Emma HOOKINS (Tree 2L)

Emma belongs to one of the much smaller Trees in the HOOKINS collection which consists of only 17 people but which has so far resisted attempts to be conclusively joined to another larger Tree.
She was born on 20 May 1840, the daughter of Mark and Sarah PESKETT, and was baptised at St Peter & St Paul Church in Croydon (a venue used for a number of HOOKINS baptisms and burials over the years) on 14 Jun 1840.
At the time of the 1851 Census she was living in West Side, Mitcham with her parents and 5 siblings. By 1861 the family was living on the High Street in Mitcham. Emma's father was there together with Emma's married brother, wife and 2 children. Mother Sarah was not, however, present although Emma's father is not described as a Widower and a quick search of deaths does not show that Sarah had died.
Emma married James HOOKINS on 1 October 1865 at Croydon Parish Church although her first child, Emma Mary, had been born in 1863 as PESKETT. Other children followed: William in 1865 and Mary Ann in 1869 and, by 1871, the whole family were living together at 3 Smiths Place, Mitcham by which time Emma Mary was using the HOOKINS name.
The next 10 years produced 3 more children: Elizabeth in 1873, Louisa Jane in 1875 and James Henry in 1880. By 1881 the family, with the exception of eldest daughter Emma Mary, were living at Crews Alley in Mitcham, and mother Emma was registered partially blind. Unfortunately her youngest son James died later that same year at the age of just 1 year.
By 1891 the remainder of the family had moved to 1 The Terrace in Mitcham but, by 1901, only Elizabeth remains at home. Emma's husband James died in 1904 and in the 1911 Census, Emma, now totally blind, is living with Elizabeth at 1 Grove Road. She is also recorded as having had 7 children so it seems that one had been born and then died between Census returns and is not yet in my records of the family.
Emma died on 28 April 1918 at Grove Road and was buried in the same cemetery as her husband at Church Road in Merton.