Mary Ann, Sarah, and Rhoda Beresford were born in Huntingdon, England, the daughters of William Beresford and Mary Anne Callow. The girls did not grow up in poverty, but they faced many hardships throughout their lifetime. Their mother died in 1837 when the youngest girl, Rhoda, was just 8 years old. Their father remarried a year later. The girls eventually left Huntingdon but remained in close contact with each other. The lives of these sisters were intertwined in ways that highlight the harsh realities and tragic circumstances of life in Victorian England.
Mary Ann and John Henry Randall
The oldest Beresford sister was Mary Ann (1814-1864). In 1841, at the age of 27, she married John Henry Randall, who was working as a grocer on the North End of Huntingdon. In 1845 the couple moved to London, where John joined the Metropolitan Police Force and Mary Ann worked as a dressmaker. John and Mary Ann “moved house” many times within London but they always stayed in the Bloomsbury area, where John was appointed as a police constable in the E Division (i.e., the Holborn division). The couple was not wealthy enough to own property, so they rented living space in a three- or four-story building such as the one shown below.
15 Leigh St, Bloomsbury, where John Henry Randall and wife Mary Ann lived in 1846 (photo taken September 2022)
Bloomsbury was a middle- and upper-class neighborhood, but its residents were not immune to the high rates of infant mortality and other public health issues facing London at this time. John and Mary Ann had two boys. The first, Charles William Beresford Randall, lived only 11 weeks, dying of atrophy in May 1846. The second, John Frederick Randall, lived 4 years, dying of scarlet fever and pneumonia in January 1855. (Birth and death records throughout this post were obtained from the General Register Office.)
The 1855 death record for John Frederick Randall
I don’t think Mary Ann ever recovered from the pain of having to bury her children. She passed away in 1864 at the age of 50. Her cause of death was recorded as “softening of the brain” of 7 months duration. A quick Google search shows that softening of brain tissue is noted as a pathological finding in cases of stroke, brain infection, or brain injury. But it may have been used during the Victorian era as an umbrella term for a variety of neuropsychological issues. In an 1876 article in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Dr. Calvin Ellis, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, presents the following anonymous quote from another physician: “In common language, dementia is known as ‘softening of the brain.’ Persons who are losing their faculties from whatever cause are spoken of as having ‘softening of the brain.’ Persons in deep melancholia, who cannot be interested in anything outside of their deep and silent miseries, are in common language said to have ‘softening of the brain.’”
The 1864 death record for Mary Ann (Beresford) Randall
Mary Ann’s husband John Henry Randall was also having a rough time. In 1859, after 14 years of service for the London Metropolitan Police Force, he was dismissed (i.e., fired). I haven’t been able to find a record that explains the reason for his dismissal. He may have been fired for insubordination, misconduct, or showing up drunk. Later, John ended up working for a sheriff’s officer. In 1868, his occupation was recorded as “sheriff’s officer’s possession man.” This might have been a run-of-the-mill “repo man” or it may have involved rounding up debtors and taking them to a temporary debtor’s prison.
Stay tuned for a future post that delves deeper into the life, work, and death of John Henry Randall.
Sarah and John Prior Sissman
Mary Ann wasn’t the only Beresford sister to die a premature death in London. Sarah (1815-1854) faced a similar fate. In 1838 she wed farmer John Prior Sissman and moved with him to his home village of Sawtry, Huntingdonshire. There the couple had three sons and two daughters. Two of the boys lived just a few weeks and the other died of measles at the age of 2 and a half. Only the girls (Rhoda Mary and Sarah Ann Sissman) survived to adulthood.
In the 1841 England Census, Sarah and John can be found living in Sawtry, where they were farming and starting their family. Ten years later Sarah and John were M.I.A. I have not been able to find an 1851 Census record for Sarah (Beresford) Sissman or her husband. At this time their daughter Rhoda Mary (aged 9) was living with her aunt and uncle Mary Ann and John Randall in London, while their other daughter Sarah Ann (aged 7) was staying with her maternal grandparents in Huntingdon. At some point Sarah (Beresford) Sissman ended up in London. She died of tuberculosis at University College Hospital in 1854 at the age of 39. Six months after his wife’s death, John Prior Sissman was admitted to the Bedford Asylum in Bedfordshire (Ancestry.com: UK, Lunacy Patients Admission Registers, 1846-1912). In 1860 he was moved to the newly opened Three Counties Lunatic Asylum in Stotfold, where a few months later he died of “epileptic paralysis” at the age of 40.
