Held at:	Hereford Archives and Records Centre
Reference:	G36/A/127
Source:	Original negatives
Title:	Digital Archive: Photographs of Michaelchurch Court and the Trafford Family from the Bustin Collection
Place name:	Michaelchurch Escley
Date:	c.1901

Description:

Henry Randolph Trafford of Michaelchurch Court married Bettina Maud Partridge of Bacton, the third child of nine born to William Bailey Partridge and Mary Frances Elizabeth [nee Hamp], in 1899. Their daughter Clare Margaret was born in 1900 and it therefore seems likely that these formal pictures taken in 1901 were at the occasion of Clare Margaret's first birthday or some similar family event.

It seems likely that the girl in picture 1 was one of the Partridge daughters, Bettina Maud's sister and therefore Henry Trafford's sister-in-law. Given the size of the Partridge family the age discrepancy between the girl and Bettina Maud is perhaps reasonable in this scenario. There were 5 Partridge daughters altogether - the girl in the photograph is thought to be the youngest sister Dorothy who would have been 10 or 11 years of age in 1901, but may be a slightly older sister, Violet. She is seen again in picture 2 with Henry Trafford.

Picture 3 is Mrs Trafford with her mother MFE Partridge [holding baby Clare Margaret] and maternal grandmother Mrs Hamp. They appear again in picture 4 with Henry Trafford standing behind and to the left. Between the two men on the right is his assumed sister-in-law from photos 1 and 2. Given the family relationships it seems highly likely that the other two men are William Bailey Partridge, Mrs Trafford's father who died in 1909, and William Henry Hamp, her maternal grandfather. The same cast of characters appears again in photo 6.

Picture 5 is thought to be of Clare Margaret Trafford, and picture 7 shows Henry Randolph Trafford taking his ease with his pet dog at his feet.

 

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5

 

 

6

 

7

Observations:

These photographs have been reproduced by Herefordshire History from the original glass negatives held at HARC. The Bustin Collection contains a large number of photographs which are available online at https://www.herefordshirehistory.org.uk/archive/bustin-image-collection