Thanks for your reply. No message yet but I shall read it with interest. Elizabeth POYNER was my gggrandmother, hence the interest in what became of her. Perhaps the check of the Huntley parish registers will reveal something.

atb Mike

Elizabeth is proving to be a real puzzle..... even now. but I'll keep on searching... you never know..............

Elizabeth POYNER is my OH's 3x great grandmother

re: the Informant Deborah WOODWARD - 13 Park Street, Gloucester

Elizabeth was living at St Catherine's

1841 Census : St Catherine Knap

WOODWARD

George - 45-49 all born Gloucestershire
Dorotha - 45-49
William HENSLEY - 35-39
Jane HENSLEY - 30-34
William HENSLEY - 7
Mary Jane HENSLEY - 4 (Family Search, christened 27 November 1836, Saint Mary Major, Exter, Devon)

Looking at the map - the last house appears to be 17B - just a couple of doors away is Park Street Mission Rooms (In 1867 the Park Street Mission was established in the former Quaker Meeting House).

??
On the 1851 Census

Deborah WOODWARD (with husband George) aged 60 occupation given as Almswoman.

Gloucestershire Burial Index CD

Deborah WOODWARD aged 61: 23 October 1851

residence: St Mary Magdalene Hospital

buried

Gloucester St Mary Magdalene

---

FoD records

Marriage at St Mary de Crypt - 19 March 1813

George WOODWARD/Deborah NIBLETT

Gloucestershire Archives

Level Piece
Alt Ref No G/NE/60/1 (part)
Title Entry in Newent workhouse register of admissions and discharges for admission of Richard Barnard, aged 33, admitted on 28 November 1838
Date 1838
Description Religious persuasion: Church of England
Chargeable to: Taynton
Admitted on the authority of: Robt Bruton

This is the first of many admissions and discharges at the Newent Union Workhouse for Richard BARNARD of Taynton. Most imply a birth date of 1805/6 although there are a couple of anomalous ones which imply a birth date of 1786 – I can find no record of the birth of a Richard Barnard at this time. The first group are 1838 to 1844 where he is variously described as a woodman or a vagrant. On his discharge 31/10/1842 it is recorded that he was sent to Littledean Prison. There is a second group in 1857 where he is described as destitute. The third group is 1870 to 1877 where he is described as a labourer. The last discharge is 19/09/1877 when he died. He is usually described as single and able-bodied. Some of the earlier admission authorities are by William BRUTON who was the local Registar and who registered the death of Charles POYNER in November 1839.

FODFHT

Record_ID: 44150
Entry_Number: 658
Year: 1877
Month: Sep
Day: 24
Surname: BARNARD
Forenames: Richard
Residence: Newent Union
Age_at_death: 71 years
Officiating_Minister: Alfred D Bagshawe Rector
Event: Burial
Cause_of_death:
Memoranda:
Notes:
Register_Reference: P326 IN 1/9
Page_No: 83
Parish_Chapel: Taynton

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.

it has taken me a while to get back to this after my holiday.... and a while to get my head around it.

if baby Charles is not the son of Charles Cole why would Elizabeth call him Charles? unless she was hoping that Charles Cole changed his mind about marrying her of course.

do we have two Richard Barnards both born around 1806? I have found a Richard who married Maria Spencer 1 Aug 1827 in Taynton.... but no other info about them.... just the 1851 census where he is living with his brother-in-law and sister Pheobe in Barton St Michael

and I've found a Richard Barnard also born around 1806 who always seems to be in prison for begging and vagrancy (sad) .................. are they the same person?