2.4.3.4 Mary "Polly" Hobbs
[Last amended: April 24, 2003]
Mary Hobbs, the first daughter and fourth child of Mary Barnett and Joseph Hobbs. She was born in Cookham, Berks, in 1847 and, like her siblings, was baptised in the parish church on March 2, 1847. She was known as “Polly”.
Polly is listed in the 1851 census as a 4 year old residing with her parents at Moor Hall, Cookham.
Polly married Stephen Smith on June 22, 1869.
In the 1871 census, Mary is listed as married. She was living at Colshop, Hambleden, Bucks. Her occupation was given as miller’s wife. Her husband, Stephen Smith, was a miller. His age in 1871 was 26. Mary’s younger sister, Emily, was visiting them at the time of the census.
The family had moved to The Grange, Turville Heath, a short distance from Henley on Thames by the time their ninth child was born on April 27, 1882. When Polly wrote to her brother Joe in 1887 she provided detail of their life at Turville Heath. Of the eleven children, Madeline, the oldest had already left school, the next three were at school in Eastbourne and the younger children were at home and had a governess and nurse at home. Polly wrote “My husband is a very good man of business and I am thankful to say prosperous in most of his undertakings. He is as you know a “miller” by trade and has Great Marlow Flour Mills also farms about 300 acres of land up here so we live here which is very nice in summer and very cold in the winter. It is about 6 miles from Bockmer and States”.
In a letter to her brother Joe in 1893, Polly provides some more insight into her family and where they lived. “It is a pouring wet Sunday morning, so as we live nearly two miles from church I shall not go … “.Following the death of her husband in 1896, Polly moved from Turville Grange to Echain House at Bourne End near Maidenhead. She provides some details of the changes in her life.
“I have been a long time answering your letter to me after the death of my dear Husband. It has been a terrible trouble to me and all my children for he was a loving and kind husband and father, but the “Almighty” has been merciful and helped me to bear it and I am thankful to say I am feeling better now. We were all so thankful when Xmas was over, for when we were altogether we seemed to miss him even more. But I have many mercies to be thankful for and am much blessed in my dear children, for there is not one would willingly cause me a moment’s anxiety and my eldest son is a very great comfort to me and he is carrying on the “Mill” at Marlow for me and so far very successfully although he is only just 23. But he is a steady fellow and like his father a good man of business. You will see by the address that I have moved from Turville, for I could not stay there without my dear husband and I wanted to be nearer my Son, so we have returned very near the old “Home”. Although you will not remember this house by name you will when I tell you it is the white house on the right hand side over Cores End level crossing before you get to the Leigh’s house. I have taken it for a year to see how we like it and I hope we shall stay here for we are very comfortable.”She went on to say that they hoped to sell Turville Grange in the Spring.
In 1901 Polly was living at Bourne End, Wooburn, Bucks. At the time of the census her household included her daughters Madeline, Emily, Frances and Winifred, her sons Walter and Franks, her sister Agnes Hobbs and niece Ethel Barnett Rixon, plus two servants.
Polly died on December 12, 1916 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Stephen Smith was born on June 4, 1844 at Bradfield, Berks, seventh child of Stephen Smith and Louisa Walker. His older sister, Augusta, married Charles Barnett.
In 1861 Stephen was 16 and a miller’s clerk. He was living at Mill End, Hambleden, Bucks with his sister Augusta, widow of Charles Barnett. By 1871 he had become a miller and was living at Colshop, Hambleden, Bucks, his abode at the time of the 1881 census, too. By 1881 he was a farmer as well as a miller. Stephen died on July 24, 1896 in Turville Grange, Turville Heath, Bucks.
The inquest returned a finding that Stephen had died by misadventure.
Stephen Smith’s funeral took place on the Monday following his death, at Pishill, Oxon, in the presence of a large number of relatives and friends. Many of the neighbouring gentry sent their carriages. The chief mourners were the deceased’s nine eldest children and three nephews (C. J. and A. T. Barnett and J. W. Rixon) his sister (Mrs. Barnett) and sister-in-law (Mrs. J. Smith); Messrs. James, Edmund, Philip, Herbert and Charles Hobbs and Miss Hobbs (cousins), and many friends.
