Person:Ann Walter (9)

Early life

Ann Walter was born on 1st November 1839 at 7 Falcon Court, White Street, Southwark, in the southern suburbs of London. She was the daughter of a hawker named Mary Ann Walter, formerly Stone, and her husband Samuel Walter, a carman and porter. Ann was the third of their eight children. When Ann was six weeks old, she was baptised at the local parish church of St George the Martyr, Southwark.

By the time of the 1841 census, the family had left Falcon Court and was living at Wickham Court, off Kent Street (modern Tabard Street). The 1841 census is the only census in which parents and children were all together.

In February 1846 Ann and her two older sisters were admitted to the Southwark Christ Church Workhouse. The girls stayed for two weeks before being discharged.

Ann and her mother and siblings have not been found in the 1851 census. Her father Samuel appears to have been living in Whitechapel. It would seem Samuel occasionally deserted the family. On two separate occasions during 1855 Samuel abandoned Mary and the children, leading to them being admitted to the workhouse. Ann was not admitted with her mother and siblings on those occasions in 1855 – quite likely she was out working, being fifteen years old.

In the 1861 census Ann’s mother Mary and her younger children were living at 14 Henry Street, but Samuel has not been found.

Marriage to John Meakins

On 28th May 1860, aged 20, Ann married John Meakins, who was 22, at Trinity Church in Newington. At the time of their marriage they were both described as living at Violet Place, which was off Globe Street in the parish of Newington, but within 200 yards of both Ann’s birthplace at White Street and Wickham Court where she had been living in 1841. John was described variously at different times as a labourer, general dealer, hawker of fruit and costermonger, whilst Ann worked as a hawker. At the time of their marriage, Ann must have been heavily pregnant; she gave birth to twin sons, John and Henry, less than three months later.

The twins were born at 4 Fox’s Buildings. Fox’s Buildings was a narrow street of about 30 houses accessed through a small low arch beside a shop on Kent Street. Photographs of Fox’s Buildings taken in 1913 show a street of small two storey terraced houses and when Charles Booth’s London Poverty maps were prepared in the 1880s Fox’s Buildings were described as ‘clean’ and ranked ‘poor’ - although as there were also categories for ‘very poor’ and ‘vicious’, a ranking of ‘poor’ was by no means the worst categorisation.

The 1861 census returns for Fox’s Buildings are known to be lost but it seems likely Ann, John and the twins were there as they were living there in 1860 and 1871 and have not been found elsewhere in the 1861 census.

Late in 1862, Ann had a daughter, Mary Ann. Shortly after Mary Ann’s birth, one of the twins, John, died aged 2 of hydrocephalus. In 1865 she had another son and called him John, but he too died as a baby just under a year old. In 1866 Ann had a daughter Hannah.

Ann’s father died in December 1866.

Ann had daughter called Ellen in 1870. The 1871 census finds Ann, John and their four surviving children at 5 Fox’s Buildings, along with Ann’s sister, Matilda Walter. Ann had another son called John (her third son called John) in 1872.

Ann’s mother died in July 1873.

Ann’s daughter Ellen died in 1874, aged 4. Finally, Ann had a son James William in 1875, but he too was to die as a baby. By summer 1876, when she was 36 years old, Ann had given birth to eight children but seen four of them die.

In February 1880, Ann’s husband John Meakins died. He was 42 years old, and they had been married nearly twenty years. Ann’s first grandchild was born just three months later, in May 1880. The year after John’s death, Ann and the younger three of her four surviving children appear in the census at 14 Fox’s Buildings.

Marriage to John Thompson

On 22nd August 1881, aged 41, Ann remarried. Her second husband was a widower named John Thompson, who also worked as a general dealer and appears in the 1881 census at Fox’s Buildings. For reasons that are not clear, they married at St Mary’s Church in Lambeth, rather than one of the many churches closer to Fox’s Buildings. After their marriage they returned to 14 Fox’s Buildings, which was to be Ann’s last home.

After nine years of marriage to John Thompson, Ann died tragically on 18th December 1890; she suffocated with food blocking her windpipe. A post-mortem and inquest were held and returned a verdict of accidental death. She was 51 years old. Eleven grandchildren had been born in her lifetime, although some of them had died young. John survived her by four years.

1. ↑ Birth certificate, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   REGISTRATION DISTRICT SAINT GEORGE THE MARTYR SOUTHWARK
   1839. BIRTH in the Sub-district of Kent Road Saint George the Martyr in the County of Surrey
   No.	When and where born	Name, if any	Sex	Name and surname of father	Name, surname and maiden name of mother	Occupation of father	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
   383	First of November 1839 at 7 Falcon Court	-	Girl	Samuel Walter	Mary Walter formerly Stone	Labourer	The X Mark of Mary Walter Mother 7 Falcon Court	Fourteenth of November 1839	Richard Bell Registrar

   
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Baptisms register, in Church of England. Parish of St George the Martyr, Borough (Surrey). Parish Registers, 1602–1965. (London: London Metropolitan Archives).

