She led an interesting, and frankly, sad, life in many ways.
She was born in Axbridge in c. 1835-36 and appears in the 1841 census as living in the village with her family which consisted of Mother (Mary - listed as a schoolmistress), 3 sisters and a brother.
She next appears in history in 1951 when she married my 1st cousin x3, Percival Horatio COOME in Cheltenham Registry Office. Later reports claim that he was her 1st cousin which makes her some sort of relative of mine I think. His family came from Locking (his father was John Valentine Coome baptised on 22 March 1799 in Locking church).
Apparently Percival was not a nice person and caused her to leave him soon after the marriage. For the next 40 years she assumed the guise of a man, Charlie Wilson, and worked as a steward on board a P&O liner and at various jobs in the building trade. She fell on hard times, was sentenced to 4 months hard labour (at the age of c. 64!!) in Wormwood Scrubs for obtaining money by false pretences and died in hospital in Chelsea in 1911.
I am working on a comprehensive story of her life as I can discover it which I will be happy to share with the Society at some point. The purpose of this query is to ask if anyone has any information, particularly about her early life, which could help to fix the relationship between her family and that of Percival (and therefore me).
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