john william dutch + eliza boivin
John William was born on 4 January 1841 in the Whitechapel Workhouse to Thomas Dutch and his wife Mary Short. He was baptised at St Matthew in Bethnal Green on 14 February. Several years later, his parents separated and his mother began a relationship with John William Mallindine and it appears that he saw John as his father as he adopted the name Mallindine and used it throughout his life.
When John married Eliza Boivin at St James in Shoreditch on 28 December 1861, he listed John William Mallindine, occupation weaver, as his father. He was working as a French Polisher and living at 22 Holywell Lane while Eliza lived down the road at number 14. Eliza was born in Bethnal Green in 1845 to Joseph Boivin, a weaver, and Sarah Crofts which would make her just 16 years old when she married and not the 18 years she entered on the register.
On 19 September 1862, the first of their nine children, son John William, was born at 190 Bethnal Green Road. He was baptised at St Matthew on 5 October but died five months later, on 7 February 1863, of diarrhea and was buried at Victoria Park Cemetery on 11 February. Their second son Thomas Richard was born at 29 Hope Street on 18 January 1864, and baptised at St Matthew Bethnal Green on 7 February, but died four days later and was buried at Victoria Park Cemetery on 15 February.
They were still living on Bethnal Green Road when Eliza Mary was born on 10 April 1865 and baptised at St Matthias on 23 April but they had moved to 17 Wellington Place by the time Martha Ellen was born on 15 February 1867; she was baptised on 10 March 1867 at St James the Great. Henry was born on 19 March 1869 and baptised at St James the Great on 11 April 1869.
In 1871, John, Eliza and their three surviving children — Eliza, Martha and Henry — were living at 5 Little York Street in Bethnal Green and John was still working as a French Polisher. Little York Street was just north of the Great Eastern Railway Station and ran between York Street and Club Row and twenty years before, Hector Gavin wrote a book on his investigation into the conditions in Bethnal Green entitled Sanitary Ramblings, Being Sketches and Illustrations of Bethnal Green and compared Little York Street to the state of nearby Anchor Street as ‘equally filthy and abominable, and disgraceful to the authorities’. On the state of Anchor Street, he commented:
‘the semi-fluid, black, foetid mud has been swept into the gutters, and chokes them up, a part being washed on to the foot-pavement; the slime still covers, in a tolerably thick layer, the surface of the street, and presents the most disgusting proofs of the abundance of vegetable and animal remains, which are mixed up and incorporated with the mud; the odour arising from this street is most offensive.’
They left Little York Street shortly after and moved further west to 15 Preston Street where daughter Betsy was born on 6 November 1871. She was baptised on 26 November but unlike her siblings she was not baptised in the Church of England but rather in the Sydney Street Congregational Chapel in Bethnal Green. They moved back to Wellington Place sometime before Albert was born there on 14 June 1877. He was baptised on 1 July at St James the Great but died on 11 August 1880 just weeks before his third birthday. Harriet Matilda was born on 22 August 1879 and baptised on 14 September at St James the Great.
In 1881, the family of seven was still on Wellington Place and the only change in their circumstance was that John was working as a Cabinet Maker rather than a French Polisher. Their ninth child, Walter, was born on 24 October 1881 and baptised on 16 November at St James the Great but he died the following spring.
Three years later, their eldest daughter Eliza married William Butler at St Thomas Bethnal Green on 19 October 1884 with her mother Eliza as one of the witnesses. But one year later, Eliza died aged 39 years and John was left to support and care for their four surviving children. Eighteen year old Martha was likely put in charge of caring for her younger sisters and managing the household until she left home to marry Isaac Moore at St Thomas on 16 December 1887.
Four days after his daughter’s wedding, John married a second time to Henrietta Elizabeth Knighton, nee Hanson, at St Thomas. She was also a widow who lived on Wellington Place with her husband until his death in 1885.
In 1891, John and Henrietta, known as Elizabeth, were living in three rooms at 30 George Gardens, along with Henry, Betsey and Harriet. He was once again working as a French Polisher, Elizabeth was a Tailoress, Henry a chair maker, Betsey a Cigar Maker and 11 year old Harriet was still at school.
Son Henry married Harriet Marshall on 24 December 1892 at St Jude in Bethnal Green and his sister Betsy was one of the witnesses. They had nine children but three died shortly after birth and only two of their six surviving children married. After his wife died in 1923, Henry and his children Harriet, Lilian, William, Louisa and her daughter Irene lived together at 49 Camden Street, which was later renamed to Ellesworth Street, and following his death in 1941, his surviving children continued to live together.
John was a witness at daughter Betsy’s wedding to Charles William Eacersall on 25 December 1893 at St Jude in Bethnal Green. They had four children but none survived their first year. Charles died in 1900 and several months later, Betsy’s only surviving daughter, Emily Maud, also died. In 1901, she was living with her brother Henry and his family in Holybush Gardens and working as a Cigar Maker. On 4 August 1907, Betsy married a second time to Joseph Cross, a bachelor seven years her junior and they went on to have two children. They lived in the Toyes Buildings on Old Bethnal Green Road for many years. Betsy died in Bethnal Green in 1951.
John William died on 19 July 1895 at 79 George Gardens in Bethnal Green and after an inquest was held to determine the cause of death, the coroner ruled that he died of natural causes as a result of an ‘effusion of blood on brain’. John was buried on 29 July at Manor Park Cemetery.
On 25 December 1897, his youngest daughter Harriet married Richard Edward Thomas at Christ Church in Spitalfields and they had four children but their youngest daughter, Harriet Queenie, died when she was just seven years old. Richard died in Bethnal Green on 8 January 1951 and was buried in West Ham Cemetery in Newham one week later. Harriet appears in the Electoral Registers at Dinmont House until 1952 but there are no records relating to her after that date.
In 1901, Henrietta was living alone in a single room at 41 Clarkson Street and working as a Charwoman; she died the following year. The Mallindine name continues through the descendants of Henry’s grandson Kenneth who emigrated to the United States in the 1950s. Kenneth died in Jasper, Georgia on 14 December 2017.