The central theme of this whole story is the connection or union between the Marr and Green farming families in Yorkshire and Cambridegshire.
Henry Marr married Elizabeth Sanderson (Lily) Waide who bore him 2 sets of twins, Joseph Waide and Thomas Norrison on 21st November 1877, and Gertrude and Lily Sanderson on 28th September 1880. She died a few days after this birth of the second set of twins, on 9th October and is buried in South Kirkby churchyard.
With 4 children under 3, help was needed. At the time of the 1881 census Harry, now 29, farming 215 acres (Brookside Farm at Wrangbrook) with 6 labourers, had a housekeeper Priscilla Graves, age 35, 2 indoor servants, a nursemaid and a dairymaid, with 4 living in farm servants and a cowman and his wife. It is said that Polly Linton Shields who married Harry`s brother Jo, was Harry`s housekeeper for a time. There may have been a series of them. As already stated, Ada Green used to stay with her brother William James at Crofton, and with her sister Nellie Harrison at Thorpe Audlin. Thomas Norrison and Abigail and all the Greens were ardent Methodists. Perhaps they all attended the same chapel. By whatever means, they met and Harry and Ada Green were married on 26th June 1883. I find this date rather curious because Ada`s father had died only 6 weeks earlier, on 15th May that year, and I would have expected a prolonged period of mourning in that Victorian era. But perhaps it was all arranged and too difficult to postpone. (DWG perhaps a more logical reason for speedy marriage was the impending arrival of their first born. I understand that in Victorian times perhaps as many as 1 in 4 births were before full term. It’s also possible that it may have been a premature birth). The new Harry Marr family began with Alexander Sylvester on 12th February 1884, followed by Amy Catherine (my mother) (named after Ada`s sister who died on 13th May) on 3rd May 1885, and Agnes Muriel on 20th October 1888, all so far at Wrangbrook. Although my notes say that Horace was also born there I doubt their accuracy for Harry and his brother Jo had a joint sale on 29th April 1890 on leaving Wrangbrook, so Horace Stanley must surely have been born at their next home, West Flotmanby Hall, on 16th December 1890. There to Henry Douglas joined the family in 1893.
-The hand drawn map shows the movement of many Marrs and Greens from farm to farm within and between Yorkshire, Cambridge and Worcestershire. This map also appears in the Green section of this website.
