susanna mallindine + andrew shotter
Susanna was born on 4 December 1791 and baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal Green on 1 January 1792. She was the fifth of eight children born to Isaac Mallindine and his wife Marie Fage.
Susanna married Andrew Shotter at St Matthew on 26 July 1818 and her brother William appeared as one of the witnesses. Andrew was born on 17 November 1796 to James and Sarah Shotter and he was baptised at St Leonard, Shoreditch on 1 January 1797.
No birth or baptism records have been found for any children of the marriage and the next record relating to Susanna and her husband is the 1841 Census. They had left the East End and were living on Charlotte Street in the Newington area of Southwark, south of the Thames, where Andrew worked as a Cheesemonger. Also living on Charlotte Street was Andrew’s younger brother Joseph, a stationer, along with his wife and five children. Charlotte Street lay between the railway lines to Waterloo to the north and Nelson Square to the south and in the early 20th century it was renamed and became the western end of Union Street.
By 1851, Andrew and Susanna’s situation had deteriorated to such an extent that they were forced to apply for relief in the parish of St Giles without Cripplegate, which now sits in the middle of the Barbican development in London. There is no record of when or why they left Southwark but they may have moved in search of better job prospects.
The ammendments to the Poor Law Act in 1834 changed the way relief was provided to London’s poor with ‘unions’ set up to collect taxes and administer relief within certain geographic areas that often encompassed several parishes. A person could only claim relief from the Union if they could prove that they were a resident or settled within the Union’s boundaries and those claiming relief often had to appear before the Board of Guardians or administrators of the Union to prove that they were settled in the community and had no other means of support. If they were not settled, they were subject to a removal order and forcibly returned to their home parish.
On 4 January 1851, Andrew and Susanna applied for relief in St Giles and were referred to the Board of Guardians of the East London Poor Law Union for examination. They were initially admitted to the local workhouse on Aldersgate Street and but were moved to the new Bethnal Green Workhouse on Waterloo Road. There is no record of how long they remained in the workhouse although they were still there when the census was taken in March. One year later, on 14 February, they applied for relief again although in Shoreditch this time but they were removed to Bethnal Green. The examination record notes that they lived on Paul Street in St Giles for one month and prior to that, on Lamb’s Passage off Chiswell Street near Bunhill Fields. Andrew told the examiners that he married Susanna at St Matthew but there is no mention of any children in his statement. He also stated that:
At the time of my marriage, lived in 2 rooms on 1st and 2nd floor in house near Anchor Street in Bethnal Green of Shepherd at 5s/6d per week and occupied same about 18 months or 2 years. No further settlement.
By 1853, they had returned to Southwark but their situation had not improved and they were again forced to enter the workhouse. Over the next five years, Andrew and Susanna were in and out of the Newington Workhouse on Westmoreland Road several times each year and sometimes they appeared together in the admission and discharge registers and at other times, Andrew was on his own. In most cases, they requested the discharge themselves only to return weeks or months later. The last discharge record for Andrew was on 21 December 1858 when he died in the workhouse.
Susanna left the Newington Workhouse in March of the following year but she was admitted again in November 1861 and was in and out of the institution in the late 1860s. She died in Newington in the fall of 1870 but it is not known if she died in the workhouse.