Kate HANDS (née PAYTON) (1855-1926)

Kate Hands, née Payton (1855-1926) was the mother-in-law of Reverend William Carmont Allsebrook, the Vicar of Badsey, Aldington and Wickhamford.

Kate Payton was born at Solihull in 1855, the second of three children of Edward Payton and his second wife, Anne Brain.

Kate married William James Hands at Solihull in 1879.  They had one daughter, Evelyn Kate (1880-1932), who was born at Burmington where William was the miller.  By the time of the 1881 census, Kate, William and Evelyn were living at Kingham, Oxfordshire; William was described as a miller and corn merchant. By 1891, they had moved to 18 College Street, Stratford upon Avon, where William was a corn salesman.

Kate and family continued to live at College Street until about 1903 when they moved to Badsey Vicarage.  Kate and William’s daughter was engaged to the Reverend William Carmont Allsebrook (whom she married in 1909) and the whole family moved to the Vicarage when William became Vicar of Badsey.  Indications in the parish magazine are that Kate involved herself with village affairs as soon as she moved to Badsey.

Kate is mentioned in a letter of 30^th March 1914 from Arthur Sladden when he talks about a wedding gift received from the Hands.  Kathleen Sladden, in a letter of 23^rd August 1914, refers to her as “Ma”, in reference to Eugénie Sladden and her daughters liaising with the Vicarage party on how best to co-ordinate the war effort.  George Sladden refers to her irreverently in a letter of 7^th September 1916, and Mela Brown Constable mentions her in letters of July and September 1916.

Kate died at Badsey on 12^th April 1926 and was buried in the churchyard three days later.

In 2008, documents relating to the Hands family were deposited with The Badsey Society archive.  They had been found in the home of William’s granddaughter, Evelyn Joyce Carmont Allsebrook, who had died six years earlier.