Anna Maria Onions of Oldbury is recorded as being buried, aged 55, at All Saints, West Bromwich on 27 Nov 1816. This is contradicted by the Cheshire Bible that records her date of death (not burial) as 27 Nov 1817.
Her likely baptism is on 11 Mar 1764 at St Mary’s, Kingswinford, Her father and mother would therefore be John Bacon and Mary Trevor who had married in the same church on 24 Jun 1753. This is corroborated when we see that one of the witnesses at the marriage between Anna Maria and John Onions on 12 Jul 1785 was a Sarah Trevor.
John Bacon would appear to have been a Master Taylor who had been born in 1707 (Bap 30 Jan 1707/08, St Mary’s) . His burial record on 24 Oct 1773 show he was aged 66. The marriage to Mary Trevor from Tipton would appear to have been a second marriage. The Bacon family according to the Parish Register were marked by at least three illegitimate births.
Firstly, John’s sister Amphillis Bacon had a ‘base child’ baptized on 22 Feb 1740/41. Later two of his own daughters suffered the same misfortune. Maria’s sister Lydia (b 1754) is recorded as the mother of Noah Bacon, baptised 22 May 1774. And of course Maria herself eight years later when her daughter Priscilla was baptised on 12 May 1782 under the name of Priscilla Croft (sic)
Social morality in Georgian Britain, in general, probably hit a low point in mid century. The ungodliness of scenes depicted by, for example, Hogarth, Defoe and Fielding gave way to the growth of new forms of christianity and an evangelical spectrum of non-conformist churches, prevalent later in the century. In parallel, the illegitimacy here was expunged two generations later in the ‘presbyterian’ family of John Cheshire married to John Bacon’s granddaughter Priscilla Onions. The victory and supremacy of a strong family unit is simply illustrated by the existence of the surviving family bible and the family list.
The salvation from the misfortune of having an apparently fatherless daughter which befell Anna Maria Bacon, came in the form of John Onions. He was literate and had a profession as ‘ironfounder’ probably through his family. On the marriage register in 1785 neither the bride Hannah Maria (sic) nor Sarah Trevor were able to sign the form. By contrast, the latter entries in the family bible are all (very likely) written in the neat hand of Priscilla Cheshire, a generation later.
Notes
- John Bacon’s first wife was Elizabeth Hall (m 1734, bur 1752)
- It has proven impossible to find anything about Mr Croft, which could just be the surname of Priscilla’s father.