Elizabeth Mennim

Died September 28th 

Elizabeth Mennim died on September 28th 1849 in the Alnwick cholera outbreak. (Note, her surname occurs in many spellings in different records. We use the one in the Rawlinson report). She was born in 1805 but we don’t know her maiden name and therefore where she was born, or who her parents were.

We know that she married a Scot called George Mennim, who was part of a large family. His parents, Francis and Elizabeth were married in Eglingham, (Cornhill) on April 29th 1798. They had eleven children including Agnes, Margery, George, Francis, Alexander, Robert, Henry and another Margery. They were born in different towns in Northumberland and Scotland. Several of the Mennim family settled in Alnwick and are on the 1841 census, as were George and Elizabeth.

George and Elizabeth only had five children. Four were on the 1841 census for Clayport, they were Francis (12) 1829-1901: Elizabeth (9) 1832- : George (6) 1835-45 and Mary (3) 1837-. The family was still living in Clayport in 1844 when their fifth child, James was born (1844-1915). Father George was an agricultural labourer.

In the first week of the cholera outbreak mother Elizabeth died,
age 43, leaving George with four children, from 20 down to 5 (little George had died before his mother, age 10). Elizabeth was buried in a mass grave at the rear of St. Michael’s Church.

In 1851, the rest of her family were still living in Clayport next to the Lockey family, who also lost a family member to cholera. George was now working as a ‘mail driver‘.Francis was no longer at home. He married a French woman called Octavia from Dinon and moved to London, where he worked as a cabinet maker. Elizabeth, now 18,(born in Chatton) was housekeeper, and her younger siblings were at school.

Mary Mennin married Thomas Howey in Alnwick in 1863 and moved Blaydon where Thomas was a coal miner, her brother James was lodging with her family, and working as a plate layer. She died in Durham in 1915, and her younger brother James, also died in 1915 in Hexham.

George died in Alnwick in 1875, 26 years after his wife.

Daughter Elizabeth married James Burness in Longbenton, on 26th April 1862. The 1871 census says they and their five children were living in ‘Garden Cottage ‘ Witton le Wear. James was a gardener at Witton Castle ( now a holiday park).They may then have emigrated, as we couldn’t find them in any more records in Britain, but a record of James’s death  on 13/12/1898 was found in Sydney:     

 Below: The cemetery record of, we believe, James Burness, Elizabeth’s husband.

Sydney, Australia, Cemetery Headstone Transcriptions, 1837-2003

Name : James Burness

Age :  64

Birth Date:  abt. 1834

Death Date  13 Dec 1898

Burial Place: Sydney, New South Wales,

Australia Cemetery Waverley Section 7 Ordinary Row 13

Denomination: Anglican