Harriet (Ramsden) Lewis (abt. 1820 - 1903)

Born about 1820 in High Halden, Kent, England

Ancestors

Died 1903 at about age 83 in Thanet, Kent

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Biography

Harriet was christened at High Halden on 27 October 1822 together with Sarah. Whether they were twins or were just being christened at the same time I do not know. Both gave their age in 1851 as 29 but most of the later censuses indicate that Harriet may have been born two or three years earlier. In 1851 she was at Minster in Thanet visiting her brother Henry and his wife and son. Also visiting was a Thomas Ramsden aged 2 born in Canterbury. Whether he was Harriet's son or not I cannot prove, but I believe he was the Henry Thomas Ramsden whose birth was registered at Blean in 1848, as will be subsequently demonstrated. Harriet (or Harriett) married Thomas Plomer Lewis at St. Lawrence (Ramsgate), Thanet, Kent on 13 December 1857. In 1861 at Queen Street, Ramsgate, there was a stay maker named Alfred C Agee, and he had with him servants named Thos. P. Lewis, 36, born at Canterbury, Harriett, 42, and Henry J. Lewis, 13, born at Canterbury, and also Hannah J. Lewis, 2, born at Ramsgate. In 1871 Thomas was recorded as 49, born at Canterbury, a jouneyman baker, married and a boarder at Broadstairs, whereas Harriet is recorded as 48, born at High Halden, bricklayer's wife, living at Ramsgate with daughter Louisa Lewis, 11, born at Ramsgate, and Henry Ramsden, 23, single, lodger, fisherman, born at Canterbury. The birth of Harriet Louisa had been registered at Thanet in 1859 and her death was registered there in 1876. The death of Thomas Plummer Lewis, 56, was recorded at Bridge, Kent in 1878. Harriet's son Henry (as he surely must have been) married Maria Peall Twyman at St. Lawrence, Ramsgate on 14 September 1871. Their son, Frederick John Ramsden, was born in 1874 and died in 1945. Nothing more is known of his father,(he was a fisherman, so perhaps he was lost at sea), but Maria married again in 1886. In 1881 Harriet Lewis, 62, widow, born at Holden, Kent was a boarder in Ramsgate, she was there in 1891, 71, a seamstress, there again in 1901, 81, living on her own means, (birthplace given as Appledore), and she died there in 1903, age recorded as 84, name recorded as Harriet Louisa Lewis.

Sources

• Census returns.

• Civil registration records.