Phoebe Pass

Phoebe Pass headstone

Headstone text reads…

In Loving Memory of PHOEBE PASS, WHO DIED OCTOBER 18th 1890, AGED 41 YEARS

Thy purpose Lord we do not see
But all is well that's done by Thee


Phoebe Pass was born in the first quarter of 1849 to John & Elizabeth Baynton.

According to the 1851 Census, at the age of 2, Phoebe was living in Inn Lane with her maternal Grandmother, a beer seller and Head of the household, her parents, 2 sisters, 1 brother and 5 lodgers who were all widowed agricultural labourers. Her father was recorded as a Brewer.

The family still lived in Inn Lane at the time of 1861 Census and her father had become an agricultural labourer.

By 1871 her widowed mother was the Head of the household and recorded as an Inn Keeper. Her grandmother was still living with the family together with 2 family members and a boarder.

By the 1881 Census Phoebe together with her mother, still an Inn Keeper and Head of the household, was living at the White Hart, Hartlebury. A relative, 2 servants and a lodger were living with them. The property listed immediately above the White Hart in that Census return is Hartlebury Castle. Bishop Henry Philpott was in residence with his wife, Mary. 5 servants were also listed.

Phoebe married Alfred Pass on 13th February 1882 at Hartlebury, possibly at St. James. Her husband Alfred was born at Upton Warren in late 1842. Prior to their marriage the 1881 Census records that he was living with the farming Rendle family. He himself was listed as a farmer of 47 acres employing 2 men and 1 boy.

Sadly, Phoebe died on 18th October 1890 at the age of only 41. Administration of her Will was granted to Alfred Baynton, a Railway Agent from Eccles in Lancashire, believed to be her brother. She is recorded as the “wife of Alfred Pass, late of the White Hart, Hartlebury”, and left a personal estate of £841.

Her gravestone positioned in front of a Yew tree looks out across Quarry Bank from the churchyard to the White Hart where she lived and worked.

Carol Priest—2021