Mary Willis

Author: Gerald Soper
Date published: 25/01/2022
©

Joseph Willis (1792 – 1860)

Mary Willis (1792 – 1874)

Emily Elizabeth Willis (1817 – 1888)

 

Joseph Willis was born circa 1792 in Newbury the son of Joseph and Ruth Willis (nee Rider) who were married on the 10th April 1784 at St Nicolas Church in Newbury.

 

The 1815 census of Newbury records the family living in Mintor’s Yard (East Side of Bartholomew Street) Newbury. Joseph Willis (60) was recorded as an attorney’s clerk. Others in the household were his wife Ruth (50) and children, Joseph (23), Elizabeth (22), Henry (20), Sarah (18), Ann (15) and Jane (12) and also a Mary Porter (8).

 

Joseph married Mary Sayer (Sawyer) on 14 November 1815 at St Nicolas in Newbury. Mary was baptized on 2 December 1792 at All Saints in East Garston, the daughter of John and Elizabeth Sawyer.

 

A daughter Emily Elizabeth was baptized on 19 January 1817 at the Baptist Church in Northcroft Lane Meeting House.

 

In 1841 census Joseph and Mary and an Emily Willis aged 2 were living in Market Place in Newbury with Joseph recorded as a solicitor’s clerk.

 

Ten years later in the 1851 census records Joseph and Mary along with their daughter Emily Elizabeth aged 33 and a servant were living in Golding’s Yard in Greenham. Joseph was a managing law clerk.

 

Joseph died aged 67 on the 21 January 1860 he was laid to rest in the Newtown Road Cemetery on the 28 January. An announcement appeared in the Reading Mercury and also the Berkshire Chronicle dated 28 January 1860 as below.

 

On the 21st inst., at 17, Carnarvon Terrace, West Street, Newbury, aged 67 years, Mr. Joseph Willis, for 49 years a faithful clerk in the firm of Messrs. Budd and Gray, and Messrs. Gray and Godwin, Newbury, deeply lamented.

 

The 1861 census records Mary, attorney’s clerk widow living in Carnarvon Terrace Newbury with her daughter Emily Elizabeth. Ten years later Mary was recorded in the 1871 census as a school mistress living at 3 New Street Newbury with her daughter, Emily Elizabeth who was recorded as a teacher.

 

Mary died aged 81 on 21 March 1874 and she was laid to rest in the Newtown Road Cemetery on the 25 March. An announcement appeared in the Newbury Weekly News dated 26 March 1874 as below.

 

WILLIS – March 21, at New Street, Newbury, Mary Willis, aged 81.

 

In the 1881 census Emily Elizabeth was living in Ivy Cottage in the Market Place in Newbury, her occupation was recorded as formerly a schoolmistress.

 

Emily Elizabeth died aged 71 in May 1888 while living in Raymond’s Almhouses in Newbury and she was laid to rest in the Newtown Road Cemetery on the 24 May

Sources:

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