Ann Stentiford was what, today, we would call a single parent. In the 1851 Census, she can be found living in  the workhouse at Crediton with two of her children - Ellen and William. Her eldest daughter, Eliza, is at Exbourne, working as a domestic servant on the farm of Theodore Dart who married Mary Stentiford, a distant relative of Ann. Her fourth child, Louisa, was born in the workhouse shortly after the Census was taken. Workhouses were the end of the line for poor people and she must have been desperate to have sought shelter within the walls of such a place.

On 28 Jan 1861, when she was 43, Ann married Richard Allen, a widower. He was illegitimate but also used the surname "Ware" showing that he thought he knew the name of his father. As we've seen in previous Issues, naming the father was a requirement if the mother was to get any financial support from the Parish. He married Mary Monkley in October 1854 in Chawleigh. Their daughter Rebecca (born in 1856) died at the age of three and another daughter - Susanna - was baptised on Christmas Day 1858. Richard's first wife, Mary, was buried on 24 Oct 1860 aged 37. His marriage to Ann took place just four months later when Susanna Allen was just 2.

It would appear that Ann and Richard lived in a cottage at the Old Toll Bar for the remainder of their lives. The 1861 Census shows them with Susanna and an elderly lodger. Ann says she is 40 but we know from her marriage entry of 1861 that she is, in fact, 43.

The relevant volume of the Parish Register of Deaths, dating from 1871, is still in use at Chawleigh and therefore information about Richard Allen's death is not readily available to the general public for searching. Ann was buried in the Congregational Chapel's burial ground in Chawleigh but records may have been lost for that event.