This convoluted but fascinating piece of research sent me head first down a veritable rabbit warren of tunnels and dead ends but it was a lesson in persistence and it uncovered a tragic story of extreme poverty, illegitimacy, disability and abuse.

Now I know the end it is, of course, difficult to relate the story from the beginning but here goes. It began when I gave a short talk, which included the case study of my very distant relative Elizabeth Ud(e)y, who spent time in what was then known by the politically incorrect title of The Exeter School for the Deaf and Dumb. Her story can be found here. By coincidence, the keynote presenter at the same conference, historian Julia Neville, had been researching someone of the same name, who also spent time in the Exeter school but at a later date. Was there, she wondered, a family connection suggesting a genetic condition? It isn’t a spoiler but the short answer is that any family connection will be too far distant for that to be the case. The research needed to come to that conclusion was far from being short but it was one of those stories that grips you.

The more recent Elizabeth Ann Udy was a nine year old pupil at the school in the 1891 census, with an alleged birthplace of St. Columb in Cornwall. Julia had found out plenty about her later life and had identified her in 1901 but was less certain of her birth. By 1901, Elizabeth was living in Smythen Street, in Exeter with Joseph P Hearn, a general dealer from Ireland, his wife Elizabeth, aged forty-four, born in Newlyn East in Cornwall and their two daughters, Sarah and Emily Jane, who had both been born in Exeter. Elizabeth Udy was described as a daughter, despite the different surname. Her birthplace was also given as Newlyn East, which is in the registration district of St. Columb, so was not inconsistent with the 1891 information. Given that Elizabeth was twelve years older than the eldest Hearn daughter and born in a different place the logical assumption that she was Joseph Hearn’s step daughter and had been born to Elizabeth Hearn either illegitimately, or as a result of a previous marriage. There was a birth registration for the younger of the two Hearn daughters, Emily Jane, in 1898, with the mother’s maiden name given as Udy, suggesting that Elizabeth was indeed illegitimate.

There was no birth registration for Elizabeth Ann as Udy or Hearn. There was no Hearn-Udy marriage prior to 1900, although there was a slight possibility that this might have taken place in Ireland. Joseph Patrick Hearn could not be identified in 1891, nor could Elizabeth senior, as Hearn or Udy. She wasn’t found as Udy in 1881 or earlier census either. Roll on to 1911, by which time Elizabeth junior had married and this not the point at which to describe her later life. It is significant to note that no father was named on her marriage certificate and that the witnesses were a George and Catherine Hearn. In 1911, her mother, now with the middle initial C, was living in 2 rooms in Cobley’s Court, Exeter, ostensibly married to a George Hearn, a fifty-four year old general labourer, born in Exeter. Apart from the surname, the details did not match Joseph P; were these two men one and the same? Elizabeth C’s birthplace is also given as Exeter. The two daughters, Sarah and Emily Jane, were with the family, although Sarah had gained fifteen years in age instead of ten since the previous census.

Investigating these daughters revealed a Sarah Hearn, born in 1888, to Joseph Patrick Hearn and Mary née Brown, who was baptised at Exeter Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Her birth registration also gave her mother’s maiden name as Brown. Was Sarah Joseph’s daughter by an earlier marriage? There were two other Catholic baptisms, one for Emily Jane in 1898, with the mother’s name given as Mary Catherine née Udy and one in 1895, with the same parents, for Lucy. Lucy’s death was registered in 1897. Her birth however gave her mother’s maiden name as Udy-Brown. Were Elizabeth Udy senior and Mary Catherine Brown the same person? There was also a burial in the Catholic church, in 1893, for a Catherine Elizabeth Hearn of Cricklepit Lane. She had been born in 1890, with the mother’s maiden surname Brown. No amount of creative searching could locate the family in the 1891 census. They were not in Cricklepit Lane. Further searches for Hearn-Brown or Hearn-Udy children also revealed another daughter Rosina Lily, born in 1892 and dying as Rose Annie in 1894.

Next, I looked for a Hearn Brown marriage and the first eureka moment of the search turned up a marriage, on 9 May 1887 in Plymouth, between Joseph Patrick Hearn and Mary Katherine Elizabeth Udy Brown. The witnesses did not seem to be relatives. Mary Katherine listed her father as James Brown, a builder and she claimed to be a twenty-nine year old spinster. There were no births or baptisms that corresponded. I discovered the death of Joseph Patrick Hearn in 1904 and the 1908 marriage between George Hearn and Mary Catherine E Udy.

