Introduction
After spending part of her youth in the Somerset and Bath Asylum, Emma Jane Partridge worked as a waitress and housekeeper in London before emigrating to Canada as a Baptist missionary. She returned to Hardington temporarily in 1920 and 1939, but her later whereabouts remain unknown.
Early Life
Emma was born on 30 June 1874 at Hardington Mandeville, the second of thirteen children born to John Wethey Partridge and his wife, Charlotte (née Delamont).[1] Her father was a labourer. The family lived at Broadstone until about 1897, when they moved to Lyatts.[2]
Her brother Percy died in March 1890 at the age of two from pertussis (whooping cough).[3] Around this time, Emma was admitted to the Somerset and Bath Asylum, Wells, where the 1891 census recorded her as a sixteen-year-old patient.
Life in London
She recovered and moved to London. By 1901 she was living at 31 Wilsons Road, Hammersmith, and working as a waitress. By 1911, she lived at 7 Clovelly Road, Ealing, where she worked as a housekeeper for a widowed butcher and his two children.
Baptist missionary work in Canada
In 1913, Emma travelled to Canada to work as a Baptist missionary, arriving in Quebec on 19 May. She served with the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Vancouver, residing at 426 12th Avenue.
After about seven years in Canada, Emma returned home for health reasons, departing from Montreal on 25 November 1920. She stayed with her sister Elizabeth Ann and brother Henry George at Lyatts.
In 1924, she returned to Canada, sailing on the SS Melita on 18 September. On an official form, she declared that she intended to remain in Canada permanently and resume her missionary work. She noted that her fare had been paid by a friend, and that she was destined for a friend, Mrs J H Kerr of 415 15th Avenue, Vancouver. She listed her brother Percy Ernest as her nearest relative.[4]
The 1931 Canadian census recorded her lodging with a coal miner’s family at 120, 10th Avenue, Vancouver.
Emma made a second return to Hardington, as in September 1939, she lived with Mary Adams (née Newbury), a widow, at Coker Hill. The 1939 Register described her as a “Returned missionary visiting villages,” suggesting that she may have continued her religious work after returning to England. Mary died in 1963, but a record of Emma’s death has not been found.
Conclusion
Emma’s life is notable for the contrast between her early years and her later career. After spending part of her teenage years in an asylum, she found work in domestic service before spending many years undertaking Baptist missionary work in Canada. Although she maintained connections with Hardington, much of her adult life was spent far beyond the village of her birth.
References
[1] Civil registration birth index; 1939 register; family reconstitution.
[2] Hardington voters’ rolls.
[3] Death certificate of Percy Partridge.
[4] Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924.
