A watercolour of Mother Pugsley's Well by Samuel Jackson, 1823 (courtesy of Bristol Museums, Galleries and Archives).
His young widow would visit his grave frequently. She lived for another 60 years, but never remarried. She devoted her time to charitable works and spent much of the time beside the well near where her husband was buried, using the water from the well to care for the sick. Legend had it that the water from the well would cure sore eyes and she would help visitors to the well to bathe their eyes.
She was reputed to have been especially fond of children and having had no chance to have her own, would play with them beside the well, perhaps this being what earned her the title of Mother Pugsley.
On her death, Mother Pugsley was buried according to her wishes; next to her husband in her wedding dress. She was “borne to her grave on an open bier (a stretcher) accompanied by young girls strewing flowers and herbs and a musician playing merrily”. The funeral was apparently observed by 10,000 spectators.
We know that there was a Mother Pugsley living in St. James around this time, but there is very little written evidence for the story surrounding her life and death. However, the well definitely existed and is referred to in a document commissioned by King Alfred in 883AD. It still survives today, but has been covered over since 1839 when the land was sold for development.
(Kingsdown: Bristol’s Vertical Suburb, Penny Mellor and Mary Wright, 2009)