Sara Battin

## Sara Battin (née Walkin)

**Sara Battin** (née **Walkin**) (11 December, 1790 - 22 July, 1845) was an English half-blood witch. She was the wife of Mortimer Battin IV, an English half-blood wizard. She was the oldest out of Curtus Walkin I and Hester Walkin I (née Cole)'s eleven children, and the sister of Cora, Elisabeth, Curtus II, Amelia, Crispin, Hester II, Henricus, Louisa, Frederick, and Alice Walkin.

Sara worked as a domestic servant on an estate in Penzance, Cornwall, from the age of twelve. In 1805 she met Mortimer Battin, an orphan boy, who was also making his living with the Hargrave family. They married in 1806 after the birth of Sara's child, Charlotte.

## Biography

### Early life (1790-1810)

Sara Walkin was born on 11 December, 1790, to Hester Walkin I (née Cole) in the seaside village of Tinworth, Cornwall, England. Her father was Curtus Walkin I, an English pure-blood wizard and smalltime landowner. Tinworth, the village in which she was born, was home to a half-magical, half-muggle community, with its residents intermingling often between each other. Even still, the wizarding community had to live in secret.

Sara was the oldest of the Walkin's eleven children. When she was a little under a year old, her younger sister, Cora Wolpert (née Walkin), was born. Then came Elisabeth Walkin, as well as Curtus Walkin II. Her other seven siblings included Amelia Pettiwhisker (née Walkin), Crispin Walkin, Hester, who died young, Henricus Walkin, Louisa Walkin, Frederick, and Alice Walkin.

When Sara was eleven years old, two of her younger siblings, Elisabeth and Curtus, died within a day of each other, in the year 1802. This event may have had an effect on her, although it is unclear how her siblings died or why.

Sara Walkin did not attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry: her family could not afford to send her or her siblings to learn magic there, as fees and books were expensive and children were expected to help support the family. Instead, Sara was sent to be apprenticed out to a local landowning family, where she would learn the trade of domestic service.

#### Employment (1803-1806)

At the tender age of twelve, Sara was apprenticed out to become a servant for the major landowning Hargrave family just outside of the village of Penzance, Cornwall. The master of the house at that time was Melvin Hargrave (1748 - 1829). She began work for the Hargraves in the year 1803.

In the year 1805, Sara Walkin met Mortimer Battin, an orphan boy, who was also making his living with the Hargrave family as a boot boy. Mortimer was the son of Charlus Battin II and Arethusa Battin (née Talbot), the former of which died the year previous when Mortimer was already put to work.

Mortimer Battin was considered to be a rather disobedient child, and his influence on Sara was supposedly "unfortunate" for the Hargraves considering that Sara had arrived a perfect worker. At the age of fourteen Sara was found to be expecting Battin's child: Melvin Hargrave threw both of them out. Mortimer, then aged fifteen, and Sara, aged fourteen, walked all the way back to Tinworth.

#### Marriage (1806)

After Melvin Hargrave threw Sara out, Mortimer was able to find work elsewhere, and Sara and Mortimer were married in Tinworth. They lived with the Walkins: Sara's daughter, Charlotte, was born on 25 May, 1806. Sara found work as a maid, and all seemed well.

### Later life (1810-1845)

Sara's sister, Cora, died in the summer of 1810, followed shortly by her father, Curtus Walkin I, and a younger brother, Frederick. After the death of their father, Sara and Mortimer, aged twenty and twenty-one, became the household's main source of income. Sara's sister Amelia, aged fourteen, was already apprenticed elsewhere. Crispin, aged thirteen, was sent away, leaving Henricus, aged ten, Louisa, aged nine, and Alice, aged three, at home, as well as Sara and Mortimer's daughter, Charlotte, aged four.

Sara had her second child, Cora Battin, in September of 1810. Then followed Dorothy, in February of 1812, as well as Ellen, in June of 1814. Finally, she had a son, Henry Battin, in August of 1815.

Sara's sisters, Louisa and Alice, were sent to work at the newly constructed Blackmere Estate, recently completed in 1817 in Castle Gate, Cornwall, in 1818. It is unknown whether Sara saw her sisters after that, as they never returned to Tinworth. Six years later, Sara's mother, Hester Walkin I, died.

Sara was widowed in 1840 when her husband, Mortimer Battin, died.

#### Death (1845)

Sara Battin died on 22 July, 1845, at the age of 54 in Tinworth, Cornwall, England.

## Etymology

The name Sara is a variant of the name Sarah, used in many languages. In the Old Testament this is the name of Abraham's wife, considered the matriarch of the Jewish people. Her name was originally *Sarai*, but God changed it at the same time Abraham's name was changed (see Genesis 17:15).