The TRENDALLS and BARTLETTS of CROMER STREET. PART ONE: ENDOGAMY in St PANCRAS

 The TRENDALLS and BARTLETTS of CROMER STREET:

PART ONE: ENDOGAMY IN ST PANCRAS

Cromer Street 2024 - showing aprox location of 112 Cromer Street (Photo:Author)

Mapping the connections between families can be a tricky process, especially when that connection persists over more than one generation.  One example is to be found in the relationship between the TRENDALL and BARTLETT families.

My 3 x Great Grandfather, Joseph TRENDALL (c1770-1838) married Ann BARTLETT on 3^rd May 1807 at the church of St Clement Danes in central London.   As this pre dates the introduction of marriage certificates we do not know who her Father and Mother were.  In fact we don’t know much about Ann at all, except that she died in Whetstone in 1829.

|Diagram Showing the Probable Links between the Bartlett and Trendall families in this period

Ten years later William JOHNSON (c1794-1874), an Excise Collector, married Mary BARTLETT at St Pancras Old Church.  One of the witnesses is Ann TRENDALL, who might have been Mary’s sister.  They lived in Kent for a while and then at 112 Cromer Street in St Pancras with Elizabeth BARTLETT (c1759-1849) the widow of, (an unnamed), barrister’s clerk.  Elizabeth ran a Pawnbrokers shop at the address and crops up in directories and court cases from time to time.  It was she who employed the unfortunate Catherine Spillers (see blog Sep 2024).  In one case Elizabeth is described as the Grandmother of Elizabeth TRENDALL.  This is probably the Elizabeth TRENDALL (1814-1860) who was the daughter of Joseph TRENDALL and Ann BARTLETT.  The younger Elizabeth was left money in her father’s Will (Joseph) when he died in 1838.  She never married and was buried in Highgate Cemetery in the same grave as the older Elizabeth (BARTLETT) and her sister Kitty (1824-1844).

William JOHNSON and Mary BARTLETT had a daughter, helpfully called Elizabeth, in about 1823.  Elizabeth BARTLETT (c1823-1858) married Joseph TRENDALL’s son, and her first cousin, William TRENDALL (1820-?) in St Pancras in 1845.  At the time both were living at 112 Cromer Street St Pancras.  William TRENDALL is my 3 x Great Uncle, being the twin brother of Thomas TRENDALL (1820-1878) who also lived at 112 Cromer Street with his family for a while.  William TRENDALL took over the Pawnbrokers business from Elizabeth BARTLETT and ran it until after the death of his wife.  They had at least three children who were born at the address. It is likely that he emigrated to Canada in 1871 where another one of my 3 x Great Uncles had moved sometime before (Robert TRENDALL 1809-?).

I will post separately about some of the news items that touch the family at this time and also a mini bio of each of the people mentioned.

The intermarriage between the two families is not in itself unusual or complex but it is centred on one address:  112 Cromer Street St Pancras.

The buildings that now stand in Cromer Street are not the ones known by my ancestors.  The area was redeveloped in the late nineteenth century, although the pub (The Boot) may be, in part, original.  There has certainly been a pub on the site for a very long time.

Crutchleys Map of London 1843 showing Cromer Street (From the collection at the Institute of Historical Research, London) Note that this was made before the construction of King's Cross or St Pancras Stations

Using old maps it is possible to work out where 112 was.  It occupied a plot on the junction with another road that has changed its name several times.  There was ample room for a shop with quite extensive living accommodation above.  The whole road was occupied by artisans and shops. It was at the respectable end of the working class.  The area had been developed at the beginning of the nineteenth century and the ownership of the buildings and the leases taken out on them is really quite complicated.

Land ownership in London in this period is difficult to unpick.  There was no land registry so ownership of plots can only be discovered by examining rate books, deeds and looking at Wills.  A further complication arises because married women could not own property.  Everything they possessed passed, on marriage, to their husbands (the system known as ‘coverture’).  Single women and widows could own and run property and businesses.  To get around the bar on ownership various legal instruments could be put in place.  These mainly touched the wealthy classes but also sometimes included the better off working and middle class.

