Mary Ann Brewell was Ari’s 4x great-grandmother. She was born on 21 May 1846 in Wirksworth, Derbyshire, the third daughter of Ann Land and Joseph Brewell. Her father registered the birth and was unable to sign his name. His occupation was recorded as chimney sweeper. Mary Ann’s baptism took place on 14 June.
In the 1851 census Mary Ann is listed as a scholar, age 4, and ten years later she is still at school. The family live in the Dale, Wirksworth.
At 18, Mary Ann married Henry Pearson, a labourer. Both gave their residence as Cromford. The wedding took place at St Mary’s church in Wirksworth. Mary Ann was unable to sign her name.
St Mary’s. Norman carved fragments built into the north wall of the interior of the north transept
Their first child, Robert, was born in 1865 and baptised on 20 August. A daughter, Elizabeth, was born in 1867. Between these two births it seems that the family had moved to Scarthin Nick in Cromford, and this is where they were living in 1871. No occupation was given for Mary Ann in any of the censuses.
By 1891 they had moved to Bolton in Lancashire, where Henry was working in a cotton mill. Mary Ann was now 45. Robert and Elizabeth were living with them, and Robert was working as a carter to a coal merchant. Ernest Pearson, a ‘nurse child’ aged 2, born in Bolton, was also living with them. Was he related or had he just been adopted and taken their name?
In 1901 they were back in Derbyshire. They were living at 3 Bowling Green Lane, in Wirksworth. Both children had married by this time.
Bowling Green Lane is a narrow ‘jitty’ or ‘ginnel’.
By the 1911 census they had moved to the almshouses in Wirksworth. Mary Ann was now 65, and they had been married for 46 years. They had nine grandchildren. Henry died a few months later, and Mary Ann lived until 20 August 1923, when she died at 23 Dale Street, of atrophic degeneration of the heart. She was 78. Her son Robert was present at her death. No will, burial, or death announcement has been found yet.
Ari, this is how you are related to Mary Ann:
