james mallindine + hannah edghill
James was born on 5 September 1785 in Bakers Row and baptised at St Mary Whitechapel on 7 October. He was the son of William Mallindine and his wife Frances Kelsee. Three generations of his family had worked as Silk Weavers in London and James carried on the tradition and worked as a weaver for his entire adult life. It doesn’t appear that he apprenticed with another master weaver so he likely trained alongside his father from an early age.
He married Hannah Edghill on 3 June 1810 at St Matthew in Bethnal Green. Hannah was born on 9 April 1789 in Haggerston to Jasper Edghill and Eleanor Virtue and baptised at St Leonard, Shoreditch on 10 May. One year after James and Hannah married, his younger brother William married Hannah’s elder sister Martha.
James and Hannah had ten children and their first, James, was born on 8 March 1811 and when he was baptised at St Leonard, Shoreditch on 12 February 1813, the family was living on Hackney Road.
Rebecca was born on 16 January 1813 and baptised at St Leonard on the same day as her brother James. They were living on Sclater Street when son Isaac was born on 9 January 1815 and he was baptised on 5 February at the nearby church of St Matthew in Bethnal Green. Little Isaac died ten months later and was buried in St Matthew’s church yard on 19 October.
A year later, they left Sclater Street and moved to nearby Mount Street which was the eastern boundary of the notorious Old Nichol slum. Their son Peter was born on Mount Street on 9 July 1816 and baptised at St Matthew on 4 August but by the time their daughter Martha was born on 28 October 1818, they had moved to Middlesex Place. She was baptised on 15 November at St Leonard but died just after the new year and was buried at the Gibraltar Row Burial Ground on 10 January. The family tragedy was compounded when 2 1/2 year old Peter died one week later and he was buried with his sister at Gibraltar Row. His burial record notes that he was to be buried ‘where the two children were buried East’ but it is not clear if this is a reference to two Mallindine children or simply two recent infant burials. If it does refer to James and Hannah’s children, the second child buried probably relates to James as there is no record of him after his baptism and means that he along with Martha and Peter were all buried in the same area at Gibraltar Row.
The Old Nichol
The Old Nichol was a warren of narrow streets, courts and alleys located on the eastern edge of Bethnal Green and bounded by Shoreditch High Street to the east, Mount Street to the west, Hackney Road to the north and Church Street to the south. The majority of the housing in the Old Nichol dated from the late 18th century and many of them were built without foundations, only bare timbers on earth floors, and constructed of half-baked bricks and cheap timber. This poor construction led to permanent damp, sagging roofs from rotten timbers and peeling plasterwork. As the demand for housing increased in the 1830s, the yards, courts and other open spaces were in-filled with shanty like houses, workshops and sheds for donkeys and other animals until the area became one of the most densely populated places in the East End. The majority of the families living in the Old Nichol occupied a single room with as many as 8 or 10 people in each room. By the middle of the 19th century, the Old Nichol was known as one of the most wretched areas in London and only the poorest of inhabitants lived in the area with social reformers of the day often noting that for most, it was the final stop before the workhouse.
An article in the Illustrated London News in 1863 described the area as "the greater part of the vice and debauchery of the district, and the limits of a single article would be insufficient to give any detailed description of even a day’s visit. There is nothing picturesque in such misery; it is but one painful and monotonous round of vice, filth, and poverty, huddled in dark cellars, ruined garrets, bare and blackened rooms, teeming with disease and death, and without the means, even if there were the inclination, for the most ordinary observations of decency or cleanliness."
By the 1880s, the Old Nichol was considered the worst slum in England and although plans were put forward to clear the area, it was another 20 years before the London County Council cleared the slum and built new housing but for many, the cost of rents in the modern housing estates was prohibitive and they were simply forced into similar slums nearby.
Two years later, they were back on Hackney Road when Hannah was born on 6 July 1820 and baptised at St Leonard on 23 July before moving to William Street, where William was born on 10 February 1825 and baptised on 27 February at St Leonard, and finally to New Inn Yard on the opposite side of Shoreditch High Street where they lived for the the next six years. They had three more children while living there and all were baptised at St Leonard: Martha was born on 18 June 1827 and baptised on 4 July, Mary Ann on 14 July 1829 and baptised on 3 August, and Joseph on 9 February 1833 and baptised on 5 March.
on the site of the Old Nichol
Between 22 April and 6 May 1832, banns of marriage were published for the proposed marriage of their daughter Rebecca and Richard Rushforth at St Mary, Whitechapel but it does not appear they went through with the wedding. On 8 September, Rebecca gave birth to a son, William, in the workhouse and he was baptised under the name Mallendine at St Mary in Whitechapel on 7 October. It doesn’t appear that Richard was the father and her pregnancy may have been the reason why the wedding was cancelled but she did eventually marry, to William Tomkins on 6 January 1833 at St Matthew in Bethnal Green, and her father James was present as one of the witnesses. Her son William does not appear in any subsequent records so there is nothing to confirm whether or not William Tomkins was the father of the boy.
Rebecca’s new husband moved into the family home in New Inn Yard and worked as a Horse Hair Weaver, using the long hair from the mane and tail mixed with cotton thread to weave a hard wearing fabric used primarily for furniture upholstery. Their son James was born on 17 November 1834 and baptised on 11 December at St Leonard followed by Francis on 15 January 1836 and baptisted at St Leonard on 7 February. They left New Inn Yard, possibly at the same time as her father James, and settled in an area in the Old Nichol called Friar’s Mount where daughter Rebecca Ann was born on 4 March 1839 and later baptised at St Matthew on 13 April.
