Hannah Sims (1862 - 1934)

Ancestors

Wife of William Bill Brice — married Jun 1880 in Bridge, Kent, England

Descendants

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Ann Lamb [send private message] and Robert Anthony Grant [send private message]

Biography

Place: Barham, Canterbury, Kent, England

Note: Written by Ethel Ried:

THREE SISTERS

There was a 4th sister fanny who died in infancy. She was born on the 9th of June 1879 exactly 4 years before my mother died on the 21st of Jan 1880 aged 7 months.

There were big aged differences between the girls. When my mother was born Lizzie was 16 and Annie was aged 21, married and living away from home.

Annie was the first child and an only child for three and a half years until the arrival of Frederick who only lived 16 months followed by Lizzie when she was almost five. Annie was always her own person and it was Lizzie who became mother's helper at home.

Annie married very young, it was said after she became pregnant and was said to be literally a shotgun marriage. Her father visiting the father to make sure he did the honorable thing. The fact that the baby was revealed when the sewing lady was measuring her for a new dress, William (Bill) Brice was much older than Annie and was a gamekeeper. He had an isolated cottage in the woods and after her marriage Annie missed the life she had been used to and she would often go to Canterbury when she thought her father would be there to meet him, where he would give her money and buy things for the baby.

Their first child was a boy and they later had three daughters. Not long after the marriage they inherited a large sum of money from Bill's mother, she had worked as a maid for a wealthy woman for many years and had received a large legacy from her on her death. This changed the way of life for Annie and Bill and they used to money to take on a public house in Bridge a village between Barham and Canterbury "The Plough and Harrow" and to educate their children. The youngest child Louie reaped the most benefit in that direction as she not only went to a good private school but also was taught the piano. She became a piano teacher herself later in Bridge.

Bridge was not as pretty a village as Barham it was on the main Canterbury to Dover Road in a dip between the hills which I recall were used for rolling painted eggs down for Easter.

Louie married John (Jack) Friend, his mother was a cook for Lord Kitchener when he was in residence at Broome Park and was taken as a member for his personal entourage to Egypt to cook for him there during the 14-18 world war. Louie and Jack had only one son also named Jack. Young Jack married a Canadian girl who had come to nurse here in the Second World War. Jack (Louie's husband) died of diabetes, which could not then be treated at the aged of 46. His son Jack recently 21 yrs old was married to Jill, he was called up for service in the second world war and sent over sea's where he caught a tropical disease and shortly after returning to his country died in a Military hospital still in his twenties.

As his father died interstate his estate went mainly to his son and on his untimely death went to Jill, Louie only getting a life interest.

Although she had been warmly welcomed into the family, Jill became very hostile towards Louie even insisting that she moved from what had been her matrimonial home. Jill soon returned to Canada and no doubt came into the estate when Louie died in 1969.

Annie was always very outspoken and forthright in her views. My father was a Barham man and his mother was in fact the village midwife. After his apprenticeship he immigrated to Canada and kept correspondence with my mother and when they decided to marry came home for this purpose with arrangements for them to travel to Canada to set up home in January 1906. They planned a very quiet registry office wedding before Christmas. They made the necessary arrangements for this in Canterbury deciding to walk the 6 miles back to Barham stopping at Bridge on the way to let Annie know their plans. She was scathing about their plans saying they would not be properly married, she also said that Ethel and Louie who had recently been bridesmaids to their brother Harry's wedding would do so again and they should be married in Church!

So for the sake of peace they changed their plans and had the wedding at the church in Barham (the one where George and Elizabeth Sims are buried) as their wedding photo's show.

As well as being loud in expressing her own opinions Annie could be equally kind and generous in helping less fortunate. One summer her grand daughter Ethel and I were both there, she gave each of us a very gilt compact complete with powder and powder puff and at the same time reminding us that powder would clog the pores of the skin and ruin our complexions!

Annie was widowed early and I have no recollection of Bill Brice himself, I do remember a photograph, which showed him as a white haired portly gentleman with a genial nature. So for many years Annie ran the pub on her own, "The Sportsman's arms" was homely and cosy with the customers seeming more like family and friends, where as "The Plough and Harrow" was in the main more casual and noisier, it fronted the main road but along the side of the lane was a meadow where Annie kept a horse called Dandy.

She also had a dog called Bess, a black spaniel who on command would instantly spring to her defence. She also kept pigs, which were quartered in the yard at the back of the pub which she fed each evening with a bucket full of mess cooked on the gas cooker which gave off it's own distinctive smell, that mingled with the ever present smell of gas which hovered over the cooker.

The kitchen itself was smoke blackened with the ceiling beams from which were hung a variety of things always including a row of Christmas puddings in Calico cloth.

Annie was a good cook and made mouthwatering puddings, steak and Kidney, Spotted Dicks, fruit puddings, everything on a large scale. It was at "The Plough and Harrow" that I discovered bread and dripping with a generous spread of Jelly from under the joint sprinkled with salt. (Ann Sims also remembers the same tasty snack her father Jack Sims used to give her and her siblings)

Upstairs was the long used for parties of all kinds, often groups would include a meal there as part of their annual days outing. On these occasions I think the menu was always the same; cold ham, boiled eggs salad with bread and butter, followed by trifle and batten burg cake washed down by teas served from two large urns. If the party was very thirsty and the hot waster ran out she thought nothing of filling the urns with the water that had been used to boil eggs.

