Introduction
The life of Elizabeth May Cecily Newson illustrates how domestic service could bring together individuals from very different backgrounds. After more than twenty years in the Gravesend area, she entered service at Hardington rectory, a move that ultimately led to her marriage, settlement in Somerset, and a family life marked by both stability and loss. Her story includes her husband’s service during wartime, the adoption of a daughter, and the early death of her only son.
Childhood
Elizabeth was born on 13 January 1882 at Milton-next-Gravesend, the only child of William and Mary Ann Newson. Her early years appear to have been unsettled due to William’s abusive behaviour towards Mary Ann.
Mary Ann had previously been married to Thomas Stoneham, a farm labourer, with whom she had ten children. After Thomas’s death in 1872 at the age of 41, she moved from Shorne to Milton-next-Gravesend, where she married William Newson, a railway platelayer, in 1881. In June 1889, he was summoned to appear before Rochester magistrates following allegations that he had threatened Mary Ann with violence. Testimonies revealed that Mary Ann had consulted a doctor regarding his mental state after he claimed he would cut her throat with a razor. The magistrates discharged him with a caution after Mary Ann asserted that his behaviour had improved, but by April 1891, the couple was living apart.[1]
The 1891 census recorded Mary Ann at 29 Singlewell Road, Gravesend, living with 9-year-old Elizabeth and her adult son, Herbert Stoneham. By 1901, she had moved to 29 Cecil Road, Gravesend, where she lived with her children, Alice and Thomas Stoneham, as well as, Elizabeth, and a grandson, Arthur Stoneham. Mary Ann and Alice worked as laundresses, while Thomas was a dock labourer and Elizabeth was employed as a housemaid.
In the early 1900s, this small family unit began to break up. Alice married in 1903, and Mary Ann died in 1905 and was buried with her first husband at Shorne. Elizabeth may have briefly lived with Alice for a while, but by 1911, she had left Kent to enter domestic service in Somerset.
Hardington
In 1911, Elizabeth was working as a children’s nurse at Hardington rectory, caring for the rector’s three daughters: Dorothy, aged 5, Grace, aged 3, and Vera, aged 1. By then, she had changed her name to Elizabeth May Cecily Newson and reduced her age by two years.
Courtship and marriage
Though living at the rectory, Elizabeth came to know Charles Edwin Delamont, a farm labourer, who lived with his parents, Edwin and Georgina, at Hardington Moor. Their relationship grew stronger, and they married at Hardington Church on 7 September 1913.
Barwick and Yeovil
The couple settled in Barwick, where their first child, Beryl Margaret Dora, was born on 20 August 1916.
During the First World War, Charles enlisted in a labour company and served until 5 March 1919.[2] His absence from home may have prompted Elizabeth to adopt Freda Whitehead, who was born in Wiltshire in 1914. The 1921 census recorded Freda as part of the Delamont household.
Two more children followed: Irene Frances, born in Barwick on 4 January 1919, and Rodney Charles, born in about 1922. By June 1921, the family were living at Lower Stone Farm, Yeovil, where Charles was employed as a cowman.
Rodney had significant learning difficulties and epilepsy. He died on 11 June 1934, at the age of twelve, from meningitis and cerebral inflammation.[3] By then, the family were living at School Cottages, Barwick, and Charles continued to work as a cowman.
Elizabeth died in the Yeovil area on 2 March 1961 at the age of 79, while Charles died in the Taunton area on 3 September 1969 at the age of 84.[4] They were both buried with Rodney at Barwick.
References
[1] Chatham, Rochester and Brompton Observer, 15 June 1889, p.3.
[2] World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923.
[3] Death certificate of Rodney Charles Delamont.
[4] Civil registration death indexes; monumental inscription at Barwick. The civil registration death index recorded Elizabeth’s age as 76.
