She worked as a domestic servant and for a time in the 1860's she worked at "The Three Horseshoes" public house in Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, which was owned at the time by Owen Yarrow. It was during this time that she would have met her future husband, Owen Yarrow's half-brother, James Yarrow.  The pub has since been converted into a large house (pictured far left in 1997).

The couple married and had three sons and they set up home opposite the pub until the 5th November 1930 (Guy Fawke's Night) when a stray firework landed on the thatched roof of the cottage and the entire house was burnt to the ground.