Annison

According to the House of Names, the surname Annison harks back to the Anglo-Saxons, derived from the personal name Agnes. However, it was evidently misheard by the clerk who took details for this marriage in 1847 of Solomon Read and Matilda Anderson, both of whom made their mark. The name Annison is recalled in the middle names of some of their descendants.

The first mystery for this branch of the family is the reading of banns for the marriage of Matilda to Solomon Read on three consecutive weeks in Oct 1841 at Thorpe Episcopi in Norfolk with no sign of the actual marriage to follow. Another set of banns was read in Feb 1847 after which the wedding took place in the same church, as shown above. Matilda’s younger brother James was a witness. Matilda gave birth to two children in 1843 and 1845 and a third was born after the wedding.

Matilda Annison was born in 1821 in Sprowston Norwich, a small town 2.5 miles to the north-east of Norwich town centre. On 18 Jul 1820, Matilda’s parents William Annison and Mary Ann Neave were married there.

The next mystery involves the unravelling of the William Annisons. At least four were born in Norwich between 1795 and 1797. Which one was Matilda’s father? The first William was born in 1795 at St Martin at Place to Thomas Annison and Susanna Plumstead; sadly, he was buried in Mar 1795. Another William was born in 1796 to Richard Annison and Elizabeth Sherman in St James Pockthorpe, a parish to the east of the town. In 1796, another child was born to Thomas and Susanna and was again called William (quite a common occurrence in those days). We know that he was a weaver from the 1841 census and Matilda followed in his footsteps. Mary Ann was noted as married, not a widow, in the 1851 census; she was a pauper living in St Mary’s Plain, but where was William? When she died of malignant cholera in 1854 in Hen and Chicken Ward, St Mary Coslany, Mary was described as wife of William Annison a weaver.

Many people have attached Matilda to William Annison the hotpresser, an unusual occupation that helps with identification through the archives. He was a widower when he married Mary Ann Dunn in 1823. Having spent much of his life in Queen Caroline’s Yard in St Martin at Oak, following his wife’s death William moved into Doughty’s Hospital and died there on 28 Apr 1869 of old age and “respected by all who knew him”, according to Norfolk News.

As it happens, the daughter of Solomon and Matilda, Sarah Ann Read was born in Queen Caroline Yard in 1843. We can get a feel for what life was like in the crowded and unsanitary Norwich yards from newspaper reports.