Martha, baptised on 3rd April 1825 at All Saints Church, Heathfield, was the fourth of nine children born to George Lovell Harmer and Elizabeth Barber. She was one of John Harmer’s younger sisters. You can read more about the family’s life in Heathfield here.
Marriage
Martha married Charles Revell on the 8th May 1845 at St. Nicholas Church, Brighton. Charles, a furniture dealer, was born at Brighton in 1821. By 1851 the couple were living in a divided-up house at 22 Lavender Street, Brighton with their two daughters Martha (5) and Elizabeth known as Fanny (2). Altogether four households were crammed into the house, including the other Harmers – Martha’s sister Zilpah, 16, and their parents George (64) and Elizabeth (60) who had also left Heathfield.
By the time Folthorp’s 1856 directory went to print, Martha, Charles and their children had moved to a much more illustrious property at 3 Grand Parade, where they ran the furniture business on the ground floor as well as a guest house upstairs. The house would stay within the immediate family until the 1880s. Whereas Lavender Street was situated in a working-class backwater, Grand Parade was as grand as its name denotes; facing onto one of the most fashionable areas of central Brighton at the time.
Charles died in Mar Q 1867 when he was 46, leaving Martha with eight children. In addition to their own offspring, the Revells had taken in (from birth) two illegitimate daughters born to Martha’s sister Susan Harmer. They were Zilpah ‘Elizabeth’ Greenfield Parsons née Harmer and Rosa Emma Hollis née Harmer. Charles must have been a very patient and kind man.
In April 1871 when the census was taken, Martha gives her occupation as a furniture broker and dealer, so had clearly continued managing the family business after her husband’s death.Her daughters Martha and Mary Ann were working as dressmakers. Charles, 15, was a ‘whitesmith’ (?). Elizabeth (19) is living her maternal aunt, Zilpah Lovell Underwood née Harmer at 99 Upper North Street, and working as a general servant. Zilpah, Rosa, Edith and Frank were at school, and Martha’s two nieces are living with the family – Elizabeth Harmer (12) and Rosa Harmer (6). With the exception of Martha Snr. the entire household had been born at Brighton.
Death of Martha
Martha died on the 31st August 1876, aged 51. Her daughter Martha (unmarried at that time) was sole executrix.
Children
Martha Harriett (c. 1846 –
Martha married Walter Watts at Brighton Sep Q 1878 . They were still living at no. 3 in 1881, with Elizabeth Harmer, Martha’s cousin who was by then a school mistress.
Elizabeth (Fanny) Revell (Dec Q 1849 – ????)
Moved to Blything?
Charles (1851 – ????)
Moved to Blything?
Mary Ann (1853 – ????)
Moved to Blything?
Zilpah (c. 1858 – ????)
Rosa (c.1860 – ????)
1891 – working as a nurse at St. Martin in the Fields. Moved to Blything?
Edith (c. 1863 – ????)
Married Thomas Samuel Busby at Brighton in 1885?
Frank (c. 1865 – ????)
