Maud Alice Watkins

Undated photo (personal collection); most likely taken between 1912-1913

Maud Alice Watkins is my Great Great Grandmother through my Grandmother on my mother’s side.

I actually do not have a lot of documents other than census records for Maud. I cannot find a christening document that would normally give information about her birth nor can I find a parish document for her marriage to Alfred John Langford. Finally, I also cannot find a parish burial record for her death. This is a similar finding for all of her siblings as well. The lack of finding these documents (which I submit may be because they have not been scanned and indexed), may suggest that she did not come from a religious family and that she remained that way throughout her life. This is of course speculation, but it has made it difficult to piece her life together for reasons as I will elaborate below. Therefore, I will present the evidences that I have been able to gather about her.

According to the Free BMD Death index, and the numerous census records, her approximate year of birth was 1879, and she was born in Gravesend, Kent, England. She is the youngest child of Henry John Alexander Watkins and Mary Elizabeth French. Just from the few records that I do have of her, it seems she lived a rough childhood. She first appears in the 1881 Census as a one/two year old child. Her father is listed as a widower, meaning Maud’s mother had passed away sometime in the year after her birth. Further research made it clearer that Mary Elizabeth passed away in 1880, just a year or less after Maud’s birth. Being a single parent is hard enough, but Maud’s father was a pilot of ships and was probably absent on a frequent basis. This may explain why Henry’s mother Charlotte was living in their home at the time of the census, to help take care of the children.

1881 Census (Henry John Watkins was on the end of one page and the rest of the family was on the next, hence the split) (1)

Disaster struck again in young Maud’s life when her father passed away in 1888 when she was less than nine years old. We next find Maud in the 1891 census, and she is a ward of the Merchant Seamens Orphan Asylum in Wanstead/Snaresbrook, England. I do not have the date of her admittance to the orphanage, but it must have been fairly soon after her father’s death in 1888. According to historians “The aims of the charity were 'to afford relief to the orphans of seamen in the Merchant Service by providing for them clothing, education, and maintenance, and by assisting to place them, on leaving the Asylum, in situations where an honest livelihood may be secured'” (1^st Par., http://www.childrenshomes.org.uk/SnaresbrookSeamen/).

1891 Census (2)

Royal Merchant Seamen's Orphanage, Snaresbrook, 1862. © Peter Higginbotham
(note: This orphanage building still stands today and is called the Wanstead Hospital. It is currently used as luxury apartments, see http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/5421919.HISTORY__A_look_into_the_past_of_Wanstead_Hospital/)

It actually seems to have been quite difficult to gain admittance to the orphanage. According to the source I quoted previously “Because the number of applicants invariably far outweighed the number of available places, the criteria for admission were deliberately strict. The child's father must have died during active duty at sea. No more than two children from the same family could reside in the Asylum at the same time” (5^th Par.). Maud was probably admitted because her father Henry died due to some kind of incident on the water for his job as a ship pilot. Not only then did Maud’s mother pass away when she was just an infant, but her father also died suddenly in her adolescence, probably due to some tragic incident on the water.

However, it does not seem like she allowed these incidences in her youth to deprive her of life. I do not have too much more information about her, but she eventually got out of the orphanage and made her way back to Gravesend, where she married Alfred John Langford in 1904 (see 1911 Census). Maud and Alfred had three children together: Cyril, Leslie George, and Marjorie.

1911 Census (3)

Undated photo (although most likely between 1912-1913 because of baby Marjorie) (personal collection). Unknown adults to the left. Elder woman center is Sarah Hills with baby Marjorie. Alfred John Langford is adult male standing right. Maud Alice is adult female sitting right. Young boys are Leslie George (left) and Cyril (right).

We do know a little bit about her character because her son-in-law Robert John Turner wrote of both Maud and Alfred that they “…were very wonderful people. I liked them very much as I did to the end of their lives on earth” (Robert John Turner recollection dated April 14^th, 1979). According to the Free BMD Death Index, Maud passed away in December 1964 in Dartford, Kent.

Marjorie with Maud and Alfred Langford; undated photo (personal collection)

(1)"England and Wales Census, 1881," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XQHQ-86B : accessed 12 March 2016), Maud Alice Watkins in household of Henry John A Watkins, Milton-Next-Gravesend, Kent, England; from "1881 England, Scotland and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing p. 34, PRO RG 11/873 / 20, The National Archives, Kew, Surrey; FHL microfilm 1,341,207.

(2)Census Returns of England and Wales, 1891. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO), 1891. Class: RG12; Piece: 1352; Folio: 144; Page: 12; GSU roll: 6096462

(3)"England and Wales Census, 1911," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XWD6-ZHX : accessed 12 March 2016), Maude Alice Langford, Gravesend, East Gravesend, Kent, England; from "1911 England and Wales census," database and images, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : n.d.); citing PRO RG 14, The National Archives of the UK, Kew, Surrey.