Rebecca Frances Wetherall (1807-1855).
My 4th great-grandmother.
Rebecca was born on 23 October 1807 and baptised just two days later at St Peter Mancroft Church in Norwich. Her parents were Thomas Wetherill and Rebecca Brooks.
She was the oldest of their children and grew up in Norfolk’s county town, her father working as a watch and clockmaker while her mother gave birth to a growing number of siblings. As a young woman she moved east to the coastal town of Great Yarmouth, her father’s home town. There are all manner of potential reasons why she chose to leave the family home but one could be that she was pregnant and unmarried. She gave birth to baby Mary – my 3rd great-grandmother – in 1826 and a number of other children followed, but there is no record of a marriage and she and her offspring retained the Wetherall surname in the records. I get the impression that Rebecca was a rebel, someone we’d call a problem child. How much opprobrium did she face for having so many illegitimate children and continuing to live with them without having a father figure in their life? And how did she cope financially? Did her parents support her in any way?
Was she the Rebecca Wetherall mentioned in the Norfolk Chronicle of 19 July 1834, who was sentenced to a month in the House of Correction by the Yarmouth Mayor for an assault? No further information about the offence or defendant was given and no other offences appear to have been reported so perhaps it was a one-off.
By the 1841 Census Rebecca was living in Garrisons Walk, Great Yarmouth, with her children, although I’ve found no other reference to this street. In 1851 they were at 7 Jays Buildings, Yarmouth, along with a couple of her grandchildren, including my 2nd great-grandfather Benjamin. Rebecca died in April 1855 and was buried on the 30th of the month in Yarmouth.
She had at least four children:
- Mary Wetherall (1826-1905), my 3rd great-grandmother. She too raised her family as a single woman.
- Robert Wetherall (1829-1905), my 3rd great-grand uncle, who moved away from Norfolk to bring up his family in Marylebone, west London.
- James Wetherall (1833-1918?), my 3rd great-grand uncle. James served in the Royal Navy for 20 years.
- Thomas John Woods Wetherall (1836-????), my 3rd great-grand uncle. Baptised in Great Yarmouth on 7 December 1836 to Rebecca. He crops up in the 1841 and 1851 census records with his mother and siblings, although in the former he was listed as Jonathan and in the latter as John. Perhaps his middle names were a reference to his otherwise unknown father… I’ve not traced him beyond 1851.
Sources: BMDs, census and other info at Ancestry.co.uk and Findmypast.co.uk (which also has the British Newspaper Archive). Records at Norfolk Family History Society.