Subject

Probably the wife of Frederick Frye.

Andrew Behan researched this woman, first making a fair stab at which Mrs Frye she is:

Firstly, we can discount Mrs Frye being the mother of Frederick Charlwood Frye. This would have been Mrs Cecilia Susan Frye née Bull, but she died in 1864. This leaves it to be more than probable that it was his wife. So here we go.

Mrs Frye was born as Jane Kerzia Crosbie and her birth was registered in the second quarter of 1844 in Winchester, Hampshire. She was the youngest of the five children of William Crosbie and Kerzia Crosbie née Catchpole. Her father was a grocer and the 1851 census shows them all to be living at 73 High Street, Winchester. The 1861 census informs us she was still living at the same address with her parents but her siblings had left. She was recorded as a 17 years old scholar. The 1871 census shows she was living with her parents at the home of an elder sister, Agnes, who had married a wine merchant, Alfred Gilbey, at Wooburn House, Wooburn, Buckinghamshire. In addition to William and Agnes's six children, there was also a butler, a housekeeper, a cook, two housemaids, a nurse, an under-nurse, a footman and two gardeners at the property.

On 8 July 1873 she married Frederick Charlwood Frye in Wooburn. The 1881 census shows that Alfred Gilbey had died and his widow, Agnes, had moved to 15 & 16 Queen's Gate Gardens, Kensington, where she was living with her seven children together with Frederick Charlwood Frye and Jane Kerzia Frye and their two children Agnes Frye and Kate Parry Frye. Also living there was Anne Crosbie who was a sister to both Agnes Gilbey and Jane Kerzia Frye. Also in the household was a butler (called Hudson), a house-keeper, a cook, two footmen, a hall boy, two housemaids, a parlour-maid, a kitchen-maid, a scullery-maid, a nurse and two under-nurses.

The 1891 census shows her and her husband living with their two daughters, a cook, a house-maid and a ladies maid at 19 All Saints Road, Kensington. The 1911 census shows her, her husband, their  daughter Agnes, a visitor called John Robert Collins (who would in 1915 marry her other daughter, Kate Parry Frye), a cook and a housemaid at The Plat, Bourne End, Buckinghamshire.

Her husband died on 20 March 1914. She died on 19 November 1925 at The Old Cottage, Berghers Hill, Wooburn Green, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Probate was granted to her daughters and her effects totalled £179-18s-4d.