Mary Barrie nee Ansell

[Robert Greenham]

Does any member of this forum happen to know Mary Ansell's birthdate, please?

My quest to establish Mary Ansell's birth details has led me in different directions. At one time, from searching on the web, it looked as though Mary was born in 1867 - that tied in with my findings in the 1901 census. The problem with that census entry, however, is that it implies that Mary was seven years younger than her husband, which didn't sound right to me, and also it states that her birth place was Northwood, Middlesex, whereas I had been led to believe that she was born in London, probably in Bayswater or Paddington (the two are almost synonymous). I might say, at this point, that it was not unknown for people to give false information in censuses, especially in regard to their age!

Where Mary's origins are mentioned, all too scantly, in some Barrie biographies, she was said to be the daughter of an innkeeper or licensed victualler in Bayswater or Paddington, London. I have searched for births of Mary Ansell in London and, so far, the only one which seems to fit was born on 1 March 1861 in Paddington, born at 71 Moscow Road, daughter of George Ansell, Licensed victualler, and Mary Ansell formerly Kitchen. I checked the 1861 census, which occurred in April 1861, and the family are all there, including Mary as a 1 month old girl, and that revealed that 71 Moscow Road was (at that time) an inn called The King's Head.

This would make Mary about 10 months younger than JMB. Does that sound about right? Or should I rule out this Mary?

I would greatly appreciate any comments or help with establishing Mary's origin, please.

[Robert Greenham]

I see that, to date, 50 people have read my first post on this subject, so I assume there is some interest in it. As I have now found the answer to my own question I thought I might as well post a reply to myself!

With no malice intented, I have to announce that Mary Ansell seems to have lied about her age. She certainly lied to officialdom, and, who knows, she may have lied to JMB, not only when she met him, but also when she married him. She also lied about her place of birth.

Mary Ansell was definitely born in 1 March 1861, at the King's Head, 71 Moscow Road, Bayswater, London. Her parents were George Ansell and Mary Kitchen.

The family appear in the April 1861 census, with Mary's age recorded as 1 month. The same family appear in the April 1871 census, at a different address, and Mary's age is recorded as 10 years. (They always rounded down ages over 1 year). No lies or mistakes there.

But when she married James Barrie, on 9 July 1894, her age was recorded as 27 instead of 33. Presumably, she had given her date of birth as 1 March 1867 instead of 1861.

There can be no doubt that we are talking about the same Mary Ansell - the certificate of her marriage to James Barrie records that her father was George Ansell and her mother was Mary Ansell nee Kitchen.

Now, did JMB know his bride was lying about her age? If so, would he have been happy about it?

Mary seems to have maintained this deception for at least seven more years, if not for her whole life. In the April 1901 census she is recorded as Mary Barrie's wife, age 34 instead of 40.

But that's not all! In the 1901 census, Mary also lied about her place of birth, stating it as Northwood, Middlesex, instead of Bayswater or Paddington, London. Why did she do this? Was Northwood a more fashionable place to have been born, situated between Harrow and Rickmansworth? Possibly, but what did she think she would gain from this? The public - you and I - wouldn't be able to discover it until 100 years had passed. Or had she lied to JMB about her birthplace, and somehow managed to keep up the deception, presumably with the co-operation of her mother and three brothers (her father died before she married).

I would greatly appreciate hearing any thoughts on all this, please.

[Kim Agent]

I think that since she was an actress, she might have been worried about her career, Since the younger you are the better....This means that she was older than JMB, Very interesting, clears  some things up for me at least,,    Thank You Robert  for  all your hard work  in searching for this.... I won't be able to stop talking about this  to all my friends at work tomorrow....Kim

[Robert Greenham]

Thanks, Kim.

I'm sorry, but this doesn't mean Mary was older than James. She was about 10 months younger than him. He was born on May 9th 1860, whereas she was born on March 1st, 1861.

