Biography:
Jennie (Mary Jane) Carpenter
1871 –01/03/1929
Jennie (Mary Jane) Carpenter
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Plot 971 Mary Jane (Jennie) (née Maydom) Carpenter (1871-1929)
Mary Jane Carpenter’s life has proved so difficult to research that this account begins with her death.
Mysteriously, Mary Jane Carpenter died in Vancouver on March 1 1929 aged 57 and was buried at Mountain View, the city’s only cemetery. She is commemorated on this memorial in Rectory Lane Cemetery. Her Canadian death records states that she had been born 18 April 1871 and her parents’ names were given as John Maydom and Ann Grover. Her husband is named as John Carpenter. As confirmation that this is the same woman, the Rectory Lane burial records note that “Jennie Carpenter”, commemorated in this plot, had died in Vancouver.
The place and year of birth of Mary Jane Carpenter, the wife of Henry Carpenter, are shown on various censuses as Berkhamsted, 1871 but there is, no trace of a John Maydom as named on the Canadian record.
However, a James Maydom married Ann Grover in the Amersham district in 1863 and on April 2 1871 James Maydom, a sawyer from Chesham, his wife Ann and their five children, were in Berkhamsted Union workhouse in the High Street.
On 14 May 1871 Mary Jane Maydom, daughter and sixth child of James and Ann (née Grover), was baptised in St Peter’s. Despite the difference in her father’s name, this would appear to confirm that Mary Jane Carpenter dying in Vancouver is the Mary Jane Maydom born in Berkhamsted.
Her father died in 1873 aged forty one and in 1880 her mother married widower Luke Redding, a sawyer, as her first husband had been. The 1881 census shows them living in Raven’s Lane with Luke’s two daughters and his son by his first marriage and the Maydom children – James, William, (Mary) Jane and Rose.
By 1891 the family were living at Castle Wharf and Luke was employed as a general labourer. Still at home were (Mary) Jane (calling herself Redding) and her step-brother Charles.
Mary Jane Maydom married Henry Carpenter 25 April 1896 in Berkhamsted. Henry was a gardener, born in Boxmoor, but working at Rickling Green, near Saffron Walden. Their children Minnie (1897) and Ernest (1899) were both born there.
In March 1901 the family were living at Brooklands Lodge, Birchanger, Essex, close to Bishop’s Stortford where Henry was employed as a “gardener (domestic)”.
By the time of the 1911 census the family had moved to 41, High Street, Berkhamsted where Henry was working as a self-employed jobbing gardener. It was an eight-roomed house which may have been acquired with the intention of taking in boarders. Certainly one, a retired butler, was in residence in April 1911.
The family was soon hit by tragedy. Minnie died in 1913 aged only 16 and Ernest died in 1917. They are both buried here.
Mary Jane does not appear in the 1921 census and the date or reason for her travelling to Canada have not been established.
Henry survived her until 1950 and is buried here with Minnie.
View this burial in the cemetery
Plot 971 Mary Jane (Jennie) (née Maydom) Carpenter (1871-1929)
Mary Jane Carpenter’s life has proved so difficult to research that this account begins with her death.
Mysteriously, Mary Jane Carpenter died in Vancouver on March 1 1929 aged 57 and was buried at Mountain View, the city’s only cemetery. She is commemorated on this memorial in Rectory Lane Cemetery. Her Canadian death records states that she had been born 18 April 1871 and her parents’ names were given as John Maydom and Ann Grover. Her husband is named as John Carpenter. As confirmation that this is the same woman, the Rectory Lane burial records note that “Jennie Carpenter”, commemorated in this plot, had died in Vancouver.
The place and year of birth of Mary Jane Carpenter, the wife of Henry Carpenter, are shown on various censuses as Berkhamsted, 1871 but there is, no trace of a John Maydom as named on the Canadian record.
However, a James Maydom married Ann Grover in the Amersham district in 1863 and on April 2 1871 James Maydom, a sawyer from Chesham, his wife Ann and their five children, were in Berkhamsted Union workhouse in the High Street.
On 14 May 1871 Mary Jane Maydom, daughter and sixth child of James and Ann (née Grover), was baptised in St Peter’s. Despite the difference in her father’s name, this would appear to confirm that Mary Jane Carpenter dying in Vancouver is the Mary Jane Maydom born in Berkhamsted.
Her father died in 1873 aged forty one and in 1880 her mother married widower Luke Redding, a sawyer, as her first husband had been. The 1881 census shows them living in Raven’s Lane with Luke’s two daughters and his son by his first marriage and the Maydom children – James, William, (Mary) Jane and Rose.
By 1891 the family were living at Castle Wharf and Luke was employed as a general labourer. Still at home were (Mary) Jane (calling herself Redding) and her step-brother Charles.
Mary Jane Maydom married Henry Carpenter 25 April 1896 in Berkhamsted. Henry was a gardener, born in Boxmoor, but working at Rickling Green, near Saffron Walden. Their children Minnie (1897) and Ernest (1899) were both born there.
In March 1901 the family were living at Brooklands Lodge, Birchanger, Essex, close to Bishop’s Stortford where Henry was employed as a “gardener (domestic)”.
By the time of the 1911 census the family had moved to 41, High Street, Berkhamsted where Henry was working as a self-employed jobbing gardener. It was an eight-roomed house which may have been acquired with the intention of taking in boarders. Certainly one, a retired butler, was in residence in April 1911.
The family was soon hit by tragedy. Minnie died in 1913 aged only 16 and Ernest died in 1917. They are both buried here.
Mary Jane does not appear in the 1921 census and the date or reason for her travelling to Canada have not been established.
Henry survived her until 1950 and is buried here with Minnie.
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