Farewell Mother H

This is my final post in my series about Ann Wilds, previously known as ‘Mother H’, widow of Amon Wilds, whose entire estate she inherited on his death in 1833.

Renton Nicholson^[i]Renton Nicholson: Rogue’s Progress. The autobiography of Lord Chief Baron Nicholson. Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston. 1965 page 28.noted that

“She had again tried her luck in the matrimonial lottery, although nearly seventy years of age. Her third husband was a serious, calm, respectable Dissenter. He outlived her”

Thomas Hunter at 39, was recently widowed with no surviving descendants. The Brighton Gazette recorded the death of his first wife, Charlotte, on 1^st January 1833 at their house in Grosvenor Street, Brighton. Thomas was the manager of the Royal Bazaar, Grand Parade. His only daughter, Marianne Sage Hunter had died in 1832 and was buried near her mother in April 1833 at St Nicholas, Brighton.

It is worth asking why Thomas Hunter decided to marry Ann Wilds, an old lady 30 years his senior, with a far from respectable past. I hope I am not being too ungenerous to suggest that he was maybe seeking a more comfortable existence. Ann Wilds must have been in search not only of companionship in her advancing years, but also someone to protect and manage her business interests. In addition to rents from Covent Garden and Doncaster, she now owned numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 Richmond Terrace, numbers 20, 30, 31, 43, 44 and 45 Hanover Street, numbers 5, 7 and 8 and Richmond Cottage, Southover Street, and 8 Crescent Place, all in Brighton. Ann’s literacy and numeracy skills would seem to be still quite limited, and Thomas Hunter was an ideal husband and estate manager.

On 4^th February 1834, Thomas Hunter married Ann Wilds at St Nicholas Brighton. The marriage was witnessed by his mother, Mary Ann, and an Edward Hunter. Thomas had been brought up by his aunt and uncle, Susanna and John Draper in Hammersmith. His mother, Mary Ann Hunter née Skinner, had entered domestic service when Thomas was one year old. Her employers, the Thorntons of Battersea Rise, Surrey, members of The Clapham Sect, were noted for their progressive views and generous treatment of their servants. They believed that domestic servants should be encouraged to keep in contact with their families and enabled them to visit, far more than was usual. A famous Thornton descendant, E. M. Forster, recorded in detail in his biography of his Aunt, Marianne Thornton, how very much the family was devoted to ‘Nanny’ Hunter. Forster described how Thomas, although deeply affected by his mother’s death on a family visit to Brighton in 1848, agreed to the family’s request that Mary Ann’s remains would be returned to Battersea Rise to be buried in the Thornton family ground. ^[ii]E.M.Forster. Marianne Thornton, 1797-1887: a domestic biography. London, Edward Arnold, 1956

But to return to their marriage, Thomas and Ann Hunter appear to have lived a quiet life together for 18 years before she died. With Ann’s portfolio of property inherited from Amon Wilds and the income from Covent Garden and Doncaster, you might think they were financially secure, but it appears that this was not always so. Ann and Thomas sold the contents of 9 Richmond Terrace, let the house unfurnished, and moved into Richmond Cottage, a smaller house built to the rear of No 7 Richmond Terrace, accessible from Southover Street. Thomas applied for bankruptcy on 29^th October 1838 ^[iii]London Gazette 29^th Oct 1838at Horsham. By the time of Ann’s death they appear to have re-occupied 9 Richmond Terrace.

Ann’s will is a wonderful source of detail on her relationships and lifestyle.^[iv]National Archives PCC will and probate 13 Aug 1852 PROB11/2157/216 Her estate was put in the hands of her executors: Joseph Thomas Pettigrew, surgeon of Saville Row, and Carl Herman Schweitzer, pharmacist of Brighton. Thomas Hunter was granted the freehold of Richmond Cottage, where he lived with his widowed cousin, Nancy Mitchell, née Draper, until he died. The condition of his receiving Richmond Cottage and a proportion of the estate, specified that he did not remarry.

