See also
| Husband: | (unknown) | |
| Wife: | Susanna (Ann) THORPE (1851-1922) | |
| Children: | Edith Grace THORPE (1878- ) | |
| Name: | Susanna (Ann) THORPE | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Father: | Thomas THORPE (1820-1898) | |
| Mother: | Matilda ROLLS (1816-1875) | |
| Birth | 1851 | Jun Qtr, Sevenoaks, (Underiver), Kent |
| Death | 1922 (age 70-71) | Mar Qtr, Dartford, Kent |
| Name: | Edith Grace THORPE | |
| Sex: | Female | |
| Birth | 14 Feb 1878 | Kingsdown Kent |
| Occupation | Field worker/Rag cutter at Eynsford paper mill | |
1861 census living with parents at Shor (ham) Hill, Kemsing, Kent. 1901 census with illegitamate daughter Edith living with husband Thomas Wakeman.
1901 census lshown living as Edith WRIGHTMAN with mother and Step father's family. 1911 at Kliln Cottages, Near Romney Street, Shoreham, Kent with Step father and family and own children. Status given as 'Single'. 1921 census living with mother, stepfather and her own children at Malt Shovel Cottages, Eynsford, Kent. Living at same address in May 1924 at death of daughter Edith.1939 Register living with married daughter Lilian and family at 19 Greatness Road, Sevenoaks, Kent. Possible death December Qtr, 1957 Surrey. S.E. or December Qtr, 1960 Bromley or March Qtr, 1969 Maidenhead.
Rag-cutting was always carried out in a separate part of a mill, and was mainly the work of women, aged from fifteen or sixteen years upwards, though a few boys might also take part. Some people might work for decades as rag-cutters, particularly those in rural districts, presumably for lack of other employment opportunities:
"The rag-cutters work for the most part in a large room or rooms, which of course vary much in their size relatively to the number of occupants, and vary much in their ventilation, in their other arrangements, and generally in their suitability for the purposes to which they are applied. They are always dusty, and always have a more or less musty if not more offensive smell. They generally, however, appear to me to be fairly ventilated.
Each rag-cutter, while at work, stands at a board with a knife fixed in it in front of her vertically, with the cutting edge forwards, provided on the one hand with an adequate supply of rags, and on the other with a kind of bin furnished with compartments, into one or other of which she throws, according to their character, the rags as she cuts them". Dr John Syer Bristowe (1827-95)