Sarah Ann Thorp was the second child of Henry Thorp and Ann Senior born 4th August 1825. Her Baptism is recorded at All Hallows, Kirburton, Yorkshire. Henry and Ann were married 14th November 1824 at St Peter’s, Huddersfield. Kirkburton was most likely the family home of the Seniors: Ann, her mother was Baptised at All Hallows and her parents, William and Ellen (nee Chambers) were married there. Henry was born in Hull, and shortly after Sarah Ann’s birth the family move back to Hull sometime between 1825 and April 1827 when her brother Marshall was born and baptised.
Sarah Ann spent the first 5 ot 6 years of her life in Hull where she was joined by two sisters, Ellen (1828) and Mary Jane or Ann (1830) but sadly she lost her two year old brother Marshall in 1829. By 1834 she was living in Leeds when William Henry was born, my 3rd Great Grandfather. In 1842 her last full sibling, Elizabeth was born in Headingley. By this time however, Sarah Ann had left the family home to enter Service.
Service
It was invariably the case that girls went in to domestic service with another family. The pay was poor and the work long and hard; sexual exploitation was common-place. Exactly where Sarah Ann was in service is not known for definite but a 15 year old Sarah Thorp does appear in the 1841 Census living in Balloon Street, Holbeck. In 1851 Sarah Ann, place of birth Holmfirth, is now a servant, House Maid, at Headingley Parsonage, and curiously Ellen Thorp aged 25, place of birth Hull is listed as a visitor with occupation given as Nursemaid. Sarah Ann’s age is erroneously given as 35 and not 25. We cannot know how many households Sarah Ann worked in before being employed by Rev William Williamson but it would have been 10 years of toil.
Marriage
With little opportunities open to women to become independent, the only way out of domestic servitude was to marry and progress up the social hierarchy and become mistress of her own house. In 1853 such an opportunity presented itself when Sarah Ann married James Bolton, a School Master from nearby Meanwood, at St Michael’s Church, Headingley. It was not long before Sarah Ann was “with child” but tragically, like so many Victorian pregnancies things did not go well and Sarah Ann “died in child birth” in Huddersfield on 17th March 1854 at the age of 28. Why Sarah Ann was in Huddersfield is not know, it may have simply been to visit family but could equally have been for Jame’s work.
James Thorp Bolton
Remarkably Sarah Ann and James’ son survived and was christened James Thorp Bolton on 19th March at St Michael and All Angels, Headingley. James Thorp Bolton is next found living with his remarried father in Colne, Lancashire in the 1861 Census. His father has remarried to a second Sarah (born Cambridge, occupation School Mistress) Unfortunately, James Thorp Bolton died in 1869, the same year has his Grandfather Henry, at the age of 15. How he died at such a young age with the dangerous infant years behind him we do not yet know.
To Do
- Find JTB’s death certificate.
Genealogical Jigsaw 