occupation

Publican

dates

Born: 1848, Harwell, Oxon
           (then Berks)

Died: 1930, Harwell

Married: William Henry TOWNSEND,

                date not supplied

residence

Initially Harwell; after marriage Drayton St Leonard; finally Harwell again.

submitted by

Jillian HEDGES (great-granddaughter)

related faces

William TOWNSEND (father-in-law)

Ann Eleanor MOLYNEUX (mother-in-law)

William Henry TOWNSEND (husband)

Background information

Phoebe Sophia TOWNSEND (née DAY) was born in 1848 in Harwell. Her father was a sawyer and later a carrier and fruiterer.

Her husband William Henry TOWNSEND was a blacksmith and publican of the Catherine Wheel in Drayton St Leonard.

When he died in 1890, Phoebe had to take over the licence of the pub. Her eldest son, William, died in 1901, fighting in the Boer War in South Africa. On receiving the telegram, she was heard to cry “Not my Billy”.

Phoebe left Drayton to live with her DAY relations in Harwell in 1915. She died in 1930, age 81.