Fanny's Life After Joe...

I have no idea of Fanny's initial movements after the final court session late in 1875. Free from her hated husband, and with her marriage settlement lawfully hers and giving her some financial security, she most likely booked a passage for England as soon as she possibly could.
With the divorce case having been covered by the newspapers Australia-wide- albeit sympathetically to Fanny- she would have wished to distance herself from the notoriety of Melbourne society.
Her sister Rebecca and her husband Dr. William Farrage( who had married in Melbourne in 1868) had departed for England in 1873 on board the ship 'Agamemnon'.Because Fanny had reverted back to her maiden name of "Smith", I have been unable to distinguish her from the many other Smith passengers who boarded ships for England in the period 1875-1879, the latter year being the one in which we can pick up Fanny's story again.

In the March 1/4 of 1879,in Kensington,London, Fanny Jane Smith married Thomas Stocker, a widowed farmer some 14 years her senior. Thomas had been born in Devon in c. 1824, the son of Thomas Stocker, foreman in Her Majesty's Dockyard.
On February 11, 1851, Thomas Stocker, a draper of St. Luke's, Chelsea, married Matilda Binnington Brightman, the daughter of William Brightman, deceased.At the time of the 1851 census which was taken the following month, Thomas and his new bride were living at Sloane Street, Chelsea. Thomas was the head of the household, aged 28, and a draper in a firm employing 2 men, 2 women and one boy. His wife Matilda was two years older than him. Also in the house were two women servants and two male draper's assistants.
Matilda bore Thomas the first of two children the following year. On July 2, 1852, in their Sloane Street home, Thomas Stocker was born. Their second child did not arrive until over ten years later...Frank Edwin Binnington Stoker was born on September 10, 1863, in the Newark registration district.
In the 1861 census, Thomas and his family had moved from London, and he was working as the manager of a plaster works at Newark On Trent in Nottinghamshire. He is incorrectly recorded as 'Francis Stocker', but there is absolutely no doubt that it is Thomas...
South Parade, Newark On Trent.
Francis Stocker/ head/ 37/ manager of plaster works employing 30 men and boys/ born Plymouth, Devon.
Matilda Stocker/ wife/ 40/ born Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
Thomas Stocker/ son/8/ scholar/ born London
Plus one female servant.

Ten years later, the 1871 census found the Stocker family relocated yet again, this time to Cornwall:
North Tamerton, Cornwall.
Thomas Stocker/ head/48/ farmer of 195 acres employing 5 labourers/ born Devonport, Devon.
Mat Stocker/ wife/ 50/ born Gorlston, Norfolk
Thomas Stocker/ son/ 18/ farmer's son/ born London
Frank Stocker/ son/ 7/ born London
Plus 2 female and 2 male servants.

Matilda Binnington Stocker died in the June 1/4 of 1878, aged 57 years.Her husband did not remain a widower for long....in the March 1/4 of 1879, he married Fanny Jane Smith. How the couple met is a story I would love to know, and even more so how their marriage fared.
Fanny was in her 40th year when they married, and Thomas was about 55, so it is not surprising that there were no children born of the union. Her childless state is even less remarkable when considering Fanny's gynaecological problems, history of hysteria and supposed virginal state going into her second marriage.
I don't know if Thomas Stoker had any more luck in the nuptial bed than his predecessor Joseph Bishop, but less than three years after their marriage, at the time of the 1881 census, Fanny and Thomas were living apart...Thomas was on the family farm at Winscott in Devon, and Fanny was in a boarding house in London.

1881: Winscott, Pyworthy, Devon.
Thomas Stocker/ head/ married/ 57/ farmer/ born Devonport.
Thomas Stocker/ son/ unmarried/ 27/ farmer's son/ born London
Frank Stocker/ son/unmarried/ 17/ boy at school/ born London
Two servants.


30 & 31 Fitzroy Square, Tottenham Court, St. Pancras, London
Fanny J Stocker/ boarder/ married/ 37/ born Burley, Rutlandshire.
She was boarding in a boarding house run by Emily Langford, a 46 year old widow.

Interestingly, Fanny's sister, Rebecca Farrage, who had been widowed in 1876, was living with their widower father, Robert Smith, at Ilfracombe in Devon. I wonder why Fanny chose to board in London rather than live with her sister and father if her marriage to Thomas had not been successful? Perhaps they didn't approve of her track record or marital behaviour?
Apart from a separation from her husband after only several years of marriage, another common factor in Fanny's first and second marriages became apparent as I began to accumulate information on Thomas Stocker's life...just as Joseph Bishop's Soho Foundry business turned belly up during the first year of his marriage to Fanny, so did Thomas Stocker hit business difficulties in the twelve months after his wedding. The London Gazette of July 2, 1880, states;
"Bankruptcy Act: County Court of Devonshire. Liquidation instituted by Thomas Stocker of Winscott House, Pyeworthy, Devon, and of east Venton, parish of North Tamerton, Cornwall, Gentleman and farmer."
While Fanny perhaps can't be blamed for these business failures, they most likely contributed to her decision to leave both marriages when financial difficulties hit.

Whatever the relationship between Fanny and her second husband, it was cut short by Thomas Stocker's death in 1887.
By 1891, Fanny and her sister Rebecca were living at the same boarding house in Bath...
13, 14 and 15 Barnett St, Private Hotel, Walcott, Bath,Somerset.
Fanny J. Stocker/ widow/ 35/ Living on her own means/ born Burley, Rutland
Rebecca Farrage/ widow/ 35/ living on her own means/ born Burley Rutlandshire.

Fanny seems to have been totally incapable of owning up to her real age..as well as decreasing her age in court documents in her divorce case against Joseph Bishop, she never even came close to telling the truth in census returns once she went back to England. For example:
1881: Said she was 37 when she was actually 43
1891: Said she was 35 when she was 53
1901: Said she was 45 when actual age was 63
1911: recorded age as 58 but was 73.

In 1901, Fanny Stocker was living in three rooms of a house at Warrior Gardens in Hastings, Sussex.She was noted as being a 45 year old widow who was living on her own means. The Apps family were living in the main body of the house, and as well as Fanny renting out rooms, two other single women, both living on their own means, were also renting out rooms in the same house.

1911 saw Fanny still in Hastings, at 36 Warrior Square, living in a boarding house with 3 males and 8 females.Information given was Fanny Jane Stocker, widow, 58 years, boarder, living on private means, born in Devon.

The illustrious life of Fanny Jane Smith/ Bishop/ Stocker finally came to a close in 1917...she died at Hastings in the March 1/4 of 1917, aged 78 (correct age at last!!!)
Her sister Rebecca Elizabeth Farrage died just months before Fanny. She died at her home, 'Melba', Bath Road, Chippenham, Wiltshire, on August 3, 1916.