   BAPTISMS solemnized in the Parish of Saint George the Martyr Southwark in the County of Surrey in the Year 1839
   No.	When Baptized	Child's Christian Name	Parents' Name		Abode	Quality, Trade, or Profession	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   			Christian	Surname
   2136 Born Nov[embe]r 1st 1839	1839 December 15th	Ann Daug[hte]r of	Samuel & Mary Ann	Walter	Falcon Court, White Street	Carman	Geo[rge] Weight, Curate

   There were two Falcon Courts in the parish of St George the Martyr Southwark at the time of Ann’s birth. One was on the west side of Borough High Street, the other on the south side of White Street (later renamed as part of Long Lane). Whilst Ann’s birth certificate does not specify which Falcon Court it is referring to, her baptism record clarifies that it was the Falcon Court on White Street. The Falcon Court on White Street was described in 1810 as being at 40 White Street and the third court on the right (south) heading along White Street from St George's church towards Long Lane, Bermondsey (Lockie’s Topography of London, Phoenix Fire Office, London, 1810). The Falcon Court on White Street seems to have been renamed or redeveloped between 1851 and 1861, appearing in the 1851 census but not in the 1861 census.

   
3. ↑ England. 1841 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 1085; Book 4; Folio 15; Page 22, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: 4 Wickham Court, St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey
   Samuel Walter, male, 31 [1809/10], Carman, born in county
   Mary Walter, female, 25 [1815/6], born in county
   Elizebeth Walter, female, 7 [1833/4], born in county
   Mary Walter, female, 4 [1836/7], born in county
   Anne Walter, female, 2 [1838/9], born in county

4.   Various Boards of Guardians. Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1659-1930. (London: London Metropolitan Archives).
   Summary table of information drawn from Admission, Discharge and Creed registers.
   

   Admitted	Discharged	Workhouse	Notes
   14 Feb 1846	27 Feb 1846	Southwark Christ Church Workhouse	Admitted with sisters Elizabeth and Mary. Discharged with sisters.

5.   England. 1861 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.).

   The family has not been found in the 1861 census. According to the National Archives Discovery Catalogue, census piece RG9/327 covering the Kent Road Sub-District of Southwark St George the Martyr parish is known to be missing pages 5-6 and 9-39 from the book covering enumeration district 4. The description of enumeration district 4 at the start of the book lists “Foxes Buildings and Foxes Court” among the streets that were covered. As they are not listed in the surviving pages of that book, they must have been recorded on the pages that are lost. As the family was living at Fox’s Buildings in 1860 when their sons Henry and John were born and was still there in the 1871 census, it is considered reasonably likely that they were there in 1861 but their census return is lost.

6. ↑ England. England and Wales. 1871 Census Schedules. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG10; Piece 598; Folio 117; Page 37, 2 Apr 1871.

   Address: 5 Foxes Buildings, St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey
   John Meakins, head, married, male, 33 [1837/8], General Dealer, b. Mint St[reet] Boro[ugh]
   Ann Meakins, wife, married, female, 29 [1841/2], Hawker, b. Boro[ugh]
   Henry Meakins, son, male, 10 [1860/1], Scholar, b. Kent St[reet]
   Mary A. Meakins, daughter, female, 8 [1862/3], Scholar, b. Kent St[reet]
   Hanah Meakins, daughter, female, 4 [1866/7], b. Kent St[reet]
   Ellen Meakins, daughter, female, 1 [1869/70], b. Kent St[reet]
   Matilda Walters, sister, female, 17 [1853/4], Hawker, b. Kent St[reet]

7. ↑ England. 1881 Census Schedules for England and Wales, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands: . (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class RG11; Piece 521; Folio 130; Page 33, 3 Apr 1881.

   Address: 14 Foxes Buildings, St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey
   Ann Meekings, mother, widow, female, 39 [1841/2], Hawker, b. London
   Mary Ann Meekings, daughter, female, 18 [1862/3], Rabbit Skinner, b. London
   John Meekings, son, male, 8 [1872/3], Scholar, b. London
   Hannah Meekings, daughter, female, 14 [1866/7], Scholar, b. London

8. ↑ Death certificate, in General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration. (London: General Register Office).

   REGISTRATION DISTRICT ST SAVIOUR LONDON
   1890. DEATH in the Sub-district of Kent Road in the County of London
   No.	When and where died	Name and surname	Sex	Age	Occupation	Cause of death	Signature, description and residence of informant	When registered	Signature of registrar
   210	Eighteenth December 1890 14 Fox's Buildings, Tabard Street	Ann Thompson	Female	48 Years [1841/2]	Wife of John Thompson a General Dealer	Suffocation by vomiting food into windpipe Accidental Death Immediate P.M.	Certificate received from Sam F. Langham Coroner for Southwark Inquest held 22nd December 1890	Twenty second December 1890	T.H. Baker, Registrar