Thomas Roberts and Mary Ann Walder (1863-1864) A Story

This is the write up of the story of my 2xgreat grandmother Mary Ann Katherine Roberts (1863-1943). She was born illegitimately on the 31st December 1863 in Warninglid, Sussex, England to an unmarried mother Mary Ann Walder (1839-1886). Mary Ann was the daughter of a successful wheelwright called John Walder (1820-1876). When I discovered this illegitimate birth in 1863, along with a distant cousin we wondered whether Thomas Roberts (1813-1889), the man Mary Ann Walder married 7 months after the birth was the father of this baby. At first I was unsure. Here is the story
==Finding out about the illegitimate birth==
Mary Ann Walder gave birth to an illegitimate baby on the 31st December 1863 in the rural village of Warninglid in Sussex, England. A mile or so from the London to Brighton road. She moved away to Stoke Newington, London, England and married a man called Thomas Roberts. Both of them and the child and sbsequent children could be found in the 1871 and 1881 censuses in London but my cousin obtained the birth certificate of Harriet Ada Roberts (1877-1955), the younger sibling of Mary Ann Kate Roberts. The mothers maiden name was Walder. She found the marriage entry on the September quarter of 1864 in Hackney registration district. Thomas Roberts and Mary Ann Walder. The marriage certificate arrived and stated that Thomas was a servant. Gill reckoned they may have been in service together and he got the sack, or she did and they moved away.
I was sure that Thomas was not Mary Ann Kate's biological father. Even though she took his surname and he bought her up, I was sure he was not her blood father. The father was another man probably from the Warninglid area of Sussex. The reason why I thought this is they married in London, 40 miles away from where Mary Ann Walder lived. Even Gill said that unless they could find a Thomas Roberts in the Warninglid area or surrounding areas in 1861, it would seem they met in London after the birth and he adopted another mans baby as his.
But this was soon to change.
==Finding out more about the paternity==
I looked through West Hackney Church parish baptisms. The same church Thomas and Mary Ann married at. On the 6th November 1864, my great, great gran was baptised as Mary Ann Kate Roberts, the daughter of Mary Ann Roberts and Thomas Roberts. Thomas said he was the father on the baptism. It raised the chances that maybe Thomas Roberts, the man Mary married was the baby's father. I still was thinking he adopted the baby and had her baptised as his daughter, even though she was actually another mans child.
The 1861 census came online on 2 great genealogy websites in 2006. In 1861, a Thomas Roberts, aged 47, a servant, born in Kent was living 12 or 13 miles away from Mary Ann Walder in Brighton, Sussex, England and was married to Esther Roberts and had a daughter Ann Elizabeth Roberts (1851-1932). Our Thomas was born in Kent. I found a birth of a son of the Brighton Thomas, Frederick Goodacre Roberts (1860-1861). One of Thomas and Mary Ann's children had Goodacre as a middle name. Elizabeth Emily Goodacre Roberts (1867-1932).
It seems the Brighton Thomas was indeed the same Thomas who married Mary Ann Walder. All the details matched, Goodacre being used for children, born in Kent and was a servant. Thomas was still married in 1861. So Esther Roberts died inbetween April 1861 and June 1864. This meant looking for an Esther Roberts death in Sussex or London. An Esther Roberts death was found in the December quarter of 1863. This was just before Mary Ann Walder gave birth to her illegitimate baby.
It seems Thomas Roberts was living in Sussex, the same time as Mary Ann Walder, 12 or 13 miles apart so it does seem that they met in Sussex and went to London together in about April or May 1864 if they married there in July, usually weddings took about 6 weeks to arrange back then as one had to reside in the parish for 4 weeks beforehand. This made it more likely that Thomas was indeed the baby's father. I sent off for the death certificate of Esther Roberts. It said she died aged 42 on the 14th November 1863 and she had "phthisis, years, certified". She was the wife of Thomas Roberts a domestic servant of 19 Viaduct Terrace, Brighton. Phthisis is pulmonary tuberculosis. Seems Esther had been ill for some time before she died.
Mary Ann Walder had her baby 6 weeks after Esther Roberts died. This means the baby was concieved 7 months before Esther died. The preponderance of the evidence, especially Thomas and his next wife moving away after his first wifes death, his occupation and the baptism of the illegitimate baby, was that his wife Esther was really ill and he was seeing Mary Ann Walder before Esther died. Gillian also came to the same conclusion. Also did a few other family members.
To help confirm this even more, I studied Warninglid and Slaugham residents. There was still a small chance that another man was the father. Maybe she was deserted by the father or he died inbetween April and December 1863 and she then met a vulnerable widower whose wife had died after a long illness.
*Mary Ann Walder lived in Warninglid until she moved away in 1864. She gave birth to her baby in Warninglid in 1863 and was on the 1861 census there still at home aged 21 with her father John and step mother Charlotte, plus her younger half siblings. Mary Ann's birth mother Mary Ann Walder (1821-1845) had died in 1845 when her daughter Mary Ann and Harriet Walder (1842-1876) were 5 and 2 respectively.
*I checked burials in Slaugham parish which Warninglid comes under and found no obvious man who could have been seeing Mary Ann who died and was buried at the time she was pregnant. I then researched her male neighbours and other men in the Warninglid area. They all appear to be traceable after 1863, ie they married in the parish or surrounds to other women or stayed single and in the parish. I even researched men in nearby parishes and the same applies. There doesnt seem to be any men in the village or area that did not have a reason to marry Mary Ann if she was then pregnant. A small chance he was another married man or he was someone passing. If she really wanted to stay respectable, she may have found a man as soon as she could before the birth. If he was not passing, and he did not die or run off, then why did she not marry him? Her father may have told him to marry her if he got her pregnant and he was a businessman. It is hard to know exactly what social attitudes in Warninglid were like back then.
*Mary Ann Walder would have fallen pregnant in early to mid April 1863 if she gave birth on 31st December. She would have found out for certain she was pregnant in about May or June 1863.
*She gave birth on the 31st December 1863, and her grandfather died on the 31st January 1864, he was buried on the 6th February. She would have stayed to see her grandfather buried. Thomas and Mary Ann moved away to London by early to mid June 1864.
*It is safe to say that all the info I have is watertight. Also Kate and her sister Elizabeth Emily Goodacre Roberts were tailoresses. Thomas's mother and aunty were in the dressmaking trade. None of Mary Ann Walder's family were in such a trade. And Kate's children shares similar facial features to Thomas's granddaughter Essie by his daughter Ann Elizabeth Roberts. Thomas's army records say he was 5 foot 10" and had brown hair, Kate's son Albert Edward Coombs (1902-1956) was tall and had brown hair. Also Kate's children have very distinctive facial features to Elizabeth Emily Goodacre Roberts, her sister.
And as I have spoken this with others, family and friends and even some fellow genealogists, they all agree with the conclusion that when Mary Ann Walder married in 1864, shortly after the birth of her baby, the man she married, Thomas Roberts was indeed the baby's biological father. 99.9% certainty.
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