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ADDENDUM TO MY MOTHER’S FAMILY BACKGROUND

In addition to that which has already been written, I have had various thoughts on the following, which may or may not be true, and still need further investigation

1. I have had trouble in tracking down Gt. Grandad Samuel Monkton and Gt. Grandma Louisa Banfield’s marriage.  However, with the aid of the Internet, I think that I may have managed to pin it down to somewhere between October to December 1859, in London, Middlesex.  Both of their names appear under the Civil Registration Index, in the December Quarter for 1859, with the Reference Volume1b – Page 503.  I will probably apply for a copy of their marriage certificate in due course.  The certificate should show Samuel Monkton’s father’s name, and perhaps the addresses where Gt. Grandad and Gt. Grandma were living at the time they got married.
    
2. Continuing with my ‘findings’ in this area, I have also managed to track down a Samuel Monkton’s death in Shoreditch, during January to March 1894.  I am not overly confident that I have found the right Samuel Monkton that was our Great Grandfather!  On checking Grannie Brett / Dunsdon’s marriage certificate, I noticed that her father ---- Samuel Monkton ---- had signed as being a '‘witness' at her marriage which took place on the 3 June 1894.  If the Samuel Monkton whose death is registered in the January to March 1894 registers, then he couldn’t have been signing as a witness at his daughter’s wedding in June of that year.
   
   The only way to be sure if it is Gt. Grandad’s death that is registered, is to get a copy of the Samuel Monkton’s death that is recorded under Ref.  Volume 1c - Page 107 at the General Records Office.  Hopefully, this would show where he had died and give Gt. Grandma Louisa’s name as being his widow, as well as her address at that time.  However, because of my uncertainty of it being the correct Samuel Monkton, I’ll hold fire on that one for the time being in case I can turn up something more positive.  No sense in wasting money on certificates if it’s likely to be the wrong person!
    
3. Although I am unsure about having found the ‘correct’ Samuel Monkton, I think that I have managed to track down Grannie Brett/Dunsdon’s youngest brother, Lewis Monkton, and his marriage to a Rosaline Howell, which took place somewhere between January to March 1895.  Their marriage details appear in the March 1895 Quarter, in London Middlesex, Volume 1C - Page 117.  My cousins Peter Bailey  and Joyce Stone (née Brett), have mentioned that Uncle Lewis was married to an Aunt Rose.  Perhaps, I will take a chance and see if I can get a copy of their marriage certificate to see what I can glean from it.
    
4. In addition, whilst using the 1901 Census On-line, I think that I might have located one of Grannie Brett / Dunsdon’s older brothers, namely Henry Monkton, who was born in 1869.  He is shown on the 1901 census return for Shoreditch as being 31 years old, married, and living in three rooms at No. 3, Hobbs Place, Hoxton.  It was a tiny ‘street’ that used to be only yards from the junction of Hyde Road with Gopsall Street and Hoxton Street.  It was a turning off Hoxton Street.  Hobbs Place, and the dwellings it contained, no longer exists and has been replaced, in the last twenty years, by a relatively modern masterpiece of uninspired architecture and general graffiti.  It looks as though it should be due for redevelopment again!
   
   Henry’s occupation at the time of the 1901 census was a Bootmaker’s Shop Assistant, (perhaps he had some affinity in that direction, since his Grandfather, Lewis Banfield had been a Shoemaker). His wife’s name was Jessie Monkton ---- (maiden name not yet known) ---- who was also 31 years old, and had been born in Shoreditch.
   
   Their family at that time comprised five children ---- namely, Jessie aged 8; Lewis aged 6; Harold aged 4; Rose aged 2; and lastly young Florence who was just 7 weeks old.  I could possibly pick up on the date of their marriage, by looking at the ages of their children. Their eldest child at the time of the 1901 census, was young Jessie, who was just eight years old, and indicates that she was probably born in 1893 ---- at which time her parents would have both been 23 years of age. Assuming they were both at least 18 years old when they married, it would be sensible to start looking for their marriage date in 1888.
   
   As a point of interest,  amongst all the various photos and memorabilia that I inherited from my Mum, there is a picture of Grannie Brett / Dunsdon standing in front of a house.  Just behind her, peering out of an open window, is a young woman ---- possibly in her twenties.
   
