Mary Dengate
Mary Dengate
KEY DATES:
Born: 1853, Wittersham, Kent
Married: 24 July 1877, St John the Baptist Church, Wittersham, Kent
Died: 1927, Kingston-Upon-Thames, London
BIOGRAPHY:
Mary Dengate was born in 1853 in Wittersham, Kent, the daughter of Charles and Celia Dengate. Charles worked, as did many in the family, as a journeyman (paid by the day) miller. Consequently, the family moved frequently around Kent in search of work. Soon after Mary's birth the family moved from Wittersham, where they had a brief, but tragic period in Bodiam.
On the 25 April 1855 Mary's 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 back to Wittersham as Mary's sister Ellen Maria was born there in 1856. It would appear that 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. The 1861 census shows Mary as a eight-year old scholar living with some of her siblings and parents in Wittersham.
Dengate Cottage, Wittersham, 2002
In 1871 Mary is recorded as a general domestic servant, working at 87 Maison Dieu Road, close by to her sister Sophia Dengate and her aunt Susannah Dengate.
Mary Dengate married Albert Ernest Weston, also of Wittersham, on 24 July 1877, in St John the Baptist Church, Wittersham. Witnesses to the occasion were William Dengate and Mary's sister Ellen Dengate. Albert and Mary had eight children: Charles Henry, Florence Nellie, Albert Milson, Nelson, Arthur S., William Merril, Dolly A., and Daisy Ethel Weston.
Mary Dengate
The family moved around to various places, presumably in order for Albert Ernest Weston to be able to find work in his occupation as a coachman, including Dover, South Darenth, Greenhithe, Wittersham and Chatham, before finally settling in Kingston-Upon-Thames. It was from here that Albert and Mary's daughter Florence Nellie Weston married George Edward Mattingly, where Albert acted as a witness and provided the horse-drawn carriage to take Florence to the wedding.
Marriage of Florence Nellie Weston to George Edward Mattingly, 2 August 1904
back row, left to right: Albert Ernest Weston, ? Mattingly, Mary Weston, George Edward Mattingly, Florence Nellie Weston, Elizabeth Mattingly, Albert Henry Masey, Unknown, Unknown, Mary Elizabeth Masey
front row, left to right: Queenie Mattingly, Daisy Mattingly, Dolly Mattingly, Margaret, Nellie Russell, Carrie, Queenie
Mary and Albert's grandaughter Daisy recalls them fondly, 'I remember going to visit my Weston grandparents, they were most kind folks. When my mum lost dad, she was a real brick; wonderful woman. I used to visit them so often. I remember they always had a red tablecloth over their big, round table in the dining room; so homely and nice. If you looked through the letterbox, or opened the door, it was the first thing you saw. That had quite a nice sized house and used to have chickens at the bottom of their garden, I remember my Grandad taking me down to see them. We had such happy times there. Grandad Weston used to look very smart in his coach with the horse. When mum got married [Florence Nellie Weston], I think she said she had two or three horses and a carriage.''
Mary Weston was evidentially visiting, or called to her ailing father Charles Dengate in Wittersham, as she was present at his death on 28 August 1894.
Mary Weston died at the age of 74 in 1927, and her husband Albert Ernest Weston died in 1931.
CENSUS:
LINKS:
Grateful thanks to Daisy Leach and Derek Mattingly for the photos and information used in this biography 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