Birth

John Bullock was born in about 1800.[1]

Marriage

On 10 April 1825, John married Mary Strode, the daughter of William and Jane Strode, at Hardington. Her father, William, was a farmer at Kingswood Farm before he died in 1824.

Residences

Based on baptism and burial records, John was a farmer at South Perrott in March 1827, a dairyman at Hardington in February 1829, and a farmer at North Perrott in July 1831.[2]

Death

John died at North Perrott in June 1831, aged 30, and his body was interred at Hardington on 2 July. His daughter, Marianne, was baptised on the same day.

Mary’s later life

For Mary to lose her husband at such a young age was a devastating blow, and it was to have far-reaching consequences for her and her children.

If there was one consolation, it was that she had expectations of inheriting money from her father’s estate when her mother died. Her two brothers, Thomas and Robert, who were her father’s executors, may have advanced money to her. As it turned out, her mother died in November 1832, which meant that her father’s estate was then divided equally between his nine children.[3]

Her inheritance may have been modest, but it at least allowed her to focus on raising her children and not rush into another marriage.

By June 1841, Mary was a servant at Norton House, Norton-sub-Hamdon. Her second son, William, lived with a labourer in the same village, and her oldest son, John, was a tailor’s apprentice at Yeovil. Her daughter, Marianne, probably died in infancy.

In the early 1840s, Mary moved to London, where she met and became pregnant by James Charles Burge, a servant. On 13 May 1844, Mary and James married at the parish church of St Marylebone. The marriage register entry suggests that she had left her two sons behind in Somerset as she passed herself as a spinster whose father was William Bullock, a dairyman.

Following their marriage, Mary and James moved to Misterton, where Mary gave birth to a daughter, Clara, who was baptised on 22 September 1844. The baptism register recorded Clara’s father’s occupation as a labourer.

Mary’s second marriage was not a success. By March 1851, Mary was working as a house servant at Marston Magna Vicarage, and her daughter, Clara, was living with Mary’s brother, John Strode, at Bourton. Mary’s husband’s whereabouts are unknown.

Mary’s two sons were now steering their own course in life. William emigrated to Australia when he was about nineteen. There, he married Catherine Wadham, a native of Tasmania, in 1870, and they had seven children. Mary’s other son, John, moved to Chapel Allerton near Leeds and then Plumstead, Kent, where he lodged with a soldier’s widow named Ann Haugh for over two decades. Although John ostensibly lodged with Ann, she may have disguised their real relationship to preserve her army pension. Significantly, Ann had a brother, John Wilde, a sergeant-major in the Royal Artillery, who was to play a pivotal role in Clara’s life.

By April 1861, Clara and her mother both lived at Hove on the Sussex coast. Mary was a house servant in the home of a clergyman at 38 Albany Villas, and Clara was a dressmaker lodging at 9 George Street nearby. By this time, Mary was a widow or at least pretending to be.

Hove ushered in a new life for Mary. On 26 September 1866, she married William Norman, a carpenter and parish clerk at the nearby village of Rodmell, whose wife had died two years earlier.[4]

Mary and William enjoyed nine years of marriage together at Rodmell before Mary died in August 1873, aged about 67.[5]

Clara went to lodge in the same household as her half-brother, John, in Plumstead where she met sergeant-major John Wilde. Eleven years older than Clara, he was ready to leave the army and settle down. He became a schoolmaster, and he and Clara married at Plumstead parish church on 25 June 1872. John and Clara lived in Lewisham for forty-four years and had seven children. John died in September 1916, and Clara died three months later.

References

[1] He may be the “John, son of John and Ann Bullek,” baptised at Glanvilles Wootton on 28 September 1800,

[2] Chedington baptism register, Hardington baptism register and Hardington burial register.

[3] The will of William Strode the older of Hardington Mandeville, dated 8 November 1824, proved in London on 1 September 1831.

[4] Clara was one of the witnesses.

[5] The Civil Registration Death Index recorded Mary’s age as 66, but was at least 67.