Caroline Dengate
Carrie Dengate
KEY DATES:
Born: 21 March 1848, Lamberhurst, Kent
Married: 26 February 1869, St Nicholas' Church, New Romney, Kent
Died: 19 December 1934, Hendon, Middlesex
BIOGRAPHY:
Caroline (Carrie) Dengate was born 21 March 1848 in Lamberhurst, Kent, the daughter of Charles and Celia Dengate. Charles worked, as did many in the family, as a journeyman (foreman) miller. The family frequently moved between windmills and watermills in Kent. The 1851 census shows Carrie as a 3 year-old living on the High Street in Lamberhurst with her siblings and parents.
The family then had a brief, but tragic period in Bodiam. On the 25 April 1855, when Carrie was just seven years old, her 9 year-old brother Charles drowned in the mill stream where their father Charles worked as a journeyman miller. He was buried in Bodiam Churchyard.
Bodiam Watermill, c.1900
It was perhaps this tragedy which sent the family away from Bodiam to Wittersham as Carrie's sister Ellen Maria was born there in 1856. It would appear that at this time Charles moved from being a miller to being a master baker, taking residence of Dengate Cottage*. The front of the cottage was used as his baker's shop, the back as the family home and bakery. The 1861 census shows Carrie as a thirteen year-old scholar living with her parents and some of her siblings in Wittersham.
Dengate Cottage, Wittersham, 2002
On 9 July 1868, Carrie was witness to the marriage of her sister Frances Dengate to George Martin Masey in Lydd Parish Church, where Frances was resident at the time.
At the age of twenty-one Carrie married James Emmitt on 26 February 1869 in St Nicholas' Church, New Romney, Kent. Witnesses to the marriage were Caroline's sister Frances Masey and her husband George. On the marriage certificate the place of residence was listed for both Carrie and James as New Romney. James' occupation was noted as 'Gentleman.'
Carrie and James had two children: Caroline Annie (known as Annie, born in St Peter Port, Guernsey and Charles Henry Dengate Emmitt, born in Nottingham.
left, Caroline (Annie) Emmitt, Jessie Cresswell and Edith Cresswell (cousins of Annie Emmitt), right, Caroline (Annie) Emmitt
The 1871 census shows Caroline and her daughter Annie visiting George and Maria Smith in Shirley Lane, Millbrook, Hants. In 1881 James, Caroline and the two children are living in Basford, Nottingham where James' occupation is listed as 'Land Proprietor'. The family continue to reside in Nottingham in 1891.
James Emmitt died 23 July 1900 at 19 Canbury Avenue, Kingston Upon Thames having suffered spinal paralysis for 3 months and 14 days. His wife Caroline was present at the death.
The 1901 census shows Caroline, her daughter (Caroline) Annie and one-year old grandaughter Hilda Emmitt still living at 19 Conbury Road, Kingston-Upon-Thames, just a few doors away from her sister Mary Dengate.
Carrie Emmitt died in 1934 in Hendon at the age of 86, possibly at the home of her son, Charles Dengate Henry Emmitt.
CENSUS:
LINKS:
Grateful thanks to David Gibbon for the photos of Carrie and her daughter, to Ron Emmitt for further information and to John Dines for the photograph of Bodiam watermill.
1 The exact history of Dengate Cottage is at this stage unclear. There are references to it on the 1871 census and the 1838 Tithe map of Wittersham.
© Copyright N. Goodwin MMII