Tarr, Sarah

Singer

Collection date: Apr 1914

Area: Somerset - West

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Sarah Tarr of Dulverton (1861-1941?): age 53, 3 songs (FT2913-5) on 28 Apr 1914 at the Dulverton Union Workhouse: Sarah Ann Tarr was baptised at Dulverton church on 3/2/1861, daughter of Mary Tarr. The register indicates that Mary was a single woman and actually in the Union Workhouse. This may be because her own mother had recently died (1858, aged 45) and her father could not cope. By the April census 1861 in Dulverton we find James Tarr, widower age 62, agricultural labourer; his daughter Mary, unmarried 22, charwoman; and baby Sarah (grand-daughter, 3 months).

A precarious start in life for Sarah but then her mother Mary married John Webber, labourer at Dulverton church in 11/8/1861. The family moved to Bristol St George, where 3 children were born. Sarah took the surname of her step-father Webber in the 1871 census but left home to go into domestic service by 1881 census. Sarah reappeared as Sarah Tarr in 1891 at Dulverton workhouse as an inmate (occupation: domestic servant). She was there too in the 1901 census (RG13/2266 f25 p7). In 1911 census Sarah was with her mother in Pontnewydd, Monmouthshire, where her step-brother John Webber was a collier. Sarah must then have returned to the Dulverton workhouse where she met Sharp in 1914. Sarah Tarr probably died aged 80 October qr 1941 Exmoor 5c 567.