Person:Susan Bryant (8)

Childhood

Susan Bryant was born on 16th June 1842 at Hinxworth in Hertfordshire, daughter of Patty Bryant, formerly Street, and her husband Thomas Bryant, a blacksmith. Thomas and Patty had both been born and bred in Hinxworth, a small agricultural village at the northern tip of Hertfordshire close to the borders with both Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire. Thomas and Patty clearly took a little while to decide what to call the baby; when they registered her birth on 25th July she still had no name. She was baptised Susan on 7th August.

Susan was the fourth of eleven children, although two of her younger siblings died as babies, such that her parents never had more than nine children alive at any one time. There was only one boy, Arthur, and all the rest were girls.

When Susan was born, three of her grandparents were still alive. Her paternal grandparents, William and Ann Bryant, were still running the family blacksmith’s forge in Hinxworth, which stood next to the Three Horseshoes public house. (The Three Horseshoes was owned and run at that time by her relations the Stantons, connected through her late great grandmother Ann Stanton, her paternal grandfather’s mother.) Susan’s widowed maternal grandmother, Mary Street (formerly Millard), had left Hinxworth after her husband died and was living a few miles to the south at Clothall, working as a servant in a big house.

Susan’s maternal grandmother died in 1846 when Susan was four years old and was buried back at Hinxworth. Her paternal grandfather William Bryant died in 1849, when Susan was seven years old.

The 1851 census finds Susan living with her parents and five of her six siblings who were then alive at Hinxworth. Her oldest sister, Ann, was away from home working as a servant at New Inn Farm just outside the village. Susan’s paternal grandmother, Ann Bryant (formerly Randall), was living nearby at the time of the 1851 census, in which she was described as a blacksmith employing six men; she had clearly continued running the family forge after her husband’s death. Of the six men she employed, at least four appear to have been her sons, including Susan’s father Thomas. Susan’s paternal grandmother died in 1854, when Susan was twelve years old.

Unusually, the Hinxworth parish registers at this period record confirmations as well as the usual baptisms, marriages and burials. We therefore know that Susan was confirmed a few weeks before her sixteenth birthday at the nearby market town of Baldock by the Bishop of Rochester. Susan’s next sighting is also in Baldock; at the time of the 1861 census she was living in one of the big town houses on Baldock’s High Street, working as a servant for a wealthy widow named Sarah Stocken and her son who was an attorney’s articled clerk.

Adulthood

Susan’s next sighting is some seventy miles away, and completely the opposite side of London, at Crawley in Sussex. What made her move so far is not clear. She was married there on 31st January 1864, aged 21, to a bricklayer named George Godsmark, who was from Crawley. The marriage record describes Susan as a servant. Although a long way from Hinxworth, at least one of Susan’s sisters, Priscilla, attended the wedding, being one of the witnesses to the marriage.

Less than five months after their marriage Susan and George had a son, Arthur George, baptised at Crawley. He was followed in 1866 by a son named Walter. Tragically in October 1867, both boys died, aged three and one, being buried just seventeen days apart, leaving Susan and George childless. However, she was pregnant at the time of the boys’ deaths, and between 1868 and 1884 she would go on to have another eight children (five girls and three boys). The 1871 census finds Susan and George and their two daughters living in Crawley.

In October 1879, Susan and George had a son whom they named Thomas Bryant Godsmark, presumably named after Susan’s father, who died back in Hinxworth the following month. Susan’s mother died just over a year later in January 1881.

The 1881 census finds Susan and George living at “New Town” in Ifield, the neighbouring parish to Crawley, but this was effectively still part of Crawley; the “New Town” was where the urban area of Crawley had spilled over its parish boundaries onto land in Ifield parish.

Susan’s eldest daughter married in 1888, and her first grandchild was born later that year.

