I have written previous blog articles about my great-grandmother Charlotte Sherwood and have followed her father's line back to my third great-grandfather, William Sherwood. This article focuses on her mother's line, the Matthews. My research has shown the family has deep roots in London's East End that go back well into the 18th Century to John Matthews, who was my fifth great grandfather. There is a record of a John Matthews becoming a Freeman of the City of London on 12th November 1755. It shows that he was a member of the worshipful company of clothworkers, but became a butcher. His father's name was also John Matthews. I have also uncovered the record of a Samuel Matthews, son of John Matthews, who was admitted to the same livery company. I believe they were brothers:
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| Indenture of Samuel Matthews to his father John. |
In an attempt to prove my theory, I uncovered a baptism at St Botolphs without Aldgate dating from 16th July 1740 that appears to match Samuel. It states that he was the son of John and Elizabeth of (Aldgate) High Street. St Botophs was completely rebuilt shortly afterwards, so his brother John must have been baptised elsewhere. I scoured the records and eventually found one at the nearby parish church of St Leonards in Shoreditch that matched:
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| Baptism record for John Matthews |
John Matthews, son of John, was born on 6th June 1742 and baptised on 22nd June. At the time of the baptism they were living in Long Alley, which was later renamed as Appold Street and lies just to the west of where Liverpool Street station now stands.
On the 22 March 1763, the young butcher married Mary Garth at St Matthews Church in Bethnal Green. Over the years that followed they had six children together, all of whom were baptised at the same church. Their first born was Mary bp. 14th August 1763. She was followed by John bp. 15th December 1764, Christopher bp. 5 December 1765, Elizabeth 3rd May 1767, Samuel bp. 2nd November 1768 and James bp. 1780.
The year their youngest was born, London erupted into civil disorder as anti-Catholic sentiment boiled over during the Gordon Riots. The next day and night, ‘Black Wednesday’ 7th June, witnessed London’s most terrible crisis in the modern period, not exceeded until the wartime blitz 160 years later. As the day began, gangs armed with iron bars and bludgeons roamed the streets, knocking door to door and demanding money ‘for the true religion’ or ‘the poor mob’. Damaged or destroyed buildings were systematically looted, and in the hours of darkness many houses at random were broken into and plundered. Rumours of more rioting to come swept the town. An emergency meeting of the Privy Council that morning, at the personal urging of the King, announced that the military had been given orders to shoot to kill without the need for magistrates first to read the Riot Act. Troops, however, could not be everywhere, yet the London poor seemingly could. Attacks on prominent Roman Catholics resumed through the afternoon and into the evening. Notable among them was the burning of Langdale’s distilleries in Holborn, their great vats of alcohol sending flames and smoke into the sky that were visible thirty miles from London. The fire spread and consumed numerous houses and business around. But the rioters’ main targets were once more the machinery of judicial oppression. Justice Wilmot’s police office at Worship Street, Shoreditch, was demolished and his house in Bethnal Green ransacked. My gx4 grandfather, Christopher Matthews, would have been a fourteen year old boy at the time of the riots.
Christopher Matthews
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| Indenture of Christopher Matthews to his father, John |
On the 7th December 1780 when Christopher was fourteen years old he became indentured to his father John, described above as a citizen and butcher of Aldgate High Street. It could be a costly business securing a place for a child to be trained to join a guild, but it would guarantee a more secure and profitable future for them. As it was for his own son, he only charged him the sum of 1d (1 old penny). The indenture, or apprenticeship, was for a period of seven years.
On the 22 January 1793, when he was 28 years old, Christopher married Elizabeth Teague at St Dunstan and All Saints in Stepney. Elizabeth had been baptised on 18 November 1776 in Brighton so she was about 10 years his junior. He secured the lease to 60 Aldgate High Street, where all eleven of their children were born.
In March 1799 his shop was broken into and his a quantity of money was stolen . A 15 year old boy named Joseph Sedgley was charged with burglary and was subsequently tried at The Old Bailey on 3rd April 1799. The court records relate the case below:
JOSEPH SEDGLEY was indicted for breaking and entering the dwelling-house of Christopher Matthews , about the hour of one, in the night of the 7th of March, and burglariously stealing two wooden drawers, value 1s. 168 pieces of copper money, called penny-pieces, 474 halfpence, and 30 farthings, the property of the said Christopher .
(The case was opened by Mr. Knowlys.)