When the census was taken in 1841 census, 60 year old James was living in South Conduit Street but neither his wife nor any of his children were living with him although there are what appear to be several lodgers in the same household, Ann Cross and her 5 year old son James and 25 year old Susanna Reed. At the time, James’ cousin William, his wife Mary Ann Ferrey and their three children were also living in Conduit Street and he too was working as a Silk Weaver.
No death record has been found for Hannah Edghill but as she disappears from the records, it is assumed that she died between the birth of her tenth child in 1833 and the census in 1841 but what of the rest of the family? Of their ten children, death records have been found for three — Isaac, Martha and Peter — while three daughters — Rebecca, Hannah and Mary Ann — went on to marry and have children but there are no further records relating to James, William, their second daughter named Martha or Joseph beyond their baptisms.
In 1841, Rebecca was living on Mount Street with her husband William Tomkins and two of their children, Francis and Rebecca Ann. William was still working as a Horse Hair Weaver and since son James was not with them, it is assumed he died in infancy. Her sister Hannah, also known as Ann, had also left home but her situation was rather more precarious and later that year she gave birth to the first of two illegitimate children in the workhouse.
At 12 years old, Mary Ann was too young to be sent out into service but she does not appear in the census with her father or any other family members, however, there is a possible match with 12 year old Mary Malendine in the Bethnal Green Workhouse. Ages in the 1841 census were usually rounded off so a 12 year old would appear as being 10 years of age or possibly 15 years if the enumerator rounded up but the census form for the workhouse appears to show actual ages, likely copied directly from the workhouse admission register, rather than rounded ages. This lends added weight to the possibility that this Mary was the daughter of James and Hannah but the question remains as to why she was put in the workhouse as most often it was very young children who needed constant supervision who were placed in the workhouse or adopted out and not those able to look after themselves and help around the house.
There is no sign of James after the 1841 census and although he is assumed to have died, no death or burial record has been found to confirm this. Rebecca and William were still living in the Old Nichol but had moved to Club Row by the time their son John was born on 7 April 1845; he was not baptised until 28 October 1860 when he was fifteen years old.
Mary Ann gave birth to an illegitimate daughter in Bethnal Green in the early months of 1849 and when her birth was registered, it was under the surname Fosh and Mary Ann went on to marry the father of her daughter, Benjamin Fosh, at St Philip, Bethnal Green on 30 May 1852. Neither one has been found in the 1851 census but they remained together and had six more children.
In 1851, Rebecca and William Tomkins were living at 14 Blue Anchor Alley near the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground in St Luke along with their three surviving children, Francis, Rebecca Ann and John. But their new home was not much of an improvement over life in the Old Nichol as a report by the Health Inspector noted that:
‘the area consisted of a congeries of small and narrow courts and alleys approached from Whitecross Street, Golden Lane and Bunhill Row. In most cases these courts and alleys were approached by means of passages passing under houses in these streets. Although the three streets mentioned run parallel to one another, and the courts and alleys lay between them, yet they were so ill-arranged for the purposes of light, air and ventilation that in no case was there any direct communication between the streets. It is true that it was possible to walk from one street to the other, but this was through such narrow and tortuous passages that no through current of air could possibly be obtained. The houses were old and dilapidated, and where yards existed they were of the most inadequate description.’
William was still working as a Horse Hair Weaver as was their eldest son, 15 year old Francis but three years later, Rebecca died, aged only 41 years, and was buried in the church yard at St James the Less in Bethnal Green on 2 July. When Rebecca died, the family was back in Bethnal Green and living just outside the boundaries of the Old Nichol at 35 Anchor Street — a short section of street off the Shoreditch High Street that started as Swan Yard before turning into Anchor Street and then Sclater Street.
In 1861, William was living at 6 Club Row, around the corner from their previous home on Anchor Street, along with his 15 year old son John. Francis has not been traced beyond the 1851 census but daughter Rebecca Ann married George Thomas Fox at St Philip in Bethnal Green on 18 May 1861 with her father appearing as one of the witnesses. The marriage register lists her address as the Tomkins family home at 6 Club Row but it appears that she and George lived together for some time and had two children together before marrying. George was listed as a Widower on the marriage register which perhaps explains why they married years after their relationship started; as divorce was prohibitively expensive, most couples lived together as husband and wife and only married after a previous spouse had died. When the census was taken, Rebecca Ann and George were living at 7 1/2 Essex Street along with his son Thomas, aged seven, and their two children: Rebecca aged one and Francis 5 months.
William Tomkins died in Bethnal Green in the fall of 1869 but the cause of death and location of his burial are unknown. Two years later, his youngest son John was working as a Shoemaker and lodging in a house at 4 Elizabeth Street. When he was 35 years old, he married Isabella Jane Walker at St Thomas in Bethnal Green on 11 October 1880. He was still working as a Shoemaker and living at 12 John Street in Hackney but after they married, they moved down the street to number 16 and were still there when the census was taken on 3 April. Exactly one month before the census and five months after their wedding, Jane gave birth to their only child, John Richard.
But sadly, John died in Hackney in 1887 just before his son’s sixth birthday. Jane and her son were living at 8 New Street in Hackney when the 1891 census was taken and she was working as a Charwoman doing odd jobs such as cooking, cleaning and laundry. Not long after the census, she married widower Michael Caffrey at St James the Less in Bethnal Green and her son John Richard later joined the army before working as a labourer on the railway and a postman. He married Ada Louise Porter in West Ham in 1903 and they had at least three children before divorcing in 1922. John married a second time to Vivian Quinlan in 1928 and lived in West Ham until his death on 20 June 1954; he was buried at the West Ham Cemetery four days later.
Although only three of James and Hannah’s children have been traced, their descendants amount to 16 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren. No male descendant lines have been traced so at present, the Mallindine name for this branch ends with James.