Alice Priest (b. 1845), Catherine Prudence Priest (b. 1853)
Posted: 14 Apr 2013 14:18
These are two of my great grandmother's eight siblings, all born 1841 - 1857 in London. Their father James Joseph Priest (born London 1816, died London 1859) was an accountant who worked for various insurance companies, latterly the Royal Insurance Company in Liverpool. His wife Maria (née Dugelby) was from York. In 1851 census, the family is in a comfortable middle-class London neighbourhood. The father died of TB in London in 1859. In January 1861 eldest daughter was married in West Derby and left for California. In 1861 census, widow Maria Priest is at 21 Sandown Lane Wavertree, described as a 'lady' with her brother Robert, 3 of her children (Alice 15, and two younger boys), two other daughters (including Catherine Prudence 7) are visitors in the home of a 'commission agent' in Edge Lane, West Derby, two more children are in north London with their grandmother and another uncle, and one son is probably at sea (he later qualified as a mate, and a master). Maria Dugelby Priest herself died suddenly in West Derby later in 1861 in slightly mysterious circumstances leaving nine orphaned children aged between 4 and 20. I can track at least some of what happened to most of them: two were seamen, at least three fetched up in California, two married and died in or near London, another appears in censuses in London up to 1881 (though I have no record of a marriage or death for her). The Dugelby grandmother (until 1867) and uncles are clearly around and involved. But Alice (born 1845) and Catherine Prudence (born 1853) simply disappear off the radar after the 1861 census when they were 16 and 8 respectively. They may well have left Liverpool soon after their mother's death and either returned to London or joined their eldest sister in California. But I have not been able to find a marriage, death, census or ship's passage record for either. If anyone in Liverpool/ Lancs can shed any light on what might have happened to these two girls, I would be extremely interested to know.