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The 1851 census return for 68 Cooper Street, Bideford records the head of the household as absent at sea. He is not named but was Richard Yeo [note 1]. His children Mary Elizabeth Yeo (age 11), Emma Yeo (9), Richard Yeo (7), Amelia Yeo (6) and Henry Yeo (3) are listed, but the only adult recorded is house servant Elizabeth Johns, age 28, birthplace Northam.
Richard’s wife had died the previous year. Her headstone in the churchyard of St Mary, Bideford records her as Elizabeth Brook Yeo and her date of death as 26 March 1850. She was baptised Elizabeth Brook Ellis at Northam in 1804; when she married Richard Yeo he was recorded as a mariner.
It appears that Richard’s children were in the charge of a servant during his absence. Perhaps someone else usually looked after them but was also away on the night of the census, or Elizabeth Johns was a relative? She might have been related to Richard’s brother-in-law Thomas Johns.
Richard later found an occupation that kept him in Bideford: the 1861 and 1871 censuses record him there as a harbourmaster. He died in 1876 and was buried with his wife Elizabeth. Richard elder son Richard Yeo remained in Bideford and worked as a tea dealer. His younger son Henry Yeo moved to Exeter and became an insurance broker.
Richard Yeo (1792–1876) was baptised at Marhamchurch. He married Elizabeth Brook Ellis at the parish church of St Mary, Bideford in 1837. They had up to seven children:
– Mary Yeo (born 1838, not verified)
– Mary Elizabeth Yeo (1839–1906)
– Emma Yeo (1841–1907, married John Davis Docton) [note 2]
– Maria Ellis Yeo (born 1842)
– Richard Yeo (1843–1920, married Annette Parsons)
– Amelia Yeo (1845–1875, married James Norrington)
– Henry Yeo (1847–1912, married Sarah Sawtell and Margaret Hai Densham née Bovey).
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Notes
1. Camilla Comeau – who is descended from Richard’s youngest sister Bridget Yeo and her husband Thomas Johns – has added to our knowledge of Richard’s family by identifying him as a son of William Yeo and Catherine Sleeman of Stratton. He was therefore a descendant of Philip Yeo of Stratton, who married Margaret Bond at North Tamerton in 1704 and whose other descendants have been traced by a number of researchers. However, other researchers have confused Richard with artist Richard Piper Yeo.
2. John was a widower, previously married to Fanny Hambley Yeo.