Month: May 2021

Mary Taft and her Chelsea Pensioner, by Jim Preston

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Mary Taft, aged 58 at the time of the 1851 census, lived in Heath – part of Uttoxeter – with her 54 year old husband Jonathan. Mary was born in Ireland. Jonathan, a Chelsea Pensioner, was a local man. Ten years earlier, the 1841 census recorded Jonathan as a labourer in Uttoxeter.

Thanks to their unusual surname I was able to find their marriage records. They married in 1837 in Gillingham, Kent.  The certificate shows she was a widow with the previous surname of Anderton. The certificate also provides her father’s name. She was born Mary Dunn or Dune, baptised in Ballymore Eustace, near Dublin, to James and Mary Dune, who were farmers. Gillingham, along with neighbouring Chatham, was not only a major naval shipbuilding site, but also the location of several army barracks set up initially to protect the dockyard. Since she married there perhaps her previous husband was a soldier or a sailor. She put a mark on her marriage certificate rather than a signature.

Gillingham parish church, where Mary and Jonathan married in 1837

We know little of Jonathan’s early life, other than his birth in Uttoxeter in 1797 to Thomas and Mary Taft. But we know quite a bit about Jonathan’s military career because of the fifteen pages of documentation gathered to prove his pension. Prior to joining up, he was a blacksmith. He enlisted when 18 years old in 1815, shortly after Napoleon escaped from Elba and two months before the battle of Waterloo. He joined the Royal Regiment of Artillery Drivers, a regiment separate from the Royal Artillery. They were trained in managing guns, waggons and horses with the aim of getting the artillery’s field guns to the battle front and were not provided with arms. Blacksmiths would have provided essential skills. He may or may not have joined up in the nationalist fervour surrounding Napoleon’s escape from captivity, but there is no record of him serving at Waterloo.

The Duke of Wellington implemented what Jonathan’s documents called a “reduction” in army numbers after Napoleon’s defeat and his exile to St Helena. Jonathan was reduced in the summer of 1816 back to civilian life. The Artillery Drivers regiment was completely disbanded in 1822 and its men incorporated into the Royal Artillery.

I can find no evidence of how he earned his living over the next three years, but Jonathan re-enlisted in February 1819, this time in the 80th Regiment of Foot, a Staffordshire volunteer regiment. He spent the next twenty-one years as a soldier. He served in Gibraltar, Malta, and the Ionian Islands (in the Greek war of independence), rising to the rank of sergeant, twice. (He was demoted – no reason given – to private in 1836, but regained his previous rank the following year.) There is another note mentioning that his trade was a blacksmith, so it seems likely this was his main occupation during his time in the 80th Foot, as well as in the Drivers.

In the 1830s the 80th Foot returned from the Mediterranean to spend time in the UK and Ireland. They were stationed in Kent in 1835–6, but by the time Jonathan married Mary in 1837, in Kent, the main part of his regiment had moved to New South Wales to look after convicts, where they stayed until 1845. We don’t know why Jonathan remained in Britain, but it may have had something to do with his health.

In 1840, three years after his wedding, Jonathan was discharged on medical grounds. His medical documents state he had a “general debility and Rheumaticus Chronicus,” which first appeared in 1835 and which was attributed to “cold and exposure to wet.” He was in hospital eight times, five times in Malta, two in Chatham and once in Manchester. His discharge papers stated he had difficulty breathing, making him unfit for military duty, and that it was likely to be a permanent condition.

Pensions were given to soldiers with over twelve years service and to those who were injured in service. These were paid by the Royal Hospital Chelsea, hence the term used in the census. Those we know as Chelsea Pensioners today are the in-pensioners – ex-soldiers that surrendered their army pension to live at the hospital. Out-pensioners were the former soldiers that lived at large and received a pension from the hospital or their agents.

Drawing of a Chelsea Pensioner by Sir David Wilkie RA, about 1816

Fourteen men in Uttoxeter in 1851 put down their occupation as Chelsea Pensioner. They ranged in age from 42 year old John Slater who lived with his 30 year old wife Mary and two young children in the High Street (where the WH Smith shop is now), to 79 year old William Tooth who lived on his own towards the east end of Bradley Street.  Six of the Chelsea Pensioners were aged 65 or over. At 54, Jonathan was somewhere in the middle of the age range. He received 1/8 (one shilling and 8 pence) a week, which is higher than other amounts I’ve seen, but doesn’t seem enough to live on. Did he earn money in other ways?

We know a little of what Jonathan looked like. Aged almost 43 at his discharge, he was 5’ 7” (1.7m), had blue eyes, grey hair and a fair complexion. At the time of his enlistment his hair was brown.

Jonathan died eight years after the census, in 1859, aged 62. Two years after his death Mary was an inmate in an alms house in Carter Street. She died six years after that, aged 75.