The following report appeared in the South Bucks Standard on Friday July 31, 1896:
It is with the deepest regret that we record the terrible accident which caused the almost instantaneous death of Mr. Stephen Smith, of Turville Grange, Turville Heath, and Marlow Mills. It appeared that Mr. Smith left his house early on Friday morning in week in order to superintend the arrangements for reaping in one of the fields of his farm, near his residence at Turville. He carried his gun with him as was his usual custom. He gave the necessary directions to his men and was returning home to breakfast; while at a gateway leading Turville Heath and within 200 yards of his own house, his gun went off in some way which can never now be explained and he was found by Mr. Head, an ex-police constable living near by, within half a minute in a dying condition. The evidence at the inquest, which we give in full below, seems to prove conclusively that the gun was discharged accidentally, and that this sad fatality was an accident pure and simple. It was pointed out at the inquest that the gun was exceptionally dangerous in consequence of the pull of the trigger being very light, and it seems most probable, that the gun dropped or got knocked against the gate while the deceased was passing through or getting over it. Mr. Smith was thoroughly acquainted with the handling of a gun, but this only makes the accident all the more lamentable. Mr. Stephen Smith was the seventh child of the late Stephen Smith, of Mapledurham Mill, near Reading. He was born at Bradfield, and was a descendent of one of the oldest and most respected yeomen families in Berkshire. In his early years he was in the drapery department of Messrs. Tyrrel in London, but finding the confinement of an indoor |
business not to his liking, he returned to his father and four brothers, all of who were all millers. On the death of Mr. Charles Barnett, of Hambleden Mill, in 1860, who had married his second sister, he came to Hambleden to manage the mill for her. In 1873, she took him into partnership. In 1878, on the death of his brother-in-law, the late Mr. John Rixon, he brought The Grange, Turville Heath and in 1881 he also acquired the lease of Marlow Mill. In 1885 the partnership with his sister. Mrs. Barnett, was dissolved. Mr. Smith taking over the Marlow Mill. He married, in 1868, Mary, the oldest daughter of the late Joseph Hobbs, of Abney House, Bourne End, a lady much beloved by all for her amiability and kindness, and admired by all for the manner in which she has brought up her large family of four sons and seven daughters. For many years Mr. Stephen Smith has been a well-known figure at all our country markets and many a gathering within our district. He was always of the full of fun and jokes, and was the life of the Market Ordinary at the Queen's Hotel, Reading, when he was the chairman. His manly bearing, genial manner, and kindly, open nature, coupled with marked business capacity and sound common sense, made him respected and liked wherever he went. He was a man of many friends and, we doubt, a single enemy. He was a ready talker and a capital companion, whether in business or in sport. He was very fond of outdoor life and farming, was a thorough sportsman, and a first-rate shot. In years gone by, too, he was often to he seen in the hunting field. He was, in short, a typical yeoman of the best class, a class unfortunately already to rare amongst us.. His memory will live for many a day in a host of friends of every class in life. The simple truth of his own domestic life was shown in evidence at the inquest, and all the district will deeply sympathise with Mrs. Smith and her children on the crushing blow that has fallen on them. |
Children of Mary Hobbs and Stephen Smith:
| 2.4.3.4.1 | Madeline Mary Smith born June 19, 1870, died January 22, 1919 |
| 2.4.3.4.2 | Emily Smith born August 1, 1971, died June 6, 1950 |
| 2.4.3.4.3 | Mabel Jane Smith born November 23, 1872, died died October 6, 1956 |
| 2.4.3.4.4 | Sidney James Smith born December 22, 1873, died July 20, 1967 |
| 2.4.3.4.5 | Ellen "Nella" Smith born March 7, 1874, died June 20, 1952 |
| 2.4.3.4.6 | Frances Ada Smith born June 5, 1876, died January 18, 1935 |
| 2.4.3.4.7 | Walter Harold Smith born January 22, 1878, died October 20, 1948 |
| 2.4.3.4.8 | Hilda Louisa Smith born March 24, 1879, died May 1951 |
| 2.4.3.4.9 | Ronald Smith born April 27, 1882, died May 27, 1937 |
| 2.4.3.4.10 | Bessie Winnifred Smith born June 6, 1883, died July 1981 |
| 2.4.3.4.11 | Frank Curzon Smith born November 30, 1885, died about 1970 |
[Photo courtesy of Irene Cambridge. Unfortunately who is who is unknown]
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