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Mrs Esther WATMORE, née Slyfield (1838–1896)
St Paul section, Row 25, Grave E14

Esther Slyfield was born at Binfield near Bracknell, Berkshire on 14 January 1838 and baptised there on 11 February. She was the daughter of John Slyfield and Sarah Emma Griffiths. At the time of the 1851 census Esther (13) was living at Rounds Hill in Binfield with her father John (37), who was a farmer of 26 acres employing one man; her mother Sarah (32); and her six siblings: John (16), Ann (11), Margaret or Margaretta (7), Catherine (5), Maria (3), and Charlotte (1).

On 7 October 1860 at St Giles’s Church in Reading, Esther Slyfield married William Watmore (born in Rotherwick, Hampshire in 1839).

The couple began their married life in Sussex at Owls Hatch, Seale. At the time of the 1861 census Esther (23) was working as a laundress there, and her husband William was a baker, and Esther’s sister Margaretta Slyfield (17) was living with them. By 1865 they had moved to Wokingham in Berkshire.

They had the following children:

• Emily Edith Watmore (born in Wokingham,in 1864/5, reg. first quarter of 1865);
  died aged 7 in 1872
• Ruth Watmore (born in Wokingham in 1867, reg. second quarter)
• Kate Watmore (born in Reading in 1870, reg. second quarter)
• Laura Rose Watmore (born in Osney, Oxford in 1875, reg. third quarter).

They were still in Wokingham in 1867, but by 1870 had moved to Reading.

At the time of the 1871 census Esther (33) was living in Reading at 20 Letcombe Road with her husband William (32), who was working as a baker, and their first three daughters Emily (6), Ruth (3), and Kate (1). Their eldest daughter Emily died in Reading the following year.

By 1875 the family had moved to Osney in Oxford, where William was working for the Great Western Railway as a locking fitter, and their youngest daughter was born there. At the time of the 1881 census they were living at 7 Mill Street, Osney with Ruth (14), Kate (11), and Laura Rose (5), and Esther’s sister Miss Maria Slyfield (33) had come to live with them.

In March 1883 William Watmore bought 58 Walton Street, and the 1891 cenus shows them living there with their three surviving daughters: Ruth (25) was a showroom assistant, Kate (21) was a fancy draper’s assistant, and Laura Rose (15) was still at school. Esther’s unmarried sister Maria Slyfield was still there, and William’s Watmore’s parents Edward (86) and Charlotte (84) had also come to live with them.

Mrs Esther Watmore died in 1896:

† Mrs Esther Watmore née Slyfield died at 58 Walton Street at the age of 58 on 1 February 1896 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 5 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Paul’s Church).

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Esther’s husband William Watmore

Near the end of 1897 in the Headington registration district William Watmore married his second wife Selina Susan Sainsbury (born in Warminster, Wiltshire in c.1846), and at the time of the 1901 census they were living at 58 Walton Street. William was now described as a signal fitter.

In 1911 William Watmore was a railway pensioner, living with Selina at Banbury Road, Kidlington. He died at Kidlington at the age of 76, and was buried in the churchyard there on 28 December 1915, and he too appears to lie alone in his grave. His second wife Selina died in Somerset at the age of 82 near the beginning of 1931.

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Surviving children of Esther and William Watmore

• Ruth Watmore (born 1867) married Albert Yeates in the Headington registration district in the third quarter of 1898 and they had two children born at Sutton, Surrey: Arthur Richmond Yeates (1900/1) and Iris Enid Yeates (1909). At the time of the 1901 census she and Albert were living at 9 Manor Street, Sutton, Surrey with their baby son and Ruth’s two sisters: she was a bookkeeper and Albert was a fruiterer. In 1911 Ruth (42) was living at 11 Winterwell Road, Wokingham with her husband Albert, who was now a commercial traveller in vinegar, and their children Arthur Richmond Yeates (11) and Iris Enid Yeates (1). Mrs Ruth Yeates died in Oxford at the age of 67 in 1934.
• Kate Watmore (born 1870) never married. In 1901 when she was 30 she was living in Sutton, Surrey, with her married sister Ruth and working as a fruiterer’s assistant to her husband. In 1911 she was running a lodging house at 26 St Michael Street with her younger sister Laura. She died in Oxford at the age of 72 in 1943.
• Laura Rose Watmore (born 1875) never married. In 1901 when she was 24 she was living in Sutton, Surrey with her married sister Ruth and working as a domestic servant. In 1911 she was running a lodging house at 26 St Michael Street with her older sister Kate. Her home was still at 26 St Michael’s Street, Oxford when she died in Birmingham at the age of 89 on 26 June 1965. Her effects came to £101.