Incidentally, I have at last managed to find Mary Ansell in the 1881 census. This had eluded me for months. She is recorded incorrectly as Mary ANSWELL. Her age was correctly recorded as 20, and her birthplace was correctly recorded as Bayswater. So we now know that in April 1881 Mary was living with her widowed mother (recorded as Mary ANSWELL, widow, 50) at 113 Mount Pleasant Road, Hastings, in Sussex. No occupation was recorded for young Mary, but perhaps by then she was dabbling in acting. Her mother's occupation was recorded as 'Income derived from houses'.

I still have not managed to find Mary in the 1891 census, when she would have been 30 and, it is generally thought, working as an actress, possibly in repertory around the UK.

Seemingly, Mary may have remained 30 for six years thereafter, but once having declared her age for the purpose of her marriage to James, thereafter she would presumably have had to allow the clock to resume ticking until her death. The only newspaper report of her death which I have seen does not, unfortunately, give her age or date of birth. She died in Biarritz, France, in July 1950, having emigrated there some years before James Barrie's death in 1937.

[Robert Greenham]

Correction! I didn't think my last two paragraphs through clearly, sorry.

Mary's age was given as 27 (instead of her real age of 33) when she married James, and so, logically, before she married she wouldn't have told the world she was 30 for six years, if, indeed, she told anyone. Obviously she decided to 'stop the clock' at some point after she was 20, and restarted it six years after that.

I have a lovely sketched portrait of her which was published in May 1891, when she was about 30. It occupied the whole of the front page of The Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic News, and I think it would be reasonable to assume that it was a current portrait. In my opinion she does look a few years younger than 30. The artist included his initials, MK, in the picture. I have no idea who he was but it seems likely that he sketched portraits of other famous personalities. Expect to see this portrait on this website sometime.

[Robert Greenham]

Today is the 95th anniversary of Mary Barrie's marriage to Gilbert
Cannan at the Register Office at Holborn, London, on 28th April 1910.

On the issue of Mary's age (which I raised a few weeks ago), by the time
of her second marriage Mary had trimmed a further two years off her age!
The marriage certificate states her age was 41 years. She was actually
49.  So she lied to both husbands. Her marriage to JMB produced no
children, and the reason is well-known. Her marriage to Cannan produced
no children either, but seemingly for a different reason, and little
wonder.

While we may ponder to what extent Mary's deceiving JMB throws a
different light on their relationship, it looks as though we should also
feel some sympathy for Gilbert Cannan who may well have been tricked
into believing that there were reasonable prospects for Mary bearing him
a child.

[Robert Greenham]

To judge from the number of views of this topic, there is substantial interest in Mary Ansell.  I am therefore repeating under this subject heading a post I have just submitted under another category:

"Thank you, Andrew, for posting Philip Henshaw's review (of Lisa Chaney's new biography of Barrie: Hide-and-seek with Angels). Maybe there will be others to follow soon?

"Like most of us, I shall not receive Lisa Chaney's new book until after it is published. If Henshaw is correct in saying that JMB's wife is not mentioned in the index, from which I suppose it is reasonable to assume that Lisa Chaney says nothing about Mary Ansell, this does seem very odd. From my own limited forays into research, I will say that finding anything substantial to add to what has already been said about Mary Ansell seems difficult. However, as I comment in my new book, Mary seems to have deceived Barrie about her age and her birthplace to the extent that she was six years     older than he, and indeed certain authorities, had been led to believe. When she married Gilbert Cannan she stated her age as no less than eight years younger than her true age. Either both husbands were deceived, or they both were happy to go along with her lies; it would be interesting to discover which is the truth. Mary was also a gambler, although I found no evidence for this within the periods of her two marriages; a few years after her divorce from Cannan, D H Lawrence appealed to her to cease her gambling, saying that he feared it might become a habit.

"My information throws a slightly different light on the relationship between the Barries, for it seems there was a darker side to Mary Ansell than Barrie's biographers have so far revealed. My discovery of the truth about Mary Ansell's age, etc, was easily achieved with simple family history research techniques, and such research has been made considerably easier in recent years by virtue of so many official records being accessible online. A consideration of what effects Mary's deception(s) had on Barrie, if any, really should be a requirement of any new biography of him. In this one respect, at least, Lisa Chaney does seem to have made an unfortunate, if not glaring, omission."