thomas mallindine + julia howard
Thomas was born on 3 December 1861 in Bethnal Green and baptised at St Bartholomew on 2 January 1862. He was the second child born to Thomas Mallindine and his wife Elizabeth Evans but when his birth was registered, his father provided the name William and an incorrect birth date to the registrar.
Photo: Frank Meadow Sutcliffe
When he was just six years old, Thomas’ father died and one year later, his mother remarried to John Rye. Thomas appears in the 1871 census with his mother and step-father at Thomas Street off Cambridge Road in Bethnal Green. He hasn’t been located in the 1881 census but two years later, he married Julia Howard at St James the Great on 6 August. He was working as an Umbrella Maker at the time and the only address listed was Bethnal Green. Julia was born in Haggerston about 1858 to John and Elizabeth Howard.
In the summer of 1884, their daughter Elizabeth was born in Bethnal Green and two years later, Thomas was born. He was baptised at St Simon Zelotes on 12 April 1886 in a private baptism that may have been hastily arranged due to Thomas’ poor health as he died shortly after.
Elizabeth was baptised on 5 May also at St Simon Zelotes but she died in the first few months of 1887. After losing two children, Thomas suffered one final loss when Julia died in 1888 aged only 30 years; she was buried at Manor Park Cemetery on 4 April 1888.
elizabeth pearce
A year and a half after Julia’s death, Thomas married a second time to Elizabeth Pearce on 28 October 1889 at St James the Less in Bethnal Green. He was still working as an Umbrella Maker and both he and Elizabeth were living in Bethnal Green but the street name on the register is not clear. Elizabeth was born about 1862 to Thomas and Elizabeth Pearce. In 1881, Elizabeth was living on Fuller Street with her family and working as a Domestic Servant.
It does not appear that Thomas and Elizabeth had any children but there is no record of them in the 1891 census to confirm this.
mary
Station Place, Stepney
Thomas next appears in the 1901 census — along with Mary, listed as his wife, and their four year old daughter Ellen — living in a single room at 26 Station Place in Stepney. The street was close to the Shadwell Station and just north of St George in the East church. A description of the street appears in John Booth’s survey and poverty map of London completed in 1892:
‘The east end is less poor but more vicious than the west end where the loose women work. The houses have clean blinds, curtains, windows. The east end is crushed in by the railway arches, the whole darkened by them. There is now an opening into Watney Street not shown on map. One shoeless child but several ragged.’
The neighbouring street, Cornwall Street, was described as:
‘filled with thieves and prostitutes but no brothels as in Railway Place, two storied houses with 4 rooms (renting) for 6 shillings or 7 shillings, flush with pavement like all houses in this block of streets.’
On Booth’s map, Station Place was coloured in black which indicated it was of the ‘Lowest class. Vicious, semi criminal’ while many of the surrounding streets were dark blue which represented ‘Very poor. Casual, chronic want’.
Forty-two year old Thomas was working as a Fish Porter which was a change from his earlier work but he may have found the job through his younger brother Charles who also worked as a Fish Porter; thirty-nine year old Mary was not working outside the home and her place of birth was listed as St Lukes. Her estimated date of birth in 1862 matches that of Elizabeth Pearce and although only limited records relating to Elizabeth have been found, she never appears under the name Mary. No possible death records for Elizabeth have been found either before or after the 1901 census so it is not yet possible to determine if Elizabeth and Mary were the same individual or two separate people.
Ellen was born in Stepney about 1896 and while no corresponding birth or baptism record has been found, later records list her full name as Ellen Mary and her date of birth as 18 August 1896. In 1911, she was living at 9 Brook Street which was then located at the end of Cable Street not far from her earlier home on Station Place and she was listed as the adopted daughter of George Mullins. He was a 28 year old widow with two young sons, four year old George William and one year old Thomas John, and he was working as a Fish Curer on his own account so he may have known Ellen’s father through his work but as most adoptions at that time were private, there are no official records detailing how Ellen came to be living with the Mullins family. She was raised as a Catholic which is unusual as the Mallandain family was predominantly Protestant and it is not known if she came to the faith through her father, her mother or the Mullins family. In later years, she did not speak about her family either her birth parents or adoptive father.
There are several records from the Hackney Workhouse that could relate to Thomas including a admission record from the infirmary to the workhouse on 2 December 1904. His occupation was listed as Boot Finisher and interestingly, his religion was Roman Catholic. He was discharged at his own request one week later and there are no further records until 1909 when a death for 47 year old Thomas Malendine was registered in Hackney. Other than the 1901 census, there are no records relating to Mary.
Ellen married James George Death in Ratcliffe in 1920. James was born in Mile End on 18 October 1896 to Charles Death and Harriet Mahoney. James grew up on Heath Street off Commercial Road in Mile End Old Town with his seven siblings and when he was 14 years old, he started working as a Shipping Clerk. Ellen and James had one son, James George, who was born in Stepney on 7 December 1921. The family lived in Stepney for many years before moving to Ilford in Essex; in 1939, Ellen and James were living at 20 Sunninghill Gardens in Ilford and James was working as a Secretary at a public transportation company.
Their son James married Rita Mary Treby in Ilford in 1950 and they had five children. Ellen died in Redbridge in 1984, two years after her husband, and their son James died in East Surrey in 2006.