Anne Maria FLINT (née BLISS) (1842-1883)

Anne Maria Flint (née Bliss) was the sister of William Bliss who was a good friend of Julius Sladden when the latter went to work in Chipping Norton in the early 1870s.  Anne and her husband, Samuel, remained friends with Julius and Eugénie Sladden after they had moved to Badsey in 1879.

Anne Maria Bliss was born at Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, on 21st July, the eldest of four children of William Bliss, a woollen manufacturer, and his wife, Esther (née Cleaver).  

Anne married Samuel Francis Flint, a woollen manufacturer, on 16th June 1864 at Chipping Norton.  Samuel was a partner in the family woollen cloth firm in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire.  Their five children – William Bliss (1865-1865), Esther Francis (1866), Margaret Elaine (1867-1933), Edna Maud (1869) and Hilda Mary (1870) – were all born at Nailsworth.

By the time of the census in April 1871, the Flints had moved to Chipping Norton and were living next-door to Anne’s brother, William, on New Street.  The Oxfordshire Weekly News of 17th January 1872 gave news of an entertainment which was given to celebrate the introduction of Samuel Flint as a partner in the firm of William Bliss & Son.

Anne died at Great Malvern on 26th October 1883.  According to her obituary in the Oxfordshire Weekly News of 7th November 1883, Anne had been in a critical state of health for some years and had gone to Malvern in the hope that the change would be beneficial.

A notice in The London Gazette of 11th January 1884 reveals that the partnership between Samuel Flint and his brother-in-law, William Bliss, “carrying on business as Clothiers and Woollen Manufacturers at Chipping Norton under the style or firm of William Bliss & Son” was dissolved by mutual consent on 29th December 1883, just two months after Anne’s death.  Widower Samuel then moved to Kensington, London, with his four daughters, where he was to be found in the 1891 census working as a representative and traveller.  Samuel died on 14th June 1903 at Earls Court.