Having listened to me go on about the importance of newspapers as a source for family history my friend issued me with a challenge.

“Find out as much as you can, about a family, from a newspaper article”.  Challenge accepted!

I decided to look for something in Surrey and, using the British Newspaper Archives, typed the words “Chertsey Workhouse” into the search bar…

What I uncovered was a story of destitution, neglect, poverty, and near death. A story that took me across the Atlantic, journeying from rural Horsell in Surrey to New Brunswick in Canada.

Our story begins

The headline in The Pall Mall Gazette of Friday 2^nd September 1887 jumped off the page, making me sit up and take notice, “The Loathly Nightmare of Chertsey Workhouse”.

 It was the 26^th August 1887, when Mary Bushell arrived at the Chertsey Union Workhouse with 5 children. The family had been found outside their home in Barley Mow Lane, Horsell, Surrey by a policeman who was there to evict them from the property.  Seeing their pitiful state, he and the Overseer of the Poor, a Mr Spooner, had taken them to the workhouse.

They were met by the Matron of the workhouse, who later described them as ‘ragged and half-naked, swarming with every kind of vermin, filthy beyond all experience and nothing but bones.’

She took them to the receiving ward where they were given milk and beef tea. Only one boy was strong enough to speak. He told the Doctor that they had survived the last 3 weeks living on nothing but potatoes. He said that he was 10 years old and his sisters were 13, 8, 5, and 3.

Staff at the workhouse attempted to clean the family. The children’s hair was so matted that it had to been shaved off. The eldest girl, Eliza, had fared the worst; her eyes had been so badly infected that she was almost blind and when her hair was cut, maggot filled holes were found in her head, “like the carcass of a dead animal.”  The union staff tended to the family until their wounds were clean.   The Doctor described Mary Bushell as a “demented living skeleton” and said that if the family had been found just twelve hours later then Eliza would have been dead.

How had they come to be in this sorry situation, I wondered?

Upon investigation I found other newspapers revealed more of the story. The West Surrey Times of Saturday 10^th September 1887, reported that three days earlier at a meeting of the House Committee of the Chertsey Board of Guardians, Mr Norfolk, the Relieving Officer, told the committee that the family had moved to Knaphill from Woking earlier that year, having previously lived in Woking for 8 years. The house at Knaphill was in a remote location with only a handful of properties close by. Neighbours had told him that the wife and children were scarcely seen, so no-one knew they were in such a state of destitution. Mr Norfolk had discovered that while the family was living in Woking, they had received help from private families but this help had been lost when they had moved to Horsell. He believed the loss of charity had contributed to the family’s situation and starvation.

The Reverend W. H. Thurle, Minister of the church at Horsell, told the committee he had been appalled that something so terrible had occurred just 3 miles from his house. He said that both he, and the School Board, had been to the house but had been unable to gain entry. He had visited most recently around 5 weeks previously, but again no-one had answered the door and because of the state of the house, he had made the assumption that the family had left the property.

It was reported that Mary’s husband, George Bushell, had had “jobbing” work rather than a regular job. George Bushell was known to have been brutally violent to his wife, and children, when they lived in Woking and that it was highly likely that the violence had continued in the new house.

From here, I pick up their story in The Surrey Advertiser, which reported that George Bushell was arrested. He was subsequently charged with ‘neglecting to ‘maintain’ his wife and 5 children and making them chargeable to the common fund of the Chertsey Union’. The report went onto say that George Bushell was an able-bodied man who had never applied for relief. Witnesses said that Bushell had been working, and should have provided for his family. The bench characterised the defendant’s actions as “disgraceful” and Bushell was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with hard labour.

Thankfully, there was a glimmer of good news to come… The Petty Sessions, at which George Bushell had been charged, heard from Dr Milsome, the workhouse medic, that the family were now getting on very well. Only Eliza was still unwell, but even she was able to walk some steps. He also said that Mary was not nearly so much of an imbecile as he had believed her to be when she had first been admitted.

So, let’s pause and review what we now know

The tale of the Bushell family was reported in a number of newspapers. Each of the stories varied slightly, giving me more information, to piece together and build a picture of the family and their story.

