john west mallandaine + cecilia hawkes
Two months after returning to England, John married for the third time, to Cecilia Hawkes on 21 August 1833 at St Dunstan in Stepney. Cecilia Hawkes was born on 25 December 1807 in Woolwich, Kent and baptised at St Mary Magdalene on 5 February 1808. She was the daughter of George Hawkes and Mary Pender. Prior to her marriage, Cecilia lived with her father, a retired contractor, and her sisters, Emma and Kate, at 7 Lucas Place off Commercial Road. Their home was very close to John’s parents on Heath Street and Cecilia also acted as a companion to John’s sister, Mary. Shortly after their marriage, John and Cecilia rented a country home called Fairhill at Hildenborough near Shipbourne in Kent. John’s son Edward recalled life at Fairhill in his memoirs:
We removed to a nice family residence or rather a gentleman’s seat Fairhill in Kent, about 8 miles from Tunbridge Wells and about 28 miles from London. We resided here about 3 years. About 30 acres of ground belonged to the property, of which three acres were devoted to garden and 5 acres, if I remember to shrubbery. Stable yard and stables with conservatories added their accommodation; we had fish ponds and extensive lawn at back of House on which stood two noble oak-trees. We had sheep and cows, and kept a horse and carriage.
The Fairhill estate was purchased by Lord Derby in 1870 along with the adjoining properties of Hollanden Farm, Great Trench, Horns Lodge, Great Forge Farm, Limes, Kentlands and Hilden. Lord Derby sold the estate in 1909 and the sale catalogue contained a detailed description of the property:
It comprises a moderate-sized MANSION HOUSE known as FAIRHILL in the Italian style of architecture about 1 1/2 miles from the Church, Post and Telegraph Offices, and occupying an elevated position commanding beautiful views over the surrounding richly wooded country, and extending on the North to One Tree Hill, seated in a wee-timbered park, and approached through ornamental plantations from Riding Lane and the Hadlow Road by two lengthy carriage drives with entry lodges, and converging on a broad gravelled terrace on the North front, from which the mansion is entered by a flight of stone steps leading into a bold enclosed porch with inner doors communicating with the entrance hall, about 24’ by14’ with oak floor, and an open fireplace at each end set in sculptured sienna marble chimney pieces, and having a double swing glazed panelled doors which lead to a communicating lobby and the staircase hall with cloak lobby and garden entrance.
Once settled at Fairhill, John’s four children from his second marriage — Caroline, Harriet, Edward and Charlotte — were all baptised at the parish church in Shipbourne on 20 October 1833. John and Cecilia had eight children of their own and their first two were born at Fairhill; Frances was born on 25 August 1834 and baptised at Shipbourne parish church on 21 September and Henry Hawkes was born on 29 May 1836 and baptised on the same day.
John resigned his commission in the East India Company Army in November 1834 and embarked on several private business ventures. The records of the Sun Insurance Office, dated 20 February 1834, indicate that John and his partner, William Thompson, entered a claim related to their property at 14 to 17 East Street off Hackney Road. John also invested in a candle factory but the venture failed and he lost his savings totalling £6000. A notice in the London Gazette on 27 March 1835 confirms the dissolution of the business partnership:
Notice is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between us the undersigned, John Mallandaine and James Watkins, as Tallow-Makers and Candle-Manufacturers, of Marlborough Road, Chelsea, carrying on business and trading under the name and firm of James Watkins and Company, was this day dissolved by mutual consent. Dated this 25th day of March 1835.
The financial losses were such that John was forced to declare bankruptcy and when he was unable to cover the debts incurred, he was imprisoned at Whitecross Street Debtor’s Prison in November 1836. The notice of bankruptcy was published in the London Gazette on 1 November 1836 and the following January, most of John’s property was auctioned off to pay his remaining debts. The properties included the leasehold ground rent on three houses in Oxford Street and Rutland Street, a leasehold house at 28 Totten Street in Stepney, four brick houses in Durham Street off the Hackney Road, and a freehold house at 5 Heath Street off Commercial Road. This last house was in the same street that John’s parents lived until the early 1840s although it is not known if they lived at number 5 or another house in the street.
John’s son Edward later recounted the bankruptcy and it’s impact on the family in his memoirs:
My father, consulting only himself was unfortunately led by an advertisement in The Times newspaper, to associate himself in business as a soap manufacturer, or something of the kind with an individual without means who proved afterwards a sharper and a blackleg. The result was the concern became bankrupt and my fathers’ small fortune £6,000 irretrievably lost. The details I am not acquainted with, but I have always heard it ascribed to some roguery of my fathers’ partner. It now occurs to me that it was singular; I never tried to get details of all these matters from any one. My father naturally reticent never alluded to it. The scoundrels’ name was Tidd. My father beyond his own ill-luck, brought down the ill will of the other family, for he had already induced his partner to marry another Miss Hawke. But my father was a proud man in his way: in many instances exhibited true pride, would not condescend to be beholden pecuniarily to another and always kept honourable within his means. His hasty action resulted in the loss of all his capital £6,000; and dependence on his retiring pension alone of £1 per day for the support of his family & many subsequent personal indignities.
