Mrs Morphew

An inked inscription verso in a period hand reads: 'Mrs Morphew / in her 107th year / with my love / A M Rodwell.'

Mary Ann Morphew appears on the 1861 census living at Claydon in Suffolk with her son, William, a 64-year-old pork butcher. She described herself as 'formerly a Midwife.'

According to the Suffolk Chronicle (11 January 1868), Mrs Morphew died on 9 January 1868 'at Claydon, aged 107 years.' She was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church in Claydon.

According to the Leighton Buzzard Observer (21 January 1868): 'Mrs Morfey, or Morphew, as the register gives it, died at Claydon, Suffolk, on Thursday. The deceased, who was baptised in November, 1761 (but her age at that date is uncertain) was at the time of her death in the full possession of all her faculties. She was a widow sixty years, and for a long period was a midwife at the Barham Union.'

The sender of the carte was possibly Anna Maria Rodwell of Claydon, aged 74 at the time of the 1861 census, an unmarried 'annuitant' living at The Lodge in Claydon.

Photographed by Henry Burrows of Ipswich in Suffolk.