Emma Powell was the first child born to
John Powell and Susan Bendall. She was
born at Westbury-on-Trym, a small town (now a suburb) to the north of
Bristol. On the 2nd of April
1815, Emma was christened in the Holy Trinity church.
Holy Trinity Church, Westbury-on-Trym
The family was to grow and move, and over
the next 10 years 2 brothers and 3 sisters were born to the family. John Powell
was a milkman and moved around Bristol during this time looking for work.
In August 1831 the family started to break
up. Emma’s brother James, was charged
with pick pocketing in neighouring Herefordshire, and by the following April he
was on a convict transport for Australia.
Emma was never to see him again.
By late 1837, Emma’s father had died and
her mother married a John Hember in December of that year. John Hember had previously been married to a
Mary Bendall, possibly an aunt or cousin of Emma’s mother. Like Emma, his children had been born in
Westbury-on-Trym. Emma’s mother and her youngest sister Jane moved back to
Westbury to live on Southmead farm where John Hember lived.
Emma and her sister Elizabeth were out
working as dressmakers at an early age, and in the 1841 census, they and 18
other young women, were living at Belmont House, in Clifton, just outside of
Bristol. All were describes as
dressmakers, working for a local milliner, Miss Kerslake, who advertised in Bristol Mercury, “an Elegant variety of
WINTER FASHIONS” for the ladies of Bristol.
Bristol Mercury November 1842
But on the morning of February 22, 1842
there was a fire at Belmont House, and the fire brigade was quickly on the
scene. The local policemen on the beat
were commended in the newspaper for their “active
and judicious exertions on the occasion.”
By 1851, Emma was back living with her
mother and step-father on the Southmead farm at Westbury-on-Trym. John Hember now employed 12 labourers on the
farm, and Emma and her mother, besides caring and feeding the farm workers,
also looked after one of John Hember’s grandchildren, 6 year old Louisa.
By this time two of Emma’s sisters had
married, Elizabeth to John Watkins in 1845, and Jane to Edwin Jefferies in
1849. Both had married at the church of
St. Paul’s in Portland Square, Bristol, an area where some of Emma’s sibling
had been born in the 1820s, and she was to return to many times.
In 1860 Emma’s sister, Jane Jefferies, died
on May 19th from phthisis, a form of pulmonary tuberculosis. Emma, her mother and step-father, and young
Louisa Hember had come to stay with her brother-in-law, and in the 1861 they
were still living with Edwin Jefferies at Stokes Croft in Bristol.
In 1856, Emma’s sister Elizabeth’s husband,
John Watkins had died in Westbury-on-Trym, leaving her with two small
children. Like Emma, she was a
dressmaker, and had to work to support her young family.
In 1871 Emma was running a boarding house
31 Picton Street, Bristol, and Elizabeth and her son Alfred, were living there,
along with 3 young male boarders. The house was the same place where Emma’s
mother and stepfather had died in 1862.
By 1881 Emma had lost more of her
family. Her sister Elizabeth had died in
1877, as had Elizabeth’s adult children, Alfred at 30, and Emma Jane, 24. Like Emma’s mother, all were buried back in
Westbury-on-Trym.
In that year’s census Emma was back in
Westbury-on-Trym looking after a house for two retired brothers, Hugh and
Thomas Boone, who had invested in Land and were now living off the benefits.
Sometime in the late 1880s Emma moved
again, this time to look after a younger family. Borwell Wiles, was a Coal agent for the
Bedminster Coal Company, and he and his wife had returned from living in
Nebraska, U.S.A., to raise their family at 49 St. Michael’s Hill in Bristol,
and Emma again had the role of housekeeper.
49 St. Michael’s Hill, Bristol where Emma died
It was here that Emma died aged 75 on the
28th of September 1890. She
was suffering from scrofulous abscesses. These are usually acquired through
drinking un-pasteurized milk and develop on the neck. Her death certificate describes her as a
former dressmaker.
On the 1st October 1890 Emma’s
body was taken back to Holy Trinity Church in Westbury-on-Trym. Here she is buried amongst most her family
who all predeceased her.
JOHN
POWELL married SUSAN BENDALL 1779-1862
________________________|________________________
ELIZABETH POWELL 1815-1890 JAMES POWELL 1817-1885
|
JOSEPH HENRY POWELL
1849-1927
|
REGINALD
JOSEPH POWELL 1894-1977
|
LORNA
BESSIE POWELL 1922-2009
|
KEVIN REGINALD BRADY 1961-
KEVIN REGINALD BRADY 1961-
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