Zilpah, born 1858 at Brighton, was the first child born to John’s sister Zilpah Lovell Underwood née Harmer and her husband Henry. This makes her John’s niece.
Between the ages of three and seven Zilpah lived at 11 Pelham Square, then for less than a year at 93 Upper North Street until the Underwood family settled at 99 Upper North Street. Her father died of cancer in 1874, followed by her mother (who died of consumption) in October 1881. At the time of her mother’s death Zilpah was 23 years old.
The 1881 census gives Zilpah’s occupation as an out of work governess. When her mother passed away, of her six younger siblings Florence (13), Bessie (11) and Alice (15) were those who were left reliant on her most, at least with regards to needing a mother figure. The younger girls were at school, whereas Alice was working as a general servant although still living at home, and still a child from our modern perspective. Their three older brothers, Henry George (21), Frank (19) and Albert (17) were also at home and in fulltime employment, which must have helped provide some financial stability to this newly orphaned group of young people.
Indeed, the siblings remained at no. 99 until 1888, with the exception of Albert who married and moved out in 1885, and Alice who was living in London when she married in 1887. Both Frank and Henry George married in 1888, and were probably engaged by 1887. Zilpah and Frank had been left joint executors of their mother’s will, but with seven siblings to divide it between Zilpah’s future security was not looking good by 1887, if her brothers decided (which they did) to move into their own homes after marriage. She had two obvious choices – get a job as a live-in governess, or get married.
An Inter-Harmer Marriage
On 2nd April 1888 Zilpah married her first cousin, Henry Albert Harmer, at St. Nicholas Church, Brighton. Henry had been raised by his father John Harmer in Hudson County, New Jersey, and we don’t know why he came back to England in 1888. Henry’s address as per their marriage certificate was given as 99 Upper North Street, so he had obviously moved in with his cousins when he returned to Brighton. It is just possible that the newlyweds moved to Pavilion Buildings, which is the address given for Henry Albert in a patent application he made that year, although I have doubts about that, believing it more likely that they remained at Zilpah’s family home.
The couple had moved to America by 16th March 1889, when Henry sadly died of diabetes. According to his death certificate, which was very kindly sourced for me by the Harmer Family Association, his last illness had lasted for six months. This suggests that the return to the U.S. happened around October 1888. Henry died at home, at 330 Warren Street.
Zilpah never remarried, and had no children that we know of. She returned to England soon after Henry Albert’s death, but retained the house in Newark, which she seems to have rented out, as she continues to appear in the street directories there.
Later Life
In 1891 we find 33 year old Zilpah lodging with a chimney sweep’s family at 43 Cobden Road, off Elm Grove. Although very close to John Harmer’s Wellington Estate, the house had been built in 1868, seven years after John emmigrated to America. Cobden Road was a much more working class district than Upper North Street, but it was nowhere near as overcrowded as the nearby Carlton Hill area, where many of Zilpah’s relatives lived when they first moved to Brighton.
By 1901’s census Zilpah, aged 43, was living at 8 Church Street, near the Pavilion, with her sister Alice (35), and Alice’s husband Edwin Collins (43) who was a draper. Zilpah was working as an office caretaker, possibly for Edwin.
In 1911 Zilpah, 53, had moved to Ashford, Kent and was living with her sister Bessie (40) and Bessie’s husband Alfred Sargant (42). Alfred was club steward for the Elwick Club on Church Road there, and Zilpah and Bessie were helping out with the day to day running of the club. The club is a private members club which is still going strong today.
When Zilpah passed away on 13th November 1929, aged 72, she left her £35 estate to Bessie. Her address at that time was 49 South Road, Newhaven. A quick Google search revealed that back then this was the Plough public house, which from 1934 (1938 at the latest) has been known as the Prince of Wales. This pub was the time being managed by Bessie and Alfred.
