Jane Bennett (nee Cosnett)

[ianjbennett]

I need to trace my great grandmother Jane Bennett (nee Cosnett) I believe she was born in Pershore Worcestershire in about 1861 and moved to Wombourne, Staffordshire in about 1895 ish, she had a daughter who rumour has it died suspiciously in about 1906 aged approximately 10 years old.
My great grandmother had died in 1901 3 months after my grandfather was born, and the housekeeper was responsible for the daughters death allegedly.
Any information would be gratefully received.

Thanks,

Ian

[Jan1954]

I need to trace my great grandmother Jane Bennett (nee Cosnett) I believe she was born in Pershore Worcestershire in about 1861

This looks like her birth:
Jane COSNETT, March quarter 1861, Pershore registration district, volume 6c, page 383.

...she had a daughter who rumour has it died suspiciously in about 1906 aged approximately 10 years old.

What was the daughter's name, please? Come to think of it, do you know the housekeeper's name at all?

[ianjbennett]

This looks like her birth:
Jane COSNETT, March quarter 1861, Pershore registration district, volume 6c, page 383.

What was the daughter's name, please? Come to think of it, do you know the housekeeper's name at all?

The daughters name was Jane or Jannie we are not sure, we do not know the name of the housekeeper but rumour has it she went to jail for the offence, also great granddad John Bennett went to jail for protecting the housekeeper but we can't find evidence,

[RonOne]

Marriages March quarter 1894
John BENNETT & Jane COSNETT
Registration district: Wolverhampton
Volume: 6b
Page: 810

Staffordshire BMD gives the marriage venue as: Wombourne, St Benedict

[Coromandel]

Looking at the free search results in the British Newspaper Archive I can see fragments of a couple of entries that seem to relate:

Gloucester Citizen, 29 March 1904
'....John Bennett, a labourer, Wombourn Common, and Mary Gould, his housekeeper, were on Monday, Wolverhampton, sentenced to terms of three . . . '

Manchester Courier & Lancashire General Advertiser, 2 April 1904
....'John Bennett, [labourer], Wombourn Common, and Mary Gould, [housekeeper] were charged with cruelty to . . . '

You'd have to get some credit with the site to see scans of the pages.

[terrysfamily]

see here if you don't want to pay

https://
paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TS19040604.2.29&l=mi&e=-------10--1----0--

ps. Is that all they got!!!!!! Terrible

[lholder]

Thank you so much for the newspaper info. My brother and I have since looked on the British Newspaper Archive website but have been unable to find this information and are amazed at how you came across it! Please can you give us some tips as to how you found it. Following the links we have been able to print the articles but we are dumbfounded as to how you found them
I guess you are a real demolition expert
Thanks

[ianjbennett]

thank you for your help in 3 hours we have found out more than the last 4 years searching

[lholder]

My brother and I are still trying to find Jane Bennett born in Wombourne, Staffordshire in 1897. We knew from family stories that she had been physically abused by our great grandfathers housekeeper and that they had been imprisoned for the crime. Thanks to your members we have found the newspaper cuttings giving information about what happened but we are now seeking to find what happened to Jane. Her little brother we believe was sent to relatives in Cleobury Mortimer but we cannot find Jane!!! I have looked for information about Seisdon Infirmary which was mentioned in the newspaper report but this was unsuccessful. Has anyone got any ideas please

[Coromandel]

Hello lholder and welcome to the forum

It is good to see a family team working on the same problem: I just wish I could get my siblings interested in the family history! They like to hear about all the skeletons in the cupboard but I can't persuade them to do any of the hard work.

Here are a few ideas for possible avenues to explore in the hope of a new lead on Jane:

Check other local newspapers (at Wolverhampton Library?) for any further details, especially for more clues as to exactly where the trial took place. Perhaps then you will be able to locate court records.

Find out if there are any surviving school records for the school Jane was at: a register might say when she left and where she went next, while a log book might mention the teacher having to give evidence.

Keep looking for her on the 1911 census. Try looking for any Jane [leave surname field blank] of about the right age born in the right area on the 1911 census, in case her surname has been garbled or she has taken the surname of an adoptive family. Check for people listed in institutions just by their initials. Findmypast has a 14 year old female 'J.B.' in an institution in the Lancaster district, for example: you'd need to check the original image to see if any birthplace was given.

Get Jane's birth certificate so you have an exact date of birth; this may help to identify her in death indexes if she survived into the period when dates of birth are given in the GRO death index.

Check shipping lists on Ancestry etc. in case she was sent out as a 'home child'.

(I'm sure there are other things too . . . I will keep thinking.)