isaac mallindine + susanna dupre
Isaac was born on 19 August 1721 and he was the eldest son of David Malandin, a Huguenot refugee from northern France, and his wife Elizabeth Nicholas. Isaac was baptised at the French Church on Threadneedle Street when he was three weeks old. His father was a master weaver by trade and Isaac likely started learning the trade from his father long before his official apprenticeship began:
A weaver has generally two looms, one for his wife and another for himself, and as his family increases the children are set to work at six or seven years of age to quill silk; at nine or ten years to pick silk; and at the age of twelve or thirteen (according to the size of the child) he is put to the loom to weave. A child very soon learns to weave a plain silk fabric, so as to become a proficient in that branch; a weaver has thus not unfrequently four looms on which members of his own family are employed.
Fifteen year old Isaac began his apprenticeship with John Shaw, citizen and weaver, on 2 August 1736 for a term of seven years and he agreed to the following covenants:
The said Apprentice his said Master faithfully shall serve, his Secrets keep, his lawful Commandments every where gladly do. He shall do no damage to his said Master, nor see it to be done of others but that he to his Power shall lett or forthwith give warning to his said Master of the same. He shall not waste the Goods of his said Master, nor lend them unlawfully to any. He shall not commit Fornication, nor contract Matrimony, within the said Term. He shall not play at Cards, Dice, Tables or any other unlawful Games, whereby his said Master may have any loss, with his own goods or others, during the said Term, without Licence of the said Master. He shall neither buy nor sell. He shall not haunt Taverns or Play-houses, nor absent himself from his said Master’s Service Day or Night unlawfully: but in all things as a faithful Apprentice he shall behave himself towards his said Master, and all his, during the said Term.
For reasons unknown, his training with John Shaw ended after one year and his apprenticeship was transferred to John Bell on 21 November 1837. With his apprenticeship completed, Isaac married Susanna Dupre at St Dunstan and All Saints in Stepney on 26 August 1744. The register entry is only a single line but it does note that Isaac was working as a weaver and both he and Susanna were living in Mile End New Town.
c. 1750
This area was originally part of the parish of Stepney but due to rapid growth, Stepney was subdivided and Mile End New Town was created. The hamlet was surrounded by Bethnal Green to the north, Stepney to the south and Whitechapel to the west and in the mid 18th century, it was still a predominantly rural area with open fields, farms and pasture land.
Isaac and Susanna had nine children and all were baptised at the chuch of St Dunstan in Stepney; the baptismal registers consistently record Isaac’s occupation as a weaver and their abode as Mile End New Town. Their first child, Susanna, was born on 8 July 1745 and baptised on 28 July follwed by Richard who was born on 3 November and baptised on 23 November 1746. Elizabeth was born on 11 October 1748 and baptised five days later. She died of smallpox one year later and was buried at St Dunstan on 10 September 1749.
Isaac was born on New Year’s Day 1750 and baptised on 20 January, John was born on 21 December 1751 but he was not baptised until the following December and Martha was born on 10 February 1755 and baptised on 9 March. James was born on 21 April 1757 and baptised on 15 May followed by William who was born on 29 May 1759 and baptised on 17 June and finally, Mary who was born on 30 July 1761 and baptised on 23 August.
Of their nine children, only one infant death has been found, five have been traced to adulthood and three have not appeared in the records beyond their baptisms. Two of his sons, Isaac and William, followed Isaac into the weaving trade and in 1761, he also took on an apprentice, George Megnin, and for the term of the apprenticeship Isaac promised to:
teach and instruct or cause to be taught and instructed, finding to his said Apprentice, meat, drink, apparel, lodging and all other necessaries, according to the Custom of the City of London, during the said Term.
Their daughter Martha was the first to leave home when she married John Bourdeaux at St Matthew in Bethnal Green on 12 December 1779. Martha and John had three children who were all baptised at Christ Church in Spitalfields: John in 1780, Ann in 1782 and James in 1783. In 1783, three of their sons married — Isaac to Marie Fage on 3 March at St Matthew, John to Sarah Thrush on 7 June, also at St Matthew, and William to Frances Kelsee on 23 September 1783 at St Dunstan, Stepney.
Two years later, their youngest daughter Mary married Isaac James Agombar, a Weaver of Huguenot descent, on 4 June 1785 at St Matthew with Isaac Mallindine, father or brother, and Susanna Purser standing as witnesses. Isaac was born on 22 July 1763 and baptised at St Mathew, Bethnal Green three weeks later; he was the son of Jaques, also known as James, Agombar and his wife Catherine Bucher. Martha gave birth to their first son Isaac on 5 March 1785, several months before their wedding, and he was baptised at St Matthew on 2 April 1786 but died in infancy. Elizabeth was born on 7 June 1794 and a second son named Isaac was born on 7 August 1796.
by William Pearson
On 24 May 1791, an announcement appeared in the Public Advertiser newspaper listing those people who had unclaimed dividends on an annuity and Isaac was included in this list. His first dividend came due in January 1767 and a second one in 1791. It may have been left unclaimed due to Isaac’s poor health; he applied to enter the French Hospital on 15 October 1791 and the admission record notes that he was very weak and incapable of working to alleviate his poverty. He was admitted to the hospital one month later and remained there until his death on 3 March 1793. Isaac was buried at St Matthew in Bethnal Green on 10 March. Susanna Dupre’s death record has not been located but it is assumed she died before Isaac as she does not appear in the French Hospital admission record.
Their grand-daughter Elizabeth Agombar died at her family home on Swan Street in Bethnal Green and was buried in the church yard at St Matthew on 14 February. Her father Isaac died at Swan Street and was buried at St Matthew on 6 August 1821 and her mother died a year later and was buried in the same church yard on 5 September 1822. Surviving grandson, Isaac Agombar, married Mary Hillary on 1 June 1822 but no further records relating to them have been found so it is not know if the Agombar-Mallindine line continued on.
On 4 February 1832, their daughter Martha was also admitted to the French Hospital in a very poor and infirm state and she lived there until her death on 31 March 1836.