Louisa Barker
(1850-1923)

Louisa Barker (later Louisa Judd) was the second oldest of the nine children of agricultural labourer William Barker and his wife Mary Head of the village of Barkway in Hertfordshire, England.

By the time that Louisa was 20, she became a single mother, with her illegitimate son Henry Barker appearing to take the middle name of Judd in the parish baptism register. This name was either misinterpreted by the church as being the child's middle name, or it was Louisa's way of revealing the child's father.

Three years later, and 23 year old Louisa walks down the aisle with her husband Henry Judd, a miller, and so it seems she eventually married the child's father.

Louisa and Henry settled down to raise another seven children, moving in 1876/1877 to Littleport in Cambridgeshire, but sadly this fresh start wasn't easy for them. Their son George, who was born in January 1883, is noted in the Littleport baptism register as being 'severely burnt and in convulsions was privately baptised by mother'. It seems that perhaps he suffered a seizure, and may have accidentally fallen into a fire. Expected not to survive, he was rapidly baptised, but upon recovery was then received into the Littleport church congregation in June 1886. He survived into adulthood.

Unfortunately his older sister Florence Judd, who had joined her sister Harriet to work at the Hope Brothers Ltd shirt factory, died when she was 19 in 1895.

Louisa outlived Henry by five years, and died in the Ely area in 1923.

Life Events

Born

• During 1850 at Barkway, Hertfordshire, England.

Baptised

• 13th October 1850 at St. Mary Magdalene's Church, Barkway, Hertfordshire, England.

Married

• Henry Judd (1848-1918) during 1873 in the Royston district of Hertfordshire, England.

Children

• Henry Judd Barker (1870-19??) married Elizabeth Francis (1869-?)
• Harriet Matilda Judd (1874-1929) married John Plumb (1873-?)
• Florence Judd (1876-1895)
• William Judd (1877-19??)
• John Judd (1880-?)
• George Judd (1883-?)
• Benjamin Judd (1886-1956) married Ellen Waite (1888-1928), and later to Vida Grace Russell (1888-1968)
• Esther Judd (1888-1958) married James William Rogers (1887-19??)

Census and Residence

• 1851: 6mths, High Street, Barkway, Hertfordshire, England.
• 1861: 11yrs, Barkway Street, Barkway, Hertfordshire, England.
• 1871: 20yrs, Barkway, Hertfordshire, England.
• 1881: 30yrs, Ten Mile Bank, Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England.
• 1891: 41yrs, Ten Mile Bank, Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England.
• 1901: 50yrs, Ten Mile Bank, Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England.
• 1911: 61yrs, Camel Road, Littleport, Cambridgeshire, England.

Death

• During the June quarter of 1923 in the Ely area of Cambridgeshire, England, aged 72 years.

Burial

• Not yet known.