The Departure of Ann Fanny Wombwell

It was often assumed that the Mrs Wombwell to whom George Wombwell senior left Menagerie Number One was George's wife. Indeed the 1909 obituary of George Wombwell junior makes precisely this presumption, referring to her as his widow. Since no marriage records have ever been located, a second theory is that she was probably his mistress, and simply adopted his name. It is easy to see where the confusion comes from as Mrs Wombwell had originally been married to a Henry Morgan. When Henry died, George Wombwell senior took her under his wing, and with her young daughter in tow took her out on the road and into the exotic world of his menagerie. Since she soon became known as Mrs Wombwell, it would have been a very fair conclusion that he had married her.

It would also have been the wrong conclusion, for Ann, to use her Christian name, was actually the daughter of George's elder brother, Samuel, and was hence George's niece, and her maiden name was Wombwell. After the death of Henry Morgan, she seems to have kept her married title but reverted to her maiden name, an unconventional move to be sure, but also understandable, for the menagerie was after all brand Wombwell, and George had enough of an intuitive understanding of marketing that he probably did not want the 'Morgan' name distracting from his logos and publicity. The idea that Anne was his wife was therefore something of a gentle deception, and one that he was likely more than happy to allow to be promoted. None of this, by the way, entirely disqualifies the theory that Anne may have been his mistress, but that is another matter.

Belsize Road, today: Copied from Zoopla. Probably, the type of accommodation where Ann Fanny Wombwell would have been living in 1871 with the retired Mrs Wombwell.

Ann Wombwell continued to manage Menagerie Number One until her retirement either in 1862 or 1865 to Hampstead. Living with her in 1871 was another widow, This was her second daughter, Amelia Ann Morgan, who married Edmund Bramston in 1837. Edmund was one of the executors of the will of George Wombwell senior and, it appears, one of his favourite business partners. He died in 1859.

It was with these two widows that Ann Fanny Wombwell, daughter of George Wombwell junior and Fanny Ann Kienlen now found herself living. With her mother having died young, and her father, a hopeless vagrant, remarried, and playing in the menagerie bands up north, it can be imagined that Ann and Amelia put some thought into the future of Ann Fanny Wombwell, very probably a future in which her father would be confined to a very limited role.

The exact time-scale of what happened over the next decade is not quite clear, and nor can it be ascertained as to what extent Ann Fanny’s next move was a reaction against her upbringing, the death of her mother, the all round unreliability of her father, or the matchmaking skills of Mrs Wombwell. 

The facts as they have come down to us are however explicit and straightforward enough. On the 4th April, 1881, Ann Fanny Wombwell married a certain Reverend Herbert Sowerby in, of all places, Shanghai, China.

For more on Ann Wombwell, see: The Enigmatic Mrs Ann Wombwell, wife of the Celebrated Menagerist, George Wombwell.