Victoria Bennett (aka Roberts)
Victoria Bennett, the fourth child of Isabel (née Owen), was born in Llwyngwril, Merionethshire, on 5 March 1864 [Dolgelly 1864, 2nd qt]. On her birth certificate John Bennett was named as her father and her mother was ‘Isabel Bennett, formerly Owen’ but I have found no evidence that they had married. In 1881 Victoria was a general servant living with the family of a thirty-nine year-old retired master mariner, F.A. de Sausmarer, at 10 Chatham Road, Tranmere, Birkenhead. He and one child were born in Guernsey, his wife and two of their children were born in Trinidad and the other two children, the youngest aged 8 months, were born at Rock Ferry in the Wirral. At the time of the census the household included a niece born in Antigua, a visitor born in Trinidad with her husband born in Liverpool and the only servant in residence was the 18 year-old Victoria; no doubt she was kept very busy.On 16 November 1884 Victoria married Henry Brown [Liverpool 1884, 4th qt], a carter at the time of their marriage; he actually signed himself ‘Hennery Brown’. Victoria married under the name Victoria Bennett Roberts and, interestingly, her father was said to be not John Bennett but John Roberts, the man her mother had married in 1851. According to the marriage certificate both Henry and Victoria were living in Old Hall Street, Liverpool, and they married at the parish church of St Nicholas. Henry was twenty-five and the son of John Brown, a joiner. The witnesses were Samuel and Sarah Hulse, though Sarah only made her mark; in 1881 Samuel had been a groom and he and Sarah had been living in Hulme, Manchester.
The birth of Victoria and Henry's first daughter, Isabel Ann Brown, was registered just a short time later [Birkenhead 1885, 1st qt]. A second daughter, Mary Brown was born on 23 April 1886 [Birkenhead 1886, 2nd qt] at 1 Chapel Place, Tranmere, when Henry was a baker journeyman.
There was a Henry Brown who died in 1888, aged 34 [Salford 1888, 2nd qt] but whether or not this was Victoria's husband, by 1891 she was living with another man, a salesman called Harry Starkey, at 3 Back Lane, Salford, though I have found no evidence that they married. As well as Victoria’s children there was also a son, Harry (aka Henry) Starkey, aged 10 and born in Salford [possibly b Altincham 1881, 3rd qt]. All Victoria's children had taken the surname 'Starkey'.