In relation to 112 Cromer Street we know that it features in a Will written in 1852 by Mary JOHNSON (BARTLETT).  The complexity of the document is a little scary and it is not surprising that when she died in 1858 it took over two years to sort out the probate.   The Will only deals with the issue of the lease on 112 Cromer Street (and on adjacent property) and does not seek to dispose of any personal property because, at the time of the Will, she was married.  The Will refers to an indenture between Ann SALT(?) and various parties including William JOHNSON, William TRENDALL and Thomas TRENDALL prepared in 1845 touching on 112 Cromer Street and the lease thereon taken out in 1809.  The 1845 indenture appears to give Mary JOHNSON (BARTLETT) a power in trust to occupy the building in her lifetime and to direct the disposal of that right (including rents etc) on her death.  The lease was valid for 80 years from 1809 (possibly the date of the original construction).  In her Will of 1852 (proved 1861) she leaves her interest in the property to her son in law, William TRENDALL and appoints him executor of her Will.

The Will of Mary JOHNSON (BARTLETT) written in 1852 and proved in 1861 - not easy to read!

There is much we don’t know about the background of the property:  who was Ann SALT(?)?, what was the indenture of 1845 all about?  Who held the lease itself?  Why did Mary have the trust and not her husband William?  Some of this may be revealed by further research but much will be lost in the fog of the past.  We know that William JOHNSON outlived his wife and married again but remained in close contact with his TRENDALL relatives, but this is another story and another blog.   

To be Continued………………….

Oct 2024

 

Phil Trendall

 

The Lansdowne Once Again

 At last the refreshment building at the Museum of the Home has re-opened.  Still called Molly's it has had a (another) refurbishment and is still expensive.  Its re-opening comes just as the museum has re-ordered its galleries and included new layouts of the 'house through time' section.

It is a little ironic that a museum that now prides itself on promoting the history of working class dwellings in east London has become something of a middle class stronghold - especially where catering is concerned.  There remain alternative places to eat in the former coal arches along Geffrye Street.

The re-opening coincides with the final closure of Randal Cremer School.  The local area mutates and changes every few years.  This of course is entirely natural.

I will try and post the notes from my visit to the old public shortly before it was rebuilt to accommodate the flats and restaurant.

Photo:  Nicki Trendall 5th September 2024

See also the photo posted recently from a similar angle taken in the 1950s

A Tragedy

 

All families suffer loss and tragedy.  Mine is no exception but this short blog records the tragic circumstances not of a family member, but of an employee.

The nineteenth century was a dangerous time, with high rates of infant mortality and low life expectancy.  There were many hazards that were new and many others that existed in a new context.  In this period an old hazard, fire, represented a particular danger when contemporary clothing was so flammable.  Later in the century it was estimated that 3000 women in one decade died when their crinoline dresses caught fire.  Even if this was an over estimate it gives an idea of the scale of the fire risk in domestic circumstances. (1).  Flannelette, another popular cloth, was also a material that caused many deaths. 

Earlier in the century, the Evening Standard of the 3rd of June 1829 carried a report under the headline (a) DREADFUL ACCIDENT, reproduced below.  It described the fate of a maid to a pawnbroker in Cromer Street St Pancras, who was preparing a mixture of turpentine and beeswax on a fire in the kitchen when the spirit caught fire and ignited her clothes.  She ran out into the street screaming for help.  Passersby did their best to help her but she “..was frightfully burnt on the neck, arms and other parts of her body”  She was taken to Middlesex hospital but “small hopes are entertained of her recovery” (2)

London Evening Standard 3rd June 1829 (From Newspaper collection at Find My Past)

Turpentine and beeswax can be mixed to create a rich furniture polish.  Recipes (that avoid the use of an open fire) are to be found on YouTube even now. 

Many newspapers carried the story – using exactly the same wording, suggesting that they picked up on an agency report.  This means that all the newspapers missed out the same details.  None reported the victim’s fate, or even her name.

The pawnbroker in question was Elizabeth BARTLETT of 112 Cromer Street.  I will post further about her and about the address.  Mrs BARTLETT was my 4 x great grandmother.  She ran a pawnbrokers business which was later inherited by my 3 x great uncle a few years after the incident.  It was not unusual for shopkeepers to have a ‘maid of all work’ to assist in running a household and a business.    Elizabeth BARTLETT was around 70 in 1829 so was probably in need of some help in addition to that provided by her family.

