alice maria manhood
Alice was born in Bethnal Green on 25 April 1865; she was the eldest daughter of George William Manhood and his wife Eliza Want. Alice and her two younger siblings were all baptised at St John the Baptist in Hoxton on 18 July 1877.
She married Joseph Mallindine on 13 May 1883 at St Jude’s in Bethnal Green and they later settled in Plaistow, Essex. They had six children but only five survived infancy. Joseph died of tuberculosis on 9 June 1898 and Alice struggled to support herself and her three youngest children. One year after Joseph’s death, she made the difficult decision to send her two youngest sons, Alfred and Stephen, to the Barnardo’s Home to be resettled in Canada.
She remained in Plaistow with her youngest daughter, Lily, while her two eldest children, Alice and Joseph, were sent out to work. Alice had a relationship with a man believed to be Frank Burt and they had three chilren out of wedlock but none survived infancy. She married Frank Talbot in 1914 and they lived happily in Essex until her death in 1946.
george william manhood + eliza want
George was born in Shoreditch on 20 October 1831, the son of William Manhood
and his wife Catherine, and baptised at St Leonard in Shoreditch on 14
November. In 1841, the family was living on Nova Scotia Gardens in Bethnal Green
where William was working as a shoemaker. William and Catherine had three other
children, Mary Ann born in 1826, William in 1835 and Thomas in 1840.
By 1851, George had left home and was working as a journeyman shoe maker with Joseph Alabaster and his family on New Castle Street in Bethnal Green. On 7 November 1859, George married Eliza Want at St Jude in Bethnal Green. Eliza was born in St Luke in 1837 and she was the daughter of William Want and his wife Elizabeth Brukeridge.
George was living at 4 North Conduit Street at the time of his marriage and Eliza was living at 25 Craven Street. Two years later, they were still in Shoreditch and living at 2 Gloster Row. Their first daughter Alice Maria was born on 25 April 1865 and when the census was taken in 1871, the family was living at 16 St John’s Terrace in Shoreditch where George continued to work as a Boot and Shoe Maker.
Their son Frederick was born on 6 March 1875 and Lily Catherine was born on 9 June 1877. In 1881, George, Eliza and their three children were living at 34 Charlotte Buildings between Nichol Row and Turville Street in Bethnal Green. George was still working as a Boot Maker while Eliza worked at home as a Fancy Trimmer and 16 year old Alice as a Fancy Box Maker. Their two youngest children were at school and Eliza’s widowed mother, 75 year old Elizabeth Want, also lived with them.
The Charlotte Buildings were constructed in 1872 and provided housing for 140 people; it was built during a period of philanthropic construction in Bethnal Green led by groups such as the Charity Organisation Society as well as individuals like Charles Dickens. Conditions in the East End parishes had been in the public eye since the 1830s and although much of the initial focus was on the immorality of the inhabitants, attention soon shifted to the effect of the environment on the health of the residents. In 1848, Dr. Hector Gavin, a health inspector and lecturer at Charing Cross Hospital, published a report on his examination of the living conditions in Bethnal Green and noted that many areas in the parish, and in particular the area on either side of Green Street, were ‘filthy, appalling, and disgusting’. Although his findings were not new, his efforts to address the issue were as he encouraged wealthy patrons to actively participate in ‘the great work of sanitary improvement and social amelioration’.
Numerous charitable societies and wealthy individuals responded and their aim was to relieve the suffering of the poor in the East End by providing soup kitchens, orphanages and medical services but this later expanded to include the construction of model housing to replace the slums. Most of the existing housing was built without foundations, despite being two-storeyed, and constructed with the poorest quality materials and the area suffered from a complete lack of drainage and sewerage. Charles Dickens encouraged the Baroness Burdett-Coutts to rebuild a portion of the East End and in 1857, she purchased a site at Nova Scotia Gardens, north of Crabtree Road, that consisted of ‘a huge mountain of refuse with a row of small houses on one side and the new church and schools on the other.’ In its place, Burdett-Coutts paid for the construction of four five-storeyed blocks set around a central courtyard. The development, called Columbia Square, opened in 1859 and contained 180 sets of rooms with a reading room and washing facilities on the top floors.
George and Eliza’s daughter Alice left home in the spring of 1883 when she married Joseph Mallindine. By 1886, Alice and Joseph had moved out of the East End and settled in Plaistow, Essex and when the census was taken in 1891, George and Eliza were also living in Plaistow, on Stephen’s Row, with their children Frederick and Lily. It is not known who moved first or if they decided as a family to move together.
Lily married Alfred Jenner in the fall of 1895 in West Ham and they went on to have six children. In 1901, they were living at 43 West Road in West Ham along with their two youngest daughters, Lily Eliza Sarah who was born in 1896 and Elizabeth born in 1900, and Alfred was working as a Customs Watcher. Living at the same address was Alfred’s father, Ebenezer Jenner, and his 24 year old sister Elizabeth. Sadly, their infant daughter Elizabeth died six months later.
