BASHAM, Mary Ellen
Mary Ellen Basham was born at Cambridge in 1855, daughter of William Isaac Basham (1828-1892), a woollen draper, and his wife Mary Anne née Metcalfe (1857-16 November 1919), who married at Cambridge in 1853. In 1871, the family were living at Park Side, St Andrew the Less, Cambridge but in 1881 her father was declared a bankrupt when the contents of the family home 'Petersfield', Cambridge was offered at a three-day sale at auction followed by the sale of 'The Mansion'. In 1881, 25-year-old Mary was an artist as ‘head in charge’ at 31 & 31a Petty Curry, Cambridge in the household, with two young brothers, an aunt and two indoor servants. Mary exhibited at the Dudley New Gallery in 1891 from Haverhill, Suffolk, when a 35-year-old 'artist in oil & watercolour' living at 42-44 High Street, Haverhill with her parents, 62-year-old William, a wholesale clothiers warehouse manager, and 59-year-old Mary Ann, all born at Cambridge. Her father died at Haverhill in 1892 when the family returned to Cambridge, living at 39 Warkworth Street in 1901 and were still there in 1911 when Mary was a 55-year-old ‘artist in oils & watercolours’ but by 1919 they had moved to 1 Willis Road, Cambridge where her mother died. Mary Ellen Basham died at 1 Willis Road, Cambridge on 28 December 1933, aged 78, she was unmarried.