Mary Ann RANDELL 1852
Mary Ann Randell was born 10 November 1852 and baptised 5 December that same year at St Peter and St Paul Church, Cromer. She was the seventh child, but first girl born to Thomas Randell and Judith Mayes. She was born in Cromer but probably remembered Holt as her childhood home, as it appears, the family moved before she was four. She lived at home until she married agricultural worker and shepherd William John Nobes in April 1874.
Mary Ann was twenty two when she married William, who was seven years older than herself and a widower. William had been married previously and he brought his 8 year old daughter, Elvina to the marriage. His first marriage to Mary Hancock Hagan had taken place in 1865 and produced possibly four children.
When Mary Ann and William married they set up house in Great Ryburn and were recorded in 1881 living as a family comprising parents Mary and William, plus Elvina and two boys, Thomas and Nathaniel both born to Mary.
By 1891 they have moved to a home in Norwich Rd, Holt which is where they lived out the rest of their lives. Together they had three children, two of which have middle names Randell and Mayes. In 1908 a Hebert Randell Nobes was born in Holt. As Mary Ann would be aged 54 that year I suspect he was a first grandchild.
In April 1897 Elvina Blanch Nobes married William Oliver in Mitford, Norfolk but by 1901 she was both widowed and a mother of six, including a set of twins. Only the youngest child had the surname Oliver, all the others are listed as Nobes. Her children's names include both Mary Ann and William John Nobes and her eldest child Ethal Olive was born seven years before she married William Oliver. The strange tale of Elvina continued and she remarried. The second time to farm worker, William George Parker, a man twelve years younger than herself. The wedding took place at St Andrew Church, Guist, 11 August 1902. By 1911 the couple had been married 8 years and lived at Broom Green, Elmham, Norfolk. The total household comprised Elvina and William and a flock of eight children, subdivided into three Wades, one Oliver and four Parkers. The youngest child, Jessie Auguster Parker was aged 1 year in 1911, making her mother 44 years old at her birth.
In 1901 Mary Ann's younger sister Eliza and her husband Arthur Wade are visiting at the Nobes home. The connection between the two girls seems strong, as in this census and a previous one, members from the families of Nobes and Wade are under a single roof.
The 1911 census creates an interesting picture of a growing family who are far from under a single roof, father William was away at the Shepherds Hut, in Letheringsett Road, Holt. Mary Ann and son Frank, an Assistant Chemist, live at the Norwich Road home and the two other boys were married in homes of their own.
Mary Ann Nobes died on 15 September 1928 age 73, having outlived William by seven years. Both Mary and William are buried together in Holt Cemetery.
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William John NOBES 1845
William John Nobes was born April 1844 in Brinton. He was the eldest child of George Nobes and Mary Ann Ward. They had enjoyed eighteen months of marriage by the time he arrived. In 1841 the complete Nobes extended family lived in Brinton. William's father, George, and grandfather John, born around 1778, recorded their place of birth as Brinton. They were all farm workers.
William John lived with his parents and two sisters, Mariette and Georgiana, until around age 16, when he was recorded working on the 350 acre farm of George Awcock in nearby Briningham.
In July 1865 William John Nobes, aged twenty one, married Mary Hancock Hagan who was also twenty one. Unfortunately Mary Hagan died around ten years later. The only census information that exists of William and his first wife Mary together is 1871. On census night, William, a shepherd aged 26 is at home in a Brinton farm cottage. He was with wife Mary and four young daughters, Catharine age 6, Elvina 4, Jane 2 and Martha age one month. Both Mary Hagen and her eldest daughter Catharine were born in Burnham Market. Catharine, appears to have been born very close to her parents wedding date. Oddly I can find no record of her birth, as either Hagen or Nobes. Similarly I’m unable to locate a record of the death of Mary Hagan. It all adds to the intrigue. The other children, all born in Brinton, are well with in the margins of the marriage.
Following the demise of the Mary Hagan, William John Nobes married Mary Ann Randell in April 1874 in Holt. In the 1881 census, William is living in Great Ryburn and working again as a Shepherd. His family group is composed of Elvina from his first marriage and second wife Mary with two new children, Thomas born 1876 and Nathaniel born 1879. I'm unable to offer any information on the whereabouts of the previous children, as like their mother, they seem to have been spirited away.
By 1901 the family unit had moved to the final home in Norwich Road, Holt and grown the include a third boy Frank born in 1892 in Holt.
Most people would recognise the basic role of a Shepherd, but on big estates it was regarded as a significant position and held a simular status to a Game Keeper and attracted a premium wage.
William John Nobes died at home in Norwich Road, Holt on 22 October, 1921.
William and Mary had the following children:
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