Louisa Mary Baynham (1886-1920)
Louisa Mary was born at Walsall in 1886.
She died at Walsall in 1920.
Louisa Mary (known as ‘Lillie’) was born at Walsall on 29th March 1886, at 26 Oxford Street, Pleck where her parents Arthur William and Elizabeth were living with their two young children Arthur (4) and Nellie (3); she was baptised on 17th April 1887 at St Paul’s Church, Walsall. At this time her father was working as a labourer at a railway station.
By the time of the census in 1901, Lillie is now 15 and still living at home with her parents and four siblings – Arthur (19), Tom (11), Marshall ‘William‘ (3) and Dora (1) – at 26 Oxford Street. Nellie (17) has left home and is working as a housemaid locally.
Lillie is working as tailoress and her brother Arthur and father are both working on the railways.
Another brother Harry was born in 1903 and around this time the family appears to have moved to 12 Oxford Street, next door to where her eldest brother Arthur was living with his young family at number 14..
Sadly, two members of her family then died of tuberculosis: her father Arthur William died in 1905, aged 49, and her sister Nellie, who had been working away from home as a housemaid, died the following year, aged 23.
Lillie also suffered a bout of tuberculosis and spent two months of 1910 in a convalescent home in Weston-super-Mare.
Her family circumstances, including these deaths, appear to have had a devastating effect.
In 1910 Lillie was admitted to the Stafford County Asylum at Burntwood – the Lunacy Patients Admissions Register shows her date of admission as 30th December 1910.
Her asylum story includes her medical record which contains details of her condition and reports of her progress towards recovery.
By this time, possibly around 1906-07, Elizabeth had moved the family to 151 Prince Street, Pleck which would remain the family home for more than 60 years.
So the 1911 census shows Lillie aged 25 living there with her widowed mother Elizabeth (50) and three younger siblings – William (13) is now working, as an apprentice whip maker; Dora (11) is at school; Harry (7) does not appear to be at school and in the Infirmity column he is said to have had “hip troubles at the age 6”.
They also have a boarder – Thomas Reeves (61) who is a widower working as a puddler in a puddling forge.
Lillie is shown working as a sewing machinist in tailoring, but is described in the infirmity column as “lunatic” as she has yet to be discharged from the asylum at Burntwood.
She is also recorded on the 1911 census at Burntwood, where her position at the institution is ‘patient’ and her infirmity ‘lunatic’. Her occupation is ‘tailoress’ and industry is ‘clothing manufacture’
When discharged on 9th May 1911, she was classified as ‘recovered’.
However, she then suffered more tragic losses: her eldest brother Arthur died in 1913, aged 31 (in a work-related accident which was the subject of an inquest); in April 1915 her brother William enlisted in the Army and by September, aged 19, had gone away to fight in France; and then in October 1915 her mother Elizabeth died of a stroke, aged 54 – she died at home and Lillie is shown as the informant on her death certificate.
Lillie died of tuberculosis and haemoptysis at home on 3rd March 1920, aged 33.
Notes:
- Louisa’s name was registered as ‘Mary Louisa Baynam’
- Lillie’s age is recorded as 32; in fact she was 33
- the informant was William Baynham, which confirms that Marshall William returned to live at 151 Prince Street after the First World War
Census and Lunacy Patients Admissions Register extracts – www.ancestry.co.uk