Rectory Lane Cemetery, Berkhamsted

Sophia Sait (x168?) 1877

1798 –19/09/1877

Wife of a yeoman farmer who died with his son in New Zealand

Relatives

Sophia Whately — sister

The Rev. Henry Augustus Dixon (324) — other

• Jane Dickson

Plot X167 SOPHIA SAIT

Sophia Salter was born in the village of Fittleworth, West Sussex in 1798, the daughter of John Salter, a yeoman farmer, and Martha Eugenia née Randall. Baptism records for Fittleworth indicate that the couple had eleven children of which Sophia was the second. Seven of the children survived infancy.

On 3^rd May 1849 in Arundel, Sussex, Sophia married Henry Sait, a yeoman farmer of York’s Hill near Sundridge, Kent. She was then a single woman of about 50 and Henry a widower aged about 43. His first wife Hester had died 9 years earlier and was buried in Sundridge.

Nothing more has been found of Sophia until 1871, when she is recorded as a 72-year-old widow, an annuitant living in the household of her brother-in-law, Richard Haydon in Chevening, Kent. So what had happened to Henry? Cemetery Records for St Barnabas Anglican Church, Stoke, Nelson on South Island, New Zealand record his death on 30^th March 1867, aged 66 and his burial there. The next entry is for John Salter, Sophia’s younger brother, who died a week later, aged 60. It has not been possible to establish the cause of their deaths, nor how long they had been in New Zealand, nor whether Sophia was there too.

 In Sophia’s National Probate Calendar entry, she is described as ‘late of Berkhamsted St. Peter’. It would seem that she moved there some time after 1871, possibly living with her younger sister Jane and her husband, the Revd. Henry Augustus Dixon at Egerton House, which was on the site now occupied by The Rex Cinema.

 Sophia died in Berkhamsted on 19^th September 1877, in her 80^th year. Obituaries record her as “widow of the late Henry Sait of York’s Hill, Kent and second daughter of the late John Salter of Frittleworth (sic) Sussex.”

She was buried on 25^th September 1877, the service conducted by J W Cobb, Rector of St Peter’s.

 Her National Probate Calendar entry of 8^th October 1877 reads “The Will of Sophia Sait late of Berkhamsted St. Peter in the County of Hertford Widow who died 19 September 1877 at Berkhamsted St. Peter was proved at the Principal Registry by Jane Dixon (wife of the Reverend Henry Augustus Dixon, Clerk) the Sister and Charles Bullock Solicitor both of Berkhamsted St. Peter the Executors. Effects under £200.”

 Both Henry and Jane are also buried in this cemetery:

The Revd. Henry Augustus Dixon is buried in Plot 324.

Sophia’s sister, Henry’s wife Jane, is buried with her first husband Thomas Whateley in Plot 256.