Harriett Middleton's life sketch with Thomas Kendall and Abraham 'Harry' Baker

(Updated December 3, 2015)

For 10 glorious days this summer, I was able to walk around and see where Harriet Middleton lived and worked in Towcester.  I have to update this post now that I have been where she lived.  It was amazing.

Harriet Middleton was born the 5^th and last child of Samuel and Ann Middleton.  They lived in Abthorpe, Northamptonshire, England, where Samuel worked as an agricultural laborer to support his family.   

1841 Abthorpe, Northamptonshire Census, where Harriett is listed last in Samuel Middletons family. 

Abthorpe is a lovely little hamlet that centered around a small medieval era church on a hill.

It's still an agricultural area with rolling grassy hills.  Harriet's father worked as an agricultural laborer, probably taking his sons out to work with him in the fields when they were old enough to help. Harriett may have attended a small school nearby the church with her siblings.

This small school house in Harriet's childhood now serves as the village hall.

On 28 November, 1847 when she was about 17, Harriett married Thomas Kendall from Weston Favel, age 19, who was training to be a Wheelwright.  Although Harriett was only 17, she was already working as a seamstress.  They made a home in Abthorpe near Harriet’s family. 

Five children came to the young couple.  We know of a daughter born in 1851 who the couple named Susana after Thomas’ mother.  She was a little girl when she died.  Benjamin was born in 1853 and survived, as well as their last daughter Susannah (2) who was born in 1855.  Two other children were born to the couple that don’t appear in any records. (See end notes for leads.)

1851 Towcester Census shows little Susana before she died a few years later.

Thomas and Harriett moved to Towcester before 1851. Towcester is the oldest town in Northamptonshire, right on a major road that runs to London.  It's just a few miles away from Abthorpe.  Perhaps Thomas sought work making wheels and repairing them along this trade route. The family settled on this main road in house number 176 at the end of a row of houses.  It was called High street then; now it is called Watling street.

Here I stand in front of Harriet's old home at 176 High/Watling street.  Today it's aptly named 'Cobblers End.'  

(This photo courtesy of Google Maps)  We didn't think to take a long view like this one.  

When Harriett and Thomas lived at 176 Watling Street, it was a very cold and drafty home.  Walking in, one would enter a large room with a fireplace to the left and a small spiral staircase to the back and right.  What served as a kitchen would be at the back-- a table and basin.  Water had to be carried in from outside.  A back door led to the grassy yard and alley where an outhouse would serve the family as a bathroom.  Harriet would have cooked her meals in the fireplace.  The staircase let upstairs to one or two rooms where the family slept at night.  The only source of heat would have been the fireplace, and without insulation (and being the end of the row) this home would be cold most of the time.  Harriet would have sewn by the windows by day, then sewn by candle light in the evenings, probably bundled up in blankets.  As a 'plain sewer' Harriett hand sewed simple essentials, like pillowcases and bedding.  She probably sewed clothing for her immediate family, but not for others.

  This Police Station is across the street and down a ways from the Kendall home.  It was built in 1852 and also served as a courthouse when Harriet and Thomas lived here.  They would have heard the occasional ruckus being so closeby.   

A view from near the Kendall home towards the medieval era Seracen Head Inn, 

Harriet joined the North End Chapel on 6 September 1854.  It is just a block or two up the street in the other direction.  It still stands as a carpet store.  Benjamin was christened in this church.

This is the North End Chapel where Harriett worshiped, just a block or so from her home.  

After Thomas died in 1858, Harriett was left with Benjamin and Susannah to raise alone.  Benjamin was only 5 years old, Susannah was 3.  Life must have been hard for the grieving young mother, still in her twenties.  Fortunately, her parents lived nearby in Abthorpe and probably helped her support her small family with her sewing.

Harriett, widow, shows in the 1861 Towcester Census with her two living children.  Note that they are attending school.

In time, Harriett met a young widower named Abraham Baker, although most people called him Harry.  They married in 1864, both about 34 years old.  Harry was a shoemaker and had previously been married to another dressmaker, Ann Stone.  She had delivered 6 children, two of whom were born out of wedlock before her marriage to Abraham.  These two, Joseph and Mary Ann Stone, were raised by others.

Harry's family with Ann shows in this 1861 census, before his wife Ann died.

Harriett helped to raise Harry’s four children in addition to her two.  At the time of the marriage, the children ranged in age from 11 to 4, with oldest being Harriet’s son Benjamin.  

The shoemaking trade was threatened by automation with the industrial revolution; Harry's family also fished and hunted.  In some of the censuses, Harry lists his trade as 'hawker of fish.'  Indeed, in subsequent generations, the Bakers owned a store that sold fresh meat and fish.  

This photo taken in 1920 shows the Seracen Inn across the street from the Baker store.  Note the advertisement on the side of the building:  "Arthur Baker Game Salesman.'  Arthur was Harry's nephew.  Compare this photo with the one above of the Seracen's Head Inn taken today.  The Baker store was demolished; the building isn't there anymore.  This print of the 1920 photo was purchases in the Gowlings carpet store.

Blending two families is always difficult.  Within a few years, Benjamin ran away to America at the age of 14.  He worked his way across the sea on the ship called the ‘City of Paris’ arriving on 30 Nov 1867.  Granddaughter Grace Levina Kendall recalled that her grandmother 'wept for her runaway son.'  Fortunately, Grace said the family corresponded overseas regularly and that she wrote to her grandmother in England until she died.  

Before the next census in 1871, Susannah had gone to work as a servant in the Coles home In Birmingham county, Annie went to live with her half sister Mary Ann, and young Abraham is gone as well.  

Note the blended family in the 1871 Towcester census. 

In the 1871 census, we see Abraham and Harriet, with Fanny 15 Lacemaker, William 13 Assistant Shoemaker, and Sarah Ann Crutchley, a niece, age 5, Scholar.  Family is still living on High Street in Towcester.  Harry joined Harriett’s church on 6 Sept 1874, exactly twenty years after she joined the North End Chapel Church. 

1881 Towcester Census

In the 1881 census, we see Abraham age 51, now a Hawker of Fish, Harriett age 50, dressmaker and Fanny, Dressmaker.  Family is still living on High Street in Towcester.    

1891 Towcester Census

In the 1891 census, we see Abraham age 61, Shoemaker and Harriett age 60, no occupation listed.  Family is still living on High Street in Towcester.

In the 1901 Kettering, Northamptonshire Census, the old couple are listed as paupers, although they rent a room to the Humphrey family.

Harry and Harriet stayed together for many years.  At some point they moved 25 miles north to 188 King street in Kettering.  Harriet died in April 1903 in Kettering, and Harry died in April 1907, also in Kettering.  Fanny died in 1902 in Kettering; perhaps they all moved there together.  

Research notes:  Disclaimer-- I did my best to construct the story using family letters and original documents.  I can't guarantee I got it right, but I did my best.

Possible child to Thomas and Harriet Kendall who may have died between censuses:

Thomas Kendall b. Oct-Dec 1857 (Vol 3b p. 18) died Jan-Mar 1858 (Vol 3b p. 17) Towcester OR July-Sept 1859 (vol 3b p. 17 again) Towcester or Oct-Dec 1858 (vol 3b p. 35) Northamptonshire.

Will have to get the birth or death certificate to confirm parentage.
Thanks to researcher Mary Taylor for finding and sharing so much information and helping us see these places when we were in England.