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 29th 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 1st June 1829 a
Cath SPILLAR was admitted with burns as the result of an accident. It also notes her death on 29th. 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
.JPG)
