george mallandain + sarah tustian
George Giles was born on 17 December 1789 and baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal Green on 17 January 1790. George spent his early childhood in the country town of Hereford, 25 miles north of London, but his family returned to the city sometime after 1801. He likely began his education in Hereford but completed it in London before gaining a position as a Clerk.
c. 1802
Modern Map
On 1 March 1820, George took out an insurance policy with the Sun Insurance Company on a brick and timber house on York Street in Rotherhithe for £200. The policy details note that the house was next to the Battle of the Nile Public House and ‘in the tenure of a lighterman’ or dockworker. The policy lists George’s address as 18 Prince’s Square in Ratcliffe and his occupation as Gentleman so it appears the house in Rotherhithe was purchased as an investment rather than a home.
Princes Square was located off the old Ratcliffe Highway between Wellclose Square and the church of St George in the East. The church was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and built between 1714 and 1729. It was hit by a German bomb during the Blitz on the London Docklands on 6 May 1941 and although the interior of the church was completely destroyed, the walls and trademark Hawksmoor tower survived. In 1964, a modern interior was constructed inside the original exterior and the church is still in use today.
George worked as a Clerk at Messrs Boldero & Company, a private bank known as a banking house, for 18 months before being recommended by a Mr. Whitmore for a position with the Bank of England. He was examined by the committee and described in the candidate’s book as being ‘single free from debt, belongs to no club, has good health and no complaints, good writing and ready at accounts’ which was in contrast to others who were listed as being ‘slow at accounts’. On 2 August 1810, George was approved for employment in the Accounts Office on an annual salary of £140 and ten years later, he was promoted to a position with the authority to sign dividend warrants for shareholders. In 1842, he successfully applied for the position of Librarian within the Accounts Office but it is not clear what this position entailed.
At the age of thirty-six, George Giles married Sarah Tustian on 16 July 1825 at St Mary at Hill in Eastcheap. Sarah was born on 20 August 1794 at the family home on Betts Street in Ratcliffe; she was the daughter of Thomas Tustian, a Mathematical Instrument Maker, and his wife Mary Sheppard. After their marriage, George and Sarah remained in his house in Prince’s Square with Sarah’s family living neaby on Pennington Street but in 1840, they moved out of London and into a house at 34 Rye Lane in Peckham. They were recorded in the 1841 Census at the same address, where George was listed as a Clerk in the Bank of England, and Sarah’s sister, Priscilla Tustian, was also living with them along with one domestic servant. It appears that George purchased two freehold cottages at number 34 and 35 Rye Lane and initially let them out to tenants before moving there himself; he let out his house in Radcliffe and continued to let the cottage at 35 Rye Lane.
Ten years later, they were still living on Rye Lane but later that year, on 27 November, George retired from his position at the Bank of England on a pension of £212 per annum and they moved to the sea side town of Brighton; it appears that Priscilla Tustian accompanied them as she died there in 1855. George appears in several directories including the 1859 Directory for Brighton & Hove Albion at West Street as well as electoral registers at 2 Great Russel Street. In 1861, George and Sarah were living at 28 West Street along with domestic servant, Ellen Messenger, who had worked for them for at least ten years and later acted as one of the executors of George’s estate.
George died on 30 November 1861 at 28 West Street in Brighton and was buried at the Extra Mural Cemetery. He was listed as a Gentleman in his will, proved on 7 January 1862, and left his entire estate to his wife Sarah for the term of her natural life. George owned a number of properties when he died including their previous residence and ‘other houses in Rye Lane now let as a garden’, freehold land on Herbert Road in Peckham, a freehold house at 64 North Road in Brighton as well as his first house at 21 Princes Square in Ratcliffe.
George directed that on the decease of his wife, the rents on his lands and houses were to pass to his younger brother Edward for the term of his natural life. On Edward’s death, the land and property was to be sold and divided equally amongst Edward’s five surviving children. George’s will was dated 29 November 1858, eighteen months after the death of his elder brother John West Mallandaine, however he did not leave any legacies to John’s children. Sarah and George’s friend, John Hughes of Queen Street in Ratcliffe, were appointed as executors of the £3000 estate while William Basc and Ellen Messenger witnessed the document.
Sarah remained in their house on West Street in Brighton until she died on 10 August 1867. In her will, she bequeathed an escretoire or writing desk that belonged to her father-in-law John Mallandain to George’s brother Edward, £100 to his widowed daughter Mary and £300 each to his daughters Sarah, Emma and Alice. She also bequeathed the proceeds of a £500 bank annuity to her nephew John William Mallandain and on his decease, the proceeds of a £300 annuity would pass to his daughter Sarah.
Sarah left all of her household goods as well as the proceeds of the shares she held in the Ratcliffe Gas Works to her long time servant Ellen Messenger; upon Ellen’s death, the shares would pass to Sarah, Emma, and Alice Mallandain. Her executors received £30 each with additional cash legacies paid to the four daughters of William Basc and the son of Joseph Hughes.