The mother was probably

Ann Atkins, aged 20, resident of the workhouse.  There are no others that fit they are either too old (60+) or lived elsewhere, e.g. Windsor.

See also comments at bottom of text

JOSEPH AND MARY ANN ATKINS ETC.

JOSEPH was born in Newbury c.1823 but is shown as living and working in Exeter in the 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses.  

In the 1891 census he is back in his birth town living in Northcroft Lane where he died in 1900 at 77.

Joseph is at first shown as being married to an Exeter-born wife Susan (née Gibbins) with whom he had a family.  

One of their children was MARY ANN, shown as being 2 in 1861and 11 in 1871.

Wife Susan is shown as having died in quarter 4 of 1871 and is, presumably, buried in Devon.

In quarter 4 of 1872 Joseph remarried another local, MARY ANN (formerly Bragg) who was widowed from her husband Charles in 1870, after she’d had a child named Mary Maria, born 1861.

The 1881 census has Joseph and wife Mary Ann together, still in Exeter, aged 48 and 47 respectively.  

Then both re-appear in Newbury in 1891.

After Joseph’s death in 1900, wife Mary Ann continued to live in Northcroft Lane (with daughter shown as Maria* and son-in-law Frank Tancock - 1911 census) until her own death on 3rd May, 1913, aged 86.

 * This is most likely Mary Maria, daughter of Mary Ann Atkins’ first marriage to Charles Bragg, referred to above? She would probably have been known as Maria to distinguish her from her mother Mary Ann.

NRC also has graves for the following:-

Frank Tancock, a bricklayer, who died 29th September, 1934 aged 76

Mary Maria Tancock* who died 18th July, 1935 aged 74

Both shown as living at Northcroft Lane

They also had a son Bertie Tancock born in Exeter, who died in 1891, aged 5 and is also buried in NRC.

CONCLUSIONS    It would appear that neither Joseph’s daughter, Mary Ann, nor his second wife of the same name, was the unfortunate mother (another Mary Ann Atkins) of the stillborn UNNAMED ATKINS in 1869 as both were living in Exeter at that time.  The daughter was only nine years old and the wife didn’t marry Joseph until 1872.

Joseph is apparently not connected to the family of Rev. John Atkins, the head of the Grammar School.

 Brian Sylvester 3rd February, 2023

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