The third of my 2xgreat grandparents’ 19 children was Emma Mary Ann, born in 1877. Her occupation, over several decades, as a Corset Machinist, is well referenced. She had an illegitimate daughter who died in infancy. After being widowed in her early 30s, she lived with her sister Harriett and family. With no surviving children of her own, she continued to work until illness prevented her. This is what little I have pieced together of her story.

Rolls Road School days

Emma Mary Ann Stocking was born on 9 December 1877. Her birth was registered in January 1878 by her mother, born Alice Mary Wales, who was 20 years old, and already had two children. Her father, James Thomas Stocking, was 24 and working as a Bricklayer’s Labourer.

Extract from birth certificate for Emma Mary Ann Stocking (GRO)

Emma wasn’t baptised until she was five years old, on 19 July 1882, the same day as her older sister Alice Caroline Stocking (mistakenly named Alice Mary Anne on the baptism register), older brother James Aaron Stocking (my great grandfather), a younger sister, Harriett Elizabeth Stocking, who would have been three and their baby brother William Henry Stocking.

By the time of the 1881 census, a year before the baptisms at St Philip’s Church, Avondale Square, Emma Mary Ann Stocking is one of five children living with their parents and maternal grandparents at 44 Herman Road, Camberwell. Perhaps she was named after her mother’s sister, Emma Wales, who was by then 21 years old and working as a fur sewer. Ancestry.co.uk has a school admissions book showing that, like her siblings, she was enrolled aged five at Rolls Road School in Bermondsey. On 26 October 1885, according to another school record, she transferred from the infants department to Rolls Road junior school. The family address at this time is shown as 17 Victory Place, where they lived for a short time. On every other record they are either at Herman Road or Bowles Road.

She is still at school, aged 13, at the time of the 1891 census, the family by now having expanded to include 11 children, the youngest just six months old. It must have been quite crowded in the family home nonetheless, and both girls and boys would presumably have been encouraged to find work as soon as their school days were over.

A baby daughter

In the 1911 census, her father declared that he had had 19 children, three of whom had died. My search for evidence for their births and deaths led me to assume – incorrectly – that a baby called Violet Stocking, born and died in the last quarter of 1899 was one of them. Later in my research, I ordered her death certificate and was surprised to find that her mother was Emma Mary Ann Stocking. I then ordered her birth certificate. She was born at the family home of 44 Herman Road, when her Corset Maker mother was 21 years old and unmarried.

Extract from digital birth certificate for Violet Stocking (GRO)

Violet died very young, aged just five weeks, from acute bronchitis.

Extract from digital death certificate for Violet Stocking (GRO)

Emma’s mother, my 2xgreat grandmother, gave birth to a baby girl the following year and named her Violet Rose May Ivy Stocking, perhaps in honour of her lost grandchild.

A corset machinist

At the time of the 1901 census, Emma is still at home with her ever increasing number of siblings, her parents and her husband-to-be, who is boarding with the family. She is by then 23 years old and is working as a ‘Corset Maker, Stays’. Schooling was only compulsory up to the age of 10 in the 1880s, so she may well have been sewing corsets for well over a decade by 1901, at home or in a factory.

Wikipedia’s history of corsets page notes that:

“By the 19th century, most corsets were made in factories, and each step was performed by a different group of people, often children. Heavy or messy work was done in house, such as cutting the fabric pieces and japanning the steels to prevent rust, and lighter work, such as sewing the bones in place, was taken home by piece workers, generally women who enlisted their children to help them.”

Haabet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When Emma married Labourer James Mayers on 4 August 1901 at St Philips Church, Avondale Square, her occupation is not recorded on the marriage certificate. Later records, however, show that she continued to work as a Corset Machinist for much of her life.

Marriage and widowhood

Extract from parish marriage record, St Philips Church, Avondale Square, Camberwell (Ancestry.co.uk)

As the certificate above shows, the witnesses to the marriage included her father, James Thomas Stocking, who made his mark in the Register, her oldest brother James Aaron Stocking (my great grandfather), and ‘Lizzie’ and ‘Lily’ Stocking. ‘Lizzie’ could well be her younger sister Elizabeth Bridgetina Stocking, born in 1886, and therefore about 15 years old, and Lily was, I believe, her sister Lavinia. Perhaps the two young teens acted as bridesmaids and wanted to be recorded formally.

James Mayers was the son of another James Mayers, a Cowman. Both bride and groom give her parents’ address as their home at the time of the marriage: 44 Herman Road, Camberwell. James was born in Godalming, Surrey, and was living there with his parents in the 1881-1891 censuses.

Although not confirmed, it is possible, based on likely ages of the sitters, that Emma Mary Ann Mayers is the woman shown below, extracted from a larger family photo, taken around 1904. Her husband may be the man below with the moustache (standing to her left in the full photo).

I was unable to find any records of children born to the couple, and this is confirmed by their entry in the 1911 census. Perhaps the birth of her illegitimate daughter caused complications, and she was unable to have more children. They are living in two rooms at 35 Lettsom Street, Camberwell, where Emma is still working as a Corset Maker, at home, while her husband is a General Labourer. While a street of that name still exists, Google Street View shows that it is now the site of post-WW2 flats and garages.

Sadly, James Mayers died on 25 May 1911, not long after the census was taken. He may have had a short illness, as he signed the census form on 2 April that year. His death certificate shows that he died at his home address, of pneumonia and ‘syncope’ (fainting).

Extract from death certificate of James Mayers, 1911 (GRO)

Both he and his wife were in their early 30s. His brother-in-law, Alfred Edmund Ilott Bishop, husband of his wife’s sister Harriett Elizabeth Bishop, registered the death. A review of the 1911 census shows that Alfred and Harriett were, in fact, sharing the same property at 35 Lettsom Street, they and their family of five children occupying three rooms.

Ten years later, Emma Mary Ann Mayers is still living with her sister and brother-in-law, but now at 34A Durban Road, Lambeth. The couple’s family has grown from five children to eight, so perhaps they needed bigger premises. Google Street View shows that the street is still standing, lined with pleasant, brick-built terraced or semi-detached villas. They were clearly purpose-built as flats, one above the other, and each with its own front door.

Emma is by now aged 43 and is said to be a Corset Machinist “out of work through illness”. Her last employer is named as H J Hook, of Belvoir Road, East Dulwich. It seems that she continued sewing corsets after her husband’s death, possibly still undertaking the piece-work at home – although it must have been difficult finding space in such a busy household.

The early 1930s see Emma living at 4 St Cloud Street, a few streets away from Durban Road. She did not live to see the outbreak of WW2; she died at Dulwich Hospital on 5 February 1939 of Acute Nephritis (kidney disease) and Hypertension. Her usual address was 4 St Cloud Street, and her sister, H E Bishop, registered the death. It seems that Emma continued living with her sister until her death, as Harriett’s home address is the same.

Emma Mary Ann Mayers was 61 years old when she died, and had been a widow for almost 30 years.

Extract from death certificate for Emma Mary Anne Mayers (GRO)