Ann was born Ann Gomm circa 1809 in Bristol according to the census. By 1829 she was in Marlow as she married James Barney, a bricklayer at Marlow in that year.
On the 1841 census the couple lived in St Peter's Street Marlow with their family - George, Sarah, James and Henry. In 1851 they were at Dean Street. James senior died in 1853. After that Ann supported herself by working as a laundress. This was a common occupation for widows to follow but a very poorly paid one. She lived with 4 of her children in Berwick House, the former parish workhouse in Munday Dean Lane which by that period was subdivided into rental accommodation for the poorest families. On the 1871 census she lived in West Street Marlow.
Ann entered the Almshouse circa 1878. This would have been after she was elected to the almshouses by the trustees of the almshouses charity. She may have nominated herself for this, or someone else may have alerted the trustees to a her deserving case.
On the 1881 census Ann was living in her almshouse with her granddaughter Gertude Barney aged 11 (daughter of Henry). Within the next few years Gertrude moved on and Ann was left alone in the house. She became increasingly frail and by 1886 needed help to even get into her bed. Esther Wethered (widow of the former vicar of Hurley Florence Wethered- yes Florence was a male*) lived in nearby Oxford Cottage and along with another wealthy volunteer "parish visitor" Mrs Graves alerted Walter Lovegrove** one of the Guardians of the poor to the fact that Ann needed someone to take care of her. Walter wrote to the Wycombe Board of Guardians to request that Ann receive money to pay for a nurse attendant. This was refused on the grounds that Ann received a small income of €1 a month as an almswoman and thus was not legally classified as destitute. Nor on the same grounds would they give her a ticket to enter the workhouse infirmary for treatment despite the local doctor believing that would be the best thing for her.
Ann herself paid for Mary Stroud of Oxford Road to attend her for the sum of 2 shillings 6 pence a week. Mary got her breakfast, did her laundry, helped her get into bed and generally kept an eye on her during the day. But she did not remain overnight.
Ann's family weren't absent from her life. The local surgeon would later testify that her daughter "Mrs Allum" had always been "very kind" to her mother but no longer lived in Marlow. Neither did her granddaughter Ellen Barney (daughter of George) but she still came to visit and did what she could for Ann when she did so. One of Ann's sons sometimes contributed to the cost of the nurse, as and when he could. The family members absent from Marlow apparently did not realise that Mary Stroud did not remain with Ann at night.
By 1887 Ann was struggling to afford Mary Stroud's attendance, even though one of her sons was paying part of the weekly cost. She asked Mary to pawn a blanket and dress of hers at Mr Batting's pawn shop in West Street. Embarrassed, she appealed to Ann to say the items came from an invented person rather than herself. The dress realised 2 shillings 6d and the blanket 1 shilling 6d.
Shortly afterwards Ann was found dead having fallen out of bed in trying to reach something and hit her head causing a fatal apopletic fit, though Dr Culhane testified that she had twice before had apoplectic fits caused by "overeating". The coroner said he felt that old people should not be left in a position where they had no attendance at night. The jury returned a verdict of death by natural causes. Her inquest was held at the Clayton Arms, a little further down Oxford Road, off Quoiting Square.
For more Oxford Road related posts see here
Post by Charlotte Day.
Other Almswomen posts:
Other related posts:
*Florence Wethered, eccentric Vicar of Hurley
See Bucks Herald 11th June 1887 and South Bucks Free Press June 10th 1887 for details of Ann's inquest.
Census transcriptions, my own from microfilm. Census information remains Crown copyright.
©Marlow Ancestors. You are very welcome to use my research for family or local history purposes with credit to this blog.
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