Emma GRIBBLE: An unknown end.

Fig 1 Simple tree showing the realtionship between the author and Emma GRIBBLE

There are plenty of dead ends (or brick walls) in family history.  Many can be overcome and some are not worth too much effort.   The case of Emma GRIBBLE is probably not worth too much more work but going down rabbit holes is one of the pleasures of this hobby.

Emma GRIBBLE (B 1846) is my Great Great Grandmother.  She was born in Crediton in Devon.  Her Father and Grandfather were blacksmiths with a line of shoemakers also in the family.  For reasons unknown the whole family moved to Bedford in the late 1850s.  By the age of 14 she was a domestic servant and in 1861 was working and living as such at a commercial school in Horne Lane Bedford run by Mr Wilkinson FINLINSON. 

Fig 2 John Vowler GRIBBLE (image not confirmed ) near the end of his life.  John was Emma's Father. Photo used by kind permission of Kaye WILSON.

In 1865 she was working in the household of  Mr Henry GAMBLE when she was convicted at the Petty Sessions of stealing 2 chemises and other items of linen to the value of 6/-.  She had been with them for a fortnight.  In various reports she was described as being of good or very good character.  She admitted the theft to her employer on being challenged and pleaded guilty at court. ‘Theft by Servant’ was seen as a serious crime in Victorian England.  Servants had access to their employer’s homes and most personal possessions.  Now known as ‘Theft Employee’ the phrase servant was still being used in the 1980s to refer to theft in the workplace.  It remains an aggravating fact in theft cases as it is seen to constitute a breach of trust.  As a first offender Emma was sentenced to three months hard labour in Bedford County Gaol. 

Fig 3 The Bedford Times and Bedfordshire Independent, Sat 25 Nov 1865 p 8

We hear no more of her until she appears as a servant working in Stourbridge in Worcestershire (now West Midlands).  On 16^th June 1870 she married John PARROCK (1840-1883) who was a tailor in the town.  They married in the Methodist Chapel although there is no history of non conformity in either the PARROCK family.

Nine months after the wedding Emma gave birth to a son; Alfred PARROCK (1871-1955), my Great Grandfather.  At the time of the 1871 census he was still an ‘unnamed infant 7 days’.  Emma and John went on to have five children, the youngest, Ann, being born in 1878.  Five children in eight years meant that Emma spent most of the 1870s either nursing or pregnant.

 

In the 1881 census the family were living at 24 West Street Stourbridge. 

On 27^th January 1883 John PARROCK died aged 43.  The death certificate records ‘Morbus Cordis’ with acute Albuminuria.  This indicates that he suffered some form of heart failure and probably kidney disease.  He died at home at 16 Hemplands, Stourbridge in the presence of Emma who registered his death the next day. 

Emma soon left Stourbridge and took the children to Bedford, perhaps to be near her family.  On 6^th October 1883 she had her children baptised at St Paul’s Church Bedford.  The reason why the children were not baptised earlier is unknown.

In 1889 she re-married at St Peter’s Church, Bedford  Her new husband was John BOWLER, a bricklayer.  He was a bachelor aged 32 and she was 43.  Quite an age difference for the time which was made less obvious by her claiming to be 39 in the marriage register!

In June 1891 the new family were living at 38 Channing Street Bedford.  Emma was still 39 according to the census and John Bowler was 34.   Two of the girls; Jane and Emma (now being called Amy) were live-in domestic servants in well off areas of the town.

This is the last we hear of Emma GRIBBLE-PARROCK-BOWLER.  She disappears from the record.  She was not a witness at Alfred’s wedding in 1892.  She is not to be easily found in the 1901 or 1911 census.  Her three surnames are not that unusual.  Even in 2020 there are 86 BOWLERS and 30 GRIBBLES  listed in the Bedford telephone directory.  We know that ‘our’ PARROCKS moved to London in the 1890s but there are still a dozen in Bedford.  For the time being I will leave Emma GRIBBLE, maybe to return one day to find out where she ended up.  Unless of course anybody else knows what happened to her………..

Philip Trendall

May 2020