Clarissa Cheshire 1861-1914

Died 9^th. July, 1914. Buried Newtown Road cemetery 11^th July, 1914   LS(E) 18

Her name is given as Martha Clarissa on daughter Annie’s Baptism record.

The Census records show she was born in Leicester. Her maiden name is given as Lee, although the spelling is likely to have been Leigh, as this is the second name given to their son Algernon, born in Thame, Oxfordshire in 1881 and the mother’s maiden name is given as Leigh on his Birth record.

Clarissa married William Cecil (Mattie) Cheshire in Cambridge in 1878. His family were Tailors and Gentlemen’s outfitters based in Thame and Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. However, his father Matthew shows on the 1851 Census, as a Tailor born in Drury Lane, London in 1816. His mother was Joanna, nee Cox, born in Thame in 1815. Her father, William, was a Farmer.  Matthew and Joanna married at the Independent Chapel in Thame on 25^th. January, 1849. Joanna had two children, Mary and John, before marrying Matthew. Between them, they had a daughter, Sarah Anne, 5 days old on the 1851 Census and son, William, born in 1857. Matthew dies in 1879 and Joanna in 1886.

Clarissa and William are in Cambridge when daughter, Annie Clarissa Maud, is born in 1879. They are living on the High Street, Thame in 1881 along with their son, Aubrey Cecil. They have another son, Algernon Leigh in late 1881, who dies on 12^th May, 1883 and daughter, Ethel Mabel, who dies at the age of 7 months on 9^th October, 1883.

William moves into the world of entertainment as Mattie Cheshire and Company, performing in Buckinghamshire in the 1890s and going on to venues around the country, including Lancashire, Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Colwyn Bay, Inverness and Kent. Sometimes, his wife and children assisted. He gave humourous musical sketches at the piano and was a ventriloquist. Aubrey was noted as a “juvenile entertainer in the manner of Weedon Grossmith” in 1895. Mattie was performing at one of T.J. West’s halls in Bournemouth in 1907 and in 1909, Aubrey was known as a popular manager of one of these picture palaces in Burton-on-Trent. Aubrey also acted with the Australian actress Mab Paul’s company. In 1911, Mattie, Clarissa and Aubrey are living at 45 Bartholomew Street, Newbury and Mattie is manager of the town’s Picture Palace beside the Methodist Church in Northbrook Street. He continued to offer entertainment at local events like the Old Comrades dinner at the GWR hotel, Reading on 2^nd March, 1912.  

Aubrey also develops his skills as a cycle engineer and is a cycle agent in 1911. He is a motor cycle fitter when recruited to the Army Reserve in December, 1915 and mobilised in 1917. He serves abroad and is discharged in February, 1919 as he has an offer of employment. This fits in with his links to the motor cycle depot Normand and Cheshire at 43 Bridge Street, Maidenhead, an address given on his Attestation papers. (The name Normand is from his aunt’s husband, Claude Emile Pichon Le Normand).  Aubrey marries Violet Ethel Carter in Chatham, Kent on 6^th. January, 1908. Her father was Frederick Crossley Benjamin Carter, who worked in the Drug trade and was a Chemist’s assistant at Harrods in 1911. She was a Stage Comedienne and is a Boarder with other artistes in Lambeth at the time of the 1911 Census. She dies in London later that year. In 1923, he marries Mabel Sampson in Warsop, Nottinghamshire. Her father, John, is a miner. Their sons Trevor and Cedric are born in Hampshire in 1924 and 1925; also, their daughter, Peggy in 1927 and Veronica (Melba) in Nottinghamshire in 1933. Aubrey is a cycle dealer in Station Road, New Milton, Hampshire in 1927 and an Airways fitter mechanic in 1939 when they are living at “Sookholme” in the New Forest. His death is registered in Blandford, Dorset in 1955. Trevor marries Gladys Joyce Cotton in 1947 and they live in the New Forest/Hampshire area. Cedric marries Laure Ridley in 1947 and he is in the R.A.F. when they return to Whitwell, Warsop from Canada in 1956 with their two sons. Cedric and Laure are resident in Berkshire when they die in 2007. Peggy marries Robert Lorne Stephens in 1946 and they emigrate to Ontario, Canada. Veronica marries Christopher Cailes in 1953 and they emigrate to Ontario, too. Mabel also goes to Canada and dies in Cannington, Durham, Ontario in 1987.

Mattie and Clarissa’s daughter, Annie, (also known as Amy or Aimee) is born in Ridge, Cambridgeshire in 1879 and is baptised in Thame in 1880. She assists her father in his entertainment programmes and they are living in Aylesbury in 1891. In 1901, her parents and brother are in Bedford Street south, Liverpool and she is visiting Miss Emma Frances Ewing Elliston at Canning Place, Liverpool. Miss Elliston is a Professor of Dancing and gives lessons in dance and calisthenics. They are friends and living at 13 Cornwall Mansions in Chelsea in 1911, while Annie is an Art student.  Emma dies in 1919 and Annie is a beneficiary of her estate. She is living at 9 Abbey Gate Cottage, Beaulieu at time of death. 

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