She also provided picnic baskets for the gentry for their shooting parties which sometimes included members of the Royal Family and she was full of stories of the pranks played on those occasions as when high spirits led the then duke of Gloucester being dunked in the horse trough.

Annie's son Harry and his wife Alice ran the public house called "The Albert"

Ethel married Bob Routley who was a Somerset man; they had a small place in Somerset between Bridge water and Nether Stowey. It was called "The Cottage Inn", Bob made his own cider and customers were served in the parlour.

Their daughter (another Ethel) married John Carruthers during the Second World War and when her parents retired took on the running of the inn, improving and enlarging it. Their son Robert became a bank manager in Guildford but soon after his appointment died of a brain tumour at the age of 35. John Carruthers died in 1885.

Annie retired from the pub after a stroke, she lived in a little cottage on Brewery Lane, which ran along side "The Plough and Harrow", she died September 1934.

Event:

Type: Marriage

Date: 1880

Place: Bridge, Kent, England

Note: England & Wales, FreeBMD Marriage Index: 1837-1983

Name:Hannah Lydia Sims

Year of Registration:1880

Quarter of Registration:Apr-May-Jun

District:Bridge

County:Kent

Volume:2a

Page:1081

BRICE, William 1880 June Bridge Kent

SIMS, Hannah Lydia 1880 June Bridge Kent

Census

Date: 1881

Place: Barham, Canterbury, Kent, England

Note: Name:William Brice

Age:28

Estimated birth year:abt 1853

Relation:Head

Spouse's name:Hannah Lydia

Gender:Male

Where born:Elham, Kent, England

Civil parish:Barham

County/Island:Kent

Country:England

Street address:Denton Street

Condition as to marriage:Married

Occupation:Gamekeeper

Registration district:Bridge

Sub-registration district:Barham

ED, institution, or vessel:6

Household Members:

Name Age

Hannah Lydia Brice 18

Henry George Brice

William Brice 28

Hannah Lydia Brice abt 1863 Elham, Kent, England Wife Denton Street, Barham, Kent, England

Henry George Brice abt 1880 Barham, Kent, England Son Denton Street, Barham,Kent,England

William Brice abt 1853 Elham, Kent, England Head Denton Street, Barham, Kent, England

Date: 1891

Place: Kent, England

Note: Name:William Brice

Age:38

Estimated birth year:abt 1853

Relation:Head

Spouse's name:Hannah

Gender:Male

Where born:Elham, Kent, England

Civil parish:Smarden

Ecclesiastical parish:Smarden

Town:Smarden

County/Island:Kent

Country:England

Street address: Valentines Grove

Occupation: Game Keeper

Condition as to marriage: married

Registration district:West Ashford

Sub-registration district:Calehill

ED, institution, or vessel:9

Household Members:

Name Age

Ann Brice 7

Ethel Brice 5

Hannah Brice 28

Henry Brice 10

Louisa Brice 2

William Brice 38

Brice, Ann abt 1884 Barham, Kent, England Daughter Smarden Kent

Brice, Ethel abt 1886 Barham, Kent, England Daughter Smarden Kent

Brice, Hannah abt 1863 Elham, Kent, England Wife Smarden Kent

Brice, Henry abt 1881 Barham, Kent, England Son Smarden Kent

Brice, Louisa abt 1889 Smarden, Kent, England

Brice, William abt 1853 Elham, Kent, England Head Smarden Kent

Date: 1901

Place: Bridge, Kent, England

Note: Name:William Brice

Age:48

Estimated birth year:abt 1853

Relation:Head

Spouse's name:Hannah

Gender:Male

Where born:Elham, Kent, England

Civil parish:Bridge

Ecclesiastical parish:Bridge

Town:Bridge

County/Island:Kent

Country:England

Street address: High Street

Occupation: Publican

Condition as to marriage: married

Registration district:Bridge

Sub-registration district:Barham

ED, institution, or vessel:2

Household schedule number:82

Household Members:

Name Age

Ethel M Brice 15

Hannah Brice 38

Henry G Brice 19 (Harness maker)

Louisa Brice 12

William Brice 48

Alfred Pilcher 42 (Carpenter)

James Price 49 General Labourer)

Robert Stevens 28 (living on own means)

John Wilson 35 (General Laborer)

Ethel M Brice abt 1886 Burham, Kent, England Daughter Bridge Kent

Hannah Brice abt 1863 Elham, Kent, England Wife Bridge Kent

Henry G Brice abt 1882 Burham, Kent, England Son Bridge Kent

Louisa Brice abt 1889 Smarden, Kent, England Daughter Bridge Kent

William Brice abt 1853 Elham, Kent, England Head Bridge Kent

Alfred Pilcher abt 1859 Elham, Kent, England Lodger Bridge Kent

James Price abt 1852 Blean, Kent, England Lodger Bridge Kent

Robert Stevens abt 1873 Brighton, Sussex, England Visitor Bridge Kent

John Wilson abt 1866 Durham, England Lodger Bridge Kent

Sources

• Source: S11 Repository: #REPO1 Title: 1881 England Census
• Repository: REPO1 Name: www.ancestry.co.uk

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile Sims-459 created through the import of Ann Lambs feb 2011 gedcom.ged on May 27, 2011 by Ann Sims.
• WikiTree profile Sims-1229 created through the import of Rob-Grant-pruned.ged on Dec 28, 2011 by Robert Grant.