Person:Mary Cassanet (2)

Mary Cassanet was born on 8th April 1798 and baptised the following month in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate in the City of London. She was the daughter of Peter Vincent Timothy, a teacher of mathematics, and Ann Dean. An older brother was baptised the same day. Mary's father was a Frenchman who had moved to England around the time of the French Revolution. He was reputedly from a wealthy or possibly noble family in France prior to the revolution. However, whilst Mary was young it seems likely that the family would have lived modestly in London and nearby Bethnal Green, where some of her younger siblings were born. Mary's parents did not actually marry until the year after she was born.

On 8th June 1817, aged 19, Mary married William Evans at Hackney in Middlesex, a couple of miles north-east of the City of London. They went on to have five children between 1819 and 1829. All five children's baptisms describe William as being a carpenter. In 1819 and 1821 they were living on Mare Street in Hackney. By 1823 they were said to be living in the parish of St Bartholomew the Great in the City of London, although were still having their children baptised in Hackney. By 1825 they had moved to the parish of St Giles Cripplegate in London.

Their daughter Mary Ann died when only fifteen months old, being buried at St Giles Cripplegate in 1826. The family at that time was living at New Union Street. They were still at New Union Street in 1829 when their youngest child (and only son) was born. He too died as a baby, when he was only seven months old.

William has not been traced after the baptism of his youngest son in 1829. Several plausible burials for him have been identified. The most likely would appear to be a William Evans who was buried at Shoreditch on 15th July 1832, aged 40, who had lived at New Inn Yard, which was about half a mile north-east of New Union Street where the family had been living in 1830.

Mary's mother died in January 1837.

By April 1837 Mary seems to have been living with a man called William Nancarrow, who was also a carpenter. He was married but seems to have been estranged from his wife and therefore unable to marry (assuming that William Evans had indeed died). From at least April 1837 onwards, William Nancarrow seems to have been closely associated with Mary. He witnessed Mary's daughter Ann Lucy's marriage in April 1837. In 1840 Mary's daughter Elizabeth Cassanet gave her address when she married as 24 Tabernacle Row in the parish of St Luke, Middlesex. William appears at that address in the following year's census, described as a journeyman carpenter, living with a "Mary Nancarrow" who is presumably Mary. William also witnessed Mary's daughter Emma Mary's marriage in 1846.

Mary's father died in 1848.

Mary died in Southwark in 1850, aged 52. Her death was registered as "Mary Nancarrow", reinforcing the impression that they were considered to be husband and wife. Mary was buried at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington on 24th November 1850, in the same grave as her father. William Nancarrow survived her by nearly twelve years.

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

   Christenings in November 1798 / Mary D[aughter] Peter Cassanet Teach[e]r Mathem[ati]cs & Ann / Born April 8 / Bap[tise]d November 4

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 667; Book 5; Folio 26; Page 5, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: 28 Tabernacle Row, St Luke, Middlesex
   Will[ia]m Nancarrow, male, 45 [1791-6], J[ourneyman] Carpenter, not born in county
   Mary Nancarrow, female, 40 [1796-1801], born in county

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

   d. Mary NANCARROW, December Quarter 1850, St Olave Southwark Registration District, Volume 4, page 375, aged 51 [1798/9]

4. ↑ Abney Park Cemetery Index, accessed 15 Mar 2020.

   bur. 24 Nov 1850, Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, Middlesex: Mary Nancurrow, aged 51 [1798/9], Grave 003319

   Mary's father Peter Vincent Cassanet, her sister Sarah Field and some of Sarah's children and grandchildren are buried in the same grave.