K - Kate Marriott

Kate was a cousin of my grandmother’s father. Kate’s mother was Mary Timms born in Rousham, Oxfordshire, she married Alfred Marriott in December 1844 in Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire. She had been living there at least since the 1841 census working as domestic servant. Alfred was a baker, together they had eight children, seven of whom survived into adulthood. Kate was their second child and first daughter.

At the time of the1881 census Kate was living in Enfield, Middlesex employed as a domestic servant for a widowed Justice of the Peace. Around 1884 Kate married Uriah Gardner, sometimes known as Leonard and with various spellings of Gardner. They seem to have only had one child, a son: Uriah Leonard born in Kensington, London in 1884.

The family can be found on the 1891 census with their seven-year-old son, on this record both father and son were recorded as Leonard. In the 1901 census only Kate and Uriah (Leonard) are living together. Uriah was a Coachman and Bus Driver. Their son Leonard was living next door in a boarding house working as a Painter’s Help.

But what happened next?

Their son married in November 1902. At this point he said he was an Engineer, later he was out of work and then a Printer in 1911 at the census. While he was out of work it appears he deserted his wife and children briefly to search for work which resulted in her relocating to a different parish and looking for aid. Of course, the times being what they were the church did not want to take on and support a family which was not native to their parish, and so she and the children were removed to the parish from where they had come after a brief stay in the workhouse. On these records a note in pencil says that her mother-in-law Kate Marriott was in the Kensington workhouse.

How had Kate fallen on tough times? Why was she using her maiden name instead of her married name? Sure enough, on the 1911 census there is a Kate Marriott aged sixty-one in the workhouse. But she says she is single rather than married or widowed and her occupation is recorded as “formerly Ladies Maid”. Is this the right person? Also, in 1911 Uriah or Leonard is boarding with a family.

Meanwhile, their son is living back with his wife with two children and another arriving shortly after the census. At the 1911 census it is just three years until the outbreak of war. Leonard enlisted in September 1914, leaving his wife and four children to go to fight in France. Eighteen months later his only son would arrive. Sadly, three months after that in May 1916 Leonard was killed in action. In his service record one document records all living relatives of the deceased soldier. They are all marked as none (siblings, parents, and grandparents) apart from his wife and five children.

When did his parents die? Did Kate die in the workhouse or was she reunited with her husband?

Is Kate part of your family? Please contact me if you know more then I do or are keen to see if we can find more together.