When the 1841 Census was carried out, on 6th June, one household in Wickhamford consisted of only four young girls – the Sharp family. These girls were listed as Ann, aged 18, Charlotte, aged 15, Eliza, aged 10 and Harriet, aged 8. The occupation of all of them was given as ‘silk throwster’. They would have worked at the Silk Mill in Badsey. Information on this can be found in the article – Badsey Silk Mill, a short-lived enterprise. There was no record in the Census of their parents, so this article delves into this topic. The four girls would have walked down the main village street to the Church, across Badsey Brook and then two fields before re-crossing the Brook to reach the Mill. They would have been joined by five other young villagers who worked in the Mill at this time.
The future for these four girls turned out very differently. One died young, one did not marry until she was over 50, one married and had children and one possibly emigrated to Australia.
Sharp Family Background
The girls’ father was Thomas Sharp, who was baptised in Wickhamford on 24th February 1799, the son of John and Idy Sharp nee Phillips. Thomas married Elizabeth Kirkman in the village on 17th October 1820. They had two daughters, Ann (baptised on 19th August 1821) and Charlotte (baptised on 31st August 1823). Their father was described in the Baptism Register as a labourer. His wife, Elizabeth died in 1824, aged only 27, and was buried on 20th August.
Thomas then married again and his wife was called Mary. Thomas Sharp, a widower, married a woman called Mary Makepeace, who was single, in Church Lench in November 1825. This is likely to be the two concerned here. The couple had a daughter, Eliza, baptised in Wickhamford, on 4th December 1829. They went on to have another daughter, Harriet, baptised on 10th June 1832 (in the Register as Harriet ‘Sharpe’). Mary Sharp died only three years after the birth of this daughter. She was buried in Wickhamford on 8th June 1835, aged 30. This left Thomas to look after four young daughters, but he too died, in 1841, aged 42. He was buried in Wickhamford on 13th May. Apart from losing their parents, both of the paternal grand-parents of the girls had died before the 1841 Census - John Sharp in 1831 and his wife, Idy, in 1837. Both were buried in the churchyard of St John the Baptist Church in Wickhamford, but no gravestones survive for any of this family.
Census of 1841
The ages of the four Sharp girls recorded in the census are slightly inaccurate. Ann was actually aged 19, Charlotte was 17, Eliza was 11 and Harriet 9. The location of their home was probably in the field on the opposite side of Manor Road to the, now closed, Sandys Arms, where a number of cottages existed at that time. They were all demolished later in the century.
Later records of the Sharp sisters
Charlotte: Charlotte Sharp married William Hartwell in Badsey on 11th October 1846. At the 1851 Census, they were living in Bakers Lane (now School Lane), Badsey, with two children, William and George. Also in the household were Charlotte’s half-sisters, Eliza and Harriet, listed as unmarried lodgers. Her sons both married and remained in Badsey and had families, with two of her grandsons serving in the First World War*. Charlotte Hartwell died in Badsey in 1899 and was buried there on 12th June. Her husband had died three years earlier.
Eliza: Eliza Sharp was only 21 years old when she died in childbirth in Badsey and was buried there, on 13th August 1852. Her illegitimate daughter, Mary, was brought up by Eliza’s sister, Charlotte Hartwell.
Harriet: There are no later records in Wickhamford or Badsey concerning Harriet Sharp. A family tree on ancestry states that she emigrated to Australia and died in Sandhurst, Victoria in 1858, aged 26 years. There is a record of a passport being issued to a Harriet Sharp on 16th February 1858. There is also a record of a Harriet Sharp arriving at Melbourne, Victoria in December 1857 aboard the SS John Barbour, and she was said to be aged 27. These records do not tie up exactly, but may give a clue as to Harriet’s fate.
Ann: Ann Sharp was recorded in the 1871 Census, as an unmarried servant, in John Faulker’s house in Wickhamford. She was then aged 49 years but was later married, aged 52, to Thomas Butler, in Badsey, on 30th August 1874. She was recorded in the 1881 Census, in Badsey, as an agricultural labourer, but died in 1884, aged 65 and was buried in Badsey on 29th June.
The lives of the four sisters and half-sisters are a reflection of rural life in the mid-19th century.
Tom Locke – April 2025
*Richard Hartwell, son of William, served in the Royal Field Artillery and George W. Hartwell, son of George, served in the 1st Worcestershire Yeomanry.