My grandmother, Ada Florence Taylor, was the daughter of Sarah Elizabeth Thompson and James Taylor who married in 1882 and they had eight children, including my grandmother, Ada Florence Taylor, born in Barrington, Cambridgeshire, in May 1891, and her twin brother Reginald John (aka Jack).
Sarah Thompson’s parents were Ann Hadfield and William Thompson. They had four children, Benjamin (1850), Mary (1854), Sarah Elizabeth (my great-grandmother) in 1857 and John Hadfield Thompson in 1859. Benjamin married Alice Allen in 1875 and by 1881 they were running the grocer’s shop in Barlborough, Derbyshire. Mary died in 1864. Sarah Elizabeth found her way south to London and in the 1881 Census is cook at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park, the home of HRH Helena Schleswig-Holstein. John Hadfield Thompson married Kate Hounam in 1886 in Lancashire. John died in 1890 leaving his widow with their two sons, Benjamin and John Hadfield Thompson.
James Taylor was born 6 Feb 1854 in Ramsbury, Wiltshire. He worked as a gardener and lived in many places before settling in Enfield, Middlesex, where he worked as the gardener for Chase Farm Schools, Enfield. His parents were James Taylor (born 1817) and Mary Bushell (born 1814) both of Ramsbury. James Taylor’s father was William Taylor (born 1785 in Islington) who was convicted of participating in the Swing Riots in 1830 and sentenced to death. His sentence was commuted to transportation to Tasmania for seven years and he left Portsmouth on 14 April 1831 leaving behind his wife, Elizabeth and their eight children. William received a full pardon in 1836 but it is doubtful he returned to England. Elizabeth was born in Ramsbury in 1782 to parents William Hunter and Eleanor Day.