Mary left Ireland long before the Great Famine.  Had she remained in Ireland, her circumstances might have been a lot worse. A newspaper report of a meeting in Naas – the poor law union to which Ballymore Eustace belonged – to consider the state of the poor in the area, describes the situation in 1846: “300 souls were in deep distress”; “large families are dependant on 1/6 [one shilling and sixpence] a day or less… which is totally inadequate to their support at the present price of provisions and fuel”. It was going to get even worse: “apprehension of more formidable distress to come arises from many poor people having been compelled by present want, to sell their manure heaps, nor can they at the present exorbitant price, attempt to purchase potatoes for seed.”

We do not know why Mary left Ireland when she did, but she was lucky to have done so.

Map showing the boundary of the English Pale, the area directly controlled by the English in the late middle ages. Beyond the Pale was outside “the limits of civilised jurisdiction”. Mary’s birthplace, Ballymore Eustace, is actually on the pale at the bottom of the map.

Sources

Jonathan Taft’s army papers on findmypast (fees apply).

Timeline of 80th Regiment Of Foot: https://staffs80.weebly.com/history.html

Naas State of the Poor meeting: https://kildare.ie/library/KildareCollectionsandResearchServices/Famine-Co-Kildare/leinster-express-16-05-1846-2.asp

Gillingham church picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/50265314511/in/photolist-2jzLSMD-owibiN-odnUjr-osPz9f-2jzHvFy-odnR62-oy8LjH-2jzHvur-odrLYh-osPCWW-osPLX5-osPNGY-ouzgAR-owBspk-odnbzg-odmXw2-ouDA6m-ouzu4X-osPx6N-od9PwP-ouyb7M-2jzHvCc-ouQ6dN-tmCtNN-tyZ6h7-ouDywE-2jzLSAr-x2Z42Z-odmZCL-ouzfSB-odo6Ci-beUYnX-ouDsLw-wACNkH-x4THuS-oeQctw-osPQnS-odmMBG-owBkFv-oeq6Dw-odnGbP-oerGbV-odmHDU-ouRJYt-odmYNj-osPAqy-2jzHvDe-ouRGNX-ouGfSB-odnavG

Chelsea Pensioner picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14576695919/in/photolist-ow74Z6-oddzyj-owimHi-oeBEoi-ow5D8L-osy4uA-oeWnay-oeRsVZ-yaeR4d-oditw1-oeQNSg-oevswT-ovC5K3-odb92d-ovMhhd-odnRkv-ovoJJY-od6nRr-ocTdkq

English Pale map: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Pale_According_to_the_Statute_of_1488_edit.jpg

The Status and Residence of Elderly People in mid 19th-century Uttoxeter, by Shelley Robotham

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From analysis of the census we know that there were 194 people aged 70+ living in Uttoxeter (87 men and 107 women) in 1851.  This equates to 4% of the total population of 4,815. Today the over-70s form 14% of the population of 13,467 – this demonstrates not only the increase in the proportion of elderly people but also the growth of the town as a whole from several phases of house building – in the Victorian age, throughout the 20th century and up to the current day.

Where and how did the mid 19th-century elderly people live?

Out of a total of 1,023 households in Uttoxeter, 154 included people over 70. More than half of the over-70s were living in their own homes and defined themselves as Head of Household (60 men and 49 women).  Many of these had a spouse and other family members living with them.    Only 15% of over-70s were living on their own.  Many elderly people were living with their families in households headed by other family members.   Twelve lived with households other than their families, as lodgers.  Two people were lodging house keepers themselves.

Ten people were living on income from house or land ownership; eighteen were receiving annuities or interest from investments.  There were five Chelsea pensioners.  From 1692 until 1955, all Army pensions were administered by and paid from the Royal Hospital Chelsea; hence all recipients, wherever they lived, were referred to as Chelsea Pensioners.

Eleven widows were living in the almshouses in Carter Street.  By this time the Uttoxeter Charities Committee had taken over the administration of the charities in the town.  Katherine Mastergent’s bequest from 1646 to house three widows of “honest and religious conversation” was amalgamated with John Wright’s bequest and a new almshouse was erected in Carter Street bearing their names. The Lathropp’s Almshouses were also rebuilt in 1849 on the opposite side of Carter Street to house four widows. 

Lathropp’s Almshouses, Carter Street, Uttoxeter

For the less fortunate there was always the Workhouse on the Heath.  Nine men and six women over 70 were living in the Workhouse, representing 12% of all Workhouse residents.

Some census respondents defined themselves by their occupation.  From the census it is impossible to tell whether they were still working or whether they were listing their earlier occupation.  Those like William Smith, the saddler who employed three men, or Thomas Alport, the shoemaker who employed two men, were presumably working in a supervisory capacity.  At a time when there was no state pension it was quite likely that those living in their own homes with no family support would have needed to keep working.  Two people over 80 described themselves as “servants” to the head of household.

