Jane Jenkyn was born in St. Ives, Cornwall, England, in 1854, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Jenkyn (née Harry). Her father was a fishmonger and general merchant and Jane was the seventh of nine known children in the family.
In 1880, she married Jabez Vivian Williams in St. Ives and moved to Plymouth, Devon. Her husband was a chemist and druggist and operated a business at 94 & 95. Old Town Street, Plymouth, and the couple lived in accommodations overhead. They later moved to a residence at 5. Wentworth Villas, Plymouth.
The couple had two children – Thomas Vivian, born in 1881, and Roy Trewhella, born in 1889. There might have been other children who did not live beyond infancy.
In 1909, Jabez Williams died, leaving Jane his estate of £25! By then, her elder son was employed as an architect and living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, while the younger was a radio operator with the Marconi Company. Jane moved to ‘The Retreat’, Newquay, Cornwall, after the death of her husband.
In May 1911, she had sailed on the Tunisian from Liverpool to Quebec, Canada, and travelled overland to Toronto to visit her son. It is not known when she returned to England, but she travelled to Canada again in August 1914, on this occasion sailing on the Royal Edward from Avonmouth to Quebec.
In the spring of 1915, she decided to return home and booked second cabin passage from New York to Liverpool on the May sailing of the Lusitania.
Travelling from Toronto at the end of April, she arrived at the Cunard berth at Pier 54 in New York, on 1st May 1915, in time for the liner’s scheduled 10.00 a.m. departure. This was then delayed until the afternoon as the liner had to embark passengers, crew and cargo from the Anchor Liner Cameronia, which had been requisitioned by the British Admiralty for war work as a troop ship, at the end of April. On boarding the liner, Mrs. Williams was shown to cabin E135, which she shared with Miss Henrietta Pirrie, Miss Elizabeth B. Hampshire, and Miss Florence Whitehead.
The Lusitania finally left port just after mid-day and just six days later, on the afternoon of 7th May; she was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-20. At that point, she within sight of the coast of southern Ireland and only about fourteen hours away from docking at her home port.
Jane Williams was a victim of the sinking and as her body was never recovered from the sea and identified afterwards, she has no known grave. She was aged 60 years. Also lost was Miss Pirrie, but Elizabeth Hampshire and Florence Whitehead survived.
On 16th January 1916, probate of her estate was granted to a Minnie Powell Lowe, described as wife of John Thomas Lowe, who was residing at Jane’s old home at 5.
Wentworth Villas, Plymouth, and who must have been a close friend. Her effects amounted to £352-0s-6d., (£352.2½p.), but were later re-sworn as £700-0s-0d.
Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1861 Census of England & Wales, 1871 Census of England & Wales, 1881 Census of England & Wales, 1891 Census of England & Wales, 1911 Census of England & Wales, Canadian Passenger Lists 1865 – 1935, Cunard Records, Cornishman, Probate Records, PRO BT 100/345, UniLiv D92/2/62, UniLiv D/92/2/347, Deaths at Sea 1871 – 1968, Graham Maddocks, Geoff Whitfield, Michael Poirier, Jim Kalafus, Cliff Barry, Paul Latimer, Norman Gray.
Copyright © Peter Kelly.