• George Bushell was married to Mary and they had at least 5 children
• The eldest of the five children was Eliza who was 13; there were three other girls of 8, 5, and 3, and a boy of 10
• In August 1887 they were living in Horsell
• Before April 1887 they had lived in Woking for 8 years
• They were taken to the Chertsey Union Workhouse on 26 August 1887
• George Bushell was a labourer
• George Bushell was sentenced to 1 month’s hard labour in September 1887

But who was the Bushell family and how had they come to such a desperate situation?

Using what I already knew and working back in time, the first record I looked at was the 3^rd  April 1881 census for the Woking area. This showed the Bushell family lived in Hermitage Road, Woking, Surrey.  The census showed that:

• George Bushell was a General Labourer; he and his wife Mary were both 36.
• Nine children were recorded on the census
• There was a daughter called Eliza aged 8 (who in August 1887 would have been around 13).
• There was a son John who was 3 in 1881 (aged 10 in 1887)
• There was one more daughter Mary Ann who is 2 years old (9 years old in 1887)
• And finally, a son James who was 5 months old (who would have been 6 in 1887)

Going further back to the 1871 census revealed that George and Mary were a married couple living in Bagshot in Surrey with their 3 sons, George, Henry and William.

Using the age of their eldest son, George, as a rough guide, I began the search to find the fateful day when George and Mary had married. They had married in Windlesham, Surrey on the 25^th October 1861.  George was a Labourer from Windlesham and Mary, Crane as she was then, was a Servant. Who could have foreseen the sad tale that would follow their union?

So, who exactly ended up in the Workhouse?

We know from the shocking account of Mary’s arrival at Chertsey Workhouse that she had 5 children with her. So, who were they? And what happened to her other children? This is, sadly, to be a mostly unhappy story, as was often the case in these times.

Having discovered Mary’s maiden name was Crane, I searched the birth registration index on the General Register Office (GRO) website. From here I could check all the children on the 1871 and 1881 census records, as well as those born after the 1881 census was taken.

The 10-year-old boy who’d said the family had eaten nothing but potatoes for 3 weeks was John; Eliza was the very poorly 13-year-old girl and the 8-year-old girl was Mary Ann. Of the five children who arrived at the workhouse two more were born after the 1881 census was taken; these were 5-year-old Elizabeth, born in 1882, and little 3-year-old Rose. Sadly, baby James who was 5 months old on the 1881 census died aged just 9 months and was buried on 20^th August 1881 in the church of St. John’s Lye, Woking.

So what happened to Mary and her itinerant husband George?

To uncover the next chapter, I visited the Surrey History Centre, to consult their Poor Law records.

First was the Guildford Union Minute Book of the 8^th October 1887.  An entry stated that the Clerk of the Chertsey Union had enquired whether the Board of the Guildford Union would accept ‘these paupers’ without an Order of Removal, as they belonged to the parish of Woking; the request was accepted.  Under the rules of the Poor Law 1834, this meant the family ‘belonged’ to the Parish of Woking, and the Guildford Union Workhouse was responsible for their costs.

Sadly, I learned that Mary Bushell did not recover from her ghastly experience. She died on the 6^th December 1887 at the Union Workhouse in Guildford, just 3½ months after she arrived at Chertsey Workhouse; she was just 43 years old. The cause of her death was recorded as Heart Disease and Exhaustion.  She was buried on the 9^th December 1887, at the church of St John the Baptist in Woking.

And what of her husband George, the seeming villain of the story? An entry in the Minute Book of the Guildford Union of the 2^nd June 1888 recorded that George Bushell had been admitted to the Workhouse, sometime earlier that year, joining his family. However, on the 28^th May, he discharged himself and four of his children. Later that same day he deserted them yet again, and the children were re-admitted to the workhouse. A warrant was issued for his arrest; I could find no records that he was apprehended and no further trace of him thereafter.

Next time. . . .

Next time we’ll find out what happened to Mary and George’s children.  Who is this handsome soldier? Did they all grow up to be upright citizens or did they follow in their father’s footsteps?  And how my research took me from Horsell to New Brunswick, Canada?