Introduction
Emma Higgins’s life was short and onerous. Her father died when she was eleven years old. By the age of 17, she was a dairymaid at Marsh Farm. In 1867, she married James Eastment, a farm labourer, but she died three years later.
Birth
Emma was born at Hardington in 1844, the eighth child of William and Hannah Higgins. Her father, William, was a farm labourer.
Father’s death
Emma’s father died in December 1857, aged 67, when Emma was thirteen.
Dairymaid
In April 1861, Emma’s mother lived at Hardington Marsh with her two youngest sons, William and George, and an elderly lodger, Aaron Partridge, who was 80 years old. Emma’s mother was a farm labourer, while Emma worked nearby as a dairymaid on Francis Dawe’s farm.
Marriage
In 1867, Emma married James Eastment, a farm labourer of Hardington.
Melbury Bubb
After their marriage, James and Emma moved to Melbury Bubb, where they had two daughters: Mary Ann, born in 1868 and Emily Kate, born in 1869.
Death
Emma died at Melbury Bubb on 29 November 1870 due to pulmonary consumption, at the age of 26. She was buried at Hardington.[i]
James’s later life
In April 1871, James was a farm labourer at Melbury Bubb. On 23 April 1874, he married Elizabeth Dewland at Yetminster. Elizabeth was the daughter of Solomon and Mahala Dewland.
James died at Bradford Abbas on 24 March 1875, aged 30.[2]
Children
After Emma’s death in 1870, James placed their two daughters, Mary Ann and Emily Kate, in the care of his parents, William and Elizabeth Eastment of Hardington Marsh. In April 1881, Emily still lived with her grandparents, while Mary lived with her aunt, Harriet Eastment, who resided near Hardington church.
Ten years later, Mary worked in domestic service in Yeovil, while Emily was a housekeeper at Muchelney.
Mary married William Park, a GPO worker at St Jude, Kensal Green, in 1896. Emily married George Henry Bennett, a blacksmith’s labourer of Chard, in 1912.
References
[i] Death certificate of Emma Eastment.
[2] Western Gazette, 2 April 1875, p.5. This death announcement, the civil registration records and the Bradford Abbas burial register recorded James’s age as 29, but he was actually 30.
