Ann Brown

Died on the first day

Died  Sept 23rd 1849

William Browns baptism in 1786

From her obituary in the Newcastle Courant in 1849, we discovered that Ann was married to William Brown, a saddler. There were several William Browns born about the right time, but only one had a father who was a saddler. This was a Frank Brown (saddler) who had his son William baptised in the Sion Chapel, Bondgate on 26th October 1786-see above. William may have been born on the previous 22nd May, in Kirkwhelpington, near Hexham. No further trace of Frank was found in either place.

We found William on the 1841 census for Crown Inn Yard with wife Ann, both 50, and “Jane” 15. William was a saddler too. The only marriage that fits was in 1812, when William Brown married Ann Paxton in St. Michael’s Church on 10th June.

Anne was baptised on 6/9/1789, and was the sixth daughter born to James and Isabella (Dixon) an innkeeper in Alnwick. They had at least two sons as well. John was baptised 4/5/1788 and Thomas Paxton was baptised on 7/3/1801. Coming from such a large family, it seems a shame that we couldn’t find any children born to William and Ann. The Jane on the 1841 census was not their child, but maybe the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Brown born in 1826, in Alnwick.

Ann died on the first day of the dreadful cholera epidemic, on the 23rd September 1849. She had been married to William for 37 years. In the newspaper of the 28th September there was an advertisement for the sale of their shop. It was in the Market Place in Alnwick, and they had run it for over forty years. Perhaps there was no reason to carry on the business without her. Perhaps she was already ill and caught cholera in her weakened state. We will never know.