The Final Chapter

 

As for her family, her husband John Jabez died in Plymouth on 21 Jan 1893. Did Frances know he had died? we don’t think so, on the census’ for 1901 and 1911 she is listed as being married not widowed. By 1923 the year before she died, four of her children and one of her grandchildren, had emigrated to California. No one can blame them for wanting a better life and I am sure they never stopped thinking about their mother. One member of the family Alice stayed on Guernsey including during the occupation in WW2 and my grandfather John was married twice and had a total of 14 children. He moved to Cardiff and London where he died in 1940.

 

I would love to be able to get into Dr Who’s Tardis and travel back to meet Frances  and talk to her. I often read today and have knowledge from family members about the lack of resources and help for people with mental ill health but surely it is not as bad as those days. Can anyone today imagine spending 48 years locked in an asylum because of Post Natal Depression the thought is abhorant.

 

One thing we don’t know is what the Travers family take was on all this. Were they aware of all that was going on? or did they just think that her husband, who died 19 years before her, had abandoned her. My Uncle Henry & his son visited the pub run by the Travers family at St Peter Port Guernsey in August 1963 . The eldest member alive then was James Lawrence Travers born 1881 but as soon as he heard the visitors name was Lake he refused to see my uncle, perhaps that shows there was some resentment. ( I should add that I am in contact with one member of the Travers family in the USA and we get on fine)

 

If any members of the Travers family read this and have any family stories or more knowledge about Frances please get in touch I would love to hear from you..

​