April 2010

Grace Spencer

From Bob Waight, (member No. 289)

The Story So Far

To start with I had only a Birth Certificate and some anecdotal evidence to go on. The Birth Certificate indicated that Grace was born on 19th July 1912 at 217 Horton Lane, Horton, Bradford in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Her mother was Amy Spencer, a parlour maid of the same address. No name was given for the father, indicating that Grace was born out of wedlock. Grace told us that she spent her infancy in an orphanage run by Anglican Nuns in the Kilburn area of London, and, aged about three years, was sent to school in Chingford, London E4.

So, where to start? The first step was to find the orphanage. I knew from what Grace had said that it was connected to St Augustine's Church and the Reverend Canon Anthony H. Yates informed me that the Community had moved to St. Michael's Convent, Ham Common, Richmond, Surrey. A letter there elicited a small bundle of papers sent by their archivist, Dr. Brenda Hough. These gave me the bare bones of a rather sad story. Briefly, Grace's mother, Amy, was described as "twice fallen" and that a home was sought for Grace, (the other sibling being placed) so that Amy could enter a "Penitentiary". Grace spent three years with the Sisters of the Church at Kilburn and was then sent to a school in Chingford run by the "Bridge of Hope" Mission until she was fourteen, when she was given up to the Chingford Guardians.

Further research established that 217 Horton Lane was, in fact, the euphemistic address of Bradford Workhouse. Information from their Creed Records show that Amy entered the Workhouse on the 19th July 1912, probably to give birth to Grace (they would also have had an infirmary) and stayed until 28th October. On 22nd November they were sent to the Sleaford Union Workhouse in Lincolnshire. This is where things got interesting. The 1911 Census returns show Amy in there, accompanied by not one, but two children. These were Cecily Marshall Spencer, aged two, and Harry Spencer, aged 8 months.

The address of Harry's birthplace, 2, Haymeads Lane, Bishops Stortford is also the address of a Workhouse. Cecily was born in Grimsby at 87 Wintringham Road. Was this also a Workhouse? So, Amy was “thrice fallen". Amy's age was given as 22 making her born in 1888 / 89 and her birthplace was given as Braughing Hertfordshire. Search of Census returns and birth, marriage, death records show that Amy was born on 27th October 1888 in High Street, Braughing to Henry Spencer and Thirza, nee Lee. Interestingly, there are two families Marshall in the same street. Is this where Cecily got her middle name from?

Amy disappears at this point. I have been unable to find either a marriage or a death for her. Sadly Harry died on 12th September 1911, aged just 14 months and Cecily died on 6th August 1932, aged 23 years, both in Lincolnshire. Did Amy stay in the Lincolnshire area? Amy also had 6 or 7 siblings, none of whom I have yet researched. Her father Henry was described on her birth certificate as "feeder of hounds" and in the 1891 census as "Kenalman" (sic). He obviously worked for the local Hunt. I have been able to trace the Spencer line back to Amy's great grandfather Thomas Spenser, born 1793, with a lot of help from some very kind people. Without the papers from Dr Hough I wouldn't have had a starting point. The Genes Reunited website has also been invaluable.

Grace went on to marry, firstly a man named Leslie Mullinger, with whom she adopted Brenda. She married, secondly, Fred Shaw with whom she had Frances (my wife), Pauline and Christopher. She came to live with us after Fred died, and she died in 1993. Although she never showed any desire to find out about her antecedents I think she would have been surprised at what I have managed to discover.

As Bob mentions in his article Amy had 6 or 7 siblings. He would love to hear from anyone who may have connections to any of them. He believes them to have been:- Florence born 1885, Charles born 1887 / 8, Alexander (or Herbert, there seems to be some confusion over this one) born 1890 / 91, Eleanor born 1892, Sidney born 1894, Grace born 1897 and Lily born 1899. Bob has been unable to find them on any of the published family trees but feels that some of them must have some offspring around somewhere and he would love to find them as, unsurprisingly, poor Frances has no family on her mother's side. Ed.