HISTORY OF
HANNAH RIDEN BOWERING
Written for
Frederick Henry Evans family reunion 1980
(Some additions to the text provided by Edith Evans Shepherd)
(Some additions to the text provided by Edith Evans Shepherd)
On 23 March 1788,
in Somersetshire, England, George Riden and his wife Sarah Poole, took
their tiny daughter to the little parish church in Lympsham for her baptism (christening). She was given the name Hannah. Her
two brothers had been christened previously, Jeremiah on 8 December 1780, and Arthur on 23 August 1785. The
other children born to the family
were: Hester, 14 February 1790; John,
17 February 1793; James about 1797 (?) and Harriet, 27 June 1802. These dates indicate christening rather
than birth.
When
Hannah was 23 she married Isaac Bowering on 22 January 1812 and they made their home in Lympsham. To them were born the following children: Charlotte, 3
October 1814; Sarah, 5 May 1816;
Esther, August 1817; Elizabeth (our ancestor),
5 May 1819, and James Barnett about 1820
(?).[1]
Since
much of the history of Hannah's life as we know it is so closely related to two
of her daughters, Esther and Elizabeth and to their families, a brief account
of them will be included here.
The 1841 census lists these daughters living in Whitchurch, Glamorganshire,
Wales, which is just across the Severn
Estuary from their childhood home in Lympsham, England. At this time,
Esther is married to Isaac Harris, a publican, and has two children, Hannah, 5
and William 1.[2]
Elizabeth's
husband, William Evans, had died at the age of 34 (17 April
1841) leaving her with two children; Elizabeth 5, and Ada 3. Elizabeth gave birth to Henry (our
ancestor) 1 August 1842, and then to
John, 26 December 1845. Five days after baby John was born, Elizabeth
passed away and her baby died and was
buried 17 days after his mother's death.[3]
No doubt, this tragic event brought the devoted grandmother, Hannah Riden Bowering, to Whitchurch, Wales, to
care for this little family.
In 1849, the missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to the vicinity of Whitchurch
and Hannah accepted
the Gospel. On 20 November 1849, she and her daughter Hester (Esther) Harris and her granddaughters Elizabeth and Ada
Evans were baptized. The records of the Wales Cardiff Branch of the British Mission show these additional baptisms:
Isaac Harris, 17 January 1850; Elizabeth Evans, 10 May 1850; Anna
(Hannah) Harris, 10 May 1850; William
Harris, 10 May 1850; Henary (Henry) Evans, 2 September 1850; and Jabes (Jabez)
Harris, 2 September 1850.
The same address
of North Road, Whitchurch, is listed for all of the above.[4] The names in parentheses are the spellings
as we know them.
As there was much
prejudice against the Mormons at that time, it was impossible for the missionaries to find a suitable place in which to hold meetings, so these good women had the partition between their living room and kitchen removed so there would be room enough to hold meetings
in their home. It
was here that the missionaries and converts held
their meetings for several years.[5]
In the early
history of the Church, the converts in foreign lands were encouraged to
emigrate to Zion (Church Headquarters) to build up the Church. No doubt, Hannah and her family began preparing to leave their native land soon after their baptism. We wonder how she was able to get
the financial means
for this long journey. Family tradition says she was a wealthy woman with a large estate, but such a
description would not correspond with our standards of wealth today. In the 1851 census for Llandaff lists her as
living there, the wife of a market gardener. Also, living with her were her daughter Esther and the Harris children as well
as the three
orphaned Evans grandchildren: Elizabeth 15,
Ada 13 and Henry 8.[6]
It was a custom
in England and Wales in that era for parents to apprentice their children out
with other families to learn a trade, sometimes at the very early age of 10 or 12. One such young man was Ebenezer Albert Williams, who
came to Hannah's estate
at about the age of 18 to work as gardener.
He
also listened to the Mormon missionaries, was converted and baptized.
Finally on
December 20, 1852, three years
after she had joined the
Church, Hannah was able to make the deposit for their passage by ship to America. Booking passage in those days was much different than we know it today. The passengers were required to furnish their own provisions (sugar, flour, bedding,
etc.) and all of their other
necessities for the long six to eight week journey on the ocean. Their meat would often be a barrel of salt pork, but sometimes passengers would even bring live animals, chickens and
cows, for example, which would
be kept down in the hold of the ship until the need to slaughter them arrived.
So on 5 February
1853, Hannah and her party of 12 boarded the
ship "Jersey" with Captain John Day as commander and sailed from Liverpool, England, for New Orleans. There
was a total of 313 persons on board
the Jersey-225 adults, 74 children
under 11 years of age and 14 infants. In Hannah's party were the
following:
Hannah Thomas,
profession gardener, age 68; Esther Harris, 39; Hannah Harris, 16; Jabez Harris, 10; Elizabeth Harris, 7; Joshua Harris, 4; Elizabeth Evans, 16; Ada
Evans, 14; Henry Evans, 10; Thomas H. Howells, 18; Thomas W. Jones, 18
and Ebenezer A. Williams, 22.
All of the
latter were apprenticed laborers. From this Emigration Record of the Liverpool Office of the British
Mission, we learn that Hannah paid a deposit of 12 pounds for her party's
passage and the Church Emigration Fund paid the balance
of 90 pounds.
No doubt there
were many discomforts endured by all of them on this long voyage, for it was over six weeks later that they
arrived in New Orleans, 22 March 1853.[7]
From there, they
went by steamboat up the Mississippi River to Keokuk, Iowa. Here they made arrangements to join a wagon train to the west and secured teams, wagons and provisions for their journey of several months. They
joined the Claudius V.
Spencer Company and finally commenced their long trek across the plains toward their final
destination. The group
undoubtedly encountered the many hardships that many others experienced who made that long journey. At last
they arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on 17 September 1853.[8] It had taken them nearly three-fourths of a year to make the trip that can now be made in less than three-fourths of a day.
They were deeply
saddened when 17-year-old Elizabeth Evans became ill with "mountain fever" and died only eleven days
after they had reached the valley.[9]
Soon thereafter the rest of the family went to Provo on the invitation
of David Vincent and spent their first winter in
Utah at his home. He was an old friend they had known in Wales.
With
the coming of spring in 1854, Hannah purchased a farm in Kaysville, Utah: It was on what was then known, as “the
mountain road” just east of the township. With Ebenezer Williams
still in her employ to run the farm and with her grandchildren, Ada and Henry, she moved to Kaysville. A small adobe .house was bought inside the "fort" as the
town was called, and there they lived, operating the farm from this location. After Ada’s marriage to
Ebenezer, they built a home on the
farm east of town. Here Hannah died on 15 March 1858, a true pioneer with a strong faith in her
religion. She sacrificed so much and
had an unselfish goodness that had made it possible for so many to be
able to establish themselves in this land.[10]
NOTE: On 13 May 1856, Hannah Riden was sealed to
her grandson-in-law,
Ebenezer Albert Williams, G.S. Film #183,395, and she was buried in the Salt
Lake City Cemetery as Hannah Thomas Williams G.S.
Film #215,578.
[3] Llandaff
1851 Census G.S. Film #104,197, Whitchurch Bishop's
Transcripts G.S. Film #104,922, Llandaff Bishop's Transcripts G.S. Film #104,878, Birth certificate of Henry Evans, death certificate of Elizabeth Bowering Evans.
[7] Ship's Passenger List G.S. Film #200,173, Emigration
Record Liverpool Office
of the British Mission G.S. Film #271,25 #1.
Do you have images of your sources that you could share with me? I would really appreciate it. Thank You!
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