My 3rd Great Grandparents were John MAYHEW, an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Louisa BARKER(1), a lacemaker. There are two unrelated Barker lines in my tree.
John MAYHEW was born in 1824 in Bromham, Bedfordshire, England, and was baptised at St. Owens Church on 7th October. He was the second of five children born to John MAYHEW Snr, an agricultural labourer, and his first wife, Sarah HARRISON. John Jnr. was 11 years old when his mother died, and his father remarried five months later to Sarah TAYLOR, giving John eight half-siblings (he was 31 years older than his youngest half-sister).
Louisa BARKER(1) was born on 2nd May 1830 in Kempston, Bedfordshire and was the eighth of nine children born to John BARKER(1), an agricultural labourer, and his wife, Mary ALLEN, a lacemaker.
John married Louisa on 2nd September 1849 in Kempston, Bedfordshire, when they were 25 and 19. They had eight children together between 1850 and 1873, and all children went on to marry and have children of their own (there were at least 46 grandchildren).
- Mercy Barker Mayhew (1850-1889) m.1878 to Robert Wilsher ~ Lacemaker and Agricultural Labourer’s wife
- Isaac Mayhew (1852-1911) m.1872 to Sarah Lilleyman ~ Shoe Finisher
- Amos Mayhew (1855-1921) m.1879 to Mary Ann Peabody ~ Boot Finisher
- William Samuel Mayhew (1858-1924) m.1879 to Mary Ann Keetch ~ General Labourer
- Walter Charles Mayhew (1860-1943) m.1881 to Elizabeth Finding; General Labourer and Gravel Digger
- Emma Julia Mayhew (1863-1925) m.1882 to Joseph Finding (brother of Elizabeth above) ~ Lacemaker and General Labourer’s wife
- Albert Frederick Mayhew (1866-1917) m.1884 to Sarah Ashley ~ General Labourer and Painter
- Amelia Rose Mayhew (1873-1919) m.1894 to Samuel Ager ~ Currier Labourer’s wife
The family moved around Kempston, between the hamlets of Box End (aka Box Side) and Bell End. Louisa was 42 when their last child was born in 1873, by which time their unmarried daughter Mercy had a four-year-old son. Mercy later married and had four more children, but she sadly died in late 1889, aged 39.
John was present at the Bedford Union Workhouse when the 1891 census was taken, and had been there some time. The workhouse was the only place to get free medical care for those with little to no money, and as Louisa was living at home in Kempston, this was most likely why he was there.
Louisa died at her home of Joyce’s Yard, High Street, Kempston, on Christmas Day 1891, aged 61, from heart disease, with her daughter Emma present. John died just over fifteen months later on 11th April 1893, aged 69, at the Bedford Union Workhouse after 6 days of bronchitis.