Newspapers reported virtually all inquests held by coroners, normally in local pubs.  I could find no reports to link with this incident.  I concluded therefore that it was possible that the victim survived.  Alas this was wishful thinking.  What actually happened was that she survived for a few weeks and died on 29^th June in hospital.  I was able to find this out by contacting the archivist for the NHS trust that inherited the records of the Middlesex Hospital, which was then located in Bloomsbury.  (3)

The only record to survive is an admission register.  It records that on 1^st June 1829 a Cath SPILLAR was admitted with burns as the result of an accident.  It also notes her death on 29^th.  Using this information I was able to trace her burial at St Pancras a few days later.  In the burial records she is named as Catherine SPILLERS, aged 16, of Waterloo Place.  We do not know what type of grave she was buried in except that it is not listed as a workhouse burial suggesting that her funeral was paid for.  It is unlikely that her grave ever had a marker and St Pancras burials were much disrupted in the building of St Pancras Station and at various times since (4).

Admission Register 1829 Middlesex Hospital.  Reproduced by permission of the trustees of the University College London Hospitals Trust

Burial Register 3rd July 1829 St Pancras Church Middlesex (LMA P90/PAN1/197

Waterloo Place was a common street name in the decades after the Wellington’s victory so it is not entirely clear where she lived although in the first census in 1841 there was a family from Ireland with a similar name living at Waterloo Place in St Giles which is not far from Cromer Street.

This was a tragic death.  For a young girl to die in such horrible circumstances is as shocking now as it was then.   Her connection to our family is peripheral but I am glad that we have a least been able to name her and the next time I pass Cromer Street (which I do regularly) I will remember Catherine SPILLERS.

 

Philip Trendall

September 2024

 

NOTES

(1)     See for example:   https://mollybrown.org/death-by-crinoline/#:~:text=For%20starters%2C%20they%20were%20a,place%20between%201850%20and%201860. (Accessed 08 Sep 2024)  At the time of this incident London had no ‘emergency services’ that we would recognise.  The Met Police launched their first patrol some months later. 

(2)    London Evening Standard 03 June 1829 (Downloaded from Find My Past 12 Aug 2024)

(3)    With thanks to the archivist University College London Hospitals Trust.  Middlesex Hospital Admissions Register 1829 Entry 603 (Email Correspondence September 2024)

(4)    Burial Register St Pancras Church 03 Jul 1829.  London Municipal Archives Ref P/90/PAN1 197.  Downloaded from Ancestry.co.uk 08 Sep 2024.  The fate of the churchyard at St Pancras is well recorded.  Famously one of the people responsible for the clearance of the graves was Thomas Hardy, later better known as a poet and novelist.  The so called ‘Hardy Tree’ which grew around the displaced headstones was destroyed in a storm in 2023

Some Pictures

 The connection between my family and the eastern parts of London has more than one vector.

I recently came across this picture of Ashford Street in Hackney.  The image shows houses after the war, including damage that may have been caused during the conflict.  They were demolished shortly afterwards.  The houses had been built by the Haberdasher's Company as part of their development of buildings in the Area related to their charities (note Aske Street, named after a famous Haberdasher, Robert Aske).  My 3 x Great Grandfather, Joseph TRENDALL (c1770-1838),  died at number 14 (which according to the photograph description is within this image).   He had previously lived in Whetstone, Marylebone and Covent Garden.  The house was leased for a period of 53 1/4 years from 1819 by Thomas TRENDALL - probably this was Joseph's brother who was a businessman in Oxfordshire, although no mention is made of it in Thomas's Will (D1832).

Ashford Street 1948 (Copyright London Picture Archive)

The next picture is of Cremer Street.  It does not show the pub associated with the TRENDALL/BARKER/WILSON families for many years.  My Father, Frederick Alfred TRENDALL (1914-1983), moved into the Marquis of Lansdowne almost exactly 100 years after his Great Great Grandfather's death in Ashford Street.  The two locations are about 10 minutes walk apart.  The picture was taken in the post war period and before the shops were demolished.

Cremer Street Shops 1946 (Copyright London Picture Archive)

The last picture is of Geffrye Street looking towards the junction with Cremer Street.  The pub is just visible on the right.  The people walking down the street are unidentified.  I do not remember the houses which has been demolished by the early 1960s. 

