martha ann mallindine
Martha was born in Spitalfields on 25 July 1819 to William Mallindine and his wife Martha Edghill. She was baptised at Christ Church, Spitalfields on 19 April 1824 along with her younger brother, Henry, and at the time, the family was living on Hope Street which ran between the Old Bethnal Green Road and Hackney Road.
Martha’s mother died in 1840 and the following year, her father was living in James Place with her younger brothers Francis, William and George but Martha has not been found in the census. Several months later Martha gave birth to her first child, a daughter, at the Whitechapel Workhouse and her pregnancy may explain why she was not living with her family. Baby Martha was born on 31 August 1841 but lived only 10 days before she died in the workhouse of ‘diseased bowels’. No father was listed on the birth certificate and Martha was listed as a pauper on her daughter's death registration.
Martha next appears in the records when her son John Francis was born in the Bethnal Green Workhouse on 28 July 1842. When his birth was registered on 18 August, it was under the surname Forecast with his father listed as John, a Hearth Rug Weaver, and Martha was still living in the workhouse. Three days later, John was baptised at St Matthew, under the name Mallendine, and his mother’s occupation was given as Weaver but there is also a second baptism from St Leonard, Shoreditch on 26 February 1844; in this one, he was baptised under the name Forecast and his parents, John and Martha Ann, were living in James Street where his father worked as a Hearth Rug Weaver.
It’s not known if Martha and John were in a relationship the entire time or if the varying baptism records reflect an on and off again relationship. No marriage record has been found but it seems their relationship continued for some years as their second child, Martha, was born in Spitalfields in 1846. Her birth record has not been found but when she married in 1866, she listed her father’s name as John Forecast, deceased. The 1851 census also contains another son, Charles, who was the same age as Martha but again no birth has been found under the name Forecast or Mallindine.
Nothing is known of John Forecast but a 28 year old man of the same name was lodging in 8 Wood Yard and working as a Rug Weaver in 1851. He apprenticed as a Weaver in Bethnal Green but fell on hard times and was forced to apply for parish relief in 1854, 1862 and again in 1876. By 1881, he was forced to seek indoor relief and was living in the Poplar Workhouse when the census was taken. In each of these records, he is consistently described as a Rug or Hearth Rug Weaver and single.
On 20 February 1849, Martha gave birth to her son Henry in the Whitechapel Workhouse but his father’s name was left blank on the birth registration. Little Henry died the following year, on 28 May 1850, at 7 Hunt Court in Mile End New Town and he was buried in the church yard at St Dunstan in Stepney on 3 June. The cause of death was determined to be marasmus and Henry had been ill for 8 months before his death. According to an article in the National Georgraphic Quarterly magazine, marasmus was:
‘a term used to describe malnutrition occurring in infants and young children, caused by an insufficient intake of calories or protein and characterized by thinness, dry skin, poor muscle development, and irritability. In the mid-nineteenth century, specific causes were associated with specific ages: In infants under twelve months old, the causes were believed to be unsuitable food, chronic vomiting, chronic diarrhea, and inherited syphilis. Between one and three years, marasmus was associated with rickets or cancer. After the age of three years, an enlargement of the mesenteric glands (located in the peritoneal fold attaching the small intestine to the body wall) became a given cause of wasting. After the sixth year, chronic pulmonary tuberculosis appeared to be the major cause.’
In 1851, Martha was living at 14 Granby Street in the same house as her brothers Thomas, Francis and George as well as Thomas’ wife and children. The head of her household was Isaac Mallindine, a silk weaver born in Bethnal Green in 1822. According to the census return, Isaac and Martha were married but no marriage has been found and it seems unlikely she would marry someone with the same family name. Her three surviving children, 8 year old John, Martha and Charles both 5 years were still living with her.
Isaac Mallindine
It is difficult to say if Isaac’s last name was Mallindine or if Martha simply gave her name to various officials to cover for the illegitimacy of her children. If his name was truly Isaac Mallindine, there is one possible match in the broader family tree. Isaac Malandain, also Mallandaine, was born in Bethnal Green in 1821 and apprenticed as a Weaver. He also had a son named Charles who was born in Bethnal Green in 1846. Isaac was convicted of assault in 1848 and sentenced to 18 months’ hard labour at Coldbath Fields Prison in Clerkenwell and while he was in prison, his wife and baby daughter both died. Isaac’s whereabouts following his release are unknown but in September 1851, his son Charles was taken to the Board of Guardians in Mile End New Town and the subsequent Removal Order notes ‘that Martha Mallandine with whom the said Charles Mallandine was left on his father deserting him is a relative of the said Charles Mallandine.’
Isaac Malandain and Martha Mallindine were second cousins. If Isaac and Martha did have a relationship, it would appear that Charles was his son and not hers and that he left her just before their son Isaac William was born. When she realized that Isaac was not coming back and with another baby on the way and no means of support, she was probably unable to care for Charles and made the decision to take him to the workhouse. Isaac left London and settled in Lancashire where he married a second time.
Martha’s son Isaac William was born on 18 October 1851 at the Whitechapel Workhouse under the name Mallindine and again no father was listed on the birth certificate when he was registered two days later. Isaac was baptised on 30 November 1851 at All Saints in Hackney and the register notes that he was the son of Isaac, a Weaver, and Martha Ann who were living at 11 Spital Street in Mile End New Town.
In 1861, Martha was living at 4 Well Street in Stepney with her three children and although no husband appeared in the census return, she was recorded as being married. Martha was working as a Charwoman, a term used to describe women who did odd jobs such as cooking, cleaning and laundry, while 18 year old son John was employed as a Blind Maker and the two youngest, 15 year old Martha and 9 year old Isaac, were still in school. They lived above a chandler’s shop which sold household items and groceries and at least five other families lived in the same house.
Ten years later, they were living at 14 Bakers Row in Whitechapel but the head of the household was William Mallendine, a 48 year old Bricklayer’s Labourer and he and Martha were listed as husband and wife. But as with Isaac, William’s identity remains a mystery. Martha was still working as a Charwoman and her son Isaac was a Carman, a driver of a horse drawn wagon used to deliver goods.
Eldest son John married Eliza Manning in 1865 and did so using the name John Forecast Mallindine which was also given as his father's name. The following year, Martha married George Crow, and gave her father's name as John Forecast, but by 1871 she had returned to live with her mother along with her two young children, Alfred and Elizabeth.
John moved his young family to Newcastle between 1871 and 1874 and it appears that either Martha Ann went with them or followed sometime later. She died in the Sunderland Workhouse on 19 April 1880 and was buried in Durham County Cemetery on 21 April.