Ampthill, Bedfordshire, Record 2: The Randall Household

Record 2: The Randall Household

The second record, living next door to the Woodbridge's at 1 Shakespeare Villas (now 4 Dunstable Street) was;

Head: Mary Ann Randall

Mary Ann Randall was born in 1836 in Barton-le-Clay, a village south-east of Ampthill. She was the first of seven children to miller John Randall (1807-1872) and Elizabeth Ellard (1807-1851). Her six younger siblings were Elizabeth (1837-1861), William (1839-1912), George (1840-1910), Richard (1842-1901), Sarah (1844-1909) and Catherine (1846-1939). These however, were not her only siblings, whether known or unknown to her, in 1830, five years before her parents marriage, her father had had a child with Ann Bird (1809-1896). Mary's half-brother was Frederick Bird (1830-1905).

Mary lived her life a spinster, never marrying. The only other one of her siblings not to do so was Elizabeth who died around 1861, aged 24. Initially she lived her early adult life in her father's house alongside siblings Catherine and George after her mother died. When John died on 4th June 1872, Mary was eventually forced to move out, moving in with her brother George, who had married in November the same year, in Isham, Northamptonshire. She continued living here until she around c.1888 when she moved back to Bedfordshire, settling in the then recently built Shakespeare Villas in Ampthill. She lived the rest of her life here.

1 Shakespeare Villas, built 1886
Image copyright © Google 2016

Mary seemingly never worked, and possibly bought the house through money left by her father or had the house purchased by a sibling. Either way, she was also able to afford a servant for the 20+ years she lived there and eventually passed away in the house on the 21st of November 1916, aged 80.

Servant: Margaret Salome Crowsley

Margaret Salome Crowsley was born in the village of Wilstead, north-east of Ampthill, in 1861, eleventh of twelve children to cattle dealer Thomas Crowsley (1807-1887) and his second wife Sarah Taylor (1822-1872). Being born before the 1870 Elementary Education Act, Margaret never went to school and by the time she was 19 she was working as a lacemaker, a common occupation in Wilstead at the time. 

Not much is known of Margaret's life between her father's death in 1887 and the start of the 20th century. By 1901 she had left Wilstead and lacemaking, working as a servant for the Fowler family in Bedford. She had moved south to Ampthill by 1911, working for Mary Randall as a servant. Margaret is at least the third known servant to work for Randall, the others being Ellen Chance (1901) and Rose Wheeler (1891). Presumably Margaret was still working for Randall at the time of her death in 1916, by which time she was 55. She passed away in Bedford in 1938, aged 76.