Edith Annie Staveley was born on March 15th at Muston. Edith Annie is the daughter of John Staveley (1861-1909) & Mary Elizabeth Staveley nee Boynton (1864-1944). Edith Annie would have been just 22 when her father died. Her mother had been suffering from mental problems for some time.

In 1901 it appears that John’s wife, Mary Elizabeth, is a patient at the North Riding Lunatic Asylum shown above, at just 35 years of age. It was now down to the older sisters to look after the younger members of the family. Mary Elizabeth Staveley who had been committed to a lunatic asylum was moved to Bradford. The sisters would have moved up this way to be closer to her. Ethel May and Eliza join them in Bradford.

Edith would appear to be the first of the three sisters to be living at Tong at the time of her marriage to Charles Hall on October 8th 1910, the couple were living at 13 Crossland Buildings. Charles is 29 years of age and a Dyers Labourer. Edith Annie is 23 years of age – unpaid domestic duties.

In the 1911 Census we see Charles and Edith Annie with their 6 week old son John Hall. They are now living at 16 Law Street Dudley Hill, Bradford. In 1912 her sister Eliza will join her at this address.

Ethel May would get married and head off to Australia while Eliza would marry and live in Durham. Edith Annie would remain in Bradford with her husband and their son.

In 1939 the family are living at 18 Dawson Terrace in Bradford. Her mother is not shown as living with them but she is likely to have been in a local lunatic asylum.
Such things were not openly talked about in those days, tending instead to be ignored or brushed away rather than discussed. For this reason we know very little about Mary Elizabeth Staveley. For years the family had been under the impression that she had died early although we have since discovered that she died in Bradford in 1944 aged 79.

Edith Annie Hall passed away in Bradford in April 1950 at the age of 63. Charles Hall also died in Bradford at the grand old age of 93.

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