Geffrye Street 1946 (Copyright  London Picture Archive)

Larger (zoomable) copies of the images, and others, can be found on the website of the London Picture Archive:

Ashford Street

https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/quick-search?q=ashford%20street&WINID=1725123244606

Cremer Street

https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/quick-search?q=cremer%20street&WINID=1725123244606

Geffrye Street

https://www.londonpicturearchive.org.uk/quick-search?q=geffyre%20street&WINID=1725123244606

Philip Trendall

August 2024

A Visit to Randal Cremer 3rd January 2024 (Part Two)

 Continued from Part One

The school's bell tower houses a water tank (Photo Jan 2024)

These fire bells are still in place on each floor although the school also has a modern fire warning system.  It is not clear when the manual bells were installed but they were certainly in place in the 1960s and are probably a lot older.  (Photo Jan 2024)

The author's first time in the playground in over half a century (Photo Jan 2024)

Some Admission Registers are still on site.  These entries are from the index and have been cropped etc to protect data belonging to other individuals.  (Photo Jan 2024) 

The school holds albums of unidentified and undated photographs.  These look like they were taken in the late 1950s or early 1960s.  (Photo Jan 2024)

Randal Cremer School has a long history of service to the community of Shoreditch.  The prospect of its closure is very sad.

The human impact of shutting a school is massive.  I repeat therefore that my thoughts are with those who are going through this process.

Philip Trendall

 

03 January 2024

Acknowledgement

I am most grateful to the school (and especially to the Site Manager) for allowing access to the buildings.  

A Visit to Randal Cremer 3rd January 2024 (Part One)

 

Today Nicki and I went to conduct a recce for a London walk around Hoxton.  We were near where she did her teaching practice, so we walked over to look at the school, Thomas Fairchild, not far from Pitfield Street.  We were surprised to see that the original building was no more and that the site is now occupied by a brand new school.  It turns out that the school was destroyed by fire in 2009.  This led to further discussion about Randal Cremer School (RC) and the London School Board so we made a diversion to look at RC again.

We were very pleased that we did.  The school is still closed for the Christmas holidays.   As we were looking through the fence the Site Manager (Iain) saw us and came over for a chat.  It seems like the old caretaker’s house no longer performs its original role and is used as a teaching facility.  He updated us on the impact of the school closure plans and spoke about the great work done by the staff under the leadership of the current head.  On hearing that I was an old pupil he escorted us on a tour of the school, giving up a lot of his time.   He was clearly very proud of the institution and was interested to hear about aspects of the school’s past.  The decision to close the school has had a very negative effect on the whole community.

While we were there he unearthed some old admission registers and photographs.  The Great War Roll of Honour is displayed in the Hall.  The admission registers had a couple of familiar names but I did not recognise anybody in the photograph albums which were not dated (I would guess they were from the early 1960s).

I was surprised at how many original features of the school have survived.  My comment in the earlier blog about the standard of the construction appears to have been an accurate one.

The original designated entrances for BOYS, GIRLS and INFANTS. (Photo Jan 2024)

A feature of LSB Schools were the open areas that could be used as classrooms, for assemblies and performances and as gyms.  RC has three such spaces and another has been converted into a fine ICT suite and library.  The floors are of high quality wood which was re-polished each summer resulting in a very distinctive smell at the beginning of the Autumn term.  (Photo Jan 2024)

The LSB architect understood that schools sustain a lot of wear.  Stairwells are particularly prone to damage as school children walk (never running!) up and down the stairs.  The use of glazed tiles in the distinctive brown of municipal Victorian England now looks old fashioned but as a feature it has served its purpose well.  Off course I am not qualified to say with certainty that the tiling is an original feature, but if its not it I imagine that it was an early addition.  (Photo Jan 2024)

The classrooms have shown themselves to be very flexible over the years, being adapted to the needs of  educational practice in each generation.  They are light and warm.  Both features that would have been enjoyed by boys and girls in one of the very poor areas of London.  The admiring primary school teacher in the photograph is not thought to be original! (Photo Jan 2024)

The school was heated by a fireplace in every classroom.  This example is covered by a metal plate which bears the insignia of the London School Board suggesting that it was installed before the winding up of the Board in 1904.  (Photo Jan 2024)

Very few primary schools can boast such a fine war memorial.  The names in red are of old boys who lost their lives in the First World War.  The book also records the names of boys and staff who served in HM Forces 1914-1919.  Note the badge of the London County Council.  (Photo Jan 2024)

End of Part One

(03 January 2024)