Jemima Catherine Spence

Born 1868, died 1946
Superintendent Nurse at Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse  1899-1900
Researched by Dauna Coppin

Jemima Catherine Spence was born in the March Quarter of 1868 on the island of Portland, Dorset. She was the youngest of five siblings. Her baptism took place on 14th June with her Scottish parents, John, a prison warder and mother Catherine. Sadly, when Jemima was just 3 months old, her mother died, aged 37. Jemima’s father, left with five young children, would have been in need of help and, in the June quarter of 1869 he remarried.

The 1871 census shows the family living at The Grove village on Portland, with John still working as a prison warder, probably at HMP Portland. Jemima was known as Catherine, after her mother, at this time. The family had grown with the addition of a younger sister, Janetta, with whom Jemima would become close later in her life.

By 1881, 13-year-old Jemima was attending school alongside her many siblings. They still lived at The Grove and Jemima’s older sister, Jane worked as a dressmaker’s apprentice. When Jemima was 23, her father had retired from the prison service and the family had moved to live in Wyke Regis between the Island of Portland and the larger nearby town of Weymouth.

The 1891 census shows that Jemima was working as an Asylum attendant which may have led on to her subsequent nursing profession.

Two years later, in 1893, aged 25, Jemima was training as a probationer nurse at Chorlton Union Hospital in Manchester. She worked there from January 1893 until October 1896 before moving to Carlisle Infirmary as a private nurse for several months from February 1897 until October 1897.

Jemima was promoted to Superintendent Nurse and worked at Grenoside Union near Sheffield, South Yorkshire from November 1897 until March 1898. From May to November 1898 , she was employed as a private nurse for Miss Forrest at Victoria Nursing Institute, Bournemouth, thus returning to her birth county of Dorset.

It was in September 1899 that Jemima was employed as a Superintendent Nurse for the Mitford and Launditch Union, Gressenhall, after the Guardian’s meeting of 21st August voted for her.  The post had become vacant after the resignation of Susannah Doughty, who had come into “continual collision” with the Master and Matron.

Her Appointment Form shows that prior to this appointment, she had also been working at Eastern Hospital in London. In addition, she had previously worked at Fusehill Workhouse, Carlisle and Poole Union, both as a Superintendent Nurse.   A testimonial to her training was provided by George Crowe, Senior Resident Medical Officer, Chorlton Union Hospital. The salary to be paid would be £40 per annum.

The form was annotated that  the guardians queried Jemima’s reason for leaving Sheffield and they asked that the ‘Black Book’ is checked.  They comment that “she was never at Sheffield”, and state that the “cause of leaving Wortley is not given”.  There is “nothing in Black Book” and they ask that Wortley is contacted for a character reference. A subsequent reference was written by William Dransfield, Clerk to the Guardians of Grenoside Union, on 26th October 1899 stating that the Guardians “found her character and conduct to be satisfactory” and that she “discharged her duties to their entire satisfaction”. The Board finally sanctioned Jemima’s appointment on 14th November 1899.

However, by January 1900, Jemima had decided to leave Gressenhall. The Workhouse Guardian’s minutes of 22nd January 1900 recorded “a letter dated the 22nd instant from Spt Nurse Spence giving notice to resign”. It is not certain why Jemima left, but she eventually travelled to the USA where she became a permanent resident.

It appears that Jemima travelled back and forth regularly between the US and UK. In 1920 she went to visit her cousin, Thomas Swayne, a relative of her stepmother, who lived in Wheeling, West Virginia. She was then travelling on to her home in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. She departed from Southampton on the SS Aquitania arriving on 19th November 1920, and the manifest described her as 47 years old, height 5ft 6” with a fair complexion, fair hair, and hazel eyes. It also said that she was permanent US resident and had previously visited in 1909.

In 1923, Jemima returned from visiting her sister, Janetta, in Cheltenham. She arrived in New York from Liverpool on the SS Caronia on 14th October 1923. Emigrated

 When Jemima was aged 69 years old, she once again travelled to visit Janetta, in July 1937 on the SS American Importer. She returned on the SS American Merchant on 1st October and this ship’s manifest included the date of her naturalisation as a US citizen as 25th July 1933 at Walker, Minnesota. It is not known if Jemima was still working but during all her travels, her occupation was always listed a nurse.

Nothing more is known of Jemima except that she died on 3rd November 1946, aged 78 years old,  in Hennepin, Minnesota, USA.