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Thomas SUMMERS (1823–1861)
His sister-in law Mrs Emma SUMMERS née Hammick (c.1825–1872)
St Paul section: Row 19, Grave E16 (St Paul ref. N16)

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It is a mystery why Thomas Summers was buried in St Sepulchre’s in 1861 rather than Osney Cemetery, as he lived in St Ebbe’s parish.

Thomas Summers was born at Seal, near Sevenoaks in Kent, in 1822, and his younger brother Frederick Summers in 1823. They were the the sons of Stephen Summers.

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Thomas Summers

Thomas Summers was born at Seal in 1822 and baptised there on 6 April.

In 1841 Thomas (17) was the servant of an independent lady in Seal. He is hard to trace in 1851.

At the time of the 1861 census Thomas (37), who was now a valet, was living in Oxford at Spring Cottage, Cambridge Street, St Ebbe’s (Holy Trinity parish) with his Irish-born wife Mary Jane (36). Miss Margaret Lowe (69), also born in Ireland, was paying them a visit.

Thomas was still living in Cambridge Street when he died later that year, but his probate record states that he died at Culham, so his death was registered in the Abingdon district. It also says that he was “formerly of Box Farm Kemsing in the County of Kent but late of the Parish of St. Ebbe in the City of Oxford gentleman’s servant”.

† Thomas Summers died at Culham at the age of 39 on 4 December 1861 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 8 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Letters of administration were granted to his widow, Mrs Mary Jane Summers of St Ebbe’s, and his effects came to under £800. She does not appear to have remained in Oxford, and is not buried with her husband.

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Frederick Summers

Frederick Summers was born at Seal in 1824 and baptised there on 17 October. He is not actually buried in this grave, but his brother and first wife are.

In 1841 Frederick (15) was the servant of a retired naval man Arthur Gregory at Court Lodge, Ightham.

His future wife Emma Hammick was born in Torquay in c.1825, and was the daughter of the fisherman William Hammick and his wife Betsey. At the time of the 1841 census Emma (15) was a seampstress, living at Warren Place, Torquay with her parents, her older sister Charlotte, and her younger siblings William (14), Thomas (10), Sarah (6), and Samuel (5).

In Exeter in 1850 (reg. fourth quarter) Frederick Summers married Emma Hammick, and they had ten children:

• William Frederick Summers (born in Oxford in 1851 and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 8 October)
• Thomas George Summers (born at Albert Street, Oxford in 1853 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 13 November)
• Julia Emma Summers (born at Cambridge Street, Oxford in 1855 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 15 July, twin)
• Lilian Charlotte Summers (born at Cambridge Street, Oxford in 1855 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 15 July, twin)
• Charles Stephen Summers (born at 9 Cambridge Street, Oxford in 1857 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 11 October)
• Georgina Frances Summers (born at Speedwell Street, Oxford in 1859 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 21 August)
• Mary Alice Summers (born at Speedwell Street, Oxford in 1862 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 16 April)
• Percival John Summers (born at Cambridge Street, Oxford in 1863 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 20 September)
• Alexander Edward Summers (born at Pembroke House, Union Place, Oxford in 1866 and baptised at St Ebbe’s Church on 29 April)
• Edith Elizabeth Summers (born in Oxford in 1869, reg. third quarter).

Straight after their marriage the couple moved to Oxford, where Frederick worked as a valet, possibly already to someone at Christ Church. At the time of the 1851 census Emma and Rose, both 26, were living at Rose Place, St Aldate’s.

By 1853 they were living in Albert Street in St Ebbe’s, which came under Holy Trinity parish with their first five children: William (9), Thomas (7), twins Julia and [Lilian] Charlotte (5), Charles (3), and Georgina (1).

In 1857 Frederick was described as a private servant at Christ Church, and thereafter as a college servant. By 1855 they had moved to Cambridge Street, and by 1859 to Speedwell Street, both also in St Ebbe’s and included in Holy Trinity parish.

In the 1861 census Frederick was described as a college servant and was living at Speedwell Street in St Ebbe’s with his wife Emma and their first six children, plus a 15-year-old servant girl.

By 1863 the family was living at Pembroke House in Cambridge Street.

In 1871 Emma (47) was staying at Lyndhurst in Kent with her brother Edward Hammick (27), who was a schoolmaster, and his wife Sarah Jane and their baby; also living with them was Emma and Edward’s widowed mother Betsey. Meanwhile her husband Frederick (46) was home at 2 Pembroke House, Cambridge Street with nine of their children. A number of the children were known by different names, but they can be identified as Thomas George (17), who was a woollen draper; Lilian Charlotte (15), who had house duties; Julia Emma (15), who was a dressmaker; and Charles Stephen (13), Georgina Frances (11), Mary Alice (9), Percival John (7), Alexander Edward (5), and Edith Elizabeth (1), plus an 18-year-old servant girl.

Mrs Emma Summers died the following year:

† Mrs Emma Summers née Hammick died at Clarke’s Row, St Aldate’s at the age of 48 on 7 December 1872 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 13 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

Her husband Frederick Summers continued living at Pembroke House and working as a college servant following her death.

In the fourth quarter of 1873 at St George’s Church in Hanover Square, Frederick Summers married his second wife, Alice Jane White, and they had two daughters:

• Nelly [or Nellie] Maud Summers (born at Pembroke House, Oxford on 15 July 1874 and baptised at Holy Trinity Church on 30 September)
• Lottie Mabel Summers (born in Oxford, reg. 1st qr 1876).

Two of his children were married shortly afterwards:

• In the third quarter of 1873 at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, William Frederick Summers married Elizabeth Ann Meredith: he was a music teacher in 1881, and they were living in Clewer in Berkshire.
• On 1 November 1873 at Holy Trinity Church, Oxford, Lillian Charlotte Summers (18), who was still living at Pembroke House, married Tom Hynes (25), a woollen draper. Frederick and his new wife Alice Jane were the witnesses.

Frederick then moved to Devon with his second wife and several of his children to run the Exeter Hotel in Torquay. Another son married near the beginning of 1877:

• In 1877 (reg. first quarter) in the Barnstaple district of Devon, Thomas George Summers married Eliza Main in 1881 he was working as a hotel waiter in Dawlish.

Frederick and his second wife both died within a few years of moving to Devon. Frederick Summers died at the Exeter Hotel on 25 August 1877 at the age of 52: his effects came to under £800, and his executors included his wife and his son Charles, who was now a solicitor’s clerk in Norwood, Surrey. His second wife Alice Jane Summers died in the same district at the age of 32 in 1880.

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The younger children of Frederick Summers in the 1880s

Two of Frederick’s sons by his first wife Emma were employed in hotels in Torquay in 1881: Percival John Summers (17) was a billiard marker at the Royal Hotel and [Alexander] Edward Summers (15) was a servant at the Imperial Hotel. His daughter [Mary] Alice Summers (19) was living in Oxford in 1881 with her uncle William Barrett and his wife Sarah, who kept the George Hotel in Cornmarket Street. In 1883 in the St Thomas district of Devon, Percival John Summers married Emma Seldon; he died in 1889.

Frederick's two children by his second marriage were very young when their mother died: in 1881 Lottie Mabel Summers (5) was in an orphanage at St Mary Church in Devon, while Nellie Maud Summers is hard to find (but she did survive: she died in Devon at the age of 98 in 1972).