Following the bankruptcy, John decided to move his family to France where the cost of living and educating his children was far lower than in England. Cecilia and the children travelled to Brighton and boarded a steamer for Le Havre and when John joined the family soon after, they settled in a house in St Servan near Rouen. But the family was soon on the move again when they moved south to Dinan in Brittany; Dinan was a walled city and they lived in a house just outside the Porte St Louis for three years and according to Edward, the house consisted of two stories and a basement with an enclosed garden with fruit trees.
While in Dinan, John and Cecilia had six more children. Mary Georgiana was born on 7 December 1837 followed by Alice Cecilia on 31 October 1839. By 1840, the family had committed to staying in France and purchased a home, Maison Blanc, near Quevert, a small village outside of Dinan. John was determined to provide his children, including his daughters, with an education as he felt it was ‘one of those things that cannot be taken away from you.’
Shortly after moving to Maison Blanc, their son Frederick Charles was born on 14 July 1841. Four years later, Sarah Edith was born on 7 August 1844 followed by Helen Louise on 31 March 1846 and James John on 3 November 1848.
There is no record of John’s occupation while in France but we assume he provided for his family from his East India Company pension and income from the farm. The family remained in Quevert until John’s failing health precipitated a return to England. They made it as far as St. Helier in Jersey before John’s health deteriorated further and in a letter to her sister Mary, Cecilia describes his condition:
16 Temple Crescent
10 August 1856
I regret to tell you the Colonel has been dangerously ill these ten weeks and the Dr. does not give any hope of his recovery, his disease is of the heart and his suffering from a sort of fluttering or palpitation which induces a deadly fainting is terrible. The doctor seems to think that his heart has become perfectly soft and pulpy and become almost powerless to perform its necessary functions, his legs swell and he very seldom can lie down in consequence of the cough which then becomes so troublesome.
On 10 September 1856, John and Caroline had four of their children baptised at St Helier — Alice Cecilia, Sarah Edith, Helen Louise and James John. Strangely, this was the second baptism for both Sarah and James who were first baptised in Dinan shortly after birth.
John died on 17 February 1857, at the age of 73 years, at Great Union Road in St. Helier and was buried in the cemetery at St. Saviour’s Parish Church. In his will, John provided legacies for all of his children including £100 to each of his surviving sons — John William, George Robert, Edward, Henry, Frederick and James. He initially made provision for an annuity of £19 per year to his adult daughters, Caroline, Harriet and Charlotte but later added a codicil which provided them with a £100 legacy as well. The remainder of his estate was left to his wife Cecilia with the provision that she provide support for their remaining children. He also left a legacy to his ‘dear brother Edward Mallandaine the sum of nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and six pence as a small mark of my affection and good will.’
Following John’s death in Jersey, Cecilia continued to plan for their return to England by engaging Philip De Ste Croix to auction their household goods. The auction was held on 16 September at their home at 1 Boyne Terrace off the Great Union Road and according to the advert in the Jersey Independent newspaper, the auction included ‘all the capital Household Furniture and other valuable effects, late the property of Colonel Mallandaine’. The list of available items included general furniture items such as tables, chairs, bedstead and dressers and household items including dishes, kitchen utensils, garden tools and soft furnishings as well as a few finer items like a superior mahogany telescope, a pianoforte and ‘rich and rare chimney ornaments and several very clever oil paintings by the most eminent artists of the day, in rich gilt frames’.
With most of their household items sold in the auction, it seems likely they left Jersey shortly after but the exact date of their voyage is not known. By 1860, the family was living at 20 Park Street in Camberwell and they were still there one year later when the 1861 Census was taken. Cecilia appears in the census, along with her daughters Mary, Alice and Helen, and her occupation was listed as Fund Holder. The funds from John’s estate as well as the East India Company pension were enough to support them in such means that they were able to hire one general servant but not enough that her elder daughters did not have to seek employment as teachers and governesses.
In 1861, her daughter Frances was working as an Assistant Teacher at a Ladies Seminary in Doncaster, Yorkshire while Edith was working as a French Teacher in Brighton. Her sons, Henry and Fred, had left home to find work but her youngest son, James, was enrolled at a public school in Slough, Berkshire before moving on to Sandhurst in 1864.
