Biography:
Charlotte Mersham
1857 –1914
Charlotte Mersham
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Unmarked grave Charlotte Esther Mersham (1857-1914)
Charlotte was born in 1857 in Berkhamsted to James Mersham, a coal labourer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Samms).
The 1861 census records the family in The Pightle (now Highfield Road) and the family took in lodgers.
In April 1878 Charlotte was one of the children mentioned as performing a song at the Wesleyan Chapel Sunday School “social tea”.
Charlotte, who never married, entered domestic service, and in 1891 was a parlour maid in the home of Dr and Mrs Maundsley in Bushey.
The 1901 census shows her as cook in the household of furniture dealer Edward Samms in Luton. He was probably a relative of her mother.
However, ten years later she was a patient in Middlesex County Asylum, Napsbury, and, in the brutal language of the time, was described as “Lunatic” ie she had a mental illness as opposed to a learning disability. Napsbury was a vast hospital, begun in 1901, and housing over 1,500 patients.
Charlotte died in April 1914 at Napsbury, aged 56.
View this burial in the cemetery
Unmarked grave Charlotte Esther Mersham (1857-1914)
Charlotte was born in 1857 in Berkhamsted to James Mersham, a coal labourer, and his wife Elizabeth (née Samms).
The 1861 census records the family in The Pightle (now Highfield Road) and the family took in lodgers.
In April 1878 Charlotte was one of the children mentioned as performing a song at the Wesleyan Chapel Sunday School “social tea”.
Charlotte, who never married, entered domestic service, and in 1891 was a parlour maid in the home of Dr and Mrs Maundsley in Bushey.
The 1901 census shows her as cook in the household of furniture dealer Edward Samms in Luton. He was probably a relative of her mother.
However, ten years later she was a patient in Middlesex County Asylum, Napsbury, and, in the brutal language of the time, was described as “Lunatic” ie she had a mental illness as opposed to a learning disability. Napsbury was a vast hospital, begun in 1901, and housing over 1,500 patients.
Charlotte died in April 1914 at Napsbury, aged 56.
Relatives
No relatives have been linked to Charlotte Mersham
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