Spanish connection in Newent (General)

by ChrisB, Friday, March 30, 2007, 04:31 (6450 days ago)

Does anyone know of a Spanish family living in Newent and/or the Forest of Dean around 1870-1900? My great-grandmother was born about 1870 or 1871 and was known as Isabella (Lizzie) Bowery but Bowery or Bowry wasn't her father's name. When she got married in 1893 to Edwin Charles Merrett she gave her birth place as Newent and her father's name as William Bowry but it is now known that her father was Spanish. I found a birth record for a Julia Elizabeth Bowry born 13/11/1871 in Newent, mother Rose Bowry - no father so probably illegitimate and wonder if this is her.

On the census records for 1901, Isabella is down as Elizabeth (is Isabella Spanish for Elizabeth?). One of her daughters remembers going to the Forest of Dean as a small child to stay with a "foreign" woman that she had to call Aunt but she objected because she was Spanish! It was only many years later that her sister told her that the lady was, indeed, her aunt.

Any information on a Spanish connection would be gratefully received.