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