Margaret (Margery) Eagle

Born 1805, died 1887
Pauper Nurse at Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse, 1846-1854
Researched by Elizabet Steele

Margaret was born Margery Eagle at Swanton Morley, Norfolk on 22nd February 1805 and baptised on the 25th February. Her parents were Matthew and Susanna Eagle. They had married on 11th May 1790. Margaret had six older siblings; Abraham, Mary, Thomas, Martha, Sarah and Esther, and one younger sibling, Amy.

The banns for Margaret’s wedding to William Cooper were read in North Elmham during September 1833. However,  it appears that possibly, the marriage did not actually take place,  as at present, no record can be found to confirm it  and Margaret continued using her maiden name, Eagle, throughout her life.

The 1841 census finds Margaret, still using the surname Eagle,  living in North Elmham with the said William Cooper, a carpenter and four children. William died in June 1847. It appears that Margaret either entered the Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse at Gressenhall with or without her children prior to Cooper’s death, as the November 1846 Guardians’ minutes record that, Margaret “… was appointed to fill the office of Nurse on approbation in one month”. Furthermore, the minutes of 4th January 1847 read, “Ordered that Margaret Eagle the nurse continues the duties of her situation until Monday next and that the Master do pay her 10s for such service”.

It is not entirely clear whether Margaret first entered the workhouse as an inmate, an employed Nurse, or both. However, a few years later, the census records taken for the Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse at Gressenhall for 1851, record that Margaret is aged 45, unmarried, has an  occupation as a field labourer and is in the workhouse as an inmate, together with seven of her  children: Elizabeth, aged 17; James, 10; Charles, 7; Robert, aged 7; John. Aged 6; Esther, aged 3; and Thomas aged 20 (the children all have the surname of Eagle).

As an inmate in the workhouse, Margaret appears to have continued to be employed as a Nurse (Pauper Nurse), being allowed 10s for her services during the last quarter of March 1851 and again on 29 March 1852 when she was granted a gratuity of £1 for service as Nurse in the workhouse for the past 6 months.

In October 1853, Margaret was permitted to go to Lowestoft for her child, who had been there for the benefit of her health. Margaret appears to leave the workhouse in June 1854. She had spent 6 years there and had undertaken the duties of Nurse (Pauper Nurse) on several occasions. She is allowed by the Guardians, the sum of £2 “…to enable her to obtain sufficient clothing on her leaving the workhouse to go into service and a sum not exceeding one pound is to provide  necessary clothing for her four children who are to accompany her”. Unfortunately, no record is held of exactly where she went into service or which of her children accompanied her. The youngest four of her children in 1854 would have been Charles, Robert, John and Esther.

Margaret reappears on the 1871 census as Margery Eagle and is recorded as living at Ivy Cottage, Flegg as head of the household with a lodger John Parker. The 1881 census records Margaret as living with her youngest daughter Esther, who is now married to Isaac Watson, a bricklayer and Ester’s daughter Edith, aged 10 at 3 Nelson Terrace, Cobholm Island, Yarmouth.

Margaret died in March 1887, aged 82. It appears that she was once again a Workhouse inmate as her death place was recorded as Yarmouth Workhouse, however it is unclear how long she had been there. She was buried on 16 March 1887 at Yarmouth New Cemetery in  a non-consecrated grave.