Biography:
Susannah Glenister
1843 –1928
Susannah Glenister
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Unmarked grave Susannah Glenister (1843-1928)
Despite a disability Susannah survived relative poverty and hard work to live to the age of 84.
She was born in 1843 in Frithsden, Berkhamsted, to Daniel and Sophia (née Purton) Glenister and baptised 10 December.
Her father was a farm labourer born in Wendover, her mother was from Great Gaddesden. In 1851 they were living on Berkhamsted Common. Susannah had an elder brother, two younger sisters and two younger brothers.
Susannah was born with a severe hearing impairment and, like many people at the time, she was not taught to vocalise, so was labelled “deaf and dumb”.
Already, at the age of seven, she was a straw plaiter. This was a common occupation for women and children in poorer families, supplying plait to the hat factories of Luton and Dunstable, but it paid poorly and had health hazards from the minute splinters of straw that entered lungs as plaiters passed the straws through their lips to moisten them.
They were still on the Common ten years later. Susannah and her mother were plaiters, her father was a ploughman and the two eldest boys still at home were agricultural labourers.
Susannah was never to marry and remained at home with her parents until at least 1881, by which time they had moved to Dudswell. Her father was still a farm labourer and Susannah and her unmarried sister Eliza were plaiters.
Her father had died by 1891 when Susannah, Eliza and their mother had moved to Victoria Road, Berkhamsted.
At the time of the 1901 census she was a lodger at 21, Bridge Street, the home of an elderly widow.
In 1911 she was a lodger in the home of her brother Frederick, a retired farm labourer, and his family at 2, Woodbine Cottages, George Street. She was employed to do plain sewing. She was still there in 1921.
Susannah died in the Union Workhouse in March 1928 aged 84, no doubt because its infirmary was the only recourse for those unable to afford to pay for medical assistance.
View this burial in the cemetery
Unmarked grave Susannah Glenister (1843-1928)
Despite a disability Susannah survived relative poverty and hard work to live to the age of 84.
She was born in 1843 in Frithsden, Berkhamsted, to Daniel and Sophia (née Purton) Glenister and baptised 10 December.
Her father was a farm labourer born in Wendover, her mother was from Great Gaddesden. In 1851 they were living on Berkhamsted Common. Susannah had an elder brother, two younger sisters and two younger brothers.
Susannah was born with a severe hearing impairment and, like many people at the time, she was not taught to vocalise, so was labelled “deaf and dumb”.
Already, at the age of seven, she was a straw plaiter. This was a common occupation for women and children in poorer families, supplying plait to the hat factories of Luton and Dunstable, but it paid poorly and had health hazards from the minute splinters of straw that entered lungs as plaiters passed the straws through their lips to moisten them.
They were still on the Common ten years later. Susannah and her mother were plaiters, her father was a ploughman and the two eldest boys still at home were agricultural labourers.
Susannah was never to marry and remained at home with her parents until at least 1881, by which time they had moved to Dudswell. Her father was still a farm labourer and Susannah and her unmarried sister Eliza were plaiters.
Her father had died by 1891 when Susannah, Eliza and their mother had moved to Victoria Road, Berkhamsted.
At the time of the 1901 census she was a lodger at 21, Bridge Street, the home of an elderly widow.
In 1911 she was a lodger in the home of her brother Frederick, a retired farm labourer, and his family at 2, Woodbine Cottages, George Street. She was employed to do plain sewing. She was still there in 1921.
Susannah died in the Union Workhouse in March 1928 aged 84, no doubt because its infirmary was the only recourse for those unable to afford to pay for medical assistance.
Relatives
No relatives have been linked to Susannah Glenister
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