CHRISTOPHER MATTHEWS sworn. - Examined by Mr. Knowlys. I am a butcher, I live at No. 60, Aldgate High-street: On the 7th of March, I was the last person up in the house, I went to bed about ten, my premises were then all safe locked up; I was the first up in the house, I went to bed about ten, my premises were then all safe locked up; I was the first up in the morning, I got up about six o'clock, I found that the tiling had been taken off the slaughter-house; the slaughter-house and the shop is all in one, under the same roof that my house is; I missed a great number of penny-pieces, halfpence, and farthings; I suspected the lad at the bar, and I took him to the officers, with a neighbour or two; I apprehended him in his father's house, about eleven o'clock on Saturday morning the 9th.
Q. When you took him; what passed between you? - A. I did not ask him any questions; he said, when I came up to him, stop, I know what you want, I want to go back for my hat.
Mr. Knapp. Q. Had you said nothing to him before that? - A. No, nothing at all.
Mr. Knowlys. Q. How far is his father's house from your's? - A. A very little way, it is in Arrow-alley; we met Mr. Griffiths in Alie-street, and delivered him up to him; I was present when he was searched, I found upon him some halfpence tied up in a handkerchief.
Q. Did you count them? - A. No, I did not; we found two-pence more in his waistcoat pocket, which, he said, was not mine; that was the very expression he made use of.
Q. What quantity of halfpence did you lose altogether? - A. Somewhere about two pounds, in halfpence, farthings, and penny pieces.
Cross-examined by Mr. Alley. Q. You do not mean to swear to the quantity of halfpence? - A. No.
Q. This lad lived with his father up to the time he was apprehended? - A. Yes.
Q. Do you know how old this unfortunate lad is? - A. I believe he is about fifteen.
See original Q. The time that you apprehended him at his father's house, was two days after this had taken place? - A.Yes.
Q. Therefore, if he had been so minded, there was plenty of time for him to have gone any where else? - A. Yes.
Q. You were not present when any conversation took place between the officers and the boy? - A. No.
Q. Have you heard that there is a forty pounds reward for burglary? - A. Yes.
RICHARD OSMOND sworn. - Examined by Mr. Knowlys.
JOHN GRIFFITHS sworn. - Examined by Mr. Knowlys. I am an officer; the prisoner was delivered to me by Mr. Matthews and another neighbour; I was going out, and I delivered him into the hands of Osmond; I returned, and went into the room where they were; I believe Smith was not there at that time.
Q. Before you relate any thing that the prisoner said, did you, or any body in your hearing, tell him it would be better for him to confess, or worse if he did not? - A. No.
Mr. Knapp. Q. What Osmond might say to him when you were not there, you do not know? - A. No.(Osmond called in again).
Osmond. I found upon the prisoner this parcel of halfpence and penny pieces.
Q. Did you say any thing to him to persuade him to tell every thing that he knew about it, or make him any promise of favour? - A. No, nor any body else in my hearing.
Q. Do you remember such an expression as this- tell us what you know about it, and save yourself from being hanged? - A. No, there was nothing of the kind. After that I found two-pence in his waistcoat pocket, and he said it did not belong to Mr. Matthews: Griffiths said, there were more halfpence missing; and he said, if they would send for his father, he would tell them; then he said that they were hid under a stone in his father's yard; Griffiths and another went there, and after they were gone, he said he had missed telling them of the drawers which were under the cellar stairs, and then Smith went after them; when Griffiths came back, he said something which I did not hear.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. He referred you to his father's house, and to his father, for the rest of the things that you had not found upon him? - A. Yes.
Q. His father was at home? - A. Yes.
Q. Therefore, whether his father might not have given him these things, you cannot swear? - A. I cannot.
Q. And every thing that was found by his reference to his father's house, were found in his father's house? - A. Yes; his mother told him he had better tell the truth, while
EDWARD SMITH sworn. - Examined by Mr. Knowlys. I found these two drawers by the direction of the prisoner under the coal box in his father's cellar; I found them exactly where he had directed me.
Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. He gave you directions where to find them; but whether he had put them there, or whether his father or any body else had put them there, you cannot tell? - A. No.
JOHN GRIFFITHS sworn. - Examined by Mr. Knowlys. - I am one of the Police-officers, (produces some money); I found it at his father's house under a stone in the ground; the prisoner told me it was hid there; I asked him who was with him in the robbery of Mr. Matthews, and he said, no person but himself.
Matthews. These are my drawers, I have tried them, and they fit exactly.
The prisoner called seven witnesses, who gave him a good character.
GUILTY Death . (Aged 15.)
The prisoner was recommended to his Majesty's mercy by the Jury and the prosecutor, on account of his youth
Tried by the London Jury, before Mr. Baron HOTHAM.
