Bessie Kate Naile, nee Bradley 1846-1917

Bessie Kate Naile, née Bradley.

Since starting to collaborate with my cousin Deirdre to research the Barden/Bradley families, I have become increasingly interested in my grandmother Dora Barden née Bradley’s elder sister Bessie Kate. Why Bessie Kate, well she never featured in conversation while I was growing up.  A page from the family bible shows that Bessie Kate and her twin brother Joseph Lowthion Bradley were born in Cockermouth while all the other children in the family were born in Dublin. To find that Bessie Kate and Joseph had stayed behind in Cockermouth and did not return to Dublin before the birth of their next sister Mary Jane, in 1851 was quite a surprise.  Sadly Joseph did not survive childhood, he died in 1852. Bessie Kate lived on, cared for as a child it would seem by her maternal aunt Elizabeth Lowthion.

Bessie Kate and her brother Joseph were baptised in the parish of All Saints, Cockermouth on 9^th May 1847 at the height of the potato famine in Ireland, a very good reason for her mother to be spending time with her mother’s relatives in England, I suggest but there may have been other reasons of which we know nothing so far. We do not know whether Bessie Kate’s father Owen Bradley or her brother Brian John Bradley accompanied Mary Bradley, née Lowthion to England or whether they remained in Ireland.

The 22^nd December 1870 saw the marriage of Bessie Kate Bradley aged 24, to John Shepherd Naile aged 28, in the beautiful church of Bridekirk, in Cumberland. John S. Naile was a captain in the merchant navy.  

Is this Captain Naile? it was taken in Lima, Peru.

John and Bessie Kate’s first child Mary Lowthion Naile was born in Bridekirk in 1871 and baptised in the church where her parents had been married on 4^th November 1871.  Their second daughter Janet Elizabeth Naile was born in Tradeston, Glasgow on 2^nd March, 1874 and the family celebrated her baptism at Bridekirk on 9^th May 1874.Their third child arrived in 1878 and was named Dora Esther Naile. I haven’t yet found any reference to Dora’s place of birth or baptism.

 

The 1881 Census shows Bessie Kate and her three daughters residing with Bessie Kate’s aunt Elizabeth Lowthion at Belle Vue, Papcastle, Cumberland.  Elizabeth, aged 66 was the head of the household.  

This was taken at Belle Vue, is it Elizabeth Lowthian?

The 1881 census return also shows Bessie Kate as being married to a sea captain. In 1891 Elizabeth Lowthion is living in her niece’s home, so it seems that Bessie Kate and John Shepherd Naile had moved into their own home and brought Aunt Elizabeth with them

By 1901 Bessie Kate shows up aged 53 and wife of the head of household in Cockermouth.  It could be assumed that the absence of John Shepherd Naile from the family home was a result of his sea faring activities.

Bessie, a little more mature

Captain Naile again?

 

Bulmer’s Directory 1901 supports this thesis; it lists J Shepherd Naile, master mariner as living at 3 Fernbank C’mouth.

The 1911 census returns show that Bessie Kate now aged 64 and her daughters Janet Elizabeth and Dora Esther are now living in Hornsey in Middlesex while Mary Lowthion Naile is residing in an institution in Islington.  Aunt Elizabeth Lowthion does not feature in the 1911 returns so I am assuming that she had died prior to 1911. We know from family papers that Janet Elizabeth married a Stanley Briggs but I cannot find any information about him so far. It is possible that he was a native of Cumberland but when and where they married I do not know. Janet must have been in her late 30’s or more when she married and she died a widow without issue. Neither Mary nor Dora married. I haven’t found any explanation as to why the family moved to the south of England nor why Mary ceased to live with her mother and sisters.

Bessie Kate died on 7^th June 1917, and her daughter Janet Elizabeth on 6^th June 1949.  Mary Lowthion Naile died on 12^th October 1949. Mary Lowthion Naile, by will proved 1949, left the residue of her estate in reversion to Islington M.B. to assist middle-class women, the charity being named after her father John Shepherd Naile. She was survived by her youngest sister Dora Esther Naile who lived on until 4^th May 1953.  The story of Bessie Kate Naile née Bradley and her immediate descendants extends from Bessie Kate’s birth in Cockermouth in 1846 to the death of her youngest daughter Dora Esther in Hornsey Middlesex in 1953.