Person:Ann Stevens (18)

Ann Stevens’ origins have yet to be established. The ages given when she died suggest that she was born around 1790. Her first confirmed sighting is on 17th November 1808, when she married Robert Savage at St Maurice’s Church in the city of Winchester.

Ann and Robert went on to have nine children baptised at Winchester between 1809 and 1831. The children’s baptisms described Robert as being a pattern maker and last maker (lasts being the wooden blocks around which shoes and boots are made).

The family did briefly leave Winchester, moving nearly 70 miles south-west to Weymouth on the Dorset coast in November 1811, where Robert tried his hand at being a billiard table keeper, presumably trying to cater to the tourist trade that was developing there. The venture did not last, and Robert later reported that they stayed for about eighteen months before returning to Winchester.

They were certainly back in Winchester by June 1814, when their next child was baptised. From 1814 to 1828 all the children’s baptisms show that the family lived on Water Lane, which is on the eastern side of Winchester, alongside the River Itchen, in the parish of Winchester St John.

The family’s financial position seems to have been precarious at times. In 1816 Robert was subjected to a settlement examination by the Overseers of the Poor of the parish, which may indicate either that the family had needed to claim poor relief, or that they were considered to be at risk of needing to claim it. The purpose of such examinations was to establish whether there was a different parish which had the legal responsibility to pay the poor relief. The fact that the family had spent time in Weymouth had clearly raised doubt in the officials’ minds.

As well as working as a last maker, Robert took on other jobs, including milkman and deputy apparitor (assisting the local magistrates). Despite these efforts, their financial position remained unstable, and in 1822 Robert was described as an insolvent debtor.

Robert did later regain some standing; in 1827 he was elected as one of the Sergeants-at-Mace of the city. As part of this role he also became keeper of the City Bridewell.

Ann and Robert’s eldest daughter married in 1828. Their first known grandchild was born in 1831, being baptised only three months after Ann’s youngest son had been baptised.

In January 1834 Ann and Robert’s second daughter died, aged seventeen.

Ann died on 14th March 1835. She was buried the following day at St Maurice’s Church in Winchester. She was said to be either 44 or 45 years old. Her youngest son was only about four years old. Robert survived her by twelve years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Burials register, in Church of England. Parish Registers of St Maurice's Church Winchester. (Winchester: Hampshire Record Office).

   No.1450 / Ann Savage / St Maurice / 15 Mar 1835 / 45 [1789/90]

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Hampshire Telegraph & Sussex Chronicle (Portsmouth), in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
   Page 4, Monday 16 Mar 1835.

   Winchester…
   Died, on Saturday last, aged 44 years [1790/1], Ann, the wife of Mr. Robert Savage, of this city.

3.   Hampshire Chronicle & Southampton Courier (Winchester), in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
   Page 1, Monday 16 Mar 1835.

   Died, last week, Ann, the wife of Mr. R. Savage, Keeper of the City Bridewell, aged 44. [1790/1]