Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Ann Gomm

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Plot 266 Ann Gomm (1796-1868)

Ann Gomm (nee Halsey) was born the second daughter of William and Charlotte Halsey, both of whom were from Berkhamsted. They had seven children baptised at St Peter’s Church:-

John baptised 1st March 1789

Mary baptised on 25th July 1790

William born on the 14th June 1792 and baptised on 15th July 1792

Elizabeth Ann baptised on 17th July 1796

Sarah baptised on 1st July 1798 and buried on 7th June 1816

James baptised on 21st March 1803

Henry baptised on 31st December 1805 and buried on 31st July 1818.

It is not known what caused the death of two of Ann’s siblings to die as teenagers, but her mother Charlotte was buried at St Peter’s on 22nd July 1825, at the respectable age of 63.

When William and Charlotte were raising their family in Berkhamsted, the area was booming. In 1801, the population of St Peter's parish was 1,690. By 1831, this had risen to 2,369 (484 houses). An 1835 description of the town found that "the houses are mostly of brick, and irregularly built, but are interspersed with a fair proportion of handsome residences". As such, this was a perfect time to be a bricklayer and William seems to have taken full advantage of this local prosperity, owning property and doing business with local gentry.

There exists a document dated 21st July 1818, which is a release by William Halsey, bricklayer of Berkhamsted and John Duncombe, gentleman of Northchurch to Francis Barlow, gentleman of North Audley Street, Grosvenor Square, London. The release was for a messuage (a messuage is a dwelling house with outbuildings and gardens assigned to its use) occupied by Mrs Sarah Barlow, in High Street, Berkhamsted. On 17th October 1833 a receipt was drawn up for payment of a mortgage on another property in Berkhamsted.

In 1841 Ann’s elderly father, William was living at Ashridge Lodge, and listed as being Independent. This meant that he was living on an income that did not require him to work. With him was one Hannah Halsey aged 40, who had not been born in Hertfordshire. A search of the local parish registers reveals that at the age of 70 William Halsey married one Hannah Hobbes at Great Gaddesden church on 7th December 1826, a mere 17 months after the death of his first wife Charlotte. At the time Hannah was only 27 years old.

It is worth noting that William was buried with neither his first wife, Charlotte, nor his second wife Hannah, who cared for him in his old age, but instead he was buried with three adult grandchildren, one of whom was his granddaughter, Ann Gomm.

(Elizabeth) Ann Halsey married Joseph Gomm, a carpenter of Chesham Bois, at Chesham Bois on 17th July 1817. In spite of the fact that Joseph was from Chesham, the family immediately settled in Berkhamsted and had all but one of their children baptised at St Peter’s as follows:

1)      Sarah Ann Halsey Gomm born 1817 in Berkhamsted, died a spinster on 26^th January 1873.

2)      Ann baptised 1st January 1822. As seen from her grandfather’s tombstone, Ann died on 29th September 1843. She was buried on 5th October 1843. She would have been amongst the first burials in Rectory Lane Cemetery, which was only established the previous year.

3)      Emma Elizabeth baptised 12th October 1823 and died 1825

4)      Harry born 31^st August and baptised 30th October 1825 and buried 16th September 1827.

5)      William born 1^st October and baptised 25th December 1827.He married Clarissa Smith in 1851 and became a banking clerk living in Hackney. They had two sons, Walter and Lewis. He died in 1889.

6)      Emily born 21^st August 1829 and baptised 8th November 1829.

7)      Fanny born 10^th August 1831 and baptised 6th November 1831.

8)      Lucy baptised 12 March 1834 and buried on 19th December 1836.

9)      Henry Jesse born 6th December 1836 and baptised 29th February 1836. He married Sophia Attride in 1862, had two children and became a licenced victualler and stone carver, ending his days in Frimley, Surrey in 1911.

10)   Ellen born 16^th January and baptised 10th March 1839. In 1866 Ellen married Walter G Smith, the brother of her sister-in-law, Clarissa.

Joseph was a carpenter at the time of his marriage, an occupation he gave at the time his first three children were baptised. Then in 1825 Joseph gave his occupation as that of “builder”. The family lived in the High Street and the trade directories of the time show both Ann’s brother William Halsey, junior and her husband, Joseph Gomm, carpenter, trading in Berkhamsted’s High Street.

In 1861 Ann and Joseph had two grandchildren living with them, Fanny and William Rogers, from Knightsbridge.  Ann’s daughter Fanny, had married Alfred Joseph Rogers, a widower from Knightsbridge on 27th May 1850, when she was just 18. Alfred appears to have been a very successful man. In 1836 he was received into The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, and he had his own practice in London. The 1861 census has Fanny living in Knightsbridge, with her husband, a step-daughter, her spinster sister Sarah and a servant.

Joseph died on 27^th February 1862 and was buried at Rectory Lane on the 3^rd March 1862. Ann lived to see at least nine grand-children before she died in Berkhamsted on 16^th January 1868. She was buried at Rectory Lane with her husband and next to her father, William Halsey.