john william mallandain + ann emily callaghan
John William was born on 29 April 1841 at 9 Pleasant Row in Bethnal Green, the eldest son of John William Mallandain and Elizabeth Walker. John left the family home on Ely Place and was living at 7 Cross Street when he married Ann Callaghan at St James, Shoreditch on 5 August 1861. His occupation was listed as Labourer and his sister Sarah acted as a witness along with Ann’s father. Neither John nor Ann could write and both signed the marriage register by making their mark but his sister Sarah was able to read and write well enough to sign her name.
Ann Callaghan was born in Shoreditch on 21 May 1843 and baptised at St Leonard on 18 June. She was the daughter of Timothy Callaghan, a bootmaker, and his wife Sarah Bullock.
John and Ann moved to Ely Place after their wedding and were living next door to John’s parents. Their first child and only son, John William, was born there on 28 July 1862 and baptised at St Matthias on 7 August. According to the baptism record, John was working as a bricklayer when his son was born.
Hannah, known as Annie, was born ion 22 December 1864 at the City of London Lying in Hospital on Old Street in St Luke and when Ann registered her birth on 9 January, she listed the family’s address as 1 Bonney’s Lane in Bethnal Green and John’s occupation as a Dock Labourer. Elizabeth Phoebe was born on 10 June 1868 at Bethnal Green Workhouse although it is not known whether the whole family was forced to enter the workhouse or if Ann simply gave birth in the workhouse infirmary.
In 1870, Ann was forced to apply for parish relief and in order to qualify for relief, she had to submit to an interview and prove that she was an established resident of the parish and had no other means of support. Ann advised the parish that she was seeking relief because her husband was away in Canada and to prove her residency she confirmed that she had resided on Liverpool Street for 9 months and prior to that at 154 Green Street for 11 months. Six months later, she applied again only this time her husband was listed as being away in America. It is possible that John had travelled to Canada or America to try and find work and presumably planned to bring his family over later but based on Ann’s application for relief, it appears that John was not sending money, or enough money, home to support them.
Ann appears in the 1871 Census with her son William and daughter Elizabeth living with her parents, Timothy and Sarah Callaghan, at 154 Green Street in Bethnal Green. Ann was employed as a Boot Maker but there was no sign of her husband John William or her eldest daughter, Hannah. In the spring of 1873, Ann gave birth to her third daughter, Sarah Ann.
Later that year, Ann applied to the London School Board for help in paying the school fees for her daughters Hannah and Elizabeth. Her application record notes that:
Ann Mallandine, the mother, is a widow. There are six members in the family, including a boy of fourteen and two children under four years of age. The total weekly income is 10s. — the mother earns 7s., and the boy of fourteen earns 3s. Applicant bears a good character.
At that time, they were a family of five with only one child, Sarah Ann, under the age of four so the identity of the sixth family remember remains a mystery. Ann’s application was approved and the School Board paid 3s each for the girls to attend St Simon Zelotes School for three months. This was the first time Ann was listed as a widow although no death record for John has been located and no other information has been found to substantiate his death prior to 1873. She may have claimed to be a widow after finally ending her relationship with John or accepting that he was not returning to the family but it would also have been a benefit when applying for charitable relief as a woman who had been abandoned by her husband was not viewed as favourably as a widow.
Ann next appears in the records as a witness to her sister Priscilla’s marriage to James Pyner at St Jude in Bethnal Green on 6 August 1876. Three months after her sister’s wedding, Ann gave birth to another daughter Emma Priscilla who was born 8 November 1876 at 4 Violet Row in Bethnal Green. There are no records to confirm that John returned to his family and although it is possible that he was temporarily reunited with Ann, it is also possible that John was not the father of the two youngest girls.
On 8 September 1879, Sarah Ann died, aged only 6 years, at their home on Moss Street near the Victoria Park Cemetery and she was buried at Manor Park Cemetery on 14 September. Two years later, Ann and her three surviving daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Emma, appeared in the 1881 Census at 36 Cadiz Street in Mile End. Her nineteen year old son, John William, was not with the family nor has he been found elsewhere in the census records. Ann was employed as a Needlewoman and her marital status was once again listed as a widow.