In 1890, Susan’s daughter Louisa died aged 16. Susan’s remaining seven children (Emma, Rosa, Susan, George, Thomas Bryant, William and Priscilla) would all survive to adulthood and outlive her. The 1891 census finds Susan staying at Woolwich in London with her eldest daughter Emma, who had married a sergeant in the Royal Artillery named Augustus Collier. Presumably she was helping out with her two young grandsons. George was back at home in Crawley on census night in 1891, living at Workhouse Cottage, which had previously been his parents’ house (it had ceased to be a workhouse many years before, but the name had clearly stuck). Susan’s daughter Rosa also moved to London, working as a cook in Islington before marrying a chemical packer named Walter Edmund Savage in 1892.

In 1901, Susan and George were living at Smalls Lane in Ifield with four of their children.

Susan died on 26th September 1910 at West Green in Ifield (again on the edge of Crawley) of apoplexy. She was 68 years old. A newspaper death notice reported that she was well-known in Crawley and had been ill for nearly six years. She had seen sixteen grandchildren born in her lifetime, mostly in the London area, being her daughter Emma’s nine children and her daughter Rosa’s seven children, although two of those grandchildren had died young. George outlived her by nearly thirteen years.

1. ↑ Birth certificate (Local Registrar's), in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   Registration District Royston
   1842. Birth in the Sub-district of Royston in the Counties of Herts Essex & Cambridgeshire
   No.	When and where born	Name, if any	Sex	Name and surname of father	Name, surname and maiden name of mother	Occupation of father	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
   291	Sixteenth of June 1842 at Hinxworth		Girl	Thomas Bryant	Patty Bryant formerly Street	Blacksmith	X The mark of Patty Bryant Mother Hinxworth	Twenty fifth of July 1842	Josias Johnson, Registrar

   
2. ↑ Baptisms register, in Church of England. Parish registers of Hinxworth, 1551-1985. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   BAPTISMS solemnized in the Parish of Hinxworth in the County of Hertford in the Year 1842
   No.	When Baptized	Child's Christian Name	Parents' Name		Abode	Quality, Trade, or Profession	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   			Christian	Surname
   364	7 Aug[ust]	Susan	Thomas & Patty	Briant	Hinxworth	Blacksmith	G.J. Pierson, Vicar of Norton

3. ↑ England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 1707; Folio 533; Page 8, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: High Street, Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Thomas Briant, head, married, male, 38 [1812/3], Blacksmith, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Patty Briant, wife, married, female, 36 [1814/5], b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Mary Briant, daughter, female, 13 [1837/8], Scholar, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Priscilla Briant, daughter, female, 11 [1839/40], Scholar, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Susan Briant, daughter, female, 9 [1841/2], Scholar, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Betsy Briant, daughter, female, 7 [1843/4], Scholar, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Arthur Briant, son, male, 5 [1845/6], Scholar, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Rosa Briant, daughter, female, 3 [1847/8], b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire

4. ↑ Baptisms register, in Church of England. Parish registers of Hinxworth, 1551-1985. (Hertford: Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies).

   List of those Confirmed on the 6th Day of May 1858 by B[isho]p of Rochester at Baldock
   ... Susan Bryant, 15...

5. ↑ England. 1861 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 RG9; Piece 816; Folio 16; Page 26, 7 Apr 1861.

   Address: High Street, Baldock, Hertfordshire
   Sarah Stocken, head, widow, female, 69 [1791/2], Bond holder, b. Baldock, Hertfordshire
   Alfred Stocken, son, unmarried, male, 37 [1823/4], Attorney's Articled Clerk, b. Baldock, Hertfordshire
   Mary A. Stocken, daughter, unmarried, female, 33 [1827/8], Nil, b. Baldock, Hertfordshire
   Susan Bryant, servant, unmarried, female, 18 [1842/3], General Serv[an]t, b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   George C. Wade, lodger, unmarried, male, 20 [1840/1], Attorney's Clerk, b. Gravenhurst, Bedfordshire

6. ↑ England. England and Wales. 1871 Census Schedules. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG10; Piece 1059; Folio 88; Page 6, 2 Apr 1871.

