“The ABCs of Newtown” is a series tying each letter of the alphabet to something in Newtown. This week we continue with a look at a road near the center of town named for a woman who is often overlooked by historians yet celebrated for changing the English monarchy.

Queen Street is a (generally) north-south run that runs parallel to a section of South Main Street.

It is just shy of one mile long, with businesses along its northern stretch and residences along most of the southern two-thirds of the town road. Merry Hill Childcare Center, at 49 Queen Street, is the southernmost business on the road. All other businesses are north of the road’s intersection with Glover Avenue.

The section of Queen Street between its intersections with Church Hill Road and Borough Lane is within The Borough. Borough Lane is the southernmost border of The Borough, in fact.

The first appearance of the road by name in this newspaper was June 6, 1878, with the announcement: “The roads are being worked. Mr Mitchell has done a good job on the road leading to Sandy Hook. Mr C.B. Sherman repaired Queen street week before last.”

The Road’s Namesake, Very Briefly

Queen Street was, according to Newtown Past and Present, which was written and published by the League of Women Voters of Newtown in 1955, named for Queen Anne of England, who ruled from 1702-1714.

According to Historic Royal Palaces, an independent charity that manages six unoccupied royal palaces in the United Kingdom, and continues to research the people who lived there, Queen Anne was a “stoical Stuart who, despite ill health and tragedy, was a surprisingly successful monarch.”

She was the first Queen of the united single sovereign state of Great Britain.

The younger daughter of James II, Anne is often overlooked by historians yet celebrated for her reign, which “saw the end of the Stuart dynasty and laid the way for the Georgian era,” according to HRP.org.uk.

She and her sister Mary were the daughters of James, Duke of York (who became King James II) and his first wife, Anne Hyde. The girls’ mother died when Anne was 6 years old. When her father remarried, his new wife (Mary of Modena) was less than seven years older than Anne.

At age 18, on July 28, 1683, Anne married Prince George of Denmark, her second cousin once removed.

Between 1684 and 1700 Anne went through 18 pregnancies. She suffered multiple miscarriages, and delivered at least four stillbirths. Of her five liveborn children, four died before the age of two.

Anne’s sole surviving child, Prince William, the Duke of Gloucester, died shortly after his 11th birthday.

Anne became queen following the death of her brother-in-law, William III, on March 8, 1702.

At that time she was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland. Following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707, which merged the kingdoms of Scotland and England, she was then Queen of Great Britain and Ireland. (The ratification also meant she was the final Queen of England and the final Queen of Scots.)

Her husband died in October 1708, after which Anne continued to rule. A series of strokes — following years of failing health — caused her death on Sunday, August 1, 1714. She was 49 years old.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.