   My Mum has written on the back of the photo, ‘Grannie Dunsdon and Cousin Rose’.  Presumably the ‘Rose’ that she refers to, is one of Henry Monkton’s children, as mentioned above.
   
   At the time of that particular census, Henry Monkton and his family were living in that house with two other families.  One of which, comprised an elderly couple called Edward and Rebecca Wright’ who were 74 and 65 respectively, and occupied one single room.  The other, was a family of seven people, whose surname was Chambers, but doesn’t show how many rooms they occupied.  What size the properties were, also isn’t known, but I should think with sixteen people living in the one house, it was awfully crowded in there.
   
   The whereabouts of Grannie Brett/Dunsdon’s other brothers, Thomas, William and Lewis, at the time of the 1901 census, are still not known.  Possibly they were all living in much the same area as where they grew up, so no doubt, I will eventually ‘locate’ them.  If  I do go down the road of getting a copy of Lewis Monkton and Rosaline Howell’s marriage certificate it may give me an idea of where they were living at the time they got married in 1895. It may even point me the way to where the other brothers were living.
    
5. Reverting to the thoughts on whether or not my Mum (Florence) and Nellie were twins!  I have had a couple of thoughts in that area.
   
   The first concerns Henry Monkton’s youngest daughter, Florence, who was just 7 weeks old when the 1901 census was taken.  Could she be the ‘Florence’ that grew up to become my Mum ?  Perhaps ---- and it still needs checking ---- something happened in Henry Monkton’s family, that warranted little ‘Florence’ being passed into the care of her aunt, Elizabeth Brett/Dunsdon, i.e., the person I know as Grannie Brett/ Dunsdon.  Perhaps her mother  Jessie, or even her Dad had died, and it was politic to pass little Florence over to Grannie Brett/Dunsdon.   After all, a similar thing looks as though it happened when Gt. Grannie Louisa Monkton went to live with  William Shilcock’s family in Forest Hill, after the death of his wife, Louisa, who was Gt. Grannie’s daughter. ( see my thoughts on pages 19 and 20 of ‘ My Mother’s Background’) ----- i.e. the family probably rallied around to help out !

A trifle fanciful perhaps, but not exactly impossible!
 

After all, as late as 1938, when my wife was born, her mother died just seven weeks after giving birth to her.  Because of the shock of losing his wife so suddenly, and already having two young children under 5 years old, Barbara’s father passed her over to another part of his family, so that she could be brought up by them.

The second thought on the same subject, also occurred to me whilst going through the 1901 census for the Hoxton area.
In those census returns, I discovered a family of Dunsdon’s living barely half a mile or so from where Grannie Brett (Dunsdon) was living in Gopsall Street, Hoxton.  That family consisted of:-
 

It is strange that there should be a William H. Dunsdon, who had two young sisters with similar names to my Mum, living so close to where Grannie Brett lived in Gopsall Street.  As his occupation was a Carman ---- presumably delivering goods on a vehicle of some kind ---- his travels might have taken him past the end of Grannie Brett’s road on some days.  Maybe, sometime after the 1901 census, he changed his job from being a Carman to become a market trader in Petticoat Lane.  I wonder ----- could that particular Dunsdon family really have had anything to do with Grannie Brett?  If indeed, he was the William Henry Dunsdon that  ‘captivated’ Grannie Brett, could it also be possible that he brought his youngest sister May. M. Dunsdon, aged 2 years into our family?  Moreover, could that young May have been my mother?  Mind you, if she was, she would have been born in 1899 which would have made my Mum, 6 years older than she thought she was.  Mum died aged 80.  I always thought she looked pretty good for eighty,  but if she was a possible 86 instead, then she looked absolutely fantastic!  There is no way of proving it anyway, so I’ll just have to keep an open mind in that area, and hope that something more concrete turns up.  Perhaps, if I eventually manage to get hold of a marriage certificate showing that Grannie Brett/ Dunsdon did definitely marry a W. H. Dunsdon, then maybe that would reveal more information.