Given that Ann’s will is the only document we have of her authorship, what is it possible to say about her personality, loyalties and indeed her life, from its contents?

Despite Ann having no surviving descendants, it is possible to detect some long term family loyalties. In addition to legacies left to The Bresson family, Ann provided for relatives of Thomas Hunter. Thomas had been brought up by his aunt and uncle: John, and Susanna Draper née Skinner. The Drapers were Thomas’ surviving family, and Ann left an annuity of £52 a year to his cousin, their eldest daughter, Susanna. and £20 apiece to her children, Thomas Hunter Borrie, and Ann Borrie. Ann Hunter was at pains to point out that Susanna Borrie née Draper was wife to John Borrie, gardener to the Duke of Grafton at Euston Hall, Suffolk. Ann Hunter enjoyed the prestigious connection! She also left annuities to Clara and Lucy Jane Millerd, daughters of Lucy Jane Draper, another cousin of Thomas Hunter, who were left orphaned in 1843. It is noticeable how the majority of beneficiaries are women, despite some of their still having living husbands. She is very clear that the law of coverture, under which a wife’s property was always her husband’s, must not jeopardise their ownership of these funds. Ann was aware that the financial position of women was often precarious and could lead them to destitution and prostitution. And so, annuities were granted to: Mary Elizabeth Diggens, who in 1824 married Samuel Edward Roberts, heraldry painter and oilcloth maker of Farringdon Market; Ann Pell, wife since 1819 of Charles Barrington Jacobs, fruiterer of Farringdon Market and resident of Stonecutter Street, and also to her sister, Helen Pell; and to Sarah Lepine, wife of George Gilbert, coachman, of Snow Hill and to her niece, Sarah Crippen. These women were married to men whose living was sometimes precarious, whose marriages seemed at times at risk, and who were often obliged to earn their own living. Mrs Gilbert was sometimes noted as ‘bugle fringe maker’ and ‘schoolmistress’. Both she and Mrs Jacobs were to have the residue of Ann’s jewellery after the choice items were delivered to other beneficiaries.

Whether or not these women had been involved with Ann Hunter in the sex trade, it is not possible to tell, but it has been reported that in Regency London, something like 50,000-70,000 women worked as prostitutes. Henry Thomas Kitchener noted that as well as ‘full-time’ sex workers, there were also many who were in trades or service, and more who were married women whose husbands were either away or afflicted by poverty.^[v]Henry Thomas Kitchener, Letters on marriage. 2 vols. London, Chapple 1812This description would seem to fit Mrs Roberts and Mrs Gilbert.

This may also apply to Elizabeth Louisa née Wade, wife of John Chalmers, bootmaker. She had married John Chalmers in 1823, at a time similar to the marriages of Mrs Roberts and Mrs Gilbert. Elizabeth received a sum of £60 in Ann Hunter’s will.
Personal relationships aside, Ann’s will also shows her desire to do some public good with her money. A legacy of £5 a year to the Askern Bathing Society in Yorkshire seems a strange bequest, but on investigation it would appear that this was The Askern Bath Charity, an organisation founded in 1825 to provide funds for poor women to access medical treatment at the spa. The will also provided for the setting up of a charity in Brighton to purchase houses for the accommodation of ‘poor persons over the age of 50 and not receiving parochial relief’. The charity was to be administered by the Vicar of Brighton with Ann’s executors, Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, and Herman Schweitzer. In a further codicil, the charitable legacies were revoked in favour of the executors. To be fair to Pettigrew and Schweitzer, it may be that faced with the enormous task of the executorship, they prevailed upon Ann to change her mind about the charities. In any event, some of the people who may have benefited from the housing charity, that is Henry Ockenden and his wife Jane, who had been Ann’s tenants, received grants of money, as did Charlotte Burkland and Lucy Bridgland who had been her servants. Last wills and testaments and probate records, greatly valued by family historians, provide fascinating insights into the daily life of their authors. Ann Hunter left nothing to chance in respect of the fate of her goods and chattels. Here is an extract:

