Samuel (1801-1855) and Elizabeth Reffell (1810-1897)
As is evident from this website, most of the Reffell family lived in the south of England and were brewers by trade. However, there was a sizable branch in the Bury St Edmunds area of Suffolk who were pipe makers and tobacconists. The family lived and worked in the High Baxter Street part of the town, near the present day cathedral.
This branch of the family starts with Samuel Reffell, born 9 July 1801 to John Reffell and Margaret Rushbrook. When he was 26 years old, Samuel married the 17 year old Elizabeth West in the church of St James Bury St Edmund on 20 December 1827. Over the next twenty two years they produced 13 children! In line with the times four of these did not see their first birthday, one died aged ten and another aged 16. However, the rest of the children thrived and there are many people alive today descended from this particular union.
Their 13 children are summarised below:-
1828 Anne Maria, died 1829
1829 John Rushbrooke, died aged 10
1831 Elizabeth, married Frederick Norman in 1856 at Bury St Edmunds
1833 Samuel, married Sarah Augusta Garnett in 1860at St Marylebone
1835 Frederic, died 1835
1836 Sarah, died 1837
1838 Frederick, married Julia Agnes Head (the younger sister of Eneas below) in 1862 at Bury St Edmunds and moved to Stoke Newington. They are both buried at Abney Park Cemetery.
1840 William, died 1840
1842 Caroline, married Eneas Head (the elder brother of Julia above) in 1864 in Australia.
1844 Sarah Ann, married William Nickerson in 1863 at Bury St Edmunds
1846 Anne Marie (Annie), died aged 16 in a fire at Drury Lane, London
1848 Sophia Margaret, married Edward Frederic Bullen in 1870 at St Martins Kentish Town
1850 Rosa Jane, married Mark Drew in 1894 at St George Hanover Square
When Samuel died in November 1855 he was buried at the church of St James (now St Edmondsbury Cathedral). Elizabeth carried on the pipe making business for another twenty years or so. She is shown in the 1881 & 1891 censuses living in the Cloptons Asylum in Bury St Edmunds, where she died in 1897. Despite the name, Cloptons Asylum was more of what we would now call a retirement home, rather than an institution. It was founded in 1744 by the will of Dr Poley Clopton, the last of a long Suffolk line of lords of the manor. The asylum was intended for 6 men and 6 women, three each from the parish of both St James and St Mary in Bury St Edmunds. To be an inmate they had to be 60 years or over and have led an unblemished life. Cloptons Asylum today is the Provosts’ house.