Mrs Rachel ALLDER, née Bateman (1818–1855)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 21, Grave G53½
SACRED
to the Memory of
RACHEL
THE BELOVED WIFE OF
GEORGE ALLDER
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE,
DECEMBER 9, 1855,
AGED 37 YEARS
Rachel Bateman was born at Hollybush Row in Oxford in on 9 February 1818 and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 8 March. She was the daughter of the labourer Thomas Bateman and his wife Elizabeth (probably the Thomas Bateman born in Northmoor and Elizabeth Bossom who were married at St Thomas’s Church on 2 November 1817).
On 1 June 1840 Rachel Bateman, who was then living at Hollybush Row, married George Allder at St Thomas’s Church. He was a labourer of Hythe Bridge Street, and the name of his father was not given in the marriage register: he was born in Oxford in 1817 to a single woman, Mary Allder, and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 26 October.
In 1841 Rachel Alder and her husband George, who was described as a sawyer, were living in Hollybush Row in St Thomas’s parish. They had the following children:
- John Allder (born in 1841 and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 22 August);
died at Red Lion Square aged 3 in 1845 and buried at St Mary Magdalen churchyard on 15 February) - Edward Allder (born in 1843 and baptised at St Thomas’s Church on 2 July);
died at Farmer’s Row, George Street aged 5 in 1848 and buried at St Mary Magdalen churchyard on 27 August). - Elizabeth Rachel Allder (born at Farmer’s Row, George Street in 1845/6 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 25 January 1846)
- Mary Allder (born at Farmer’s Row, George Street in 1848/9 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 25 March 1849)
- William Allder (born at Farmer’s Row, George Street in 1853 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 12 June;
d ied aged eight months and buried on 22 February 1854, probably at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery)
By the time that their daughter Elizabeth was born in early 1846 the Allder family was living at Farmer’s Row off George Street (near Red Lion Square). It looks as though George’s mother Mary Alder came to live with them, as a woman of that name aged 56 died at Farmer’s Row in 1847 and was buried at St Mary Magdalen churchyard on 5 September.
At the time of the 1851 census Rachel Allder (33) was living at 2 Farmer’s Row, George Street with her husband George (35), who was now a carpenter, and their surviving children Elizabeth (5) and Mary (2).
Rachel Allder died in 1855:
† Mrs Rachel Allder née Bateman died at Farmer’s Row at the age of 37 on 9 December 1855 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 14 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).
The following death announcement was placed in Jackson’s Oxford Journal: “Dec. 9, aged 37, after a very long and painful illness, Rachel, wife of George Allder, carpenter, Farmer’s-row, George-street.”
Rachel’s husband George Allder
At the time of the 1861 census Rachel’s husband George Allder (45) was still living at Farmer’s Row with his younger daughter Mary (11). His elder daughter Elizabeth (15) was living at Isis Street in North Hinksey, working as a general servant to a college servant.
Also living with George Allder in 1861 was his servant Miss Elizabeth Hunt (45) and her two illegitimate children. The first of these, Joseph Hunt, was born in Cowley Workhouse and baptised at St Andrew’s Church in Headington on 21 May 1851; the second, Sarah Ann Hunt, was born at Farmer’s Row and was privately baptised by St Mary Magdalen Church on 7 September 1859: she was almost certainly George Allder’s daughter.
Later in 1861 George Allder married his servant Elizabeth Hunt. It was a very short second marriage, however, as he died a few months later near the beginning of 1862; but it did confer respectability on Elizabeth and his assumed daughter. At the time of the 1871 census Elizabeth (57) was working as a charwoman and living in a cottage behind 34 New Inn Hall Street with her daughter Sarah (13), who was now using the surname Allder and was still at school.
The surviving children of Rachel Allder and her husband George
- Elizabeth Rachel Allder (born 1845/6) was living at Broken Hayes when on 16 December 1867 she married the widower (Isaac) William Badcock at St Peter-le-Bailey Church. At the time of the 1871 census they were living at Norman Place in St Thomas’s parish: William was working as a hawker and Elizabeth (29) as a nurse, and William’s five children from his first marriage were living with them.
- Mary Allder (born 1848/9) is hard to trace after 1861.
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