emily freelove

 

Subject Name :    Emily Freelove née Jelly
                              (b ca 1808 – d 1889)

Researcher :        Mike Brock

 

Emily Freelove was twice widowed when she was an inmate of the Guildford Union Workhouse in 1881, having spent most of her previous 73 years living in the village of Albury.  She had seven children with William Bullen before he passed away, while her second marriage to Richard Freelove helped her stay out of the workhouse.  After Richard’s death, Emily was left with little option but to spend her remaining years in the Workhouse.

Emily was born in Albury, just to the east of Guildford, in about 1808, the daughter of William and Martha Jelly. She was baptised at Albury’s St Peter & St Paul Church on 31st July that year 1. 

Emily married William Bullen in Wonersh on 24th July 1831, when she was about 23 2. By the time of the 1841 Census, Emily and agricultural labourer William had settled in Albury with four children: 9-year-old Mary, Henry 8, Benjamin 5 and Isaac 1 3.  Another son, William, born in 1837, had only lived for six weeks 4. 

Two more children followed – George in 1843 and Emma in 1845, before in June 1846, Emily’s husband William died from ‘gangrene of lungs’, aged 36 5, 6, 7. 

This left Emily with six children aged from 14 down to one year, so finding ways of keeping the family fed and clothed without recourse to the stigma of the workhouse would have been a real problem.  With compulsory education still some years off, Emily’s children would have been forced into work at a young age.

Mary, Emily’s eldest child, died from scarlet fever in September 1847 aged 15 8.

At the time of the 1851 Census, Emily was a ‘pauper’ living in Albury.  Her sons Henry (17), Benjamin (15) and Isaac (11) were agricultural labourers, while George (8) and Emma (5) were scholars 9.  Fortunately for Emily and the family, she had met bachelor Richard Freelove, an agricultural labourer born in nearby Abinger, who was a ‘visitor’ of the family in Albury on this Census 10 is birth ref.  Emily and Richard married in April the following year at the St Peter & St Paul Church 11. 

The next Census, taken in 1861, showed Emily and Richard living in Little London, Albury, with just her two youngest children – George, 17, an agricultural labourer like his stepfather, and Emma, 15 12.  Emily’s three other sons had moved on, but not far – Henry had married and was living in close by Farley Heath, Benjamin was an agricultural labourer lodging elsewhere in Little London, while Isaac, a groom, was in Abinger 13, 14, 15.

The Guildford Union Poor Law Accounts Book for the period 1864-71 (the only years still in existence) showed that Richard’s health was becoming a problem.  Between March 1866 and September 1871, he received poor relief in money, ‘in kind’ (for example bread), and medical orders for ‘illness’, being ‘partly disabled’ and for ‘asthma’ 16.  This assistance would have helped keep him and the family out of the Workhouse.  The 1871 Census confirmed Richard, Emily and George living in Albury Heath 17. 

Over the following years, Richard’s health continued to decline, and in November 1878 he passed away at home in Albury, aged 65, following an 18-year battle with emphysema 18. 

There are no records to show when Emily had to go into the Guildford Union Workhouse, but she was recorded there as an inmate in 1881 19.  Although three of her sons, Henry, Benjamin and George, lived in Albury, and her daughter Emma was in nearby Merrow, all four had young families to feed on small incomes 20-23. It would therefore seem likely that Emily, now in her early 70s, would have gone into the Workhouse shortly after her husband’s death.

Emily may have remained as an inmate of the Workhouse until her death there on 13th July 1889, aged 81, from ‘decay of age’ 24.  Despite her strong links to Albury, and that both of her husbands had been interred there, Emily was buried in Merrow, indicating that her daughter Emma had made the arrangements 25-27. 

