Miss Marple - advise saving every post, paragraph by paragraph, as you type using the control + C function, otherwise typing it in Word first and pasting in to avoid catastrophic loss.
Ancestry does have the front page for the matron's establishment in 1891 showing it to be Stockwell Orphanage, For maintenance & education of fatherless children, Clapham Road, London, civil parish of Lambeth, ward of Stockwell, parliamentary division of Brixton, and ecclesiastical parish/district of St Michael's, Stockwell.
The Dorset Street Mrs Maxwell in 1888 was only the wife of a lodging house keeper so I wouldn't want to draw conclusions as to whether she is more or less likely to have been a matron in 1891 than a woman who was an envelope maker ten years earlier in 1881. Plenty of time for occupational change there!
Miss Marple. re your HWM Jr, I haven't found him in 1891 but in 1901 there is a Henry Maxwell, right age, sick inmate at St George's in the East workhouse, lighterman. There is a Henry William Maxwell right age who dies St George's in the East later that year.
There is a watermen and lightermen binding record for Aug 10th 1886, Stepney, binding Henry William Maxwell to Henry William Maxwell until March 8th 1892.
As for the Maxwells, its back to the drawing board. Carrie seems as mysterious as Mary Kelly. There seem to be no records for her or apart from death Henry. perhaps they were not Londoners.
Joshua-- re "paying" referring to domestic abuse, I think it is very likely, but keep in mind that men had complete control over the women in their households, and beatings would have been very common, particularly in lower-class houses. I doubt a married or common-law wife could object to the law and expect much help. A common-law partner could more easily leave her husband than one with an official marriage, though both might do so.
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Pat D.
--------------- Von Konigswald: Jack the Ripper plays shuffleboard. -- Happy Birthday, Wanda June by Kurt Vonnegut, c.1970.
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Henry Maxwell entered the Whitechapel Infirmary on May 22nd 1889 from 14 Dorset Street (and died on the 24th as found by David). He's listed as married occupation deputy. His religion is shown as Roman Catholic, which might explain why there is no marriage entry for Henry and Caroline in available records. Henry was said to have had settlement in Whitechapel for 3 years.
As there is no marriage record for Henry and Caroline and he was a Catholic, as they had only been in Spitalfields for three years is it possible they came from Ireland?
As there is no marriage record for Henry and Caroline and he was a Catholic, as they had only been in Spitalfields for three years is it possible they came from Ireland?
Miss Marple
Definitely one possibility I'd say, MM.
I noted that Ancestry have a database of London, Church of England deaths and burials, taken from various sources and was a bit puzzled when Henry Maxwell's death details appeared in there but the actual record was the death register of Whitechapel Infirmary and not from any C of E source.
Is that because he was Catholic? If he was not C of E why would they have a record? That seems to confirm the possibility that he was not known in parish registers. So the Irish connection is looking likely. There were Maxwell's in Ireland.
Miss Marple
Last edited by miss marple : 08-19-2016 at 12:50 PM.
Reason: to add
Is that because he was Catholic? If he was not Cof E why would they have a record?
Miss Marple
There is no C of E record. Ancestry have titled the database London Church of England deaths and burials but the database includes things such as the Whitechapel Infirmary death registers, which are part of the collection of registers kept by the Infirmaries and workhouses to record deaths that occurred of inmates and patients of any religion. Ancestry's title for the database as a whole is misleading that's all, but it had me puzzled for a moment why he would be in there.
The Caroline of Bermondsey was the daughter of George Maxwell a lighterman and Sarah How.
Her older brother was Henry William Maxwell also a Lighterman who married Mary Ann Steers.
Brother and Sister ?