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genealogy of the Bird and Musgrove families
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Hannah Elizabeth Wild

Female 1866 - 1959


 

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Hannah Elizabeth Wild (1866 - 1959)

Hannah brought up her large young family single handed in the slums of Kensington after the death of her husband. She died aged 92, apparently, with her veins full of whisky !

Hannah’s grandfather, John WILD, can be traced back to his birth in Wormhill, Derbyshire in about 1791.  Her grandmother, also Hannah, was born about the same year in Whitkirk, Yorkshire.  He was a servant and she worked in the laundry.  I believe they had 3 daughters - Elizabeth, Catherine and Eliza - and a son, William.

Hannah WILD was born in 1866. I have struggled, and continue to struggle, to determine who her parents were as there is conflicting evidence. I have the only birth certificate of a HANNAH WILD born in London or Middlesex between 1865 and 1867. She was born in Kensington around 1866 (21st October 1866 if it is right) and it says Hannah Elizabeth WILD’s parents were David WILD and Catherine WILD (nee SMITH). Their address is shown as 13 Canterbury Road, Kensington. This cannot be right as the census returns between 1861 and 1901 give a clear indication that Hannah was illigitimate and that her mother was the Catherine WILD mentioned above.

On the 1861 census her mother, Catherine WILD, aged 29 (born St Georges, Middlesex about 1832), is described as unmarried and is living with her parents and sister, Eliza WILD, at 12 Lonsdale Cottages, St Mary Abbotts, Kensington.

By the 1871 census, Hannah had been born and is aged 4 living at Alpha Terrace, Kensington with her "widowed" (?) mother Catherine WILD, laundress (born about 1833, aged 38, in Middlesex). Also living there is Catherine’s sister, Eliza WILD aged 30 (born about 1841 Middlesex).

Hannah WILD on the 1881 census is aged 14 living at 37 Talbot Grove, Kensington with her "widowed" mother Katherine WILD, laundress, aged 48, born about 1833 St Georges, Middlesex.

Hannah married William Musgrove on 19th April 1885 at Christ Church in Notting Hill, Kensington when she was very pregnant – their marriage certificate shows them living next door to each other at 36 and 38 Treverton Street, Kensington. William was 23 years old but Hannah was pregnant and just 18. The marriage certificate says her father was John WILD (deceased), brickmaker. George Wattell is an unknown witness to the marriage.

Was her father John WILD as per her marriage certificate or perhaps David WILD as on her birth certificate or, more likely, was she the illigitimate daughter of Catherine MUSGROVE ?



I have described elsewhere the years Hannah was married to William and the harsh conditions they lived under. They went on to have a total of 7 sons and 1 daughter between 1885 and 1900. Their story together ended in November 1901 with the premature death of her husband leaving her living in cramped, overcrowded conditions in Southam Street.  She was left to look after and feed her 7 children aged between 9 months and 15 effectively as a single parent with the help of her mother, Catherine WILD. 


Hannah and three of her children remained living at Southam Street on the 1911 census including my grandfather John (aka Jack). By now her son William was earning and described as a “newsagent” on his “own account”.

At some point Hannah moved to St Ervans Road which was pretty much the next street to the west ...... Click here for a map of Southam Street and St Ervans Road as they are today near the Trellick Tower.

A relative J told me that Hannah’s special friend in life was Nellie Lowe, nee Shafe who had married Sidney Lowe in 1899. She lived on the floor below her's in St Ervans Road. She was about 10 years younger than Hannah though lived until she was about 98. It seems that both were widowed young and they helped each other.

J says her great gran (Hannah) was a real character; she had an extremely infectious laugh. Her mum (Caroline) said she was regarded as old at 50 and sat in the corner of the room, always dressed in black, in long skirts too. Everyone would bring her whisky for her birthday and her Dad reckoned it was what kept her alive for so long. He said her veins were full of it. J found out later that the armchair she sat in was really a commode, on which they put lots of covers and cushions !

Hannah died on 20th May 1959 aged 92 after breaking her hip.

read about the early MUSGROVE’s

read about William & Hannah’s children

return to MUSGROVE index



Linked toHannah (unknown); William John Musgrove; Catherine Wild; Eliza Wild; Hannah Elizabeth Wild; John Wild

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