On 5 May 1882, Ann Callaghan died of fever at the Bethnal Green Workhouse. There is no record of what happened to her three daughters — aged 17, 14 and 6 at the time of her death although they may have returned to live with their maternal grandparents until they were old enough to obtain work as domestic servants.
Eight years later, Hannah married Albert Warren on 27 July 1890 at St Jude in Bethnal Green. At the time of her marriage, she was living at 10 St Jude Street but there is no obvious connection between her and the families living there in 1891. One year later, her sister Elizabeth married John Thomas Lefevre at Christchurch in Hackney and her address was listed as 63 North Street but again there is no relation with the family living there in the census taken a few months earlier.
From the signatures on their marriage registers, it appears that Elizabeth was able to write but Hannah was not. In the majority of birth and baptism records, the family name was consistently spelled Mallandain but Hannah’s name was spelled Mellendane on her marriage record and Elizabeth signed her name as Malendane — both were a more phonetic spelling of the family name.
Emma, or Emily as she was known, appears in the 1891 Census working as a Domestic Servant for the Colson family at Addison Villa in Wansted, Essex. In 1901, she was employed as a Still Room Maid — the still room was where beverages such as tea and coffee were prepared — at Whitehall Court, a privately constructed building that included private apartments, a hotel and until the end of the first World War, it was the headquarters for MI6. Emily next appears in the 1911 Census at 7 Ferncroft Avenue, Hampstead working as a Cook Domestic for Francis Edward Vaughan and his family in a large nine room house near Hampstead Heath.
John reappears in the records when he applied for parish relief in Bethnal Green on 27 February 1901. His interview record lists him as a 63 year old widower who worked as a scaffolder. He was able to confirm that his wife died in London but an additional note about his children states ‘3 children, doubtful whether alive or dead’ so although he knew of Ann’s death, possibly through family or friends, it seems he did not re-establish contact with his children. The record also contains information on John’s whereabouts over the years but a trip to Canada or America was not listed; he stated that he had been living on and off with his sister Sarah Collins at 18 Lansdell Place in Bethnal Green and before that he lived in Dartford for 2 years. The handwritten record is unclear but it appears to read Strand for a year and a half, Canterbury for 9 months, Dover for four months and what could be Leytonstone for 5 years.
Two months after John applied for relief, he appeared in the 1901 Census lodging at the Salvation Army Shelter in Whitechapel but it is not known how long he remained there. There is no record of John in the 1911 census but there is a possible death record in West Ham in 1914.
On 16 May 1913, Emily sailed from Liverpool onboard the Empress of Ireland and arrived in Quebec City a week later. She reported her intended destination as Edmonton and that she planned to continue working as a domestic servant. Eighteen months after arriving, she married Christopher Williams at the Presbyterian manse on 104th Street. Christopher was born on 22 March 1873 in Rathdrum, County Wicklow, Ireland to Christopher Williams and Anne Manley and he emigrated to Canada in 1903. He was in Edmonton by the time the 1911 Census was taken and worked as a Labourer in a brick yard and later in a lumber yard.
In 1916, Emily and Christopher were living at 10616 91 Ave in south Edmonton and he was working for the city as a Gardener; they lived at the same address until Christopher retired and they moved to Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1944. They were living in an apartment above a corner grocer's at 2725 Rock Bay Avenue when Christopher died at the Royal Jubilee Hospital of a cerebral hemorrhage on 26 August 1948. He was buried at the Royal Oak Burial Park in Saanich two days later.
Emily died suddenly of a heart attack at her home at 2832 Douglas Street on 8 August 1955. As she had no family in Victoria, her friend, Marion Coxford, acted as the informant when her death was registered. Emily was buried next to her husband at Royal Oak on 12 August.