Ann Man daughter of Henry Man was an exceedingly plain but very charming old lady; she had a snub-nose & was rather like a pug-dog in the face; she also had a goitre, which she hid with lace.

She was full of fun & very witty. She was devoted to Victoria Matthews who was the unmarried sister of Kate the wife of Edward Garnet Man.

The old lady had charge of the drawing room ornaments at Halstead, where she lived with her brother H. S. Man & his family, & before going to bed every night she made a habit of going upstairs to the drawing room to see that, the windows were shut & the shutters fastened & that her beloved ornaments were undisturbed. One night at 9.30 p.m. she left the parlour a usual for the drawing room, the family had gone into the hall to get their flat candle-sticks off the hall table en route for bed, when a piercing scream rang out from the drawing room; there was a scuffle of feet & Aunt Ann leaped the stairs at one bound into the hall, she sat on the bottom stair and refused to say anything except “The thing on the staircase”; when pressed for further 1nformation she only replied, “My Dear if I were to tell you what I saw I should die”. It was subsequently whispered that she had seen the reflection of her own face in a mirror.

Aunt Ann & the other old ladies at Halstead were in the habit of buying their stuffs trinkets etc. from a travelling peddler who visited the Hall every three months, if a watch wanted repair it was given to the peddler who took it away & brought it back repaired three months later; when the peddler came to the house he was left alone in the drawing room where he spread out his materials etc on the chairs; when he was ready each old lady in turn & alone & in strict order of seniority, went into the room to make her selections.  

Aunt Ann had, what the other old ladies considered an extravagance, she bought two hats or rather I should say bonnets from a hat shop in Bond Street, every year, a black silk poke bonnet lined with white silk for winter wear, white silk lined with pink for summer wear; they were always the same pattern & she wore poke bonnets long after the fashion had died.

When her mother died Aunt Ann came into about £150 Per Annum, derived from the leases of two houses at de Crespigny Park Camberwell. She first lived with Lady Prescott & with people named Willbraham. She went to Halstead Hall about 1840, where she remained until the home was broken up, she then went to live with her niece by marriage Mrs Morrice Man, then a widow, at Carshalton, there she died.