It is not yet known when Bessie started working in the ‘big house’ on the outskirts of Padstow and sadly no household account records exist for the best candidate, the nearby Prideaux Place. Yet, the circumstantial evidence that she worked for the Prideaux-Brunes is considerable:

1. The footpath between L.Petherick and Padstow is, according to the signposts only 2 miles from L. Petherick and the Prideaux-Brune mansion, is even nearer. Bessie could have easily have walked between home and work.

2. In 1871, Charles Glynn Prideaux-Brune (age 50), a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for Cornwall, and his wife Ellen (age 47) had 8 children living with them (census). The youngest of whom, when Bessie was 12, 19 and 25 years old would have been aged as follows:

The family had 2 nursemaids in 1861 and 1871 living at the House. The title Head Nursemaid, which is how Bessie described herself, indicates that she would have had at least one and possibly two subordinates.

3. Charles Prideaux-Brune’s sister, Beatrice Anne Prideaux-Brune (b1831), married Sir Hugh Henry Molesworth, the rector at Little Petherick. Even though her husband died in 1862, Beatrice must have known Bessie’s family well:

Bessie’s uncle was the parish clerk

Bessie’s uncle and father rented land from the Rev. Molesworth (fig.17)

Bessie’s sisters were in the Church Choir (fig.18)

All of which meant that Beatrice would have known Bessie as a young girl and could have acted as a contact to her brother @ Prideaux Place when he searched for servants to care for his children.

4. The Prideaux-Brunes certainly had links with royalty (Official papers recording this are held at Truro Record Office). Ref. Bessie present at tea and spoke with Queen Victoria

5. We know that Bessie married Stephen at Hanover Square, London and that she told her grandchildren that she took the children in her care to Buckingham Palace. Charles Prideaux Brune was born at Hanover Square, London; in the 1881 census he and his family were living in London. When the family lived in London, there would have been the possibility for Bessie to have a romance with Stephen Nichols.

It is unlikely, therefore, that clear proof will ever be obtained that Bessie worked at Prideaux place. But all the evidence points that way and I am personally convinced.