Of course, there is no way either of my thoughts on this matter could be proven, and even if it could ----- there’s still the question of Mum’s ‘twin sister’, Nellie!

It is a pity really, as I would like to be able to solve the ‘mystery’ of whether they were definitely twins.  I know that my Mum would have liked to have known the reason why her birth was never registered, and I’m sure that she would be pleased if anyone could come up with an answer.

The suggestion that my Mum and her sister Nellie might not be twins is intriguing, as is the notion that they may not have the same father ---- but I’m not sure that either is really true.  I am still at a loss to know why Grannie Brett/Dunsdon would write on the back of a photo of her girls ---- ‘The two in front are twins’ ----  if they weren’t! Especially when the picture seems to have been taken when the two ‘girls’ were in their early twenties!

6. My cousins ‘Dot’ ( Dorothy D’Silva) and Joyce Stone ---- both née Brett ---- have been told that somewhere in the family background, possibly in the mid-to-late 1700’s or early 1800’s, there was some Italian blood that entered the family, under the surname of  Piccolli.  They seem to think that they either made, or sold hurdy-gurdies ---- the barrel organs that one sometimes sees depicted in pictures being played in the streets in Victorian and Edwardian eras.
   
   To-date, I haven’t found any Piccolli’s in the family, myself.  Although having said that, I haven’t ventured back before the 1800’s.  It also occurs to me that if they are part of the family line, it could well be that they possibly belong to the Brett family’s background, rather than Monkton/Banfield Line ---- from whence Grannie Brett/Dunsdon originates.

I know that I seem a bit sceptical about Cousin Joyce’s and her father’s views on whether Grandad and Grannie Brett were comfortably off, but all my investigations to-date, particularly regarding the area in which they lived, points to the fact that it was a very poor area.  Even Hackney Archives Department, assure me that ‘although the houses in Gopsall Street had at the appearance of affluence, it was not an area one would have chosen to live if you had sufficient money to live elsewhere.’

Although Joyce’s father, Arthur Brett, recalled that they were large houses, his memory of them, were as seen through the eyes of a 5 year-old child.  The picture of the houses in Gopsall  Street, which I have included on page 12 , of My Mother’s Family Background, did look to be quite large.  However, according to the census details taken in 1881 and 1901, it seems that the properties housed several families, and accommodated sometimes between 15 to 20 people.  Yes, the houses were no doubt large, but apparently most families were living in just a couple of rooms.  To a small child, especially with a large number of people living inside, it would most certainly have seemed a very large house.

I looked at Grandad Joseph Brett’s family, which was living at 28, Bacchus Walk, in 1881, and was only a stone’s throw from Gopsall Street and Newton Street. His father was also a cabinet maker by trade, and one would assume that if father and son were in the same line of work, and one was successful, the chances are that the other one would be as well.  I found, that there were three separate families living in that house in Bacchus Walk---- comprising seventeen people. Again, in 1901, I found Grandad Brett’s parents and siblings were still living in that house, although at that time, they were sharing it with only one other family, and the total number of occupants had fallen to eleven. Since both Grandad Brett and his parents had lived with their respective families in three or four rooms in a largish houses, which they shared with other families, were they really that financially comfortable?

If Uncle Arthur, Uncle Joe and ‘big’ Aunt Doll’s lives took a downturn when the man Dunsdon arrived on the scene, I can quite understand that Uncle Arthur’s childhood memories would have led him to remember living fairly comfortably in a large house.  However, it didn’t necessarily mean the family was ‘well-off’! Although, compared to the house and the lives they had after they moved to Edney Street, life in Hoxton probably did seem a lot more comfortable.

As I mentioned in My Mother’s Family Background, on pages 62 and 63, from my own memories of my cousin Derek’s  home in Marmora Road, I used to think that his parents must have been very rich to have lived in such a big house, with such enormous rooms.  I was probably about 11 or 12 before I realized that they were renting rooms in a very large house.  However, having said that, their flat was lovely ---- there was nothing squalid about it whatsoever!

Because my own memories and beliefs of things that happened sixty-odd years ago, can be a little bit hazy, I am somewhat cautious about other peoples memories over a similar period, especially when it is one that was perceived through what was a child’s eye.

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