Ancestors of Mandy Willard

John WARMAN (1832-1887)

and Mary Elizabeth WEBB (1836-1874)

John Warman and Mary Elizabeth Webb were my 2x Great Grandparents.  (Click here to see their place in my pedigree chart.)  They married at the Baptist Meeting House, Kings Road, Reading, Berkshire on Saturday 23 June 1866.  John was then a 35 year old bachelor and carpenter of 26 Warwick Place, West Pimlico.  Mary Elizabeth was a 30 year old spinster of Beenham, Berkshire.  The witnesses to the marriage were Richard Webb, Richard Webb, junior, Sarah Tyler Webb and E. A. Webb.  They all signed their names.

John Warman was born on Monday 5 March 1832 in Beenham, Berkshire and baptised on Saturday 7 April 1832 in Reading, Berkshire.  He was the third son of George Warman (1804-1883) and Martha Bosher (1802-1878).  He died aged 54 years on Sunday 2 January 1887 at Copyhold Farm, Bucklebury, Berkshire.  His cause of death was pleurisy for 18 days.  His death was registered by his brother-in-law, George Layley who was of Bucklebury.  In 1881 John was a lodger with the family of George Ottway in Ashstead, Surrey.  In 1883 he was named as an executor of his father's will, at which time he was living in Ewell, Surrey.

Mary Elizabeth Webb was born in Beenham, Berkshire and baptised on Tuesday 26 January 1836 in Mortimer, Berkshire.  She was the eldest daughter and child of Richard Webb (1788-1866) and Elizabeth Ann Tyler (1810-1894).  She died aged 38 years on Friday 2 October 1874 at Camberwell House, Lunatic Asylum, Peckham Road, Camberwell, Surrey.  Her cause of death was scarlatina anginosa for 6 days (scarlet fever).  Her death was registered by Mary Ann Frank, who was present at the death and also of Camberwell House.  Mary's death certificate says she was the wife of [blank] Warman, a carpenter of near Reading.  I do not know if she was admitted to the asylum because of her mental state or whether the house was being used to isolate scarlet fever victims.  Camberwell House came into being as a lunatic asylum in about 1846 and closed in 1955.  At the time of the 1841 census she was 5 years old and living with her parents and uncle in Beenham.  In 1851 she was a 15 year old scholar and living at home with her parents and younger siblings.  She was still living with her parents when the 1861 census was recorded and she was then an unmarried 25 year old.

When the 1871 census was recorded the couple and their 2 children were living at 12 Worcester Street in the St. George, Hanover Square district of Westminster, London.  Also with them on census night was 60 year old widower, ? Webb who was born in Berkshire (looks like Ert but could be Geo) and 20 year old spinster Sophia Webb who was born in Beenham.

John Warman and Mary Elizabeth Webb had 3 known children:

2. Mary Elizabeth Warman was born on Monday 17 January 1870 at 12 Worcester Street, Pimlico, London.  At the time her father was a joiner.  Her birth was registered by her mother on 18 February 1870.  She was a year old when the 1871 census was recorded.  In 1881 she was living with her Uncle John Webb and Aunts Sarah Tyler Webb and Kezia Webb and Grandmother Webb.  The 1891 census records that she was an unmarried 21 year old assistant to a ladies dess outfitter, living at 147 Broad Street in the Ladywood district of Birmingham.

   Mary married Henry Arthur Potter in the third quarter of 1899 in the Birmingham registration district.

   Henry was born about 1875 in Duddlestone, Birmingham and was the son of George Nathaniel Potter (c1836-?) and Mary Wheeler (c1844-?).  (They had married on 26 December 1864 at the Independent Chapel, Wheeler Street in the Aston district of Birmingham.  George was then 28 years old and Mary 20 years old.  Their fathers were named as Nathaniel Potter a deceased brass founder and Charles Wheeler (1814-?) a coachmaker.)  When the 1881 census was recorded Henry was a 5 year old scholar living with his parents and siblings at 287 Michells Park Road in Aston.  His father was then a master brass founder employing 40 men, girls and boys.  His mother had been born in Bucklebury, Berkshire, which is not far from Beenham where earlier Warman families had lived.  (Henry's maternal Grandmother was Jemima (c1821-?) who was born in Mortimer in Hampshire.)  In 1891 Henry was a 15 year old accountants assistant and he was living with his parents at 154 Scholefield Street in Aston.

   When the 1901 census was recorded the couple and their 7 month old daughter were living at 25 Beaufort Road in Erdington, Warwickshire and Henry was then a cabinet brass founder.  Also with them on census night were 60 year old Sarah Webb and 16 year old servant Ethel Reed.

   Henry and Mary had at least 3 children:

   1. Edith Winifred Potter was born 1900 in Erdington.

   2. Mary Alice Potter.  It is thought that she died in about 1979 and that by the terms of her will she left a small legacy to my Grandmother, Bessie Willard, nee Warman.  I remember having to photocopy my Grandmother's birth and marriage certificates, which would have been between July 1978 and August 1980, in order that she could claim whatever was due.  However, I have checked the death registrations between those dates and could not spot a Mary Alice Potter, but of course she may have married.

   3. Arthur Warman Potter was born in 1905 and died in 1910.

   In about 1916 my Grandmother, Bessie Warman (daughter of Arthur Edward), left the parental home in Sussex to work in a munitions factory in Birmingham - I wonder if she stayed with her Potter relatives?

3. Arthur Edward Warman, my Great Grandfather, was born on Saturday 28 December 1872 in Beenham.  He married Flora Boorman (1868-1952) on Saturday 16 May 1896.  (They have their own page.)

It is strange that John Webb Warman married a woman 5 years older than himself and his brother Arthur was nearly 5 years younger than his wife and their sister married a man 5 years younger than herself.

Charles Wheeler was baptised on 26 December 1814 in Bucklebury and was the son of Daniel Wheeler and Jane Nash, who had married on 28 November 1805 in Shinfield, Berkshire.

John Warman's sister Mary Warman married William Wheeler in 1854.  William was born about 1833 in Bradfield, Berkshire and was the son of John Wheeler (c1801-?) and Sarah (c1798-?).  John was also born in Bradfield.

1871 census - 12 Worcester Street, St. George Hanover Square, Westminster London (RG10/109, folio 15, page 22)

John Warman, Head, Mar, 39, Joiner, born Beenham, Berks

Mary Warman, Wife, Mar, 35, born Beenham, Berks

John Warman, Son, 3, born Pimlico, Md

Mary Warman, Daur, 1, born Pimlico, Md

? Webb, Wid, 60, born Berks (age entered as male and first name transcribed as E A, but most probably Mary's mother)

continued on next page....

Sophia Webb, Spinster, 20, born Beenham, Berks

WARMAN          WEBB