Norwich – Rosary Cemetery (Isaac Brett & Lucy Brett)

Since I’ve been grounded again by the Government, I thought I’d meander around the Rosary Cemetery located near to me in Norwich, in an attempt to see what stories lie there. It might not be the most fascinating blog content, but it’ll keep me quiet for a few weeks….

This isn’t entirely ideal in terms of reading the inscription on the grave, and I’m not going to fiddle about with shrubbery on a gravestone. I can just imagine half the stone will come off in my hand, probably with a gaggle of people happening to walk by when that’s happening. So, the easiest alternative is to hack around on findagrave, a web-site which has many names already listed.

Although the details aren’t entirely accurate on findagrave (which is understandable – look at the state of that ivy….), it was enough to work out that this is the joint grave of Isaac Brett and Lucy Brett.

Isaac Brett was born in Caston, a village located near to Attleborough, and he was baptised on 12 July 1798. He was the son of George Brett and Mary Brett, and he remained in the area as in the 1841 census he was living nearby with his wife at Gap Farm at Rockland St. Peter.

His wife was Lucy Howell and he married at Caston church, the same place where he had been baptised, on 7 January 1828. Lucy had been born in Norwich in 1802 and had seemingly moved to be nearer to where her husband lived.

At the 1851 census, Isaac and Lucy had moved and were living alone at Upper King Street in Norwich, with the enumerator noting that Isaac was a shoe maker and he employed six men. They were living at the same address at the 1861 census, this time living with their 11-year old grandson, John Page, who was already working as a banker’s clerk.

Isaac died on 15 January 1863 at the age of 64, leaving effects valued at just under £450 (around £30,000 in today’s money) to his wife. At the 1871 census, Lucy was living with another one of her grandsons, George Page, who was aged 13. By 1881, Lucy had moved in with her grand-daughter, 33-year old Lucy Raven, who was living with her family near Mulbarton, having married Benjamin Raven who was 23 years older than her.

Lucy was still living with her grand-daughter at the 1891 census, but they had now moved to Stratton St. Mary (as an aside, this, alongside Stratton St. Michael were merged to become Long Stratton) and Lucy died shortly after the census was taken, on 10 April 1891 at the age of 89.

There’s not an amazing story here that I’ve yet found, just a family which seemed to stick together, but I’m intrigued as to the work that Isaac Brett did. He looks like he was a hard-working shoemaker, especially as he was employing several men, but I’ve yet to find out much more about him. Hopefully, I’ll return to this in the future…..