elizabeth ann mallandain + william bennett clarke
Elizabeth was born on 17 February 1840 and baptised on 12 April 1840 at St Luke Old Street in Finsbury. She was the youngest daughter of Peter Mallandain and Elizabeth Hodges. Elizabeth married William Bennet Clarke on 22 July 1862 at St Mary the Virgin in Islington with her sister Emma acting as a witness. At the time of their marriage, Elizabeth was living at 94 Bridport Place which was the same address given by her brother Charles when he married in 1859.
William Clarke was baptised on 15 March 1829 at St Martin in the Fields in Westminster, the son of Theophilus and Elizabeth Clarke. William was only seven years old when his father died; the family was living on Museum Street in Bloomsbury at the time and they were still there ten years later. Elizabeth Clark’s occupation was listed as draper and she may have taken over Theophilus’ shop following his death. By 1851, Elizabeth and her three children, Hender, William and Emilia, had left Bloomsbury and were living at 9 London Road in Southwark and she was working as a draper and hosier, someone who made or sold stockings or other woven or knitted goods, along with her two sons.
When William married Elizabeth, he gave his address as 27 Russell Place in Islington but they moved soon after to the borough of Southwark and settled in the parish of Saint Jude where their first three children were born. Their first daughter, Nellie, was born on 14 May 1863 and baptised on 7 June at St Jude, followed by Elizabeth baptised on 12 August 1866 and William Hender baptised on 28 November 1869.
By 1871, William had taken over the family’s drapery business and his young family was living at 9 London Road. Their daughter Zoe Emilia was baptised on 2 June 1872 at St Jude and two years later, their fourth daughter, Alice Beatrice, was born on 8 February 1874 although she was baptised Saint Paul Westminster Bridge Road rather than St Judes. Arthur Edwin was born on 14 July 1877 and his sister Hettie Irene was born on 24 April 1880.
The family was still at 9 London Road in Southwark at the time of the 1881 census and William’s occupation was again listed as a Hosier and Draper. His two eldest daugthers were working as Draper’s Assistants and may have been working in the family shop while the younger children were still attending school. Elizabeth’s older sister Emma was also living with the family and was likely helping her run the household and care for her children. Their daughter, Gladys Annie, was born in September 1883 but died only one year later.
On 28 February 1890, Nellie married James Anderson, a costumier from Largo in Scotland, at St Jude in Southwark. After their marriage, they moved to Hammersmith in west London while her family remained on London Road. William was still employed in the drapery business along with daughters Zoe and Alice but their son, William, was no longer at home and has not been found elsewhere in the census. The Marshall Report notes that William emigrated to South Africa and was believed to be managing a store there so it is possible he left England before the census.
William and Elizabeth welcomed their first grandchild in 1891 when Norman Alexander Anderson was born in Shepherd’s Bush. Nellie and James had three more children — Doris Bessie in 1893, Mabel in 1895 and Douglas James in 1898 — but shortly after their youngest son’s birth, James died suddenly aged only 37 years. Following his death, Nellie stayed in west London and carried on with his business of Court Dress Maker.
Later that year, Zoe Emilia married John Henry Sitton also at St Saviour Southwark and moved to Newington in north west London where Harry worked as a Cheesemonger’s Assistant. They had five children: Zoe Elizabeth born in 1899, Harold Clarke in 1901, Millicent Zoe in 1904, William Arthur in 1906, and Mary Alice in 1916.
In the fall of 1892, William and Elizabeth left Southwark and moved north of the Thames to Hammersmith settling initially in a house at 3 Leysfield Villas off Greenside Road and just north of the major thoroughfare of Goldhawk Road. They enrolled their daughter Hettie in the St Stephen’s Parochial School on 21 November 1892 and the admission record notes that William was still working as a Draper.
By 1901, William had retired and they moved to 33 Dorville Road just east of Ravenscourt Park along with three of their daughters, Elizabeth, Alice and Hettie who were still working as Draper’s Assistants. Their widowed daughter Nellie was living at 195 Earls Court Road in Kensington with her three young children and she was working as a Dressmaker and employer (at home) so it appears she was still running her late husband’s business. Their son Arthur reappears in the records lodging at 167 Lambeth Walk in Lambeth, south London and he was also working as a Draper’s Assistant.
The Marshall Report was compiled four years later and according to the information provided by Emma Mallandain, Alice was working with Baker’s Stores in Kensington and her siblings Arthur and Hettie were still working in the drapery business. William and Elizabeth were still living on Dorville Road in 1911 along with their daughters Elizabeth, Alice and Hettie who continued to work as Draper’s or Outfitter’s Assistants. Their 17 year old granddaughter, Doris Bessie Anderson, was also living with them and she was also working as a Draper’s Assistant.
Nellie Anderson was living in lodgings at 118 Church Road in Islington and working as a Surgical Nurse. Son Norman was lodging and working in a draper’s shop on Edgeware Road and her daughter Mabel was living in a training school for domestic servants in Marylebone and thirteen year old Douglas was attending the the School of Handicrafts for Poor Boys in Chertsey, Surrey. The school taught a variety of crafts and trades including tailoring, boot and shoe making, plumbing, painting, gas-fitting, cabinet making and French polishing,as well as farm and garden work. Douglas later joined the colonial civil service and worked for the Department of Works in Kano, Nigeria; he died there on 25 June 1936.
William Bennett Clarke died in Fulham several months after the census was taken and Elizabeth died in Fulham in 1927.
Their eldest daughter Nellie entered the French Hospital on 3 October 1925 when she was 62 years old. In her application, she noted that she was living with her mother at 33 Dorville Road and had been supporting herself by working as a Maternity Nurse and Night Nurse as well as an income of £10 from her son’s allowance but with increased living expenses and fewer nursing jobs owing to her age, she was not able to support herself. At the time of her husband’s death in 1899, they operated a costumer’s shop on Earl’s Court Road and lived in a private dwelling at 22 Binden Road in Sheperd’s Bush but due to a reduction in trade, Nellie was not able to keep the shop going. Her brother Arthur witnessed her application, the vicar of Holy Innocents Church in Hammersmith attested to her character and Dr. D. Llewellyn Jones confirmed her good health. Nellie remained in the French Hospital until her death on 8 May 1950.
Her sister Zoe moved to Aldershot with her family where her husband carried on working as a shop assistant. Sadly, Zoe and Harry lost two of their five children when Zoe Elizabeth died in 1903 aged four years and son William Arthur died in 1908 aged only one year. Harry Sitton died in Aldershot in 1935 followed by Zoe Clarke in Surrey in 1944.
William and Elizabeth’s remaining children — Elizabeth, Arthur, Alice and Hettie — stayed in the family home at number 33 but the street had been renamed from Dorville Road to Dorville Crescent in 1912. They were still living together in 1939 and all except Elizabeth, who was listed as a House Keeper, were still working in the drapery sales business. When Alice Beatrice died on 30 November 1956, she was still living in the family home and her brother Arthur Edwin and sister Hettie Irene were appointed as executors of her estate valued at £995. Hettie died in Brighton in 1971 but Elizabeth in 1954 but Arthur’s death record has not been found.