Part of the Earley family tree
Family background and early life
Rebecca Riches was born on 1 January 1838 in Norwich, the daughter of William Riches (c.1796–c.1860) and his wife Sarah née Meadows (1795–c.1880).
She was baptised at St Peter Parmentergate church in central Norwich on 28 January 1838, where her parents had married on 19 July 1829.
Her father was described on the baptism register as a “pensioner”, although he was only about 42 years old at the time.
At the 1851 census, William, Sarah and Rebecca were living at Wales Yard in Pump Street, Norwich. William, now 55, was recorded as a Chelsea pensioner, while Sarah worked as a laundress. 13-year old Rebecca was working as a lucifer [match] box maker.
In September 1855, William is recorded as in receipt of a pension from the Royal Chelsea Hospital of £1, 1 shilling [per annum] as an out-pensioner living in Norwich. He had previously served with the 94th Regiment of Foot.
By the 1861 census, William had died; Sarah (a laundress) and 23-year old Rebecca, now working as a pillbox maker, were living at Harrisons Yard, off Pump Street.
Marriage and children
On 21 April 1867, aged 29, Rebecca married Philip Branch, a 24-year old carter, at St Peter Parmentergate.
The couple’s first child, William Robert Alexander Branch (known as Robert), was born nine months later, on 10 January 1868, at Northumberland Street, Heigham, then described as a “hamlet”, but now an inner suburb of the city of Norwich.
The couple had two further children:
Emma Elizabeth Branch, baptised at St Bartholomew’s Church, Heigham on 16 May 1869.
Henry Philip Branch, born in Northumberland Street, Heigham on 14 May 1871
On the marriage register in 1867, Philip’s occupation is recorded as carter, but at the 1871 census, he was a brewer’s servant, still living at Northumberland Street with Rebecca and Emma, plus Rebecca’s widowed mother, Sarah Riches. 3-year old Robert was staying with an aunt in King Street, Norwich, as Rebecca was expecting her third child.
In October 1879, Philip Branch became the licensee of the Lord Nelson public house in Dereham Road, Heigham where Rebecca lived for the remainder of her life.
Rebecca died from pneumonia and morbus cordis, at the Lord Nelson on 10 October 1897, aged 59.