Miss Frances Martha Jane SMITH (1860–1912)
St Paul section: Row 4, Grave A18
F. M. J. S.
1 9 1 2
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Frances Martha Jane Smith was born in Union Street, Jericho, Oxford in 1860 and baptised at St Paul’s Church on 18 November. She was the daughter of Richard Clements Smith and Eliza Honour.
For more about her parents, see their separate grave, which also includes information about her siblings.
At the time of the 1861 census Frances was a six-month-old baby, living at 24 Union Street in Jericho with her parents. Her father, who was deaf and dumb from birth, was a cabinet maker.
By 1871 the family had moved to 24 Observatory Street, and Frances, now ten, had four younger sisters: Clara (8), Harriet (5), Maud (3), and Kate (four months).
At the time of the 1881 census Frances’s parents were still living at 24 Observatory Street, but Frances herself is hard to find in this census. In 1891 Frances (30) was a lady’s companion, living in part of 33 Woodstock Road with Miss Elizabeth Viner (80).
Frances’s mother Eliza Smith died at the age of 66 in 1897, and was buried in St Sepulchre’s Cemetery in the grave of her own mother Jane Honour.
By the time of the 1901 census Frances (40) had moved to Headington and was living with her father, a widower of 68 who was working as a cabinet maker, at what is now 50 New High Street. She had started her own drapery business downstairs and her sister Clara (39), who was a dressmaker, was also living with them. Miss Frances Smith’s business is listed under her name in Kelly’s Directory for 1901, and became known as the Headington Cash Drapery Stores. It can be seen on the left of the postcard below:
By the time of the 1911 census Miss Smith (50), described as a draper & milliner, was the head of the household at 50 New High Street. Her father was still living with her and working as a journeyman cabinet maker at the age of 80, and her widowed sister Mrs Maud Mary Walker (43) and her three children Ruth (6), William (4), and Richard Walker (2) had also moved in. The photograph below shows that an extension of the shop had now been built to the left of the house, providing more accommodation upstairs. It is likely that the people at the door are Maud and her daughter Ruth.
Miss Smith died the following year:
† Miss Frances Mary Jane Smith died at 50 New High Street, Headington at the age of 52 on 2 December 1912 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 6 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).
Her effects came to £296 13s. 6d., and probate was granted to her widowed sister Mrs Maud Mary Walker. Frances appears to be the sole occupant of this grave, which was probably purchased by her family when they were living at Observatory Street in St Paul’s parish.
Frances's father Richard Clements Smith died at 75 Divinity Road at the age of 84 four years later in 1916 and was buried with his wife.
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