Ann Sargeant 1837 1894 William Stribbling

COMPILED BY JIM SARGANT (5)
Benjamin (1), William (2), Jesse (3), William Henry (4)

The birth of Ann, the eldest daughter of Benjamin (1810-1870) and Amelia {SERJANT} (Vigar), coincided with the beginning of the Victorian era in Britain. She was born probably in early February 1837, her christening being registered at Nutfield on February 12 1837. At that time, Benjamin and Amelia, with their eldest child, toddler Philip were probably living at Alderstead Heath, Merstham, in Surrey. Certainly the family were at Alderstead Heath when Ann was four years old at the 1841 census. This was on the old turnpike road between Merstham and Chaldon, close to Nutfield.

Being the eldest girl, Ann would have been expected to help with her younger siblings as she grew older and events in her later life suggest that she was a very caring young lady.

Ann was christened at the Church of
St Peter & St Paul, Nutfield

By 1851, the family address was Pigeon House, Chipstead, but the 14-year old Ann was working as a live-in nurse to the large family of a well-to-do farmer, John Symonds in nearby Reigate.

Our next record of Ann is her marriage in 1860 to William {STRIBBLING}. This was no normal marriage, William being 12 years older than Ann and a widower with two children. William (born {Stripling}) had originated in Hawkedon, Suffolk, and his first wife had been another Merstham resident – Ann Gubby, who had died in December 1857. William and his first wife had lived and raised their children in the Joliffe Row home of Ann Gubby Senior (his mother-in-law) in Merstham, he being shown as a lodger in the 1851 census. The new family was to spend their entire married life in Joliffe Row, Merstham, although they seemed to move from cottage to cottage according to the various censuses.

Marriage to William must have been a complete change for Ann, moving into her husband’s existing home with a ready-made family - two step-children (William, aged 10, and Harriet, aged 6) and William’s first mother-in-law (Ann Gubby’s mother – also Ann). It is interesting to speculate how the 23-year old bride got on with the mother of her husband’s previous wife, 45 years older than her and head of the household. She must have loved children, immediately taking to her ‘instant family’.

By the end of 1861 or the early days of 1862, Ann started her own family, Marianne’s christening being recorded on January 5 1862. Further children followed at regular intervals – George, christened March 19 1865 : Andrew, christened October 10 1867 : Phoebe, christened October 30 1870 : Alice Maria, christened June 25 1872 : and Fanny, christened June 6 1876. It is intriguing to wonder how a family of such a size managed in the small workers’ cottages that were Joliffe Row. Ann Gubby Senior probably died before 1871 and two of the children may have not survived childhood, Marianne being omitted from the 1871 census return and Alice Maria not appearing in the 1881 return.

_The photograph below shows seven traction engines owned by Ann’s son George towards the end of the 19th century. George is seated at the unit on the extreme left. His wife Polly is at the front. George’s four sons & four other drivers are in front of the engines. The house is 15 Albury Road, Merstham. At this time, George lived at Brook Cottage, Albury Road & later at The Nest, 1 Albury Road (possibly the same house re-named). On December 4 1894, George was one of seven men elected to form the Parish Council of Merstham, the first meeting taking place on January 11 1895 with Lord Hylton as Chairman. The Parish council ceased to exist on March 31 1933, the following day being amalgamated into the Borough of Reigate._

Having started his life with Ann as a labourer, and being from a farming background in Suffolk, William seems to have acquired some engineering skills, his occupation in the 1871 census appearing to read ‘foreman threshing machine’. Ten years later, he was a ‘machinist’ and by 1991 ‘agricultural engine proprietor. In that same 1891 census return, Ann and William’s eldest son, George, was living next-door to his parents, with a wife and young family, so Ann doubtless enjoyed close contact with her grandchildren. George’s occupation was ‘agricultural engine assembly’, so it may be assumed that father and son were in business together. By 1913, G. Stribbling, of South Merstham, was an agricultural machinery owner, so we can assume that was George continuing the family business, his father having died by then.

This development of engineering skills seems to have been echoed some years later in the life of his nephew Jesse Sargant, son of Ann’s brother William. Jesse’s daughter Jean recalls her father talking about the Stribblings

Ann died in 1894 – a true Victorian lady who spent virtually her whole life in Merstham.

_26 years on, in 1920, descendants of Ann took part in a pageant to celebrate the 700th anniversary of St Katherine’s Church. The adults are Ann’s grandchildren –Alice, Mary, Andrew & Ada (children of George & Polly). The children are Ann’s great grandchildren – Jim Francis & Joan Stribbling and Nancy Palmer, a family friend._