What happened to Elizabeth POYNER of Huntley (General)

by Mike Pinchin , Bedford, England, Saturday, September 17, 2016, 18:41 (2795 days ago) @ macast

I now have copies of a couple more documents which look to be associated with Elizabeth POYNER:-

The registration of the birth of Charles POYNER occurred in the District of Huntley on March 20th 1839. The date of birth was March 12th 1839 and the place was Westbury. The mother was Elizabeth POYNER and the informant was Thomas HARVEY, Master of the Westbury Union Workhouse.

The death of the Elizabeth POYNER , buried at Gloucester St Catherine, took place on 27th August 1843 and was registered on 30th August 1843 in the District of St Nicholas. Her occupation was a charwoman and her age is given as 28. The cause of death was dropsy and the informant was Deborah WOODWARD (who marked), occupier, 13 Park Street.

The first registration allows me to construct a reasonable scenario. Elizabeth has her first illegitimate child, Eliza, in 1835. Eliza’s father was James PARRY, mason, of Blaisdon, but they do not marry. Both Elizabeth and Eliza remain with Elizabeth’s father, Edward POYNER in Huntley. In October 1838 the banns of marriage between Elizabeth and Charles COLE are published at Huntley. Elizabeth is already pregnant at this time. Charles realises or finds out that the child is not his and calls off the marriage. Elizabeth is disown by her father, Edward, and cannot, for some reason, go to the house of the real father of the child, Richard BARNARD. She does the only other thing open to her which is to go to the workhouse at Westbury (Huntley was in Westbury’s patch) where Charles POYNER is born in March 1839. The Master of the Workhouse registers the birth whilst in Huntley and Charles is baptised at Westbury in early April. Sometime later Elizabeth and Charles return to Taynton to the house of Richard BARNARD where Charles dies in October 1839.

The second registration does not get me much further and I am still not 100% sure this is the Elizabeth POYNER I’m looking for. The age is not quite right but is within possible variation.

There is still no trace of a burial PR for Charles POYNER and no suitable adult burials in the immediate area with which he could have been included. I wonder where he is.