In 1799 the death sentence was handed out for a wide range of offences under a system of punishment known as the Bloody Code. In reality, only a fraction of these death sentences were ever carried out. Indeed, in this case, there is no evidence the poor boy was hanged and it appears the plea for clemency was granted. There is a record for a Joseph Sedgley being transported to New South Wales the following year here.
Throughout this period of Christopher's life his family grew: John born in November 1794, Elizabeth on 7th April 1796, Jane on 16th July 1799, Christopher on 4th September 1801, James on 21st July 1803, Sarah on 11th January 1806, Henry Edwin in 1808, George Garth (grandmothers maiden name) in 1810, but died in 1812, our ancestor George on 17th February 1813, Mary Ann on 7th February 1815 and finally Susannah in February 1819. She also only survived for one year.
60 Aldgate High Street was rented to Christopher Matthews and in 1820 the owner died and the leases for the four butchers shops, 57,58,59 and 60 were put up for sale. Christopher continued to trade from his shop until his death in August 1824 aged 58.
George Matthews
Our family line comes from George, born 17 February 1813. Like his father and grandfather before him, he joined the family business and worked as a butcher. When he reached the age of 18 he got married to a young woman by the name of Martha Wright. The wedding took place in the parish of St Giles without Cripplegate, on the 24th February 1830. The church still stands to this day even though it is surrounded by the brutalist architecture of the Barbican Centre.
Four years after the wedding, George became a Freeman of the City of London:
Seven years after this honour was bestowed on him, the census shows the family were living 46 Aldgate High Street, next door to the Hoop and Grapes public house. George was 28 years old and working as a butcher, his wife Martha was also 28 and they had four children, Mary (10) Christopher (7) Martha (4) and Elizabeth (2). The baptism record for Martha shows that they were previously living at 54 Aldgate High Street.
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| The Hoop and Grapes with No. 46 to the left |
By the 1840s, Whitechapel, along with Wapping, Aldgate, Mile End, Bow, Shadwell and Stepney (collectively known today as the 'East End'), had evolved into the classic "Dickensian" London, with problems of poverty and overcrowding. Whitechapel Road itself was not particularly squalid through most of this period—it was the warrens of small dark streets branching from it that contained the greatest suffering, filth and danger.
The picture below shows the row of butchers’ shops that Whitechapel had been well known for since the 17th century. Many slaughter-houses here and in Aldgate and indeed all over London were at the backs of the houses. That means that all the animals had to be taken through the front of the shop to be slaughtered at the rear and then all of the blood etc. would run back through the premises and into the gutter in the street outside! It would most probably be in just such a building that George and Martha were living.
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| Butchers Row Aldgate circa 1817 |
The East End was rapidly expanding ever eastwards and by 1847 the Matthews family had left the familiar surroundings of Aldgate High Street. They lived briefly at 14 Coborn Road before settling at 1 Bridge Street, Mile End Old Town, about a mile east of their old haunt. The 1851 census tells us that George was still a butcher and the family now consisted of George and Martha, both 38, Mary Hannah (19) Christopher (15) George (9) Henry (7) Edward (5) James (3) and Emma (3 months). Martha and Elizabeth are not recorded.
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| Extract from Reynold's 1847 Map of London |
The death of his wife, Martha, in early 1859 must have been a terrible blow that placed significant strain on George and his eldest daughter, Martha, who probably had to assume the role of her late mother. The 1861 census shows the family moved a few streets away to 4 Bow Common Road (marked blue). George, now a widower, describes himself as a cattle dealer rather than a butcher and he lived at the address with his children; Martha aged 23 and working as a governess, James aged 13, Emma aged 10, Charles aged 6 and Kate aged just 3.
By 1871 with the older children having grown up and left home, George is living with his youngest daughter Kate, now aged 13. They are boarding at 7 Salisbury Place in Bethnal Green close to Victoria Park cemetery (now renamed Meath Gardens). George and ceased working as a cattle dealer and had resumed work as a butcher.
George met a young woman named Eliza Woods and married her on 25 March 1872. At the time they got married he was 59 years old and his bride was just 21. In the years that followed they had two children, Ada in 1874 and William Ernest 1875. They had lived in City Road and then in Old Ford, but by 1881 George, his young wife and their children had moved to 15 Sedgewick Road in Homerton. By the following census in 1891 the 78-year-old George and his family had moved again and were residing at 143 Glenarm Road in Hackney. Despite is advancing years, he was still working as a butcher. Incredibly, the 88-year-old George was still around in 1901! The census shows him and his family living in Fort House Road in Hackney and although he is no longer working, he is described as "living on own means", which suggests he had acquired enough wealth in his long life to enjoy a reasonable standard of living. George passed away 3 years later at the grand old age of 91, quite an achievement in Edwardian England.
