On This Day in 1852 Mark W. Starling and Mary Ann Heyson were married.

On 24th January 1852, Mark W. Starling and Mary Ann Heyson were married at the parish church of St Leonard, Beaumont cum Moze, Essex. 

© Copyright Peter Stack and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

​Mark and Mary Ann Starling were my husband's great great grandparents.

​Mark was 25 years old and accompanied at the wedding by his brother Robert Starling, an agricultural labourer.

Mark was also employed as an agricultural labourer.
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This photograph of an agricultural labourer was taken in 1894 and is Thomas Pitkin of Swanbourne (1826-1910). As Mark was born in 1827 Thomas Pitkin was his contemporary. If Mark had continued to work in agriculture maybe he would have dressed like this too.

By Anonymous [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

​But for reasons unknown, Mark and his wife Mary re-located to the East End of London some time before 1871.

At the time of the wedding Mary Ann worked as a dress maker. She was accompanied to the church by her father, William Heyson, a Dealer (although what he was dealing in is unknown). 

Mark had lived with his grandmother, Susan Starling, since he was a child as both his parents had died before he was four years old. His brother Robert lived with other relatives until old enough to go to work as an agricultural labourer and take lodgings. He died in 1853 shortly after Mark and Mary Ann were married.

Susan Starling died in 1858 reputedly aged 96 years and I think it's a safe bet that Mark and Mary Ann started their married life living with Nan.

Their first child, Robert, was born in 1852 followed by Stephen in 1855.

What happened next is unknown to me but a few years later the family had left rural Essex and gone to live in London.

By Thornbury, Walter, 1828-1876 [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons

The family lived at 36, Morris Street in Shadwell and Mark was working as a coal whipper; Robert was working as a docks labourer and Stephen had become a book binder.

In 1881 Mark and Mary Ann had moved to 40, Morris Street, with their son Stephen. Mark was still working as a labourer but no longer, apparently, with the coal whippers. Stephen continued to live at home and work as a bookbinder and Robert, married and with children of his own, had moved out and gone to work as a coal porter.

By 1891 Mark and Mary Ann had moved round the corner to 35, Upper Chapman Road. Unfortunately Stephen had died in 1885. Although he continued to work as a general labourer up to the 1890s, Mark died in 1894 aged seventy four years. Clearly his decision to stop being a coal whipper was the right one.
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Mary Ann died three years later. Both Mark and Mary Ann ended their days being supported by the parish union, hopefully in the infirmary and not the workhouse and they were buried privately although exactly where isn't known.

By Internet Archive Book Images [No restrictions], via Wikimedia Commons