared in court in bandages. Another case of domestic violence was brought in 1871, when he was fined 10 shillings (Norfolk Chronicle 27 May 1871). The 1881 Census showed him living in Hull, Yorkshire, claiming to be a widower and Eliza as a widow back in Yarmouth, making it clear they had separated. Eliza, who’d lived in Yarmouth all her life, died in the workhouse there in 1903 and was buried on 12 November. Robert could be the man who died in Hull in 1895 but proof is hard to come by.
- Ann Symonds Newby (1831-????) was born on 16 April 1831 and baptised in Great Yarmouth on 2 June that year. She married Ormesby-born fisherman James Bland in Yarmouth in 1854. Ann occasionally worked as a beatster while James was shown as the master of several vessels in the census returns of 1871 and 1881. But after that time I’ve found no trace of them.
- Edmund Newby (1836-????) was baptised on 9 September 1836 in Beccles, Suffolk, and cropped up in census returns for 1841 and 1851 (listed as Edward in the latter). I’ve not found him after this.
Sources:
Birth, marriage, death and burial records including civil registrations from the General Register Office, census returns and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
British Newspaper Archive (titles in text).
New South Wales Archives (convict indents, Certificates of Freedom).
National Archives: Prison Hulk Registers and Letter Books, 1802-1849.