Six cameos
Introduction
Victorian Bournemouth (253) examines further aspects of women found in the resort, acting as companions in 1901. Genealogical analysis of more than a hundred such women explored their social background, wealth, and the length of their service. This article consists of short portraits. Each captures different perspectives about companions and their employers.
Victorian Bournemouth (253): conforming, or not
Two farmers’ daughters
Fanny Noakes illustrates the stereotype of a Victorian companion. Her father farmed 470 acres at Ticehurst, East Sussex. Aged 8 (1871), Fanny and her siblings attended school in Tunbridge Wells. As this lies ten miles away, the children probably boarded. A decade later, she boarded at a school in Lewisham. In 1882, however, her father died, leaving an estate worth less than £5,000. In 1891, the family still lived together, Fanny and her siblings working as school governesses. Ten years later, Fanny, now 37, still single, had become a companion. She assisted Lucy Cutler, 61, a spinster, the pair boarding in Boscombe. Thereafter, the two remained together, living in Croydon, until Lucy passed (1925) and then Fanny (1927), aged 64. Lucy Cutler’s father had also farmed in Sussex. Thus, the two women, though separated in age by two decades, had similar backgrounds. Their families perhaps knew each other.
Cutting loose
Lena Margaret Savage’s father tutored and taught school. By 1881, the family, having had a mobile life, had now settled in Boscombe, later Southbourne. In 1901, when 24, Lena worked as a companion for a woman over fifty years her senior. The woman, a merchant’s widow, had a house in Dean Park. Lena next appears in Trichinopoly (1906), a town in today’s Tamil Nadu, India. Here she married a man who perhaps served with the Honourable Artillery Company. This regiment had a long history in India. She may have travelled out on a ‘fishing fleet’. In 1919, Lena docked in New York, heading for Evanston, Illinois, travelling without her husband. Her physical description has survived here: 5 feet 3.5 inches tall, brown hair, grey eyes. By 1921, she had returned to England, employed as a nurse, working for a family in Hendon, London. The census shows her as divorced.
Victorian Bournemouth (253): gentle women
Wealthy surrounds
Jane Dent’s father farmed and kept a hotel in Cumbria. At age 24, Jane worked as a companion to two wealthy sisters, twenty years older, staying in Cavendish Park, Bournemouth, in 1901. They also came from the north, born in Durham, their father involved in coal and shipping. This connection appears to have ended. By 1911, Jane lived in the Lake District, where she worked as a private nurse. She had now turned 34, still unmarried, a condition in which many companions would remain. At the end of World War I, however, Jane, over 40, got married. The marriage certificate listed her husband, a widower, as a gentleman. His father had kept a farm, though perhaps much larger than Jane’s father’s. Two years later, however, Jane became a widow. Her husband left an estate worth over £40,000. In 1939, Jane shared a residence with one of her stepdaughters.
Moving on
Cecilia Beattie (1849-1919) lost her father while still a teenager. A noted sculptor, he once worked for the Wedgwood company but left behind little money. By 1871, Cecilia had started working, first as a governess, then as a companion for different clients, employed around the country. She worked in Cornwall, Sussex, Hampshire (i.e. Bournemouth), and Hertfordshire. Her probate record showed she last lived in Blackheath, Kent. The evidence suggests that her employer in 1901 had lived in prosperity. Daughter of a yeoman, she married into a brewing family. A daughter of hers married another brewer. Her husband’s probate listed him as a gentleman, his estate worth almost £65,000. She did not long outlive her husband, so by 1911, Cecilia had acquired a new client, a very old lady living on private means. Cecilia’s artistic or cultural background may have helped with her employment.
Victorian Bournemouth (253): long relationships
Recognition
Kate Pike (or Peake) (1859-1927) lost her father as an infant (2). Now widowed, her mother continued to run his rope and twine business in Plymouth. Kate came into documentary view again in 1891, a spinster, working as a companion to a woman a decade her senior. This lady, also a spinster, had an independent income. Her father had run a successful flour factoring business, leaving an estate worth £140,000 in 1878 (if the same man). The pair reappeared in each census until 1921, always Bournemouth residents. At first, they lived on Surrey Road, but then moved to Winton, Oban Road. These two women illustrate the extent to which the formal occupation of ‘companion’ could evolve in time, mellowing into a friendship. Evidence for this lies in the probate record of Kate’s employer. She left an estate worth almost £13,000, mentioning her long-serving companion, Kate Pike, as a beneficiary.
Sisters
Little evidence has survived about Janet Spencer’s early life and family. A Londoner, born in Bromley-by-Bow, she first appeared in the documents at 20, working as a servant. Her employer ran a rest home for women. Ten years later, in 1901, unmarried, she had secured a job working as a companion to another Londoner, also a spinster. Her father ran a successful leather business, his estate worth more than £50,000 (1890). The two women occupied a house in Alum Chine, a smart area in the west of Bournemouth. Both women reappear together in the next two census records, not having moved from this area. A change in their relationship seems to have occurred after 1901. Her employer lists Janet Spencer as her ‘adopted sister’. Certain identifications of Janet Spencer stop here, but her employer lived until 1936. No mention of her adopted sister appeared in the probate record.
Takeaway
Victorian Bournemouth (253) examines the experiences and professional relationships of six women who served as companions in Bournemouth in 1901. While some women in this role secured long-term positions with their employers, others took the job primarily for financial reasons before getting married. Some companions remained with their employer for many years, earning formal acknowledgement for their dedication and friendship.
References
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