Person:Ann Dean (11)

Ann Dean's origins have yet to be established. The age quoted for her when she died suggests that she was born around 1764.

Some time before 1794 Ann started a relationship with a Frenchman called Peter Vincent (or Pierre-Vincent) Cassanet, who had recently arrived in London, escaping from revolutionary France. They had a son called Peter born in March 1795 and a daughter called and a daughter called Mary born in April 1798. Peter and Mary were baptised together in November 1798 at the church of St Giles Cripplegate in London. That double baptism in 1798 is Ann's first confirmed sighting. The baptism record also describes Peter as being a teacher of mathematics.

Ann and Peter did not actually marry until 1799. They married on 19th August 1799 at St Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, just outside the City of London to the north-east. Peter signed the marriage register, although Ann merely marked it, suggesting she was illiterate.

After their marriage, Ann and Peter had another daughter, Jane, baptised back at St Giles Cripplegate in London in 1800. Shortly afterwards they moved a couple of miles north-east to Bethnal Green in Middlesex, in London's growing suburbs but outside the city boundaries. Baby Jane died there in 1801, when she was just under a year old.

Ann and Peter named their next daughter Jane too, who was born in 1803 at Bethnal Green. Four more children followed, all baptised at Bethnal Green: John Vincent in 1804, Sarah in 1806, Emma in 1808, and Eliza in 1810. The youngest, Eliza, died when she was only five months old.

Peter supported himself by working as a tutor. As well as being described as a teacher of mathematics on some of his children's baptism records, he was described as a teacher of languages and a linguist on his son John's marriage records.

Ann's eldest son married in 1816, and her first grandchild was born in 1818.

Ann's eldest son and his wife and son emigrated to America in 1828, although they left a daughter behind, presumably being looked after by family.

After the Reform Act of 1832 the number of people allowed to vote in Britain substantially increased, and electoral registers were kept of those eligible to vote. Peter was listed in each register from 1835 to 1840 at Goldsmith's Row in Shoreditch, a street off Hackney Road, near the border between the parishes of Shoreditch and Bethnal Green.

Ann died in 1837. She was said to be 72 years old. She was buried at St Giles Cripplegate in London on 15th January 1837, with her abode given as Goldsmiths Place, Hackney Road. She had lived to see at least nineteen grandchildren born in her lifetime. Peter survived her by eleven years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Burials register, in Church of England. St. Giles Cripplegate Church (London). Parish registers of St. Giles Cripplegate Church (London), 1559-1936. (London: London Metropolitan Archives).

   BURIALS in the Parish of ST. GILES, WITHOUT CRIPPLEGATE, in the City of London, in the Year 1837
   No	Name	Abode	When buried	Age	By whom the Ceremony was performed
   8	Ann Cassanett	Goldsmiths Place, Hackney Road	January 15	72 [1764/5]	J.L. Haden