Mrs. AYLWARD AND Mrs. SPENCEREpsom College 1853
Image courtesy of Bourne Hall Museum

We already have an overview article on the founding of Epsom College, and some of the widows of medical men who lived there, in our Victorian Studio Photos series: however, there were many residents who were not photographed locally and here are two of them.

Eliza Ann Frances Spencer (born 1813) was the daughter of Robert Spencer, a butcher and local worthy in Hampton, Middlesex (died c.1834) and his wife Sarah (née Kersey), who were married in 1812. Mr Spencer left a decent estate, including a shop and houses, so his family seemed well catered for.

Henry Aylward, born 1819 Droxford, Hampshire, was one of several children of Anthony and Sarah (née Lockhart) Aylward and he became a surgeon, eventually practising in Chislehurst, Kent. On 18 March 1843 he married Eliza Spencer at St Peter, Hammersmith, the ceremony being conducted by his older brother, Augustus Anthony, who in 1851 would become the Rector of Brede, Sussex until his death in 1885 (Florence Aylward, the daughter of Augustus, became a well-known musician and composer of ballads who had some of her songs performed at the Proms).

A daughter named Fanny Sarah was born in Chislehurst in 1845, followed by a stillborn son on 4 May 1847. Then, on 30 May 1850, Henry died at The Vicarage, Chesham, Buckinghamshire: he was presumably visiting another of his brothers, Adolphus Frederick, who was the vicar of Chesham from 1847 until he died in 1871.

Eliza and her daughter Fanny went to live with Sarah Spencer in Camberwell. In the 1851 census both Eliza and Sarah were described as annuitants, perhaps courtesy of Mr Spencer’s estate; they had a servant, so were not in poverty. By 1861 all three were resident at the Royal Medical Benevolent College in Epsom, with Mrs Spencer described as a proprietor of houses. But tragedy struck the family again in 1864 when Eliza died, aged 50. She was buried at St Mary, Hampton by the Reverend Robinson Thornton, Headmaster of the College.

Mrs Spencer left the College (presumably with Fanny) but on 25 January 1867 she died too, then living at Northumberland Place, Westbourne Grove, Bayswater. I would like to report that Fanny lived happily ever after but I don’t believe she did. In 1869 she married Adolph Hermann Theodor Wendt, who was born in Hamburg c.1845 and worked as a commercial clerk in the fur and skin trade. In the 1871 census they were together at premises in Grosvenor Road, Westminster, which looked like a House in Multiple Occupancy.

Mr Wendt decided to become a British citizen and in August 1873 he got his certificate of naturalisation, saying that he was married but had no children, which was all true as far as we know. However, in the 1881 census we find Mr Wendt, described as a fur merchant, living in Hammersmith with his 22 year old wife, Kate, from Sherborne, Dorset. Yes, you did read that correctly. So, has Fanny now died as well? No, she hasn’t. Fanny lives in a lodging house in Camden Town, described as married and the wife of a commercial clerk. By 1891 Mr Wendt, still a fur merchant, and Kate have three children and a servant and reside in Upper Holloway, whilst I can’t find Fanny. However, she resurfaces in 1901 as a widowed music teacher in Aston, Birmingham. She isn’t actually a widow yet, since Mr Wendt (now a company accountant), Kate and another child are alive and kicking in Ilford.

By 1911 Kate is a widow in Wood Green, having had six children altogether, of whom three are still alive*. Mr Wendt had died on 5 June 1907 (incorrectly shown as 1917 in the probate record). So, who was Kate? I think she was Rosa Kate Strawbridge, born 1858 Sherborne. Her father was Henry Strawbridge, stone mason, originally of Sherborne but by 1861 he was in Chelsea and Miss Strawbridge had dropped the Rosa. In later censuses Mrs Kate Wendt had a visitor called Mary Beaton (1901) and in 1911 a co-resident called M. E. B. Ensor, aunt, who appears to be the same woman, and we end up with a probate record (1917) for Maria Elizabeth Beaton Ensor, with an administratrix named Clara Mary Strawbridge, who is Rosa Kate’s sister. And the Rosa returned when a Rosa K Wendt died in Worthing district in 1935, aged 76. Fanny Wendt had died in Solihull district in 1910, aged 65.

*One of the sons, Montague, was an apprentice in the Merchant Navy and was aboard the ‘Carnedd Llewelyn’, which left South America on 19 February 1908 and was not heard of again after a sighting by another ship four days later. A Court of Inquiry could find no definite cause for the loss, but thought it was likely that she had gone down in a heavy gale in the vicinity of Cape Horn. All 24 crew were lost. Montague was about 16 years old and had only started his apprenticeship in the previous July.

The ‘Carnedd Llewelyn’ in an unidentified port 
Image Source: State Library of South Australia [PRG 1373/9/12]

Linda Jackson 2022