Saltfleetby School

Misses Alice and Esther Wright

Susan Alice Julia Wright was born on 11th June 1847 in Islington, London the second child of George Wright (1816-1854), a stock broker from Holborn, and his wife Elizabeth Mary Wright, nee Knight (1824-1873) from Woolwich. She was baptised on 30th July 1847 at St Mary’s Church Islington whilst the family were living at Gerrard Street.

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Her sister, Esther Jane Wright was born on 12th October 1853 in Walworth, Southwark, London and baptised at St Peter’s Church Walworth on 9th December 1853.  The sisters lived with their family at 2 Cottage Grove, Walworth: brother George Thomas Strother (born 1850) and sisters: Mary Elizabeth (born 1846) and Lucy Eveline (born 1851)

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On 13th September 1854, when Alice was 7 and Esther just 11 months, their father George died, age 38, whilst their mother was pregnant. She gave birth to their 6th child, Helen Edith, in January 1855 in Gravesend, Kent. In 1861 mother Elizabeth was working as a school mistress in Northfleet, Kent, alongside her eldest daughter Mary, age 15, an assistant governess.  Alice, age 13, was a scholar staying with her aunt and uncle: her father’s sister Lucy and her husband John Faulkner (an ironmonger) and their children, her cousins Lucy, John, Edward and Mary Faulkner in St. Martin's Le Grand in the City of London.

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In 1871, age 23, Alice was working as a governess for the Tuely family in Wandsworth.  Living with the family, she tutored and cared for the children of wealthy fundholder and landowner Nathaniel Tuely and his wife Martha: 11 year old George, 5 year old Emmeline, 4 year old twins Levina and Seymour and baby Alice Rose.  Esther, age 17, was working with school mistress Frances Faulkner, as a teacher in a small school in Chelsea with two boys boarding age 6 and 9.  In 1881 Alice and Esther were living together in the School House in Alkerton near Banbury, Oxfordshire, where Alice was a national school mistress and Esther a daily governess.

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By 1885 they were working at Saltfleetby National School, Alice as the headmistress and Esther as an assistant teacher taking the infant class.  Here they remained running the school and living in the school house until December 1910, when they both retired together at the ages of 63 and 57. As a mark of appreciation for their long service at the school, 110 locals and old pupils chipped in to buy them leaving gifts of a marble clock and gold purse.

They went to live in Castleton, Derbyshire where they continued to live together in retirement.  Alice died in January 1924 age 76 at Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.

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Their brother George became a chartered accountant, living in Wimbledon with his wife, Sarah and their six children. He died in 1925 age 75.  Sister Lucy moved to New Zealand where she had six children with her husband David Gillies in Dunedin, Otago. She died in 1940 age 89.  Youngest sister Helen married Charles Knight, a coal merchant, and moved to Tasmania where they had two children. She died in 1924 age 69.

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Esther moved to Southend-on-Sea, where she lived on Bournemouth Park Road. She died in January 1942 in Southend, age 88. 

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