The London City Missionary in Whitechapel

[MayBea]

Here is information on a London City Missionary who spent his whole career in the East End, starting in 1881, and who may be the City Missionary quoted in the papers regarding Mary Kelly and mentioned with regard to Catherine Eddowes.

His name is Charles Pateman.



The London City Mission Magazine, Volumes 80-81
Seeley, Jackson, and Halliday, 1915
Google Books, snippet view

[MayBea]

Charles Pateman born c1850 in Wooton Bedfordshire.
In 1872 he married Harriet Daniels, in Harrow
In 1880 he joined London City Mission
In 1881 he was living at 2 Layfield Cottages, Harrow next to the Jolly Gardeners pub.
In 1891 he was living with his family at 3 Hassett Street Homerton Hackney.

Children
Sarah 1869
Eliza 1875
Annie 1880
Albert 1888 b. Spitalfields

[GUT]

Charles Pateman born c1850 in Wooton Bedfordshire.
In 1872 he married Harriet Daniels, in Harrow
In 1880 he joined London City Mission
In 1881 he was living at 2 Layfield Cottages, Harrow next to the Jolly Gardeners pub.
In 1891 he was living with his family at 3 Hassett Street Homerton Hackney.

Children
Sarah 1869
Eliza 1875
Annie 1880
Albert 1888 b. Spitalfields

G'day Maybea

Sarah was born 3 years before he married Harriet?

Unusual for someone working in a mission.

[MayBea]

Good eye spotting that, GUT.

It looks like she's a step daughter. She was born Sarah Ann Tombs. Her mother was Harriet Tombs when she married Charles in 1872.

Harriet and Sarah's previous family situation would be in the 1871 Census.

[GUT]

Good eye spotting that, GUT.

It looks like she's a step daughter. She was born Sarah Ann Tombs. Her mother was Harriet Tombs when she married Charles in 1872.

Harriet and Sarah's previous family situation would be in the 1871 Census.

Thanks Maybea just couldn't see a 19 year old Missionary with a little one out of wedlock, at least not in 1869.

[Paddy]

from Charles Booth Online Archive

B227, pp130-145 Printed report of interview with Mr C. Pateman, superintendent of Spitalfields Lodging House Band, and missionary to lodging houses in East London, 87 Old Montague Street. Contains Spitalfields Lodging House Band admission ticket, London City Mission contribution voucher and, Spitalfields Lodging House Band, annual report, 1897, 8 March 1898.

[MayBea]

Here Charles is recorded as a witness at a marriage in Christchurch, Spitalfields of a couple from Thrawl Street, Feb. 14, 1887, Valentines Day.

[MayBea]

I traced the Missionary's wife's timeline of marriages. Her first husband was George Tombs who died in 1871.

Marriages Dec 1868
DANIELS Harriett Kensington 1a 95
TOMBS George Kensington

Births Jun 1869
TOMBS Sarah Ann Hendon

Deaths Jun 1871
TOMBS George 24 Hendon

Marriages Sep 1872
Pateman Charles Hendon 3a 162
TOMBS Harriet Hendon

[GUT]

Here Charles is recorded as a witness at a marriage in Christchurch, Spitalfields of a couple from Thrawl Street, Feb. 14, 1887, Valentines Day.

Of course he may simply have been the first person they could find as a witness, being a Missionary he was on hand, so to speak.

[GUT]

I traced the Missionary's wife's timeline of marriages. Her first husband was George Tombs who died in 1871.

Marriages Dec 1868
DANIELS Harriett Kensington 1a 95
TOMBS George Kensington

Births Jun 1869
TOMBS Sarah Ann Hendon

Deaths Jun 1871
TOMBS George 24 Hendon

Marriages Sep 1872
Pateman Charles Hendon 3a 162
TOMBS Harriet Hendon

G'day Maybea

Apropos nothing, do you have a year of birth for Harriett?

[MayBea]

The 1881 Census has Harriet born c.1847 in Greenford, Middlesex.
The 1871 Census has her born c. 1845 in Greenford, Middlesex.
I was unable to pinpoint her on the Birth Index with this information.

But she's definitely older than Charles.

Births Dec 1849

PATEMAN Charles Bedford

Re. the marriage certificate: Charles is actually added on as a second male witness. There are already two witnesses named. It think this is unusual.

The certificate is the one for the marriage of the niece of the brother of the Mary Jane Kelly from Liverpool. That's how I connected the name to Whitechapel. (It seems to be a fruitful line of research if you ask me...)

If he's the City Missionary from the press reports, then he knew the real Kelly and probably Eddowes.

[GUT]

G'day Maybea

I've seen qute a few with three witnesses in my Family research, so I'm not sure that it means anything. But would love any light anyone could shed on it.

I was suspecting Harrett may have been older than Charles, more to the point not much younger as he was only 19 when her 1st daughter was born assuming her to have been conceived in wedlock [a big assumption if not for the Missionary connection].

[MayBea]

Here's the proof that Charles Pateman IS the City Missionary of the press reports.

The Missionary says he's been working in the East End for 7 years and we know Charles started in 1881.


Daily News
United Kingdom
12 November 1888

"You have been at this work a good many years?" "Seven years in this neighbourhood." "And do you find the state of things improving in any degree?" "Well, I think there is a little improvement - some little improvement. I have been out and about the streets at all hours, and have sometimes found a shocking state of things... http://www.casebook.org/press_report...l?printer=true

[MayBea]

From the same Daily News press report:

...Out again, and once more there is a plea for the missionaries' aid. Her sister, alas! has got into trouble. Oh if the missionary would but try to get them married! "A very common task," says the missionary. "During my seven years I suppose I have managed to get a couple of hundred married under such circumstances at least." Away again up into a comfortable, clean, and tidy little room in a block of model dwellings. Here is an exceedingly respectable looking young woman, who has been helped out of this lodging house life. Her husband had committed forgery, and she was plunged from comfort and respectability down into the deepest depth. Just in time they found her, and helped her up again, and here she is in a decent little home and work found for her. One who has dipped here and there into that awful lodging house life can well understand the fervent gratitude of this poor girl, who hardly seems to know which to be most thankful for - the help out of the lodging house kitchen or the recovery of her only child from bronchitis. "We keep on dragging them out," says the missionary, "but others keep on streaming in." What this part of London would be without such work Heaven only knows.