Maria Joy, 1843-1894

Paternal 2nd great-Grandmother

Maria was born in 1843 in Tottenham, Middlesex, to William and Maria, their first child¹. William was from Sandgate, a village near Folkestone, Kent, Maria was a Londoner. He was working as a gardener in Tottenham when they married² and Maria had been working in Gray’s Inn as a dressmaker³. It was her mother’s second marriage at 27, her first husband had died.

By 1851 the family had grown to six and were living in Dover, Kent, where her father worked as a railway guard. Maria was at school⁴. In 1861, at 18, she was still living at home and not working. Her younger brothers were working for the telegraph company⁵.

She married Charles Widows in 1866. She was 23 and he was two years older than her, a coachman from a village in Oxfordshire and the son of a bailliff⁶. Five years before they married, the census puts him as a groom at Kirtlington Park⁷, the home of Sir George Dashwood⁸ (4th Baronet), in Oxfordshire. However, they married in Queen Camel, a village on the river Cam in Somerset, and Charles gives his address as “Hazelgrove”. This probably refers to the 16th century Hazelgrove House, rebuilt in the 18th century and owned by the Mildmay family (the house became a school after the 2nd World War)⁹.

Maria was living in the village of Flimwell at the time. What she was doing in East Sussex and how they met is not known, but her father had died not long before¹⁰, so she was probably working there. Perhaps she was working as a servant in a house where Charles, as a coachman, visited with the people he worked for. Echoes of Downton Abbey. Note to self: is there a large country house to be found near Flimwell in Sussex, like Pashley Manor (owned by the great-Grandfather of Anne Boleyn)? Their first son, Charles William, was born in Queen Camel.

^{Hazelgrove House, where Charles worked as a coachman in 1866. Photo: Andy Potter, CC 2.0}

Six years later, in 1871, she had moved with Charles to Leamington Priors in Warwickshire. She was living with her two small children, aged 3 and 4, and was called “Ellin”. Her daughter Kate was my paternal great-Grandmother. They lived in Guy Street which runs parallel to “The Parade”, the main thoroughfare of Leamington. They had two grooms boarding with them, one of whom – Henry Brine – was from Queen Camel, Somerset, where the couple had married¹¹.

Maria went on to give birth to five more children, seven altogether, five boys and two girls. Her fifth child, Frederick, died as a 7 week-old baby in 1873. No dates are given, but he was baptised shortly after the birth “privately”, and buried six weeks later on 22 Nov 1873. The death index shows a second baby, a twin girl, who remained unnamed, probably still-born¹².

In 1881 all the children were in school and Charles was working as a groom, as was her eldest son, Charles William (14). Maria’s name is no longer given as “Ellin”. They had moved from 28 to 16 Guy Street which was described in 1901 as “stables, with rooms over”. They had four rooms for two adults and six children, three of whom were teenagers¹³.

In 1891, the older children, Charles, Kate, William and Frank had left home. Ernest, still at home and now 16, was working as his father’s assistant. Kate married my great-Grandfather Charles Hall two years later, and had been working as a domestic servant for a wool manufacturer in Foleshill Road, Coventry, according to the 1891 census (although her name is confusingly given as Wilson). Her son William (21) was working as a footman at Wroxhall Abbey and Frank (also given as 21, but probably only 20) was one of six domestic servants at Knaven Hall in Milverton. No sign of Charles William¹⁴.

Maria died in 1894 at the age of 52. She died of apoplexy¹⁵, possibly caused by a brain haemorrhage or a stroke. Life expectancy was around 45 years old at that time, so she had lived longer than most. Her eldest daughter was married and most of her children had survived the many epidemics of the 19th century, so one could regard her life as a success.

Her husband, Charles, died three years later¹⁶.

14 Mar 2025, sources added on 23 Dev 2025

1. General Register Office, copy of an entry of birth. 1843, Tottenham, Middlesex. 9 Sep 1843 at Scotland Green. Maria, girl, William Joy, Maria Joy formerly Wards, gardener, Scotland Green, Tottenham ↩︎
2. General Register Office, copy of an entry of marriage. 1842, Tottenham, Middlesex. 16 Oct 1842. William Joy, bachelor, gardener, Tottenham, father: William Joy, Bricklayer. Maria James, widow, Tottenham, father John Ward, Cordwainer. Witnesses: William White, Sarah Ward. ↩︎
3. 1841 England Census. St. Andrews Holborn, Middlesex. Gray’s Inn Passage, Maria James, 26, Dressmaker. ↩︎
4. 1851 England Census. Saint Mary, Dover, Kent. Seven Star Street. William (31), Railway Guard, Maria (36), Maria (7), William (5), Francis (3) and Mary (1) Joy. ↩︎
5. 1861 England Census, Saint Mary, Dover, Kent. Beach St. William (41), Railway Guard, Maria (46), Maria (18), William (16), Telegraph Clerk, Francis (14), Telegraph Messenger, and Mary (12) Joy. ↩︎
6. General Register Office, copy of an entry of marriage. 1866, Queen Camel, Somerset. 14 Mar 1866. Charles Widows, 25, bachelor, coachman, Hazlegrove, father John Widows, Bailiff. Maria Joy, 23, spinster, Flimwell, Sussex, father William Joy, Railway Guard. Witnesses: Thomas Maddison, S. Wills. ↩︎
7. 1861 England Census, Kirtlington, Oxfordshire. Kirtlington Parish/Park. Charles Widows, servant, unmarried, 19, groom, born Lower Heyford. ↩︎
8. 1861 England Census, Kirtlington, Oxfordshire. Kirtlington Park. George Dashwood, Head, Mar, 74, Baronet, Landed Proprietor, born Kirtlington, Oxfordshire. ↩︎
9. Wikipedia entry for “Hazlegrove House”, accessed on23 Dec 2025 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazlegrove_House ↩︎
10. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915. Original data: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office; Volume: 2a; Page: 7, William Joy death registered Oct-Nov-Dec 1864 in Dover. ↩︎
11. 1871 England Census, Leamington Priors, Warwickshire. 28 Guy St. Charles (28), coachman, Ellin (26), Charles William (4), Kate (3), William (1); boarders: Henry Brine (26), groom, and James Squibb (22), groom. ↩︎
12. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915, Original data: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office; Volume: 6d; Page: 386, Frederick Widows death registered Oct-Nov-Dec 1873 in Warwick (age 0); Volume: 6d: Page: 384, Female Widows, death registered Oct-Nov-Dec 1873 in Warwick (age 0) ↩︎
13. 1881 England Census, Leamington, Warwickshire. 16 Guy St. Charles (41), groom, Maria (39), Charles (14), groom, Kate (12), William (11). Frank (9), Earnest (6), Elizabeth (3). ↩︎
14. 1891 England Census, Leamington, Warwickshire. 16 Guy St. Charles (50), coachman, Maria (48), Ernest (16), groom assistant, Elizabeth (13). ↩︎
15. General Register Office, copy of death certificate. Leamington, Warwickshire. 17 Dec 1894, 24 Oxford Street, Leamington. Maria Widows, female, 52 years, wife of Charles Widows Coachman domestic, apoplexy 12 hours. Present at death Charles Widows, widower of deceased, same address. ↩︎
16. England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1837-1915, Original data: England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office; Volume: 6d; Page: 394, Charles Widows death registered Oct-Nov-Dec 1897 in Warwick (age 57). ↩︎