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Hannah Hogbin formerly Moss nee Tapley
Jews Harp Alley, Deal
10 Lower Street, Deal
2 Middle Road, Walmer
46 The Strand, Walmer
Shanklin Cottage, 63 York Road, Walmer
Occupation: Housewife, Charwoman
Sarah Curling had married Edward Thurrell Tapley in May 1841 at the time she was about seven months pregnant. When the census was taken the following month Sarah is listed with her parents, Thomas and Mary Curling, on Gravel Walk. Edward, however, was with his parents, James and Ann Tapley in Jews Harp Alley. Whether one or the other of them was just visiting their respective parents or, if Sarah was living with her parents awaiting the birth of her first child we obviously don’t know. It could be that both households were full and the couple had nowhere else to live at the time. Whatever the reason their daughter, Hannah, was baptised in July 1841 from Gravel Walk.
By the time Hannah’s two sisters Sarah and Amelia were born they were living in Jews Harp Alley. Soon to join them were two more sisters both named Elizabeth Ann the first in 1850 who sadly died soon after her birth. A year later the second Elizabeth Ann was born, she died aged seven in 1859 and lastly a brother Edward James, named after his father and grandfather was born in 1856, he too died, aged two.
Hannah by 1861 was a live-in housemaid to the Pittocks who were Tailors and Outfitters then trading at 10 Lower Street. A year later, on 26th November she married William Thomas Moss, possibly in St. Saviours Church, Walmer, or in Old St. Mary’s. They then set up home at 2 Middle Road, Walmer. Quite where this road is, is unclear but as the roads listed either side of it on the 1871 census are Back Road (York Road) and Cambridge Place (Cheriton Road) then Middle Road must be in this area somewhere. Possibly even the middle section of what is now York Road. Elizabeth Chidwick and her step brother Charles Moss, William’s niece and nephew, were living with them in 1871. Charles was with them still in 1881 by which time they had moved to 46 The Strand. Also living with them at this time was Amelia Forsdick, Hannah’s twelve year old niece. Amelia’s parents were then in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her father was serving as an army Musketry Instructor. When the census was taken, William was not at home as he was coasting the channel, looking for vessels in need of piloting, and was off the Dorset Coast at the time. The vessel’s name was ‘Pride of the Sea’ and soon after this William with his brother John took out a mortgage to purchase her.
The wreck of the Pride of The Sea
On the 8 June 1887 William leased 1 Wellington Place, a terraced cottage on York Road. Then tragedy struck, on 30th October just off Shanklin, William, Charles, John and two other crew members were caught in a violent storm that was described by the Isle of Wight Mercury as ”… a perfect hurricane…”. Pride of the Sea, the lugger that the Moss men had worked hard to buy, was wrecked and eventually washed ashore. At some point during the storm, the crew had abandoned the sinking lugger in some haste as they left all their clothes and belongings onboard. They took to the small punt, that was used to board vessels requiring a Pilot, sadly this was not to save their lives. William, John and Charles along with Henry Kirkaldie and Charles Selth were washed overboard and drowned. They were buried together in Shanklin cemetery. Thomas Adams the sixth crew member had been put onboard a vessel requiring a pilot three days earlier. He didn’t hear of the loss of his shipmates until his return home.
Hannah would have been well aware of the risks of making your living from the sea. All the men of her family were boatmen as were William’s, but nonetheless she had lost her husband and the nephew who was possibly more like a son. The news would have reached Deal, and therefore Hannah at Walmer, possibly the next day at which point nothing was known with any real certainty about the men. The bodies of John and Charles were actually washed up on Sunday 30th, the day of the wreck. The last and unnamed man was found the following Sunday on the 6th.
Who told the families and how they coped with the news we don’t know. We do know that the community, as it always did, rallied round. Funds were set up to help raise money to support the wives and families.
It can surely be no coincidence that the four cottages known as Wellington Place on York Road, one being Hannah’s new home, became Shanklin Cottages.
As previously said, at times of need friends and family rally round. In July of 1889 Hannah was with her former neighbours, Herbert and Emma Rose on The Strand as Herbert Victor, their five month old son, died of Tubercular Meningitis.
Hannah and William didn’t have any children of their own and unusually neither did Hannah’s sister Sarah however, their younger sister Amelia had thirteen! The lack of children and therefore having more space in the household, may have been the reason why they took in Charles, Elizabeth, and later Amelia.
Along with his crew members, William was registered in the ‘Register for Seamen’s Deaths’ but as he had died intestate it took a little while to sort out his estate. Probate was finally granted on 14 March 1890 when Hannah was awarded the £288 and 5 shillings left by her husband, in today’s money this is worth approx. £23,600. In the meantime Hannah had to support herself by cleaning for others. She was still doing this when the 1891 census was taken.
Edward, Hannah’s father died in May 1893, at the time of his death he was the live-in caretaker at the Boatmen’s Reading Rooms on the seafront so we assume that Sarah, her mother, moved in to live with her soon after. She certainly was buried in Hamilton Road Cemetery from Shanklin Cottage in 1906 at the age of 88. Sadly there is no grave stone for either her or her husband.
On the 29 July 1893, in Deal’s Wesleyan Chapel, Hannah married Richard James Hogbin a former Royal Marines Gunner. Richard had been discharged from the Marines in January that year. They must have met while Richard was based at the nearby Royal Marines Depot. His Military record shows he was here from 1888 until 1892. He also appears as living in the barracks at Walmer on the 1891 census.
He was a gardener by trade, so we assume that he once again took up this profession to support them, he certainly was working as such in 1911. Sadly Hannah and Richard had little time to themselves after the death of her mother as Hannah died two years later in 1908. According to her death certificate she had a heart problem and on June 3rd, with Richard at her bedside she died. She was buried in Old St. Mary’s-yard in Walmer possibly in the family plot of her first husband William Moss. Again no gravestone can be found.
Richard remarried in 1912 to Elizabeth Ann Bell, a piano teacher. He died in 1927 and is buried in St. Nicholas’ Church-yard, Sholden where, in 1933 Elizabeth was buried alongside him.