elizabeth phoebe mallendane + john thomas lefevre
Elizabeth, the daughter of John William Mallandain and Ann Callaghan, was born on 10 June 1868 at the Bethnal Green Workhouse. She appeared in the 1871 Census living with her mother and maternal grandparents at 154 Green Street, Bethnal Green and also in the 1881 Census with her mother and sisters at 34 Cadiz Street in Mile End Old Town. Her mother died one year later but there is no record of what happened to 14 year old Elizabeth or her two sisters.
She married John Thomas Frederick Lefevre at Christchurch in Hackney on 1 November 1891 with her sister Annie and brother-in-law Albert Warren acting as wtinesses. At the time of her marriage, Elizabeth was living at 63 North Street in Bethnal Green and her husband at 2 Gore Road. John Lefevre was born in Bethnal Green in 1869, the son of William Lewellin Lefevre and Martha Goodchild, and worked as a shoe maker most of his life.
Elizabeth and John had ten children, eight of whom surivved to adulthood. Their first child, Elizabeth, was born at 13 Wellington Row in Bethnal Green and baptised at Christ Church, Hackney on 14 February 1892. They were renting two unfurnished rooms in a house at 21 Ash Grove in Hackney when John was born on 23 July 1895; he was baptised at Christ Church on 11 August. Martha Lillian was born in 1897 but died shortly after her birth. Marian was born about 1899 in Haggerston and Dorothy Lillian, known as Loll, was born on 17 February 1900 at 103 Whiston Street in Hackney. She was baptised at St Stephen in Haggerston on 28 March.
Elizabeth and John appear in the 1901 Census with their four young children at 103 Whiston Street in Shoreditch. John was employed as a boot maker and his younger brother, Frederick, who was also a boot maker lived next door with his family
Marjorie Jessie was born at Whiston Street on 17 April 1901, and baptised at St Stephen on 1 May, followed by Kathleen Margaret on 1 February 1903 . Stephen Frederick, known as Frederick, was born on 22 April 1906 and baptised at St Stephen on 18 May and finally Doris Ruth was born in 1908.
In 1911, the family of ten were living at 8 Goring Road near London Fields in Hackney and occupied just five rooms. John was still working as a boot maker and all of their eight surviving children were still living at home. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth, was working as a domestic servant and son John was employed as a wood polisher while the younger children were all at school. They left Goring Street the following year and moved to 29 West Side in the London Fields area of Hackney.
Ten years later, the family celebrated four weddings in two years as their children left home to start their own families. The first to marry was Marian who married Jack Carter in the summer of 1921 and they had three children. Marjorie married Michael Foster at St Luke in Hackney on 27 August 1921 and they had one daughter, Marjorie. On 12 November 1921, John married Eliza Coventry at St Michael and All Angels in Hackney with his sister Loll standing as a witness. The following year, Dorothy married Edward Thomas Deadman and they went on to have thirteen children.
In 1926, Kathleen married Thomas Edward Slade in Hackney and they had two children. Two years later, Doris married Albert Wenham and they had twin boys. The last to marry was Frederick, he married Florence Johnson in Hackney in 1932 and they had one son.
The family was still living at 29 West Side in London Fields when John Thomas died in April 1939, aged 70 years, and on 20 April, he was buried at the Chingford Mount Cemetery. The 1939 Register was compiled shortly after and Elizabeth was still living at 29 West Side along with her eldest son John, a French Polisher, his wife Eliza and their two children, Iris and Donald.
Elizabeth Phoebe died in Hackney in 1948 and was buried at Chingford Mount Cemetery on 1 April but appears she was buried in a common grave rather than next to her husband. Four years after Elizabeth’s death, her daughter Kathleen died aged only 47 years. Daughter Dorothy died on 1 February 1977 and she was predeceased by her husband Edward in 1968.