WILLIAM DELL:

No info found re birth/baptism but was born around 1814.

No 1841 census info found.

Married Anne Maria Honora Challis in 1849 (Q4 Newbury volume 6, page 270).

1851 census: Living in Back Lane, Newbury with wife Maria, 21. He is 31 & a Labourer.

1861 census: Still living in Back Lane with wife Maria, 30, plus children;

Jane, 9, scholar; Esther, 7, scholar; William Frederick,2. All the children were born in Newbury apart from Esther who was born in Greenham (that is now part of Newbury). William is 46 & a Corn Porter’s labourer.

!871 census: In Back Lane with wife Annie M, 39 & a Midwife plus son William, 12, scholar. Their grand daughter Annie M, 1, is living with them – Esther’s daughter. William is 56 & a Maltster’s labourer.

There are some transcription errors: William is down as 38 but should be 56. It was crossed through & difficult to read. Son William is down as William T instead of William F.

William died on 9 July 1873 (Q3 Newbury 2c 129), aged 61 & was buried at Newtown Road Cemetery on12 July.

The death certificate says he died of Pththisis – consumption or TB. This was the same as his daughter Esther, two years before.

The local paper, Newbury Weekly News, had this announcement printed on 17 July 1873: July 9, at Newbury, after a lingering illness, William Dell, aged 60.

The age is different to the registered death.

ESTHER MARIA DELL:

William & Maria’s child born in Q4 1853 in Newbury (2c 173).

In the 1861 census she was 7 & living with her parents & siblings – see above.

In 1870 she gave birth to a daughter, Annie Maria, on 9 January (Q1 Newbury 2c 261) but no father mentioned on the birth certificate. She was at her parents’ home in Back Lane, Newbury.

(in 1891 Annie Maria was a servant to Isaac Westcombe, bank manager, & family in High Street, Hungerford. She later married Abel Beesley in 1896.)

In the 1871 census, held in April, Esther is a servant to the family of Benjamin Ellam in St. James’, Westminster, London. He was a Saddler along with his son. She was probably working to support her daughter who was living with Esther’s parents in Newbury – see above.

Later that year, aged 18, Esther returned home suffering with Phthisis. She died on 29 October 1871, with a neighbour present, & was buried at Newtown Road Cemetery on 4 November 1873.

On 9 November 1873, the Newbury Weekly News printed: Oct 29 at Cheap Street, Newbury, the daughter of William Dell, aged 18. Her end was peace”.

There are no clues as to the father of Esther’s daughter. Perhaps DNA results from might throw up a possible link?

No record of Esther’s mother’s death found.

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