Finding Mary Katherine/Elizabeth in 1921 was more difficult, as she had been very creative with her age, but she was there, as Catherine, aged ‘fifty-four’ born in ‘Newland’, Cornwall. With her was her husband, George and her daughter, Emily Jane, now married to Frederick Short and with a young baby, living in three rooms at 11 Preston Street in Exeter. I believe that a death registration for an Elizabeth C Hearn in 1933, is hers.

I spent a long time looking for possible baptisms for Mary/Elizabeth/Catherine Udy in or around 1855-8 and given the 1921 census age, extended my search later. I did find two that looked to be possibilities but these were eventually ruled out as both died as infants. I then tried the surname Brown, which was obviously more difficult but nothing was found in the right geographical area.

In the meantime, using newspapers and court records, I was turning up plenty of evidence of the Hearn’s irregular life style. John Patrick Hearn had an extensive charge sheet from 1870 onwards, mostly for drunk and disorderly offences but more alarmingly for assaulting his twelve-year-old step-daughter Elizabeth Ann Udy, injuring her arm. In 1901, he was convicted of uttering threats towards his wife, for which he was imprisoned for thirty-eight days. Catherine, and she does seem to be using the name Catherine at this time, was not blameless. In 1893, Catherine, described as the wife of a rag and bone dealer of Cricklepit Street, was accused of selling bedding in which her child, who was suffering from scarlet fever, had died. This was presumably baby Catherine Elizabeth. The following year, an inquest was held following the death of Joseph and Catherine’s daughter, fourteen-month-old Rose Annnie Lily. The verdict was natural causes but there was a suggestion of neglect. In 1901, Catherine was in court for assaulting a neighbour, although both were found to be culpable. In 1906, came a charge of working as a pedlar, selling old clothes, without the required licence.

Back to the main search. Who was Mary/Catherine/Elizabeth Hearn/Udy/Brown? Could I find Mary, with any of her names, in censuses before 1891? Hopefully she would be somewhere near Newlyn East, where her daughter was born about 1881. This turned up a Kate Brown, aged twenty-two, born in Newlyn, wife of a John Brown. I couldn’t find the births or baptisms of any children. There was however a marriage, just after the 1881 census was taken, for John Brown and Mary Catherine U Roberts at St. Columb. Brown is tricky to research but it does seem that John by 1891, was still alive and married to someone else and it is possible that he was in fact married to her before 1881 and was living a double life but I didn’t pursue this beyond checking the newspapers for bigamy cases. Was this why Mary referred to herself as a spinster when she married Joseph Hearn.

This though was the final breakthrough. I had a new surname to search and sure enough, I  found the baptism in 1859 of Mary Catherine Roberts, illegitimate daughter of Mary Roberts of Trevilson, in Newlyn East. I traced her forwards with her mother in Newlyn East in the 1861 and 1871 censuses. Mary Catherine was one of her mother’s three illegitimate daughters. I also found a birth registration in 1881 for Elizabeth Ann Roberts at St. Columb with the mother’s maiden name given as Roberts. I believe that this child grew up to be Elizabeth Ann Udy who spent time in the Exeter School for the Deaf and Dumb.

That’s not quite the end of the story, as I still hadn’t identified the Udy connection. One must assume that Elizabeth’s mother, Mary Catherine Roberts, was the daughter of a Mr Udy. I did check the marriage certificate of Mary Catherine’s sister or half-sister, who gave her father as Richard Roberts, presumably a figment of her imagination. The other daughter did not marry. There are several Mr Udys in the right place at the right time and it is not possible to be certain, which if any was Mary Catherine’s father. It could well be coincidence but in 1891, Mary Catherine’s sister/half-sister was a servant to a similar aged John Udy. Could this have been her half-brother? If this is the case, William Udy a local shopkeeper is in the frame.

Sadly life did not go well for Elizabeth Ann Udy aka Roberts or her children. She lived in Exeter in extreme poverty as the wife of a watercress seller. Three of their five children died in infancy and one, a daughter was paralysed. Elizabeth died at the age of thirty-one in 1912, possibly in childbirth. The only surviving son was convicted of housebreaking at the age of ten and the newspaper report said that ‘he suffered with his heart and was consumptive’. He was sent to an industrial school un Bath, where he can be found in the 1921 census.

Image – Peggy Marco via Pixabay, used under Creative Commons