As might be expected, most people fell into the 70–79 age group; there were 32 octogenarians (17 men, 15 women) and only four over the age of 90 – Samuel Chawner and Martha Barlow were 90, Elizabeth Roger and Mary Rotherham were both 92.

Sources

P M Turner, The Uttoxeter Charities 1594–1853 (Unpublished Study)

1851 census for Uttoxeter

http://citypopulation.de/en/uk/westmidlands/staffordshire/

https://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/

Irish People in Uttoxeter, Part 1, by Jim Preston

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The 1851 census documents about 4800 people in the parish of Uttoxeter on the night of Sunday 30th March 1851. Birthplaces are recorded. Half of those living in Uttoxeter were born in Uttoxeter. Three-quarters of them were born in Staffordshire.

Of the remaining quarter, many were born in the surrounding counties, especially Derbyshire, and a few from major conurbations such as Birmingham (38), Manchester (7) and London (38). 
Only a smattering were born in other countries. For example, people are shown to have come from France,  Russia, Prussia, India, the West Indies, the East Indies. But whilst there are one or two people in each of these cases, there were fifty-nine people born in Ireland. That seems a lot. Nine people were born in Scotland; one in Wales. The map shows where people of Irish birth lived in Uttoxeter.

Map of people born in Ireland living in Uttoxeter in 1851

The Great Hunger – the Irish potato famine – started in 1845. Over the next ten years one million people died, and a further million emigrated. Ninety percent of the migration was to the United States of America, but many Irish people travelled to Britain and other countries too. 
Over a few posts I intend to do a little research into the Irish of 1851 in Uttoxeter.

The first people I researched were eight Irish born people living in a lodging house in the upper High Street. It must have been a reasonably sized house – or they were living in very cramped conditions – because the lodging house keeper, his wife and their five children also lived there. Four of the lodgers were men in their 20s and 30s, John Sharkey, Dennis Carnel, George Macdonoghue and Edward Muraner. All employed in Uttoxeter as agricultural labourers. There aren’t any references to these men in other censuses or other records, so we don’t know how long they stayed in the area. Dennis Carnell appears on a passenger list leaving Liverpool for New York in 1854.

The other lodgers in this house were a family. John Cunningham, 50, his wife Catherine, aged 38, both Irish, and their four children. John’s occupation is recorded as “beggar.” The two eldest children, John, 13, and Catherine, 6, were born in Ireland. Mary was born in Uttoxeter three years before the census was taken, and their youngest child, Ellen, was born 2 months prior to the census, in Leicester.

From this information we can weave a possible story of the family’s movements and motivations. Two years after the birth of their second child in 1845,the potato blight was at its worst and food was scarce. With family and neighbours in the same plight they had a hard time over the 1847-8 winter. They had to eat the potatoes they should have been planting for the coming year’s harvest. In addition Catherine was carrying their third child. They must have realised something had to be done.

Sketch of a woman and children made homeless by the potato famine (published by Illustrated London News, 22 December 1849)

Perhaps John knew someone in Uttoxeter who said that work was available. They travelled across to England whilst Catherine was heavily pregnant, and were in Uttoxeter when Mary was born in October 1848. John had difficulty finding local work. The nearest he could find was forty miles away in Leicester. The family moved, but two years later John was unemployed again. They returned to Uttoxeter with Catherine pregnant for a fourth time, gaining a fourth child in January 1851. By the time of the census in March, John had still not been able to find employment and was reduced to begging for work and money on the streets.

It must have been a time of despair and desperation for the Cunninghams. Over the ensuing years two John Cunninghams died in Uttoxeter, in 1855 and 1859. Possibly one of them was the father, and the other the son.

Evidence of the survival of the rest of the family is scarce. We do know, however, that the two elder daughters survived because Catherine married in Uttoxeter in 1873, aged 29, and Mary married in Uttoxeter in 1876, aged 28.

Did the eight Irish people lodging in this house arrive in Uttoxeter because of the Great Hunger? With the Cunningham family, we know the dates match, and we know John Cunningham didn’t have a good job to draw him here, so it seems likely the famine necessitated their move. The four male lodgers were employed as farm labourers which in normal circumstances wouldn’t have been a reason to up sticks from their Irish homes. We don’t have any evidence of a long stay beforehand, so it seems reasonable to assume they arrived recently, and they left Ireland because of the famine.

My next post will be about an Irish woman, Mary Taft, who had already left her homeland when the famine started.

Sources

Uttoxeter Census 1851

Registrations of Births, Deaths and Marriages in Uttoxeter

Sketch of a Woman and Children: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Irish_potato_famine_Bridget_O’Donnel.jpg