Sarah Ann, who was baptised on 31st May 1846 at All Saints Church, Heathfield, was the daughter of John Harmer’s older brother George Lovell and Sarah (née Payne) Harmer of Heathfield. This means that she was John Harmer’s niece.
Sarah Ann grew up with her parents and siblings at ‘Alley’ in Heathfield, and moved with her family to Brighton around 1859/1860. In 1861’s census Sarah Ann (14) was working as a live-in house servant for Joshua Foord, a railway clerk, at 25 Guildford Street.
On 22nd January 1865, when she was 18, Sarah Ann married 20 year old labourer Edward Greenfield at St. Nicholas Church, Brighton. Edward gave his address as 43 Albion Street, which suggests that he was living at Sarah’s family home. He could not sign his own name, instead making his mark with an ‘X’. Their marriage entry informs us that Edward’s father, William, was a soldier.
Edward may have been a relative of the father of Sarah Ann’s aunt Susan’s illegitimate daughter Zilpah Elizabeth Greenfield Harmer, who was born in 1858.
Sarah and Edward’s marriage does not appear to have been a happy one, as Sarah was admitted to St. Francis Hospital, Haywards Heath (the Sussex County Lunatic Asylum) on 10th March 1870. At the time she was still living at 43 Albion Street. The supposed cause of Sarah’s ‘insanity’ was the desertion of herself by her husband, who is described as a plasterer. The nature of her condition was ‘melancholia’.
Sadly Sarah died on 1st July 1870, at the asylum. She was just 23 years old. It is incredibly likely that she is buried along with so many other forgotten patients at the graveyard there, in an unmarked grave.