Rhoda Mary and Sarah Ann Sissman were at this point teenage orphans. With nothing to lose, they seized an opportunity to emigrate to Australia. In the spring of 1861 they sailed on the ship Utopia from Liverpool to Melbourne (Ancestry.com: Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923). The voyage lasted a grueling 3 months. The girls were only 17 and 19 years old at the time and made the trip without any other relatives. A few years later, Rhoda Mary Sissman wed Alfred John Stevens (Ancestry.com: Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950). The couple settled in Lucindale, South Australia, and had 10 children, one of whom received the middle name of Beresford. Sadly, Rhoda Mary died in 1883 the day after giving birth to her youngest child. Her sister Sarah Ann never married and lived to be 80 years of age. According to her obituary, Sarah Ann was a well-loved auntie.
Death notice for Rhoda Mary (Sissman) Stevens in Australia, immediately following the birth notice for her daughter (The Naracoorte Herald, 23 Jan 1883)
Death notice for Sarah Ann Sissman in Australia (The Naracoorte Herald, 29 April 1924)
Rhoda and William Henry Ashman
Finally we arrive at the youngest Beresford sister and my direct ancestor, Rhoda Beresford (1828-1892). In 1850, Rhoda married a carpenter from Cambridgeshire named William Henry Ashman (Ancestry.com: England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1915). A year later they had a daughter named Eliza Mary Ashman. Nothing was amiss in the couple’s 1851 England Census record, but their 1861 Census record tells a different story. In 1861 Rhoda and her daughter Eliza Mary were living in Warfield, Berkshire with William’s parents and William’s brother. Rhoda’s marital status was recorded as “married” but her husband William Henry was nowhere to be found. I have looked for this man up, down, and all around, in every corner of the globe, and I have no idea what happened to him. He does not appear on any Census record after 1851. I cannot find a probable death or emigration record for him or any newspaper articles mentioning him. He seemingly vanished.
In January 1863 in London, Rhoda gave birth to a son named Charles Ashman. When she registered the boy’s birth she stated that William Ashman was the father, but I do not have any record that William was in London. Perhaps Rhoda was already pregnant when she moved to London. Unfortunately, Charles only lived for 2 and a half years. He died of rickets and diarrhea, suggesting that the family’s living conditions at this time were dark, overcrowded, and unsanitary. The family may have lacked clean drinking water, proper nutrition, and sufficient sunlight. (Vitamin D deficiency was a big problem in Victorian-era London, where the skies were full of smog and smoke that blocked the sun’s rays. Children also spent a lot of time indoors because they lacked clean areas to play outside.)
The 1865 death record for Charles Ashman
44 Burton St, Bloomsbury (photo taken September 2022)
The address that Rhoda reported for both the birth (1863) and death (1865) of her son Charles was 44 Burton Street, Saint Pancras (Bloomsbury). This address is noteworthy for a few reasons:
This is the same residence where Mary Ann lived with her husband John Henry Randall from at least 1861 to 1864. This is where Mary Ann died. This means that Rhoda was living with her sister and her brother-in-law, probably in the same flat. Did she move to London to take care of her sister? Why did she leave her daughter behind? Where was William Ashman?!
In the 1861 England Census there are 16 adults and 3 children living at 44 Burton St. As far as I can tell the street has not been renumbered since the 1860s. I’m sure that far fewer people live at that address today. These would have been very cramped quarters.
