Robert Martin COLLINS (1815 – 1885) and Sarah Elizabeth Wilihelmina BAILLIE (1808 – 1859)
Sarah Elizabeth Wilhelmina BAILLIE was baptised on 07-Aug-1808 at Shepherdswell, Kent, England. Quite often this location is also indexed as Sibbertswold.
Her parents were Henry BAILEY (1768 – 1822) and Mary MILES (1772 – 1833) who also appears to be known as COLYER.
The BAILEY family surname spelling varies between BAILLIE, BAILEY and BAYLEY through the records and generations.
She was the seventh of eight children although one of her siblings had died before she was born. The family seems to have been settled in this area since 1793 when the eldest child came along.
Robert Martin COLLINS was born on 17-Sep-1815 1 to John COLLINS (1784 – 1854) and Elizabeth BIRCH (1784 – 1873).
He was christened on 22-Oct-1815 2 at St Nicholas Parish Church 3, Ash (near Sandwich), Kent, England. Robert was the first of three sons born to the couple.
Sadly Edward Birch COLLINS (1821 – 1821) can only have lived for a couple of weeks it would seem when Robert was 5 and his brother William COLLINS (1818 – 1879) aged 3.
For the early part of Robert and Sarah’s lives there is limited information available. It is possible that by looking at newspapers may find more but there are many people of similar names in the location.
Sadly, we can see she lost her father when about 14 and her mother a decade later. All the surviving children had reached adulthood by this time.
Apart from at their funerals would presumably also be fairly confident that she would have attended the marriages of her siblings whilst growing up.
In the first modern census, taken 06-Jun-1841, Robert along with his parents and younger brother William are listed under Richborough in the Parish of Ash next Wingham.
The place quoted before the record becomes Richborough is given as Guston which I know to be a village 4 much nearer Dover, Kent, England.
Looking at the Ordnance Survey 5 map of the area as it was surveyed in 1872 there is a Guston Farm next to a Brides Farm and then Richborough Farm is a short distance away. So presumably all the people shown under those locations would be around the three farms.
Robert’s age given as 25, due to the practise of rounding down to nearest 5 years (for over 15s) in this document type. The three males are described as Ag Lab for Agricultural Labourers and were born in the county.
In the same parish, but in a place described as Ash Street, Sarah is found splitting a property with a Susanna WARDEN. They are both F S, meaning Female Servants, and Sarah is also given as 25 with her house companion being 30.
Although the modern map helps give an idea of the landscape there have been many changes since the census and so it is not easy to identify Ash Street. Looking through the list there are at least five pubs along the stretch so perhaps used as a general descriptor for various lanes leading to Ash itself.
It may be possible to hone in on their property locations using the historic pub research that has been done for the local area along with the old maps, census overview and any more notable properties listed.
At this time as well the information for employment is limited so can only presume that Robert and Sarah met due to some level of proximity with work or perhaps church attendance. They can only be living at maximum 3 miles from each other.