Ada Maria Smoothy 1872-1950

Parents: Charles Smoothy and Susannah Cornwell
Born: 1872 in Bottisham, Cambridgeshire. (1)
Baptised: ?
Married (1): Charles Whiting, 22, batchelor, labourer of Withersfield, son of William Whiting, labourer, on 9th November 1895 at St Mary's Parish Church, Haverhill. Witnessed by Charles Marsh and Florence Smoothy.(3,4)
Children (1): Florence Ethel Whiting b.1896
Married (2): David Poole, 28, Hair cloth weaver, in 1902 in Haverhill.(8)
Children: (2): None
Died: May 1898. Buried at St Mary's Church, Withersfield on 9th May 1898.(5,6)

Bio: Ada was born in 1872 in Bottisham, Cambridgeshire, the daughter of Charles Smoothy who was originally from Kedington and Susannah Cornwell of Great Wratting. We see her first on the 1881 census at Great Thurlow where she is a scholar aged 8 living in a cottage with her parents. She is the oldest of five children, the others being Willam, 6, Flora, 4, Hester, 3 and Rachel, 1. The other children had been born in Great Wratting, Great Bradley and Great Thurlow, so the family must have moved around a fair bit.

Ada's father Charles died in 1885 at the age of only 32, and so on the 1891 census we see her mother Susannah as a widow bringing up the children alone. They have moved to Haverhill, and are living at 6 Crown Passage. Both Ada and her mother are hair weavers, siblings William and Florence are working at Gurteens (clothing Factory) whilst another sister, Esther, is a domestic servant. Younger sibblings Rachel, Bessie and Alfred are all scholars.

Ada married Charles Whiting, a labourer of Withersfield in 1895 at St Mary's Church in Haverhill. Her residence at the time is listed as Castle Camps. Maybe she was working there at the time.

Charles and Ada had one daughter, Florence Ethel, who was born in 1896 in Haverhill.

Tragedy struck the young family two years later, when Charles died in 1898 at the age of 25(5). I'm not sure of the cause of his early death. He was buried at the Withersfield church on 9th May 1898.

On the 1901 census we find Ada and daughter Florence living with Ada's widowed mother Susannah at 34 Mount Road, Haverhill. Ada and her mother are working as hairweavers along with Ada's sister Esther. Her other sister Bessie is a trousers machinist.

Ada married again, in 1902, to David Poole. On the 1911 census we see them living 11 Chauntry Row, Haverhill. Florence is still at home, aged 14, working now as a dressmaker whilst her mother and stepfather both work as cloth weavers.

It doesn't appear that David and Ada had any children together.

Ada lived until she was 78, dying in the Cambridge district in 1950.(7)

Sources:

(1) Birth Register. 4th Quarter 1872, Newmarket District, Volume 3b Page 569
(3) Marriage Register. 4th Quarter 1895, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 1227
(4) Suffolk Records Office, Bury St Edmunds, Parish Registers of St Mary's Church, Haverhill. Fiche 578/4/28 of 37
(5) Death Register. 2nd Quarter 1898, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 374
(6) Suffolk Burial Index, SFHS, 1538-1900
(7) Death Register. 4th Quarter 1950, Cambridge District, Volume 4a Page 189
(8) Marriage Register. 4th Quarter 1902, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 1579