Life story retold by Katie Amos
Louisa Noon (nee Timms) was born in 1793 in Reading. She was baptised on 2 Sep 1793 in St Laurence’s Church, Reading.
It would appear that she ran a business for a while as the Reading Mercury carries this advert :
Household Furniture canisters, shop fixtures etc, London Road, Reading.
To be sold by auction by Mr Adams. On Monday March 18th, 1833 at 11 o’clock, on the premises, No 21 London Road.
– Part of the household furniture, shop fixtures &c of Miss Timms, declining the grocery business; consisting of counters with drawers, nest of drawers, cheese racks, desks, shelves, canisters, scales and weights, grates, coppers, shelves &c. In furniture, – tent bedsteads and dimity furnitures, feather beds and mattresses, blankets and counterpanes, mahogany bureau, card tables, work ditto, rose-wood and Windsor chairs, carpets, rugs, pier and dressing glasses, work box, writing desks, paintings of Hambletonian and Diamond, painting of cattle, by Paul Potter; prints, books, &c fenders and fire irons, kitchen requisites &c, &c.
May be viewed the morning of the sale. Catalogues on the premises, and at the auctioneer’s, No 32 Middle Row.
Note: Hambletonian and Diamond were famous racehorses! And Paul Potter a well known painter of cattle.
Later in 1833 on 27th November at St Giles, she married and the Reading Mercury BMD column gives us this: Mr James Noon, of Minster Street to Louisa, only daughter of the late Mrs Timms, of Albion Street.
The marriage certificate tells us the witnesses were James Strugnell and Harriet Payton.
The census returns locate her at Minster Street, Reading 1841, the 1851 tells us that she was at no 11. Minster Street, as a tradesman’s wife, and by 1861 she was a proprietor of house, age 67 (at 3 Mount Pleasant.)
She died on 15 Oct 1863 at the age of 70 in 3 Southern Place, Reading. The Reading Mercury of 17.10.1863 notes this in the births, marriages and deaths column –
On the 15th inst., at No.3 Southern Place, Reading, Louisa, the relict of Mr Jas. Noon, age 70.
She is buried at Reading Cemetery and the grave (53c17) has the inscription
‘In memory of James Noon, who died April 3rd 1861, aged 74 years, his end was peace. Also Louisa wife of James Noon who died Oct. 16th 1863 aged 70 years. In memory of Harriet Payton died Jan 27th 1881 aged 72 years.‘
Harriet was James’s first wife’s sister’s child. James himself was a glover. His probate entry notes:
James Noon late of Reading in the County of Berks, Gentleman deceased who died 3 April 1861 at Reading aforesaid was proved at Oxford by the oaths of James Trendell of Reading aforesaid Gentleman and Charles James Butler of the same place Auctioneer the executors.
Effects under £3000.
Louisa’s brother was the artist, tinter, and engraver William Henry Timms, best known for his 12 Views of Reading. He was born in Reading, but later moved to London.
Buried in Section 53, Row C, Plot 17