Widowed, Alone and Away from Home.
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International Women’s Day has become an important day in the annual calendar and I always use it to honour my female ancestors, all of whom had struggles and challenges in their lives but have still left a lasting legacy.
This International Women’s Day, I have repurposed a blog I wrote some years ago, in order to highlight one of my husband’s great grandmothers, Mabel Gilbert who was born in Camborne, Cornwall in December 1877.
One hundred and fifty years on, life for many women, although by no means all, has changed immeasurably. We now have opportunities that our female ancestors could only have dreamt of, even our own mothers, although there is still some way to go.. Having said that, my years of researching have revealed some fantastic stories of women doing extraordinary things, and they should be given recognition for that.
I have been researching the story of Mabel’s life for a long time, using records such as births, marriages and deaths, the census and newspaper articles, as well as listening to family stories which usually have at least a grain of truth but may not be entirely accurate.
Mabel was born into the mining community, an industry which had driven the economy in Cornwall for centuries. Life was so tough for these communities; for the men, women and even children who all contributed to the mining and processing of, primarily, tin and copper.
Most of my husband's ancestors, for at least the last 200 years, were copper and tin miners. The Cornish mining industry is very well documented, as are the journeys made by these highly skilled workers as they took their expertise across the world.
I have decided to highlight Mabel’s life because she experienced so much loss throughout her life but kept battling on.
These losses began very early on in Mabel’s life. Before she reached her second birthday, her father Joseph had been killed in a mining accident in Dolcoath mine in Camborne. He worked as a timberman and a rope he was using snapped, causing him to fall almost 400 ft, as recorded by local newspapers. He was only 26 years old. Mabel’s mother, Elizabeth, was left with 4 young children to bring up. During my research, I discovered that Mabel’s mother gave birth to a son just two months after the accident, but he only survived for a short time.
Just over a year and a half after the death of Mabel’s father, I found the family in the 1881 census living with Elizabeth’s parents, Nicholas and Jenifer (also known as Jane). At the time, Nicholas was the licensee of the Reynold’s Arms in Camborne so likely to have been in a better position than most to help. Prior to that, Nicholas had been a mine manager and mine agent. Further research in this area revealed that an incident at the Reynold’s Arms triggered the infamous Camborne Riots of 1873, but that is a story for another day.
Ten years on and the 1891 census records that they are all still living under the same roof, Mabel is now 13 years old, but the census document does not record any occupation/education. It was usual to record ‘scholar’ if they were still attending school but looking more widely at this document, no children of clearly school age are recorded as such.
Mabel was not legally required to be still attending school at the age of 13 and it was very possible that she was working, as did many Cornish children, many of whom were doing so illegally. Most working children did so on the surface, but some unfortunate children did work underground.
Four years after the 1891 census Mabel was married to William John Marks. The ceremony took place at Tuckingmill Parish Church on 22nd December 1895. Children followed quite quickly: Rubinal, my husband’s grandmother in early 1896, just 2 months after the wedding, William in 1899 and James in 1901. Like so many Cornish miners, William was soon to move overseas to find more profitable work. I found a record of William initially going across to South Africa with one of his brothers towards the end of 1898. I’m assuming he made a trip back at some stage, given the birth dates of the 2 boys.
The 1901 census sees Mabel and her 3 children living with her mother. There is no sign of William so again I’m assuming that he had returned to South Africa. It was common practice for the man to go across and establish himself before his family went to join him.
I couldn’t find any other information about Mabel in the following few years of that decade, but she did not appear on the 1911 census. What I did have were family stories about life in the Transvaal, most of which were second hand and tended to focus on random events rather than providing reliable information about family members.
The next pieces of information came in a back to front way, but I will tell the story as it happened chronologically.
I wasn't able to locate a fully reliable record of any of the family sailing from the UK to South Africa but, by using different search techniques, I did find a family returning to the UK in 1912, which matched mother and the 3 children in most respects except the surname, and the addition of another adult male. Very frustrating!
I extended my search to some smaller, more specialised websites, and found a record of the death, in South Africa, of William John Marks, Mabel’s husband. I found the death recorded on 2 different documents: a Death Notice and a Form of Information of a Death. Between them they provided quite extensive information so I could be sure I had the right man.
Apart from the vital information about the deceased person, there were also details of his parents, wife and children. The Form of Information of a Death records that William was an underground gold miner in the Ferguson Mine in Krugersdorp, which was where he died. He had contracted enteric fever at least 2 weeks before his death and was diagnosed with cardiac failure and pneumonia shortly before his death. The informant was JH Bawden.
It can only be imagined how difficult life would then become for Mabel and her children. Many thousands of miles away from home in a time when women, for the most part, were still reliant on men for financial support.
I subsequently discovered that Mabel and the children were still on their journey to join William, and he had died before they reached him. Accounts of his funeral in the Cornish newspapers back home showed that he was well liked and respected and that his funeral was “one of the largest seen on the West Rand for many years.”
Mabel's life was scarred by the mining industry. Her miner father Joseph died in a mining accident when she was an infant and now her husband had died. her 2 brothers both died young from mining related diseases.
Further research revealed another marriage record for Mabel, almost one year after William's death, and which took place in the Wesleyan Manse in Newcastle in the colony of Natal. And the groom? None other than James Henry Bawden, who had been the informant of William Mark's death.
Shortly after this marriage, Mabel’s brother Joseph died in Camborne at the age of 36, and the following year her other brother Nicholas also died in Camborne at the age of 35. Both Joseph and Nicholas died from mining related diseases.
I mentioned earlier that I had found a record of a family returning to the UK in 1912 which had similarities to Mabel and her children. The additional adult male was James Henry Bawden, Mabel's new husband. The children were then using the surname Bawden rather than Marks, although they all reverted to Marks in adulthood.
After the family’s return to the UK, James tried to enlist in 1915, but within 3 months had been discharged as 'not being likely to become an efficient soldier'. He had been diagnosed with miner's Phthisis (TB), sadly a condition which shortened the lives of many miners.
He does not appear with Mabel in the 1921 census, although she still described herself as married, and not widowed. I have not been able to find a death certificate for him.
Mabel lived her life, still providing a home for other family members until her death in 1946. Her death certificate still describes her as the widow of James Henry Bawden, gold miner.