By 1871, Cecilia had moved to the seaside town of Folkestone in Kent and lived at 13 Victoria Grove with daughters Mary Georgina and Helen Louise who were both working as governesses. The reason for the move is unknown but she may have sought a more affordable home or a quieter life away from the noise and pollution of London. Frances has not been found in the 1871 census but her sister Alice was working as a governess at Thoresby Hall in East Retford and Edith had married Henry Fulcher in 1867 and moved to his family farm in Yaxley, Suffolk.
Helen Louise married Stamford Henry Blackett on 2 June 1880 at Christ Church in Folkestone and following their marriage, they settled in Fulham where Stamford worked as a Commercial Clerk for a timber company. Their daughter, Sidney Austin, was born in Fulham and baptised at St Paul in Hammersmith on 4 June 1881. Two months later, James married Honora Frost on 17 August 1881 at St Bridget with St Martin in Chester. Frances was working as a governess in Llanfair Pwll Gwyngyll on the island of Anglesey in north Wales.
Cecilia was still on Victoria Grove in 1881 along with daughters Mary and Alice as well as her grandson Thomas Fulcher. Cecilia spent her summers in Suffolk with her daughter Sarah and her family and was known as ‘Granny Mangle’ to her grandchildren. Cecilia died at 68 Guildhall Street in Folkestone on 5 July 1888 and buried four days later at St John the Baptist in Folkestone. Her daughter Alice sent word of her mother’s death to her half sister, Charlotte:
My mother is just gone after suffering terribly from breathlessness. She was longing to go and it is a comfort to us all to feel her pain is over. Henry and Edith arrived an hour before the end — John and his wife had just started for Kent. The Thomsons have been kinder than words can say.
The Thomsons may refer to Cecilia’s sister, Mary, and her husband David Thomson. Following Cecilia’s death, her two daughters Mary Georgiana and Alice Cecilia left Folkestone and stayed in Yaxley with their sister, Edith. In the 1891 Census, Mary Georgiana was recorded as a visitor at the home of Georgina New at 5 Codington Place in Brighton and although her identity is not known, it is possible that Georgina New was related to Mary’s sister-in-law, Lucy. She attended her nieces wedding in Yaxley, Suffolk in 1894 and when she signed the visitors book, she gave her address as St Leonards on Sea. Her sister Alice also attended although she entered her address as Worcester but by 1901, she was back in Yaxley along with Mary and living at the Old Farm House with her sister Edith. One year later, Alice died in Yaxley on 26 June 1902 aged 64 years.
When Edith remarried in the fall of 1902, Mary moved to Reed Cottage next to St Mary’s Church. She received a legacy of $50 from her half-brother Edward in 1905 which no doubt helped with the additional expenses. Mary continued to travel to the south coast and while in Brighton in 1910, she met her cousin Peter. In a letter to another family member, Peter noted that he ‘had the pleasure of meeting your Aunt Mary who had been staying at Brighton a short while. I was much impressed with her geniality and kindliness — her face seems always to light up with pleasure when she speaks.’
In 1911, Mary was back in her seven room cottage in Yaxley along with one domestic servant. She was away from home when she died, aged 78 years, at 2 Syndenham Road, Croydon on 15 August 1915 and she was buried at St Mary’s church yard in Yaxley three days later. The mourners included her sisters Sarah and Helen and their husbands Stanford Tillott and Henry Blackett, nieces Sidney Austin Smith and Cecilia Mallandaine, as well as many friends and neighbours from Yaxley. Her obituary appeared in the The Diss Express newspaper on 20 August 1915 and noted that Mary:
‘had travelled abroad considerably but had resided at Yaxley for some years and took a deep interest in the welfare of the parish. She was a keen church worker, an active supporter of the Mothers’ Union, and a kind friend of the poor, showing her interest in a practical manner. The respect and esteem in which she was held was shown by the large number present at the internment.’
By 1901, Frances had retired and was living on St Pauls Road in Newport on the Isle of Wight where she was a boarder at the Home for Training Servants along with her half sister, Charlotte. In 1905, Frances also received a legacy of $100 from her half-brother Edward’s estate and at the time, she was living at Broadland House, near Newport. She died in Newport in 1907.
Helen and her husband Stamford later moved south of the Thames and settled in a house on Beech House Road Croydon where they lived for the next 30 years. Stamford continued to work in the building trade and was recorded as a Cement Merchant in the next three census returns. Their daughter Sidney married Wilfred Smith at St Matthew in Croydon on 28 March 1912 but they did not have any children. Helen died in Croydon on 22 April 1926 and Stamford on 1 December 1940. Their daughter Sidney died in Falmouth, Cornwall on 25 December 1963.