Her parents, Mary and Elijah, had only recently married - on 5 August 1821 at St Edmunds Church in Salisbury. It's interesting to note that Mary had been baptised in St Edmunds, as had her father (that is, it was a 'family church'). But once Mary and Elijah married, the family Church became St Martin's. Elijah had been Baptised in St Martin's and all of his and Mary's subsequent children were also baptised in St Martin's. Of course, the two churches are only a kilometre apart in the Centre of Salisbury!
Above is a drawing of St Martin's Church, Salisbury by Joseph Mallord William Turner from 1800 (two years after Elijah had been baptised).
But I digress, this story is about Charlotte. Her parents, the abovementioned Mary and Elijah, baptised another seven children in St Martin's - Henry, Jane, Fanny, Elijah, John, Frederick and Samuel - from 1823 to 1838. Then in 1840 Elijah Hibberd died. He was 41. The following year Mary Hibberd (nee Pavey) died. She was also 41. Charlotte, age 20 is an orphan. Not so bad, except for the fact that she was the eldest and Samuel, the youngest, was only 3! But again, I sort of digress, because there no information available to show whether or not Charlotte took over the care of her siblings. I can't find some of the family is the Census for 1841 and those that I can find appear to be scattered with other family members, but we don't really know what happened in the next ten years! The next known fact about Charlotte is that, at age 30 (relatively old for the time, which makes me think that she DID look after her younger siblings), on 7 January 1851 she baptised a son named Benjamin James Hibberd at St Martin's. Benjamin died soon after his baptism. The following year - on 30 November 1852 - Charlotte again baptised a son in St Martin's, named Henry George Hibberd. He also dies soon after birth. The next event for Charlotte in St Martin's is her wedding to George Jerred on 28 March 1853. The Minister, no doubt, said 'thank god'. She and George were actually living in the same house in the 1851 Census. She was the 'head' and he was a 'lodger'! Oh, and she was also six years older than George! So when they married, she was 32 and he was 26. I can only presume that little Henry and Benjamin were offspring of George! The parish record doesn't say that Charlotte was a 'whore' as it often did in the 1800s for children born of unmarried mothers.
In any case, her marriage meant that when Charlotte baptised Maria Susannah Jerred on Christmas Day in 1853, she was actually baptising a 'legitimate' child! George Jerred was next to be baptised - on 24 March. He lived longer than his brothers but died later in the year. Charlotte and George named the next son George Jerred as well, and he was baptised on 22 November 1857. Next was Ann Jerred, baptised on 22 May 1859, but, again, she died later that year. In early 1860 Charlotte was pregnant again and her husband, George Jerred, died age 33. Her seventh child, Eliza Jerred, was born on 11 June 1860 in Trinity Street, Salisbury and baptised on 22 June. So widowed Charlotte has three children - Maria (age 7), George (age 3) and baby Eliza. Eliza died age two in mid 1862. Then Charlotte has another child on 22 March 1864 she names Eliza again. This child was also baptised in St Martin's - only her mother's name is listed (seeing that her husband George has been dead for four years, this makes sense!).
Charlotte Jerred, age 42, died soon after Eliza's birth. I'd like to think that "she lived her own life", but I suspect that life was incredibly difficult for her. Having had so many children died young, as well as herself, potentially she had Syphilis (a sexually transmitted disease prevalent at the time - still prevalent now!). We can only ponder. But it's a tragic story! Of her three children alive at her death only George survived childhood. Baby Eliza died late in 1864 - without a mother to care for her, she was vulnerable - and Maria died in 1866 when she was 12.
It's probably worth noting that most of Charlotte's siblings do OK for themselves (I can't find details for Jane or John but the other five appear to live very normal lives - at least for that time - with the known occupations of her brothers being a butcher, an umbrella maker and a Baptist Minister).
[Relationship to SNR = sister of great-great-great grandfather]
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