hannah mallandain + william tedman
Hannah Hastie, the daughter of Peter Mallandain and Elizabeth Hodges, was born on 30 September 1828 and baptised at St Luke Old Street in Finsbury on 4 January 1829. Her middle name was taken from her uncle’s family name; her aunt, Hannah Hodges, married Benjamin Hastie the day before her birth. Hannah entered the French School at Westminster, a charitable school for children of Huguenot descent, on 7 June 1838 but there is no record of how long she attended the school.
In 1851, Hannah was working as a nurse for the Mesey family who lived at 33 Montague Square in Marylebone. It is not known how long she worked for the family but she remained in the area and seven years later, she married William Tedman, on 18 April, at St Marylebone. William was born in Marylebone in 1830, the son of John Tedman, an Inspector of Police, and his wife Mary May. In 1851, William lived with his widowed mother and three siblings at 47 Chapel Street in Marylebone and worked as a Letter Carrier.
William and Hannah appear in the 1861 Census at 110 Pentonville Road in Clerkenwell and William was employed as a Sorter in the Post Office and a Haberdasher. A haberdasher sold clothing and dressmaking accessories such as ribbons, buttons, thread and cloth in a retail shop and many haberdashers also sold completed items such as gloves and hats. Also living with them was Hannah’s 16 year old cousin, Harriet Hodges, who was listed as a Haberdasher’s Apprentice. Harriet was the daughter of Ebenezer Hodges and his wife Hannah.
They were still on Pentonville Road in 1871 and William continued working as a Haberdasher. The census also notes that William was a superannuitant from the Post Office even though he was only 41 years old. Notes in the Marshall Report indicate that Hannah and William had children though no record of them has been found but since most of the information in the report was provided by Hannah’s sister, Emma, the information was assumed to be correct. But then again, it is possible that a simple typographical error was made when Marshall wrote, ‘there are children of the marriage’ when if fact, it should have read ‘there are no children of the marriage.’
Emma also told J.J. Marshall that William worked as a lodging house keeper in Bournemouth before being admitted to a lunatic asylum and the public records confirm that William was admitted to the Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum on 13 November 1879. The asylum, completed in 1852, was located at Knowle near the town of Fareham in south east Hampshire.
‘The Hampshire County Lunatic Asylum was built as a result of the 1845 County Asylums Act, which made it compulsory for every county to build an asylum or to join with another county to do so. County Asylums were built to accommodate pauper lunatics and patients could only be admitted by applying to the local Poor Law Relieving Officer and on the medical certificate of the Poor Law Medical Officer. However, the application of the Poor Law after 1834 especially in regard to medical necessity was a very complex business but it was not necessary for the family to be admitted to the workhouse in order for one member to be admitted to the asylum.’
The admission record shows that William was 50 years old, employed as a Sorter in the General Post Office and resided at 7 Crowther Street in Bournemouth. In the middle of the eighteenth century, Bournemouth was a small seaside village that fell under the jurisdiction of the Christchurch Poor Law Union. Seaside visits became very popular with the middle and upper classes in the late eighteenth century and as a result, Bournemouth’s population grew rapidly from 1700 in 1861 to over 16 000 in 1881 but despite the town’s growth, it still remained part of the Christchurch Union in 1879.
The admission papers list William’s disorder as ‘mania’ caused by an ‘overworked brain’. In the 19th Century, the term mania was used to describe the behaviour of the individual rather than a specific condition and it often included raving, violence or other behaviour that families found impossible to deal with. The admission record also provides insight into the history of William’s illness as it notes that his first attack of mania occurred when he was 38 years old but it is not known if he was committed as a result of this initial episode. He was obviously well enough to return to his family and maintain his employment with the Post Office but his condition worsened during the six years prior to his admission and resulted in his certification as a lunatic.
William remained in the asylum for over twenty years and appears in the census returns from Hants County from 1881 to 1901. Only the initials of patients in public institutions were recorded in the census returns and William appears as ‘W.T’ and his details regarding age, marital status and place of birth are consistent throughout the three census returns. He was discharged from the asylum on 22 May 1902 but the type of discharge was listed as ‘Not Improved’ so it is possible that he was transferred to another institution or hospital rather than released back to the community.
Hannah also appears in the 1881 Census living at 7 Crowther Terrace in Holdenhurst, a small village outside of Bournemouth. She was living alone at the time and her occupation was listed as Lodging House Keeper. In 1891, she had moved next door to 8 Crowther Terrace and was listed as the Matron of St Peter’s Choir Home, the choir school for St Peter’s Cathedral Church in Bournemouth and in 1891, it housed eight Choir Boy Scholars ranging in age from 11 to 14 years.
By 1901, Hannah had retired and moved back to London where she was living alone at 3 Greenside Road in Hammersmith. She was still in Hammersmith in 1911 but she was boarding along with three others in the home of Daniel and Eunice Parker at 46 Wingate Road. William died in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1913 and Hannah died, aged 89 years, in Hammersmith in 1917.