   Address: Crawley St, Crawley, Sussex
   George Godsmark, head, married, male, 29 [1841/2], Bricklayer, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Susan Godsmark, wife, married, female, 28 [1842/3], b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Emma Godsmark, daughter, unmarried, female, 3 [1867/8], b. Crawley, Sussex
   Rosa Godsmark, daughter, unmarried, female, 1 [1869/70], b. Crawley, Sussex

7. ↑ England. 1881 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 RG11; Piece 1109; Folio 34; Page 36, 3 Apr 1881.

   Address: New Town, Ifield, Sussex
   George Godsmark, head, married, male, 39 [1841/2], Bricklayer, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Susan Godsmark, wife, married, female, 38 [1842/3], b. Hinksworth, Hertfordshire
   Emma Godsmark, daughter, female, 13 [1867/8], General Serv[ant], b. Crawley, Sussex
   Rosa Godsmark, daughter, female, 11 [1869/70], Scholar, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Susan Godsmark, daughter, female, 9 [1871/2], Scholar, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Louisa Godsmark, daughter, female, 7 [1873/4], Scholar, b. Crawley, Sussex
   George Godsmark, son, male, 5 [1875/6], Scholar, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Thomas B. Godsmark, son, male, 1 [1879/80], b. Ifield, Sussex

8. ↑ England. 1891 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 RG12; Piece 533; Folio 41; Page 26, 5 Apr 1891.

   Address: 50 Brook Hill Road, Woolwich, London
   2 rooms occupied
   Augustus Collier, head, married, male, 27 [1863/4], Sergeant Royal H Art[il]l[er]y, employed, b. Brambling, Kent
   Emma Collier, wife, married, female, 23 [1867/8], b. Crawley, Sussex
   Alice Collier, daughter, single, female, 2 [1888/9], b. Crawley, Sussex
   Frederick Collier, son, single, male, 11m [1890], b. Woolwich, Kent
   Susan Godsmark, mother in law, married, female, 48 [1842/3], b. Hindworth [sic], Hertfordshire

9. ↑ England. England. 1901 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 RG13; Piece 949; Folio 108; Page 4, 31 Mar 1901.

   Address: Smalls Lane, Ifield, Sussex
   Geo[rge] Godsmark, head, married, male, 59 [1841/2], Bricklayer, worker, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Susan Godsmark, wife, married, female, 58 [1842/3], b. Hinxworth, Hertfordshire
   Geo[rge] Godsmark, son, single, male, 25 [1875/6], Hairdresser, own account, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Tho[ma]s Godsmark, son, single, male, 21 [1879/80], Bricklayer, worker, b. Crawley, Sussex
   W[illia]m Godsmark, son, single, male, 18 [1882/3], Carpenter, worker, b. Crawley, Sussex
   Priscilla Godsmark, daughter, single, female, 16 [1884/5], b. Crawley, Sussex

10. ↑ Death certificate, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

    REGISTRATION DISTRICT HORSHAM
    1910. DEATH in the Sub-district of North Horsham in the County of Sussex
    No.	When and where died	Name and surname	Sex	Age	Occupation	Cause of death	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
    141	Twenty sixth September 1910 West Green Ifield R.D.	Susan Godsmark	Female	68 Years [1841/2]	Wife of George Godsmark Bricklayer	Apoplexy Certified by J.H. Martin M.R.C.S.	George Godsmark Son Present at the death West Green Ifield	Twenty seventh September 1910	Julia Miller, Interim Registrar

    
11.   West Sussex Gazette (Arundel), in United Kingdom. The British Newspaper Archive
    Page 12, Thursday 29 Sep 1910.

    CRAWLEY.
    After nearly six years’ illness Mrs. George Godsmark died on Monday in her 69th year. Mrs. Godsmark was well-known in the town, and the greatest sympathy is felt for the family.