Biographical notes

The 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 Census returns all return data suggesting that Mary Ann Brook was born in Shoreditch, Middlesex in 1825. This is confirmed by the LDS microfilm records of St. Leonard's Church (Shoreditch, Middlesex) Parish registers, 1558-1901. She married George Cardell, a Widower, on the 4 January 1846 in Shoreditch. Their first child, Rosina, was born on the 6 November 1846 and, in the 1851 Census, is listed living with her parents in Paul Street. A second child, Sarah, born in 1848, is absent in the 1851 Census but appears living with her father and new partner in the 1861 Census.

Then something unorthodox happened. On the 25 December 1852, Mary Ann gave birth to a daughter at 12 Parr Street, Hoxton New Town, Shoreditch. The birth certificate records the father as Robert John Southwell, a Carpenter, living at the same address as the birthplace. He registered the child on the 3 February 1853 nearly six weeks after the birth. The illegitimate child was named Mary Ann Southwell. The only other tentative reference to Robert Southwell is in the 1841 Census.

In the 1861 Census Robert and Mary Ann are listed in Bristol and Robert Southwell has adopted the identity of his lover's estranged husband George Cardell (the 'real' George Cardell continued to live in London and is listed in the 1861 and 1871 Census returns with a new partner Ann (nee Lambert) Cardell). Mary Ann Southwell appears discreetly as Mary Ann Cardell, daughter of George and Mary Ann Cardell. There are two additional children; Robert Cardell (b. 1854), and Henry Cardell (b.1856). Interestingly the birth certificates of both these children show that they were named Robert Southwell Cardell and Henry Southwell Cardell. In fact all subsequent children had the additional forename of Southwell.

Mary Ann Brook appears in the 1871 Census living in Bristol with Robert and the rest of the family with additional children. Her last child was George Southwell Cardell born in 1868.

Following the death of her adopted husband Robert in 1875, Mary Ann Cardell moved from Bristol to Cardiff to live with her son Henry Southwell Cardell, as recorded in the 1881 Census.

She cannot be located in the 1891 Census, but her death is apparently recorded in the 1897 Cardiff BMD Index.