Lootes, Mrs Ann

Also known as: Lutz, Mrs

Singer

Collection date: Aug 1911

Area: Warwickshire

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Mrs Ann Lootes (Lutz) at Shipston-on-Stour (c1819-1915): 1 song ‘The Moon shines bright’ FT2615b on 22 Aug 1911: Although she contributed only the fragment of a tune, Mrs Lootes had an intriguing life that requires further research. She was recorded in the Shipston workhouse returns for 1911 as ‘Mrs Ann Lootes, 92, widow, having borne 8 children, of whom only 2 survived, born Aston Magna Blockley’ (RG14/ 18865 p6). Aston Magna is 3 miles N of Moreton-in-the-Marsh.

According to the 1871 census for Moreton-in-the-Marsh (RG10/3215 f106 p32), Ann Lutes (sic) was a widow aged 50 with 2 sons named John Lumley (18) and Frederick Lutes (14), both born in Jamaica. This suggests that she lost a husband out there and remarried. It may also explain the loss of several children, if conditions were at all difficult.

The 1861 census reveals the name of the second husband – John Lootes, born in Brussels, Belgium, a railway fireman. Ann is there, born Aston Magna, and the two boys. Her second husband must have died in the 1860s, so Ann may have travelled far but she did not have a lot of luck in her life and ended up in the workhouse, where she died. She was buried back at Moreton-in-the-Marsh on 26/4/1915. An interesting life, one might say.