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Additional background Information on Lucy Lowe (Ellis) and her family collated from contemporary records. Lucy was born in Stagsden in Bedfordshire as Lucy Riddy in 1841. Her parents, Henry and Susan Riddy, had 12 children altogether. Lucy was the 6th to be born. On the 6th December 1860 at the age of nineteen, Lucy married Samuel Ellis who was a labourer and also came from Stagsden. Lucy was already expecting a child when she married. Samuel did not live long and he died within 5 months of the marriage. He was buried in Stagsden on the 18th March 1861. Lucy gave birth to a boy who was baptised in Stagsden on the 7th July 1861 as Henry Samuel Ellis . Lucy remarried on 20th July 1865, to Ellis Lowe, a labourer from Wootton. Over the next eight years they had four girls - Louisa (1867), Harriet (1869), Ada (1871) and Jane (1873). The 1871 Census records the family as living at Kempston, although the two elder children had been born in Wootton, indicating that the family had also lived there at some time between 1865 and 1871. Henry, Lucy's child from her first marriage, was not living with the family. In 1871, he was living in Stagsden with his grandparents. At some time around July 1873, Ellis Lowe left his family and disappeared. Information from the Master's Journal for the Bedford Union Workhouse indicates that the children were deserted by both parents and were taken into the Workhouse in July 1873, with Lucy leaving the the town. She is reported in the same journal to have returned briefly to the town in between 30th October and 6th November 1874 but left again without the children, who remained in the workhouse. There is no trace of Ellis Lowe anywhere in the 1881 Census of England or Wales. From the evidence given at the commital proceedings we know that Lucy was working in Hampstead, London late in 1875 and returned to Bedford to give birth to a child in early 1876, whom she then murdered in March 1876 before returning to her employment in Hampstead. Full details of her arrest, trial and imprisonment in 1876 are given in other sections here. The 1881 census indicates that Lucy, then 39 years old, was a prisoner at the Female Convict Prison. Knaphill, Woking, Surrey. This census also lists her children Louisa (15), Ada (10) and Jane (8) as still residing at the Bedford Union Workhouse. Harriet Lowe is not listed, so she presumably either died or left the workhouse between 1873 and 1881. (See Lucy's second petition to the Home department below, where she mentions 'two surviving daughters' which would indicate that Harriet had died) Children left in the workhouse were often sent out as apprentices or servants, and were then visited by officials from the Workhouse. From the record of these visits for the Bedford Union Workhouse, it is clear that Louisa Lowe was sent out at the age of 16 on 6th September 1881 to a Mr. Starr living at Victoria House, Fulwood Park, Preston, Lancashire. She was then transferred to a Dr. Antonioze, of 129 Lower Bank Road, Fulwood, Preston in October 1881. However on 16th July 1882 her whereabouts were not known. From the same records, Jane Lowe was sent out at the age of 14 on the 16th March 1885 to a Mrs. Lambert of Gery Street, Bedford but was found to be disobedient and returned to the Workhouse on 1st June 1885. She was then sent out again on 22nd June 1885 to 47, Cemetery Road, Bedford, where she stayed for many months and was found to be a good servant. She is then reported as having gone to a Mrs Newton in Brereton Road, Bedford. The final entry for Jane Lowe left a puzzle - after working for Mrs. Newton she is reported to have left the town with her mother. This would have been in or after 1886 - when Lucy Lowe might have been expected to still be in prison. So was Lucy released from prison or was the report incorrect and who did Jane Lowe leave Bedford with? Local records provided no further clues to what really happened. Fortunately, further research by the Public Records Office, revealed that Lucy was released from prison on licence in August 1886, just over 10 years after being convicted, and after two applications to the Home Secretary. She returned to Stagsden to live with her sister, initially, so would have been able to leave Bedford with her daughter in 1886. The 1901 Census data gives an update to the Lucy Lowe story. A Lucy Lowe, born in Stagden is recorded as working as a housekeeper for a Mr John Steadman, School Master and living at 20, Munster Road, West Bridgeford, Nottingham. There is an anomaly in the entry, in that her age is given as 68 although should would have been only 60 or 61 in 1901. As no other Lucy Lowes born in Stagsden are recorded in the 1881 or 1901 censuses, it is reasonable to assume that this is an error and that in 1901 Lucy Lowe was working as a housekeeper in Nottingham. Links to images of original documents courtesy of the Public Records Office:
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