The Courtney's of Holdenhurst
It occurred to me that Abigail and Edith Courtney may have been sent away to school at Holdenhurst whilst their parents had gone away. Perhaps they had family residing there. They were clearly not estranged from their mothers family as their cousins Henry and Martha Paice were visiting at the time of the 1881 census, suggesting their stay with the Brown family at Holdenhurst was not just a few days. Most of the Paice family lived around Droxford, Hampshire. Their fathers family was possibly from Middlesex. There was one Courtney family residing in Holdenhurst at the time of the 1881 census. Four women of independent means born in Ireland and boarding at 'Stoney Crop'. Sidney, Eleanor, Charlotte and Florence Courtney. It does accord with the family story that the Courtneys were 'a bit better' - assuming that means wealthy of sorts? Also, in his memoirs Ted Roberts describes his mother Abigail Courtney to have 'a little bit of Irish ...