Lucy (Louisa) Whiting 1813-1849

Parents: Joseph Whiting and Sarah Farecloth (1)
Born: 19th November 1813 in Burton End, Haverhill.(1)
Baptised: 9th January 1814 at St Mary's Parish Church, Haverhill (1)
Married: Thomas Tarban, batchelor, of Haverhill, on 18th October 1835 at St Mary's Parish Church, Haverhill. Witnessed by John Whiting and Mary Jopson. (1)
Children: Harriet Thake Whiting b.1830 (illegitimate), Mary Tarban b.1837, Eliza Tarban b.1840 and Sophia Tarban b.1843
Died: September 1849 in Steeple Bumpstead. Buried on 30th September at St Mary the Virgin Church, Steeple Bumpstead.(2,3,4)

Bio: Lucy was baptised in 1814 having been born the previous year. What happens in her early life is unclear, but it appears she had an illegitimate child in 1830.

Harriet Thake Whiting was a base-born child whose mother's name is given as Louisa Whiting. We know that Harriet was the granddaughter of Joseph and Sarah Whiting because she is referred to as such on the 1851 census. Really, the only candidates amongst Joseph and Sarah's children to be the mother of Harriet are Lucy, or Ann Siggs Whiting. I feel Lucy and Louisa are the same person, and the names are close enough to be confused or that indeed Lucy was a corruption of Louisa.

So where is Lucy (or Louisa) on the 1841 census? not living with her parents or child in Burton End, that's for sure.

We see the marriage of Louisa Whiting to Thomas Tarban took place in 1835, and one of the witnesses was John Whiting who is surely the John Whiting who was her closest sibling (thus strengthening the Lucy/Louisa connection). Thomas had been born in Stamborne around 1812, the son of John and Jemima.

We find the Tarbans (or Tarvins as they're known here, and indeed Tarborns on the GRO index) on the 1841 census living at End Way, Steeple Bumpstead, Essex. Thomas is an agricultural labourer, and Louisa is listed as not being born in the county of Essex. They have two children, Mary, 4, and Eliza, 1.

The 1851 census reveals Thomas as a widower, living in the same place with his children Mary, Eliza and Sophia, and his mother Jemima, 71, also a widower.

So when did Louisa die? We see her on the GRO death index as Louisa Tarborn in 1849, but in the parish burial register as 'Tarvin'. She was buried at Steeple Bumpstead parish church.(3,4)

Thomas married again in 1853, to Sarah Mead of Haverhill.(5) He is known as 'Turban' here, in yet another interesting variation. We can see Thomas and Sarah on the 1861 census living in Barkers yard, Steeple Bumpstead, with Sarah's son from a previous relationship and two children of their own, John and Harriet.

John died in 1886 in Steeple Bumpstead, and was buried at the church there on 15th March.(6)

Sources:

(1) Suffolk Records Office, Bury St Edmunds, Parish Registers of St Mary's Church, Haverhill. Fiche 578
(2) Death Register. 3rd Quarter 1849, Risbridge district, Volume 12 Page 352
(3) National Burial Index, 3rd Edition. FFHS. Parish Register of St Mary the Virgin, Steeple Bumpstead.
(4) Essex Record Office, SEAX catalogue D/P 21/1/8. Steeple Bumpstead Burial Registers 1813-1853
(5) Marriage Register. 1st Quarter 1853, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 445
(6) Death Register. 1st Quarter 1886, Risbridge District, Volume 4a Page 416