Anna Underdown (1775-)

Baptism
Anna was born in 1775 in Devon and baptized on 27/11/1775 in Northleigh to parents Thomas and Joan Underdown (nee Cox).

She was the 18th child and 8th daughter. Her siblings were Sarah, Jane (Jenny), Robert, Abraham, Thomas, James, Phillip, Samuel, Benjamin, Joseph, Elizabeth, Mary (Molly), Agnes, Noah, Emanuel, Anne and Susanna. She appears to have taken the name of her sibling, Anne, who is likely to have died soon before Anna’s birth.

Anna was the youngest of her parent’s 18 children. As a result, her eldest sister Sarah was 25 when Anna was born, demonstrating the age gap between the oldest and youngest sibling, and also the time frame for which Joan Underdown spent her life pregnant.

Because Anna was the eighteenth child born alive to Thomas and Joan, her baptism was recorded in the newspaper (The Sherborne and Yeolvil Mecury on 27/11/1775).

Marriage
Anna married John Upham Mitchell on the 9th August 1796 in Farway, Devon. He was the son of Phillip and Elizabeth Mitchell (nee Upham) and brother to Mary Mitchell, who married Anna’s brother Emanuel..

Witnesses to the marriage were Anna’s brother Emanuel and his wife Mary (sister to John).

Children
Anna and John had 12 children between the years 1798 and 1826, all baptized in Colyton – Phillip in 1798, Mary in 1800, Sarah in 1803, John in 1804, Elizabeth in 1806, Joseph Upham in 1808, Robert in 1810 (likely named after his uncle who had just died), James in 1813, William in 1815 (who died young), Anne in 1818, William in 1821 and Richard c1826.

Brother’s will
Anna and husband John are mentioned in the 1835 will of her brother Thomas, which means they were both still alive at this time.

1841 census
In the 1841 census, the family is located at Pondshayne in Colyton. John was recorded as a farmer, Anna his wife and children Sarah, James, William and Richard are living with them. Also on the farm was a Julian Richards, a 15 year old agricultural labourer, and a Joseph Mitchell, aged 65 and independent (likely to be a brother to John).

Death of Husband
Anna’s husband John died in March 1846 and was buried in Colyton on the 31st March 1846, aged 72.

1851 census
In the 1851 census, Anna is living with her unmarried children at Loudshayne, Watchcombe, Colyton. She is aged 75 and recorded as a widow. Here children William, Richard and Sarah are living with her, as is Joseph Pound, a 14 year old farm labourer.

Death
A death and burial record for Anna is yet to be located.

Children

 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of John and Anna Mitchell
 * colspan="3" bgcolor="#FFfce0" style="color: #000000;" |Children of John and Anna Mitchell