It appears that the Manhood family had broken up following Eliza’s death in 1898. The following year her daughter Alice advised the Barnardo’s home that her father was in the West Ham Union Workhouse and her brother’s whereabouts were not known. In 1901, George was still living at the West Ham Union Workhouse and listed as a pauper. His son Frederick was working as a Painter and boarding with a family in Plumstead on the south bank of the Thames but three years later, he was back in West Ham where he married Lilian Agnes Bew.
The family was at least partially reconciled by 1911 as George had left the workhouse and was living with his daughter Lily and her family at 52 Selwyn Road in Plaistow. George was listed as an old age pensioner and the pension he received may have allowed him to move out of the workhouse. State pensions were introduced in England in 1909 and a basic pension of 5 shillings a week was payable to those 70 and older who earned less than £21 a year. Alfred Jenner was still employed with HM Customs and his occupation was listed as Preventive Man which was a term used to describe a customs officer whose responsibility was to prevent smuggling and ensure that the appropriate taxes were collected. Their 14 year old daughter Lily was working as a Cuff Facing Machinist in tailoring which probably meant she worked in a local clothing factory. Son Alfred Ebenezer, born in 1903, was attending school and their youngest daughter Violet, born in 1907, was at home. In 1913, Lily gave birth to her fifth child, Sylvia, and six months later, George Manhood died in West Ham at the age of 82 years. Lily and Alfred had one more daugther, Doris, born in 1919.
Between 1904 and 1911, Frederick emigrated to Canada but it appears his wife remained in England. Frederick enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force at Montreal on 23 February 1915 and his attestation record lists his next of kin as Mrs. Ermantine Savage and he also stated on the form that he was not married. Yet he later directed that a portion of his military pay be paid to Mr J. E. Bew of 121 Heigham Road in East Ham who was the guardian of his wife who was mentally deranged. The 1911 census lists a Joseph Ebenezer Bew living at the same address although he appears to be a cousin to Lilian rather than an immediate family member. Lilian Bew also appears in the 1911 Census as a patient at an asylum in Great Warford, Cheshire and the form also notes that she had given birth to one child who later died. Lilian remained in the asylum until her death in 1919.
In the summer of 1919, Lily’s daughter, Lily Eliza Sarah Jenner, married Ernest James Ostler in West Ham but the family’s happiness was short lived as their youngest child Doris died later that same year aged only five years. Lily left home shortly after her marriage and joined her husband in Alberta, Canada. Ernest had emigrated in 1905 with the intention of farming in Vermilion, Alberta and he likely returned to West Ham after he was discharged from the Canadian army following the war. After Lily joined him, they remained in Vermilion where their only son, Alfred Bennett, was born on 25 April 1920.
On 13 May 1921, Lily’s brother Alfred Ebenezer left London to join her and her husband in Vermilion. He sailed from Liverpool on board the Melita and arrived in Quebec one week later. He worked as a Shop Assistant in England but advised Canadian officials that he intended to take up farming with his sister in Alberta. His landing card also notes that his father had paid for his passage and that he had £14 with him, the equivalent of £550 today.
Lily Eliza Sarah returned to England with her son Alfred in May 1926 and listed her intended destination as 40 Thomas Road in London. She stayed with her mother who was living on Hornchurch Road in Romford, Essex for one year and sailed home the following May. Ten years later, Lily and her husband Alfred purchased tickets to sail to Canada in May 1937 but they did not travel as expected possibly due to Alfred’s health. Several months later, Alfred died in Romford and later that year, Lily travelled alone to Montreal, Canada on board the Alaunia sailing from Southampton on 25 September. Her address in England was listed as 6 Great Russell Street in London which may have been a temporary address as their previous ticket listed their home address as 31 Edison Avenue in Romford. She stayed in Canada for two years and returned to England on 22 May 1939. It is not known if Lily knew that her brother Frederick was also living in Canada or if she managed to meet him while in the country.
When he enlisted in the army in 1915, Frederick was living at 221 Coursol Street in Montreal but he next appears in the records in Dunham in Quebec’s Eastern Townships. His occupation was a farmer and he had remarried in the intervening years as a Mrs. Manhood was also listed with him. Frederick Albert died in Montreal on 23 November 1947 and was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery.
Lily Manhood married a second time to Hugh Frank Rhodes in Romford in 1941. Hugh was born in Walworth, London in 1881 and was widowed the previous year when his wife, also named Lily, died. Their marriage was shortlived as Lily died the following year in East Ham aged 65 years.
In 1945, the Ostlers left the farm in Vermilion and moved to a house on 17th Avenue in New Westminster, BC where Ernest was working as a fireman on the railway and his son Alfred was overseas with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. Four years later, they appear in the Voter’s List again at 17th Avenue but Ernest had retired and his son worked as a nursing orderly following his discharge from the army. He married Beatrice Banks and following their marriage they moved to Prince Rupert where Alfred continued to work as a hospital orderly. Ernest died at Shaughnessy Hospital in Vancouver on 5 February 1964 and was buried at the Victory Memorial Cemetery in Surrey, BC. His son Alfred had returned to the Vancouver area and was living in Surrey when he died of stomach cancer on 25 February 1979. Lily Eliza Sarah died on 29 November 1980 and she was buried with her husband and son at Victory Memorial Cemetery.