Burton St runs perpendicular to Tavistock House, where Charles Dickens lived from 1851 until 1860. Dickens traveled frequently and had multiple residences, but he was known for taking long walks through London, especially at night. It’s quite possible that my ancestors came across him in the neighborhood. Dickens may have even used my ancestors as inspiration for his characters. (The original Tavistock House was demolished in 1900, but there is a Charles Dickens Museum nearby at 48 Doughty St, where he lived earlier in his career).
Rhoda and John Henry Randall
After Mary Ann died, John turned to his sister-in-law Rhoda. In January 1867, she gave birth to a boy named Harry Ashman Randall at 23 Henrietta St, Bloomsbury (this is now called Handel St and has since been redeveloped). The birth record names John Randall as the father and Rhoda Randall, formerly Beresford, as the mother. This boy would later be known as John Harry Randall.
The 1867 birth record for Harry Ashman Randall aka John Harry Randall
(I’ve confirmed through DNA matches that John Henry Randall was the father of this boy. I have no explanation for why Ashman was included as John Harry’s middle name. He never used that name in adulthood.)
In December 1868, while still living at 23 Henrietta St, Rhoda gave birth to a daughter named Bessie Jane Randall. Again, John and Rhoda presented themselves as a married couple when registering their daughter’s birth, but I cannot find any record of a marriage between them, not a civil record nor a church record. There should definitely be a civil record if they were actually married. Maybe they couldn’t wed because Rhoda’s first husband, William Ashman, was still alive. I would love to have baptism records for John Harry and Bessie Jane but I can’t find those either. Perhaps John Henry and Rhoda had given up on religion by this point.
I still have a lot of questions about how this relationship developed and how it did or did not fit the social norms of the time. If John Henry and Rhoda were “pretending” to be married, they didn’t have to pretend for very long. In March 1869, at the age of 51, John Henry died at University College Hospital. His causes of death were bronchitis, emphysema, and heart disease. He was buried at St Pancras Cemetery in north London in a third-class burial. It’s unlikely that he ever had a gravestone. (Burial information from Deceased Online and Ancestry.com: UK, Burial and Cremation Index, 1576-2014).
Rhoda was now a 40-year-old single mom with two children under the age of three. To make ends meet she took up work as a laundress. This was physically demanding labor, but she may have been able to do it at home, negating the need for childcare. She also had a few Beresford cousins living in the area who may have been able to help her. In the 1871 England Census, Rhoda, John Harry, and Bessie Jane were still living in Bloomsbury, this time on Sidmouth St. By 1881 they had moved to Islington, where the children attended school and Rhoda now worked as a dressmaker. I have not found Rhoda or her children in any workhouse records, so it seems she was able to keep her family out of “the poor house.”
Laundress Carrying Linen by Edgar Degas (public domain)
Whatever happened to Rhoda’s first daughter, Eliza Mary Ashman? She stayed in Berkshire with her paternal grandparents and in 1874 married a hairdresser named Harry George Redrup (Ancestry.com: England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1915). The couple settled in Wales near Cardiff and had 11 children, one of whom received the middle name of Beresford. Although it’s a shame that Eliza Mary spent so many years without her mother, she was probably better off growing up in Berkshire rather than in London.
In the mid-1880s Rhoda’s son John Harry Randall emigrated to the United States. He found work at a jute mill in Ludlow, Massachusetts and sent for his sister and mother. Rhoda and Bessie Jane arrived in Boston in 1888 on the SS Norseman (Ancestry.com: Boston Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1943). John Harry Randall and his wife Annie Boman would go on to have 9 children, one of whom received the middle name of Beresford. Bessie Jane married Wilfred L. Telmosse; Beresford was also passed on as a middle name in that line.
Rhoda (Beresford) Ashman Randall, c 1890, Springfield, MA
Rhoda died in 1892 of apoplexy (a stroke) and is buried in Island Pond Cemetery in Ludlow (Ancestry.com: Massachusetts, Town Vital Collections, 1620-1988). The only photo I have of her is a Xerox copy of this studio portrait, taken around 1890 in Springfield, Massachusetts. She was just 62 years old here, but she looks a bit older. The Dickensian life she led in England is evident on her face. But I’m relieved that she made it through so many challenges. Rhoda and her sisters are not forgotten.