Mrs Bertha Vivian and daughter

Mrs Bertha Vivian and daughter


Born in 1842 at Truro in Cornwall, Bertha Carlyon Barham was the daughter of Doctor Charles Foster Barham and his wife Caroline née Carlyon.

On 29 August 1867 at St John’s in Truro, Cornwall, she married James Edwards Vivian ‘late 13th Light Dragoons’ (Hampshire Telegraph, 7 September 1867), third son of John Vivian of Pencalenick, Truro.

Their first child, Charles Ernest Vivian, was born the following year. Bertha is seen here with her second child, Nora Constance Vivian, born on 23 August 1869 at Lewisham in Kent. According to an inked inscription verso, Nora was 7 months old when the photograph was taken.

The family appear on the 1871 census living at Perry House in Lewisham. The household included four servants. James gave ‘Merchant’ as his profession. According to numerous reports, he and his mother, Mrs Cordelia Vivian, were carrying on business as bankers at Helston as ‘The Union Bank of Cornwall’ but the bank failed in February 1879. James died, aged 54, on 17 December 1879 at 3 Cobourg Road, New Hampton, Middlesex. According to the announcement of his death in the West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser (18 December 1879), he was ‘late of the firm of Vivian, Younger and Bond, metal brokers, London.’

His widow appears on the 1881 census living with her daughter (but not her son Charles) at her parents’ residence in Kenwyn, Cornwall.

Mrs Bertha Vivian died on 13 December 1889, aged 47.

On 8 June 1899, at St John’s in Truro, Nora married Reverend Augustus Edward Crowder, who was ‘curate-in-charge of Pitlochry, Perthshire, and late curate of St John’s. […] The wedding breakfast was laid at the residence of Miss Barham, aunt of the bride, and during the day the happy couple left for Scotland’ (Royal Cornwall Gazette, 8 June 1899).

Their marriage produced a son and daughter. At the time of the 1901 census they were living in the manse at Arbroath in Angus [Scotland].

Mrs Nora Crowder died, aged 61, on 6 November 1930 at All Saints Vicarage, Clevedon, Somerset.

Photographed by G. H. Britton of Forest Hill, southeast London.

 


Code: 127008
© Paul Frecker 2024