Just how much sorrow can one family endure?

Mary Ann Harwood and Ferdinand Turner grew up in the small rural parish of Lydiard Tregoze, on the outskirts of Swindon, most of which was owned by the St John family at Lydiard Park.

Ferdinand Turner was baptised at the parish church of St Mary’s on October 11, 1829, the son of Emma Turner, an unmarried woman who worked as an agricultural labourer. Mary Ann was the daughter of Robert Harwood, an agricultural labourer, and his wife Susannah. She was baptised on April 1, 1832 also at St Mary’s Church.

The young couple married on December 22, 1855 at St Mary’s. In 1871 they were living in Toothill where they both worked as agricultural labourers. Their elder daughters Sarah Jane and Elizabeth worked on the land with them, and possibly their younger daughters Susan and Lucy as well. Their youngest two children were Mary Ellen, aged 3 and 5 month old Frederic William.

But change was on the way and you have to ask yourself just how much sorrow can one family endure?

Mary Ann’s younger brother Robert died in 1872 in a shocking accident while out poaching on land at Toothill Farm.

Shocking Death. – An inquest was held on Monday at Toothill Farm, about four miles from Swindon, on the body of Robert Harwood, aged 27, an engine-driver in the employ of the Great Western Railway Company, who had been found dead on the farm on Sunday, with a gunshot wound through the head upwards. The spot where the body was found commanded a view of several fields, and it is conjectured the deceased went to the farm on Sunday early and shot rabbits from this point, two being found near him. It is supposed that he was drawing his gun towards him to shoot again, when it became entangled, and, the trigger being moved, the gun exploded. The charge entering the throat under the left ear in an upward direction, death of course was instantaneous. When the body was found the muzzle of the gun was towards it, and the butt end in the hedge. Verdict “Accidentally killed by a gun while unlawfully shooting rabbits.”

Southern Times Saturday, July 27, 1872.

Robert was buried with his father in the old country churchyard at St. Mary’s. The ripples of shock and grief swept through the family and no doubt Mary Ann drew close to support her widowed mother. But within three years another tragedy hit the family.

By 1875 the Turner family had moved into Swindon and a home in Haydon Street close to the GWR Works where Ferdinand was employed as a labourer. One Saturday morning in March 1875 their two younger children, Mary Ellen and Frederick, walked back to Mannington to visit the neighbours they had once been so close to.

Burned to death – Mr Coroner Whitmarsh held an inquest at the Great Western Hotel, Swindon Station, on Wednesday, on the body of Mary Ellen Turner, seven years of age, daughter of Ferdinand Turner, of New Swindon, a laborer. It appeared that deceased, accompanied by a brother five years of age, left home at ten o’clock on Saturday morning for the house of a person named Carter who lived at Mannington, and was formerly a neighbor of deceased’s mother. The children got there safe enough and, at twelve o’clock, had some dinner with Mrs. Carter, and on the latter again going out to her work in the fields the children with others followed her. They played in the same meadow as that in which Mrs Carter was engaged, and amused themselves for sometime in gathering the early spring flowers which they were fortunate enough to find. In about half an hour, however, Mrs Carter was startled at hearing dreadful screams, and on going in the direction from which they proceeded she saw deceased, whose clothes were in flames, running towards her. It seemed that in putting some sticks on a small fire which was near, and which Mrs Carter’s daughter (a girl about fourteen years old) had lit to keep herself warm while bird-keeping, deceased’s water-proof became ignited. She instantly took it off, but the flames caught her dress, and, finding they had attained a mastery, the child screamed aloud, which as before shown, attracted Mrs Carter’s attention. She did what she could under the circumstances, and deceased was taken to a neighbor’s house. The doctor was sent for, and in a very short time Mr Simon, an assistant to Messrs. Swinhoe and Howse, attended. He dressed the wounds, and the child was removed home to Swindon in a dog-trap. The case, however, was a hopeless one from the first, and deceased died the same night, at a quarter to nine o’clock, from exhaustion and shock to the system, the result of the injuries received. The jury returned a verdict of “Accidentally burnt.”

The North Wilts Herald, Saturday, March 27, 1875.

Poor little Mary Ellen was buried in the churchyard at St Mark’s Church in the railway village on March 25, 1875.

And then in 1886 the couple lost their daughter Susan who died aged 25. Without access to her death certificate we do not know what the cause of death was. A death announcement was published in the Swindon Advertiser, but there is no account of how she died. As a young, unmarried woman it is doubtful she died during childbirth so we can only suspect she died from an illness. She was buried on January 21st, 1886 in grave plot A415 where this elegant headstone was later erected.

Was this all there was to discover about this family? I hoped there would be no further tragic deaths.

Ferdinand died in 1904 aged 72 years old and is buried in the plot next to his daughter, A414. Mary Ann died two years later aged 70 and joined Ferdinand.

Almost thirty years later Susan was joined by a brother-in-law she had never known as he came on the scene long after her death. David L.H. Price was the husband of her elder sister Elizabeth. David worked as a striker in the Works and died at his home 95 Linslade Road, Rodbourne. His funeral took place on May 4, 1915. He was 48 years old.