Person:John Meekins (7)

John Meakins was born on 21st May 1771 and baptised the following month at Woburn in Bedfordshire. He was the son of Ann Meakins, formerly Wilson, and her husband John Meakins. John was the sixth of nine children, although two of his younger siblings died young.

John’s mother died in 1793, when John was 22 years old.

On 15th April 1799, aged 27, John married Mary Simkins at Marston Moretaine, about six miles north of Woburn. At the time of their marriage John was also described as living in Marston Moretaine, but they returned to Woburn after their marriage.

John and Mary had three children baptised at Woburn between 1800 and 1804: Rose, James, and Henry, but all three died under the age of two years old. John and Mary then moved to the neighbouring parish of Eversholt, where they had a daughter called Mary in 1807 who would be their first child to survive to adulthood. A son called John followed around 1810, for whom no baptism record has been found, and finally they had a daughter called Sarah baptised at Eversholt in 1812.

Back in Woburn, John’s father died in 1818.

John’s daughter Sarah died in 1824, aged eleven, and was buried at Eversholt.

By 1833, John and Mary’s two surviving children had both left Bedfordshire and moved to the London area, living in the southern suburbs. It seems reasonably likely that John and Mary moved with their children, although their first sighting in the London area is not until 1841. John’s daughter Mary was married at Lambeth on 9th December 1833 to a chair maker called Daniel Brittain Berry, and the very next day John’s son John was married at the church of St John Horsleydown in Southwark to a Hannah Goodge (with Daniel Brittain Berry acting as witness).

John’s first known grandchild was born in 1834. In 1837, both John’s children are recorded as living at Mint Square in Southwark. Mint Square was at the crossroads of King Street (later renamed Caleb Street) and Queen Street (roughly on the line of modern Quilp Street), in the area of Southwark known as The Mint.

The Mint took its name from a mint which had operated there between 1543 and 1557. This relatively short period happened to include the point at which the City of London took effective control of most of Southwark in 1550. The area of the mint was excluded from the area brought under the City’s control, becoming the ‘Liberty of the Mint’. This liberty status survived long after the mint itself had closed and been redeveloped. As a result, the area became a haven for debtors who would be at risk of imprisonment for debt if they were found outside the liberty. The Mint’s special status was finally revoked in 1722, but its former status as a haven for debtors cast a long shadow, with the area remaining an exceedingly poor part of London through to the late nineteenth century when it was largely cleared to make way for Marshalsea Road. John must have found the contrast between rural Bedfordshire and The Mint quite marked.

The 1841 census finds John and Mary living on King Street in Southwark. John was described as a labourer. It appears that there were seven households sharing the house, with John’s daughter Mary and her husband and children being one of the other households in the same house. John’s son John and his family were living at Mint Square, in a house listed just four houses before John and Mary’s at King Street.

John died on 7th August 1849 at 9 Mint Square, aged 78. His cause of death was given as paralysis and hemiplegia, which he had been suffering with for fourteen days. His daughter Mary was present when he died.

John’s wife Mary survived him by nearly eleven years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Bedfordshire Family History Society. Woburn Parish Register Transcript. (Bedford).

   Baptisms / 26 Jun 1771: Jn s Jn & Ann Mekins, born 21 May 1771

   John’s death record implies that he was born around 1772/3 and in the 1841 census he said he was not born in the county he was then living in, which was Surrey. Although John died before the 1851 census, his widow Mary and daughter Mary both appear in that census, giving their places of birth as Marston (which must mean Marston Moretaine) and Eversholt in Bedfordshire. This then points at the marriage of John Meakins and Mary Simkins at Marston Moretaine in 1799. That couple then appear to have lived for the first few years after their marriage in Woburn, later moving to Eversholt and then Southwark. This John Mekins baptism is therefore close to the time implied by the age given for him as an adult and in a parish that he lived in after his marriage. The Woburn parish register transcript does not include any alternative burial or marriage that might plausibly be the John baptised in 1771.

2. ↑ 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 1084; Book 9; Folio 11; Page 17, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: King Street, St George the Martyr, Southwark, Surrey
   John Meakins, male, 65 [1771-6], Lab[ourer], not born in county
   Mary Meakins, female, 65 [1771-6], not born in county

   John's daughter Mary and her husband and children were listed as a separate household in the same house.

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

   REGISTRATION DISTRICT SAINT GEORGE THE MARTYR SOUTHWARK
   1849 DEATH in the Sub-district of The Borough Road Southwark in the County of Surrey
   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
   185	Seventh August 1849 9 Mint Square	John Meakins	Male	76 years [1772/3]	Laborer	Paralysis Hemiplegia 14 days Certified	The mark of X Mary Berry Present at the death 9 Mint Square, Southwark	Tenth August 1849	Henry Clement Elliott, Regisrar