emma freelove

Subject :            Emma Freelove (b ca 1835 – d 1918)

Researcher :      Julia Browne

Shere girl helped through childhood by widowed grandfather before long adult life in institutions

Emma Freelove needed care throughout her life, mostly provided in her early years by her grandfather until they were both admitted to the Guildford Union Workhouse.  In her late fifties, after more than 30 years as an inmate, Emma was moved to the Brookwood Asylum where she passed away exactly 25 years later.

Emma was baptised at St James’ Church, Shere, on 1st March 1835, the first of seven children for labourer John and Sarah Freelove née Allen 2. 

At the time of the 1841 Census, Emma had two siblings, with her mother Sarah shortly to give birth to another daughter.  However, 6-year-old Emma was not with her parents, but instead was living with her widowed grandfather John Freelove and three of his children – Emma’s aunt Eliza and uncles James and William – in Pislake (now Peaslake), Shere 3.  Emma’s parents and siblings were living close by in the village 4. 

Ten years on, the situation remained much the same, with Emma, 16, living in Pislake with her grandfather John, aunt Eliza, and uncles James and William 5. Emma’s parents and six younger siblings were next-door neighbours 6.  Her father, grandfather, uncles and oldest brother were all agricultural labourers.

The reason for this somewhat unusual living arrangement was hinted at in the 1861 Census in which 26-year-old Emma, now an inmate of the Guildford Union Workhouse, was noted, in the shocking language of the time, as an ‘idiot’ 7.  It would seem that Emma’s parents, with a rapidly growing family soon after her birth, had found it difficult to cope, so Emma’s grandfather had taken on the responsibility of caring for her.  Like Emma, 73-year-old grandfather John too was an inmate of the Guildford Workhouse in 1861, passing away there in February 1864, aged 76 8.  

After her grandfather’s death, Emma remained a permanent inmate of the Workhouse until just before the 1871 Census was taken on 2nd April, when she was listed in Pislake with her uncle James Freelove, his wife and their two young children 9.   As a child Emma had lived with uncle James in her grandfather’s household so would have known her uncle well. However, Emma was only in Pislake for a few days that April before returning to the Workhouse.  What the circumstances were regarding her short stay with James returning to the Workhouse are not known. 

There are no further records available after September 1871 nor admission details for the Guildford Union Workhouse to indicate if Emma returned to live for a time with her uncle James, but it seems unlikely.  The 1881 Census recorded her as an inmate of the Workhouse, making no reference to her mental condition 10.  Her occupation was given as ‘domestic servant’, a term often used for female inmates who were given jobs in the Workhouse to ‘pay’ for their keep.

Emma remained there until 10th April 1893, when she was transferred to the Brookwood Asylum, Woking 11.  The reason for Emma’s admission to the Asylum was that she ‘gets up and wanders about at night, that she will light the fire… that he (Master of the Workhouse) does not consider her safe to be in the Workhouse for fear of setting fire to the place’.

Brookwood’s initial report said that 57-year-old Emma had no known relatives, and that she was ‘a congenital imbecile, restless, troublesome and childish, incapable of giving a rational or reliable account of herself, but capable of some useful employment’.  A week after her admission, she seemed to have settled in and was indeed ‘usefully employed in household duties, clean in her habits and in her person’.  

Emma’s general health on admission was ‘fair’, but by March 1984, she had become ‘much demented… little or no memory, generally vacant and obstinate… in weakly health and thin condition’.

Despite this bleak outlook, Emma continued to live in Brookwood, with little change in her condition for many years until on 7th April 1918 she was reported to be ‘slowly sinking’.  At 7.30pm three days later, exactly 25 years after being admitted to Brookwood, Emma passed away, aged 83.

 

October 2020, updated April 2025
Editor: Mike Brock

Footnote :  Emma’s nephew Albert Freelove (1869-1955), the child of her youngest sister, Eliza, was also in the Guildford Union Workhouse in the 1881 census.   

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 stated.  Spellings are as per original documentation.

  1. Emma Frelove 1 Mar 1835 Baptism Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Shere, St James; Reference SHER/4/2
  2. William Frelove 17 Jul 1836 Baptism
    Ann Frelove 21 Oct 1838 Baptism
    Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Shere, St James; Reference SHER/4/2
    Hannah Freelove 1841 Jul-Aug-Sep Birth England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 4; page 148; mother Allen
    James Freelove 1843 Oct-Nov-Dec Birth England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 4; page 155; mother Ellen
    Ellen Freelove 1847 Apr-May-Jun Birth England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 4; page 163; mother Allen
    Eliza Freelove 1850 Jan-Feb-Mar Birth England & Wales Civil Registration Birth Index; Guildford, Surrey; vol 4; page 192; mother Allen
  3. Eliza, James, John, William, Emma Freelove 1841 England Census for Pislake, Shere, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1045; Book 11; Enumeration District 7; Folio 12; Page 17
  4. John, Sarah, William, Ann Freelove 1841 England Census for Pislake, Shere, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1045; Book 11; Enumeration District 7; Folio 12; Page 18
  5. John, Eliza, James, William, Emma, Henry (grandson of John) Freelove 1851 England Census for Pislake, Shere, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1594; Folio 328; Page 20
  6. John, Sarah, William, Ann, Hannah, James, Ellen, Eliza Freelove 1851 England Census for Pislake, Shere, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1594; Folio 328; Page 19
  7. John, Emma Freelove 1861 England Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke next Guildford, Surrey; Class RG9; Piece 427; Folio 89
  8. John Freelove 19 Feb 1864 Burial Surrey History Centre, Woking; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Shere, St James; Reference SHER/5/2 abode Guildford Union
  9. James, Harriet, Emma, Sarah, Freelove; Emma Freelove 1871 England Census for Pislake, Shere, Surrey; Class RG10; Piece 810; Folio 67; page 28
  10. Emma Freelove 1881 England Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke next Guildford, Surrey; Class RG11; Piece 778; Folio 93; page 7
  11. Emma Freelove 10 April 1893 admission Brookwood Hospital Woking; Female Case Books 1867-1900; SHC ref 3043/5/9/2/23 pages 100 & 98, and 3043/5/9/3/5 page 130. Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking
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