Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Harriet Domoney

21/02/1835 –1926

Ran farm following death of her husband before selling up and opening a boarding house

• Melanie Hilton

Unmarked grave Harriet Domoney (née Savage) (1835-1926)

Harriet was born 21 February 1835 in West Drayton in Middlesex and was baptised 22 March.

Her parents were Thomas Savage, a self-employed millwright from Buckinghamshire, and Martha (née Hammond). She was the fifth of their seven children, the third of five girls.

She married John Domoney 1859 in Eton. He was a farmer in Iver, Buckinghmashire managing Sprigg Farm of 30 acres and employing 14 men and 5 boys.

Their daughter Harriet was born in 1862, son Joseph in 1863, Sarah Ann in 1868 and finally Rosetta in 1874.

John died 20 May 1880 and by April the next year Harriet was faming on her own behalf  at Old Slad Farm, Thorney, Eton. She managed 15 acres and employed 4 men, 2 boys and one woman. All her children were at home.

Harriet eventually gave up farming and on December 18 1888 the Buckinghamshire Advertiser carried a notice:

“Slade Farm, Langley, near Slough, Bucks. All persons having any claim or demand against Mrs Harriet Domoney of the above farm, are requested to send full particulars to me, the undersigned; and all persons indebted to Mrs H. Domoney are hereby requested to pay the same to me at once. R.W. Wild, Auctioneer and Estate Agent.”

By 1891 Harriet had moved back to West Drayton where she set up as a boarding house keeper near the station. That year she had one lodger. Her aunt and daughter Rosetta were also living with her.

Her daughter Sarah Ann married George Beagley, a timber auctioneer and in 1901 Harriet, by then 65, was living with them in Fenny Stratford, Bucks.

Ten years later she was living with daughter Harriet, who did not marry, and was living at 1, Alexander Road, The Greenway, West Hillingdon. A female teacher was a boarder.

In 1921 Harriet, aged 86, had returned to live with the Beagleys, now living in Westerham, Kent.

At some point after that Harriet moved to Berkhamsted where she died aged 92 in September 1926. She was buried 18 September.