James Farr

c1807-1870

James was baptised on the 25^th October 1807, in Hampstead Norris, Berkshire, the son of James and Martha Farr (nee Church) who were married on the 27^th October 1806, at St, Mary, Hampstead Norris Berkshire.

James and Martha also had the following children baptised in Hampstead Norris:

Mary, 1812

John, 1814

Hannah, 1818

Sarah, 1823

James married in 1828

Marriage details:

Place: Aldworth, Berkshire

Date: 4^th October 1828

Groom: James Farr, abode, Hampstead Norris

Bride: Mary Ann Warman, abode, Aldworth

Witnesses: Elizabeth Warman, Harriet Brooks and Joseph Johnson

(Mary Ann was boaptised in 1805, in Aldworth, Berkshire, the daughter of Thomas and Sarah Warman)

James and Mary Ann had the following children, baptised in Hampstead Norris:

Thomas, 12^th April 1829 (died 1829)

Elizabeth, 20^th June 1830

Wiliam, 28^th October 1832

George, 8^th June 1834

James, 24^th September 1837

John, 7^th April 1839

David, 18^th July 1841

In 1841 James (30) was working as an Agricultural Labourer, living in the hamlet of Eling, Hampstead Norris, Berkshire, with Mary (35), William (8), George (7), James (3), John (2) and David (2 weeks).

The 1851 census records James (43), an Agricultural Labourer, Mary (46) and their sons, John (12) and David (10), living in the hamlet of Eling.

Mary Ann died in 1854. (Age at death recorded as 58, death registered in Wantage).

James remarried in 1858.

Marriage details:

Place: Hampstead Norris, Berkshire

Date: 11^th September 1858

Groom: James Farr, full age, widower, occupation, Labourer, abode, Hampstead Norris

Bride: Elizabeth Barnes, full age, spinster, abode, Hampstead Norris

Fathers: James Farr and John Barnes, both Labourers

Witnesses: William Hunt and Jemima Hunt

(Elizabeth was born c1839 in Wiltshire.)

The 1861 census records James (53), an Agricultural Labourer and Elizabeth (22), living in the hamlet of Eling.

James was widowed again in 1862, Elizabeth died aged 26 (death registered in Wantage)

James married for the third time in 1870

Marriage details:

Place: St Nicolas Church Newbury

Date: 28^th March 1870

Groom: James Farr, full age, widower, occupation, Labourer, abode, Newbury

Bride: Ann Bailey, full age, widow, abode, Newbury

Fathers: James Farr and Jerry Smith, both Labourers

Witnesses: Esther Hamblin and John R. Stillman

(Ann was baptised in 1825, in Oare/Chieveley, Berkshire the daughter of Jeremiah and Jane Smith. She had a daughter Harriet Smith born in 1847, in Chieveley and a son William Smith, born in 1851 in Greenham. In 1851 she was recorded as a domestic servant, visiting a John Bailey aged 42, a Chelsea Pensioner, in Stroud Green, Greenham. She married John Bailey on the 1^st November 1851, in Greenham. They had a daughter Sarah Ann, born 1854. Ann was widowed in 1856. She went on to have two more daughters, Ellen Elizabeth, c1858, Alice, 1860 (father’s unknown) and a son Albert George, c1866 (father unknown, possibly James Farr).

The following was reported in the Reading Mercury on the 2^nd April 1870:

ST NICOLAS CHURCH. – A somewhat singular wedding took place in the Church at about 10 o’clock on Monday morning. James Farr, an invalid, 62 years of age, living in Back-lane, was united in wedlock with Ann Bailey, a woman about 20 years his junior. The most singular fact, however, associated with the event was that Farr was wheeled through the streets to and from the Church, by the bride, and it was only with the assistance and that of other persons in the Church, that he could make his way up the nave. The Rev. C. Boyd, senior curate, was the officiating clergyman.

James died aged 62, on the 5^th April 1870, he was laid to rest in the Newtown Road Cemetery on the 9^th April.

The following was reported in the Reading Mercury on the 9^th April 1870:

The married life of James Farr, of Back-lane, whose somewhat singular wedding was noticed last week, has proved very brief, his death having taken place on Tuesday. The parties had lived together previously, and Farr being very infirm, in fact quite bed-ridden, desired to be married to the woman, who wheeled him to Church and home again.

In 1871 Ann (50) was recorded as a Charwoman, living in Compasses Yard, Newbury, with her children, William Bailey (21) a Pork Butcher’s Labourer, Ellen Bailey (12), Alice Bailey (10) and Albert Bailey (5).

Ann died aged 50, in 1872, she was laid to rest in the Newtown Road Cemetery on the 4^th March.

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