The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.48 No.4 | March 2022

Member’s article

In a previous article for ‘The Hampshire Family Historian’ I wrote about my 4x Great Grandmother’s grave in Southampton Old Cemetery and how I discovered that three other people had been buried in the same plot. Their names (James and Jane VERTEL and Sarah Ellen CRIMER) meant nothing to me. My subsequent investigations uncovered the fact that my 4x Great Grandmother, Phoebe HATCHER (nee GRACE ) at the age of 17 had given birth to illegitimate twin daughters in 1811 at Ashley, Hampshire and that the other people buried with her were one of the twins, her husband, and their daughter. It was extremely lucky for me that the Overseers’ account and rate book for the parish of Ashley, Hampshire for the period 1804 – 1819 survive and are at the Hampshire Record Office. These records provided me with the chance to find out more about Phoebe GRACE and the twins. Phoebe GRACE was from the neighbouring parish of Farley Chamberlayne, so I assume that either she had moved to Ashley for work or that there was some other connection with that parish – possibly the father of the twins. As with many documents of this time, names were spelt phonetically. Throughout most of the entries Phoebe’s name is spelt as Feby and sometimes a different Christian name altogether is given, for example Fany. Occasionally she was referred to as ‘the maid Grace’. Payments started to be made to Phoebe from 10th October 1811 at a weekly amount varying from 3 shillings to 3 shillings and 8 Phoebe and her twins

pence but on December 7th a much larger sum was paid as ‘Feby Grace bill’ at 16 shillings and 1 penny. The twins may have been born sometime around 15th December 1811 when ‘Deam (possibly Dame) KNEWL midwife’ was paid 10 shillings and 6 pence. There was another unspecified payment of 7 shillings and 6 pence that day ‘for Faney Grace’. Two days later another 3 shillings was paid ‘for Feby Grace’ and 5 shillings and 3 pence for ’25 faggots and carage (possibly cartage)’. The twins, named Sarah and Jane, were baptised at Ashley on 29th December 1811 as ‘illegitimate daughters of Phoebe GRACE .’ Sarah was named after Phoebe’s mother and Jane after Phoebe’s grandmother. After the birth of the twins the weekly payments to Phoebe were increased to 6 shillings and for four weeks she had a nurse who was paid at 2 shillings and 6 pence per week. More wood and faggots were paid for in January and February 1812. During the latter part of March 1812, the weekly payments to Phoebe had increased to 9 shillings. The total bill from October 19th, 1811 to March 28th, 1812 was entered as being 9 pounds 13 shillings and 4 pence half penny. For the next few weeks weekly payments were made to Phoebe plus one of 5 shillings then 6 pence a week to ‘ PADDACK ’ for ‘house rent for Pheby Grace’. Then on May 30th, 1812 there is an entry that gives a clue about the possible father of the twins. 1 shilling and 6 pence ‘Pd COOPER expence at Romsey’ and 2 pounds and 6 shillings ‘for the case of Richard COOPER and Pheby GRACE of coming on to the parish.’ On June 13th 9 shillings and 2 pence was paid as

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