Person:Frances Roper (1)

Frances Roper was baptised on 24th September 1769 at Sidlesham in Sussex, daughter of Sarah Roper, formerly Clement, and her husband Thomas Roper, a husbandman. Frances appears to have been known as Fanny, being called that on some of her children’s baptisms and at her death.

In 1791, when she was 21 years old, Fanny had a son called John. It is not clear what became of him; there was a John Apps buried at Sidlesham in 1798, but Fanny also had a brother and uncle called John Apps who that burial could also be – it give no clue as to how old he was.

On 17th March 1795, aged 25, Fanny married William Chaffer at Sidlesham. Like Fanny’s father, he worked as a husbandman. He was about fifteen years Fanny’s senior and a widower, whose first wife had died in 1791.

Between 1795 and 1809 Fanny and William had six children baptised at Sidlesham, although their son George died aged two in 1804, then their youngest daughter Amy died just a few days after her baptism in 1809. In 1810, Fanny’s eldest daughter Sarah died aged 14, leaving three surviving children out of the six.

Later in 1810, just three months after burying her eldest daughter, Fanny’s husband William died, when he was said to be 55 years old. Fanny was therefore left with their three surviving children to look after, who were twelve, ten and six years old at the time of their father's death.

Just over a year later, Fanny married again. Her second husband was a John Apps, and they married at Sidlesham on 18th August 1811.

Fanny’s father died in 1813.

In 1815, aged 46, Fanny became a grandmother, when her daughter Mary had a son named George.

John Apps died in 1820, leaving Fanny a widow for a second time at the age of fifty.

All three of Frances's children who lived to adulthood married in Sidlesham. They also all had all their children in Sidlesham. In total, Frances had 21 grandchildren, all of whom were born in her lifetime and in Sidlesham, so she must have got to know all her grandchildren well.

Fanny’s mother died in 1828.

The 1841 census finds Fanny living at Sidlesham with her son Henry, his wife Lucy and their children. Henry had become an agricultural labourer.

Fanny became a great grandmother in 1846, with the birth of her daughter Mary Ann’s first grandson, Daniel King. Another great grandchild followed the following year, born just before Frances died, and named Fanny Woolvin, possibly after Fanny.

Frances died in 1847, aged 78. She was buried at Sidlesham on 7th October 1847.

1. ↑ Church of England. Parish Church of Sidlesham (Sussex). Parish registers of Sidlesham, 1566-1901. (Chichester: West Sussex County Council).

   Baptisms 1769 / Frances, D[aughte]r of Tho[ma]s & Sarah Roper Sep[tembe]r 24th

   This baptism has been linked to the Frances who married William Chaffer and John Apps on the basis that it is at about the time implied by the age given when she died and in the parish in which she married had all her children and was buried. At her first marriage one of the witnesses was a “Sarah Rober” which is presumed to mean Sarah Roper, being the mother of the girl baptised in 1769. There was another Frances Roper baptised at Sidlesham on 16th September 1770 (“baseborn daughter of Abraham Clarke & Elizabeth Roper”), but that girl appears to have died as a baby; there was a burial at Sidlesham on 25th November 1770 of “Frances Roper, an infant”.

2. ↑ England. 1841 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 1103; Book 5; Folio 23; Page 12, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: Sidlesham, Sussex
   Henry Chaffer, male, 35 [1806-11], Ag[ricultural] Lab[ourer], born in county
   Lucy Chaffer, female, 35 [1806-11], born in county
   Henry Chaffer, male, 12 [1828/9], born in county
   Ellen Chaffer, female, 10 [1830/1], born in county
   Charles Chaffer, male, 8 [1832/3], born in county
   John Chaffer, male, 6 [1834/5], born in county
   Sarah Chaffer, female, 4 [1836/7], born in county
   Frances Aps, female, 70 [1766-71], born in county

3.   Deaths index, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   d. Fanny APPS, December Quarter 1847, Westhampnett Registration District, Volume 7, page 367, aged 78 [1768/9]

4. ↑ Burials register, in Church of England. Parish Church of Sidlesham (Sussex). Parish registers of Sidlesham, 1566-1901. (Chichester: West Sussex County Council).

   BURIALS in the Parish of Sidlesham in the County of Sussex in the Year 1847
   No	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   529	Fanny Apps	Sidlesham	October 7th	78 years [1768/9]	William Bruton Curate