February 2025

Spike Lives is a Heritage project that chronicles the lives of inmates, staff and the Board of Guardians of the Guildford Union Workhouse at the time of the 1881 Census.  The Spike Heritage Museum in Guildford offers guided tours which present a unique opportunity to discover what life was like in the Casual/Vagrant ward of a Workhouse. More information can be found here

References

Note: the source is Ancestry.co.uk unless otherwise specified

  1. Emily Jelly 31 Jul 1808 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/1/3
  2. William Bullen & Emma Jelley sic 24 Jul 1831 Marriage Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Wonersh, St John the Baptist; ref WON/2/4
  3. William, Emily, Mary, Henry, Benjamin, Isaac Bullen 1841 England Census for Albury Village, Surrey; class HO107; piece 1045; book 8; page 1
  4. William Bullen 26 Mar 1837 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/3/1-2
    William Bullen 19 Apr 1837 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/4/1-2
  5. George Bullen 11 Jun 1843 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/3/1-2
  6. Emma Bullen 12 May 1845 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/3/1-2
  7. William Bullen 3 Jun 1846 England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 4; page 120 Digital copy of certificate from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  8. Mary Bullen 18 Sep 1847 England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 4; page 126 Digital copy of certificate from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  9. Emily, Henry, Horatio Benjamin, Isaac, George, Emma, Richard Bullen; Richard Freelove 1851 England Census for Albury, Surrey; class HO107; piece 1594; folio 392; page 27
  10. Richard Freelove 17 Jul 1814 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Shere, St James; ref SHER/4/1
  11. Richard Freelove & Emily Bullen 17 Apr 1852 Marriage Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/2/2/3
  12. Richard, Emily Freelove; George, Emma, Bullen 1861 England Census for Little London, Albury, Surrey; class RG9; piece 426; folio 20; page 6
  13. Henry, Elizabeth, Hannah, Absalom, Elizabeth, Fanny, John M Bullen 1861 England Census for Farley Heath, Albury, Surrey; class RG9; piece 426; folio 27; page 19
  14. Horatio B Bullen 1861 England Census for Little London, Albury, Surrey; class RG9; piece 426; folio 30; page 26
  15. Isaac Bullen 1861 England Census for Cocks Farm, Abinger, Surrey; class RG9; piece 439; folio 66; page 4
  16. Richard Freelove Half Year ended Lady Day (25th March) 1868 – Half Year ended Michaelmas (29th September) 1871 Guildford Poor Law Half Yearly Accounts 1864-1871; ref BG6/33/1 Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking SurreyCC.gov.uk
  17. Richard, Emily Freelove; George Bullen 1871 England Census for Albury Heath, Albury, Surrey; class RG10; piece 810; folio 26; page 17
  18. Richard Freelove 8 Nov 1878 England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 2A; page 47 Digital copy of certificate from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  19. Emily Freelove 1881 England Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke Next Guildford, Surrey; class RG11; piece 778; folio 92; page 5
  20. Henry, Hannah, William, Harriet, Elizabeth Bullen 1881 England Census for Farley Green, Albury, Surrey; class RG11; piece 775; folio 25; page 14
  21. Benjamin, Hannah, Jacob, Isaac, Maria, Margaret, Kelsey, Walter Bullen 1881 England Census for Brook, Albury, Surrey; class RG11; piece 775; folio 27; page 17
  22. George, Ellen, George, Ellen, Herbert, Thomas, child not named Bullen 1881 England Census for Middle Farm, Albury, Surrey; class RG11; piece 775; folio 25; page 14
  23. William Boxall & Emma Bullen 28 Apr 1866 Marriage Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/2/2/3
    William, Emma, Edith A, William J Boxall 1881 England Census for Salisbury Cottage, Merrow Street, Merrow, Surrey; class RG11; piece 775; folio 126; page 7
  24. Emily Freelove 13 Jul 1889 England & Wales Civil Registration Death Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 2A; page 43 Digital copy of certificate from Government Register Office GRO.gov.uk
    Emily Freelove 13 Jul 1889 Surrey History Centre, Woking; Guildford Union Workhouse Deaths 1887-1914; ref BG6/38/1 SurreyCC.gov.uk
  25. William Bullen 6 Jun 1846 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/4/1-2
  26. Richard Freelove 13 Nov 1878 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Albury, St Peter & St Paul; ref ALB/4/1-2
  27. Emily Freelove 16 Jul 1889 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Merrow, St John; ref MER/5/1 FindMyPast.co.uk