“…to Rebecca Schweitzer,

Amethyst set of trinkets, necklace and headress, cross brooch and earrings. My best diamond ring, my ruby ring set round with diamonds some paste, ornamental combs, gold chain and eyeglass, sapphire ring set round with diamonds paste, buckle and bracelets, all my black trinkets and ornaments. A pair of earrings formerly belonging to Mrs Wilds. Also six white mourning [morning?] dresses, my coloured dresses, my two best white petticoats, a choice of my best winter and summer shawls and cloaks. My silk gown made robe fashion, my black satin dress, my white cape shawl with satin stripes, a Nun’s veil ^[vi]‘Nun’s veil’ In the days of Mother H’s, Ann King, as she then was, would wear a nun’s veil as a sign of her occupation as a Covent Garden bawdy house keeper. lined with blue and finished with broad lace, all my lace cambric pocket handkerchiefs and cambric chemises, my sable muff and boa, my chinchilla pellerine, muff and boa.

Also the furniture of my best bedroom, the two parlours, the drawing room, the tent room, the hall, the two passages and the small room at the top of the stairs, a mahogany commode, also the whole of the looking glasses throughout the house. One down and goose feather bed with bolsters and pillows to match, two down pillows. For the outside of the bed, three best counterpanes, six pair of best blankets and six pair of best linen sheets. All my best table linen of every description: table cloths, tray cloths, finger napkins, doyleys and other articles. All my copper utensils, stew and warming pans, my best dessert service of various patterns, centre dish and side dishes and plates. All the decanters, tumblers and wine glasses. also the following articles of plate: four silver paper casters, four silver salts and spoons, one silver mustard pot, one plated liqueur frame and glasses, one silver saucepan with cover, a silver nutmeg grater urn fashion, a large silver funnel, a soup ladle, a fish slice, a silver mug formerly belonging to Mr Wilds, a large silver salver, a silver bread basket, a silver cake basket, a very large silver teapot, a silver sugar basin to match a silver cream ewer, six dessert spoons, six tablespoons, two silver gravy spoons, one dozen of large silver forks, one of large and one dozen of small silver knives with ivory handles, one dozen silver dessert forks, two dozen steel knives and forks with ivory handles, one pair of silver candlesticks with snuffers and tray, one pair of asparagus tongs, a silver eggstand and two silver fruit knives, a silver strainer sundry philigree with marks, a gold thimble and two philigree silver ones. My workbox in the shape of a grand piano, and all its contents. My large ribbon cabinet and pear worktable. A geranium coloured satin cloak lined. A large white blond nun’s veil, a short veil, a black lace veil, a choice of two large ones one white and four black feathers a short white and black English veil, a white lace scarf and three satin scarfs, a white petticoat lined with fur and four silver sauce ladles.

I give to Sarah Atkins [mother of Rebecca Schweitzer] a brown silk dress, my old black satin dress, my plaid merino dress, and six cloth chemises and an Isabella^[vii]An Isabella Boa was a fur garment worn around the neck. It has disappeared from the fashion glossaries, but may have been derived from ‘Zibellino’, a fur tippet from the Italian word for … Continue reading boa.

I give to Carl Adolph Herman Schweitzer the oil portrait of myself in the parlour of my present residence, my grandmother’s diamond brooch, my large ruby ring set round with diamonds and the gold watch and chain I always wear with it…..”

Ann Hunter died in December 1851 and according to the parish burial record, was buried in St Nicholas’ Churchyard Brighton on 27^th December 1851, aged 85. She is commemorated on the impressive monument in the churchyard to Amon Wilds. It is assumed that the monument was designed and erected by his son Amon Henry Wilds. Strangely, the inscription to Ann Hunter, which was added later, has her date of burial as ‘May 19^th 1867, aged 80 years’. This could indicate a date of re-interment, but I have found no record of this. This mystery remains. After such a long and eventful life, it is reassuring that she is commemorated, and now, I hope, remembered as one of Brighton’s most Surprising Lives.