Frances Wells was born in about 1825 to William and Jane (nee Miller), the ninth of their eleven children. The Rev Comyn's notebooks show that the Wells family lived near the rope factory in what is now Massey's Lane. Frances was baptised on 16th May 1826 at Beaulieu church.

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Aged 22, she married Isaac Longman on 26th October 1847, a 36 year old widower with 5 children who worked as an agricultural labourer. Together they had another 5 children over the next 15 years . The 1851 census records them as living in Twigs Lane, Eling.

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The 1861 census lists Frances as a live in servant working for James Hewitt, a yeoman in Pilley, with her two youngest daughters.

 

Isaac died in 1863 and Frances married James Etheridge in 1866 at East Boldre Church. No records could be found for James death but it appears he died before 1871 as that census lists Frances living with four of her children from her marriage to Isaac, the two youngest still at school.

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There is no record of Frances baptism at the chapel but she was buried there by Rev J B Burt on 31st March 1872.