Mrs Ann SARJENT, née Harbidge (1816–1881)
St Giles (Ss Philip & James) section: Row 40, Grave K38
SACRED
TO THE MEMORY
OF
ANN
WIFE OF THE LATE
JOHN SARJENT
OF ALDERMINSTER
WHO DIED JAN. 24, 1881
AGED 64 YEARS.
Ann Harbidge was born at Great Rollright, Oxfordshire in 1816 and privately baptised there on 16 April (and received into the church on 15 January 1818). Her parents were Thomas Harbidge of Great Rollright and Susannah Kinch of Enstone who were married at Great Rollright on 27 September 1810. Her four brothers were also baptised there: Thomas (1811), Robert (1812), James (1814), and Charles (1820). At the time of the 1841 census Ann (23) was living at Coombe Farm, Great Rollright with her parents Thomas and Susanna and her brothers Thomas and Charles, plus two male and two female servants. Her mother Susanna Harbidge died at the age of 51 in 1842 and was buried at Great Rollright on 30 March, and her father Thomas Harbidge died in 1850 (age not recorded) and buried on 30 December. Ann took over the family farm, and at the time of the 1851 census when she was aged 35 she was described as a farmer of 390 acres and was living at Great Rollright with three servants (a dairy maid, housemaid, and groom) and her three-year-old nephew Charles Henry Harbidge, the son of her brother Charles.
Her husband John Sarjent (whose surname was also spelt Serjeant, Sargeant, or Sergeant) was born at Kineton, near Combrook, Warwickshire in 1813 and baptised there on 15 November. He was the son of Daniel and Ann (or Hannah) Sarjeant. At the time of the 1841 census John (27) was a farmer, living with his mother Hannah at Alderminster Cottage, Alderminster, Warwickshire. He married his first wife after this census, but there do not appear to have been any children. By the time of the 1851 census he was a widower, living at Alderminster Cottage with his unmarried sister Maria.
On 2 October 1851 at Great Rollright Church, Ann Harbidge of Rollright Coombs married the widower John Sarjent , who was described as a farmer of Alderminster. They do not appear to have had any children.
After their marriage John Sarjent took on Ann's farm at Rollright Coombs. At the time of the 1861 census Ann (45) was living at Coombe Farm, Great Rollright with John (47), who was described as a farmer of 435 acres employing ten men, six women, and five boys. A housemaid, a dairymaid, and a groom lived with them.
Ann's husband John Sarjent died at the Coombs, Great Rollright on 23 December 1862. His effects came to under £8,000, and his executors were his widow Ann, his brother Daniel Sarjeant [sic], a farmer of Long Itchington, Warwickshire, and John Bachelor, a gentleman of Stratford-upon-Avon.
At the time 1871 census Ann (54) was paying a visit to her brother James Harbidge (57), who was a farmer in Cannock, Staffordshire.
Ann Sarjent had come to live in north Oxford when she died near the beginning of 1881:
† Mrs Ann Sarjent née Harbidge died at Elforden, Bradmore Road at the age of 64 on 24 January 1881 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 28 January (burial recorded in the parish register of Ss Philip & James's and St Giles's Church).
Her death notice in Jackson's Oxford Journal read: “Jan. 24, at Bradmore Road, Oxford, Ann, wife of the late John Sargeant [sic], of Rollright Coombs, Oxon, aged 64. Friends please accept this intimation.”
Her personal estate came to under £200, and her executor was John Haddon, a warehouseman of Cheltenham.
Please email stsepulchres@gmail.com
if you would like to add information
These biographies would not have been possible without the outstanding transcription services
provided by the Oxfordshire Family History Society