Person:Sarah Cassanet (1)

Sarah Cassanet was born on 17th May 1806 and baptised the following month at Bethnal Green in Middlesex, in the eastern suburbs of London. She was the daughter of Ann Cassanet, formerly Dean, and her husband Peter Vincent Cassanet, a linguist and teacher of mathematics, who 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 Sarah was young it seems likely that the family would have lived modestly in Bethnal Green.

Sarah's mother died in January 1837. Just over a month later, aged 30, Sarah married John French Field, a carpenter. They married at the church of St John of Jerusalem in Hackney, just north of Bethnal Green. They went on to have five children together between 1838 and 1845. The first two children were born in Shoreditch, and the other three back in Hackney. The 1841 census finds Sarah, John their children and Sarah's father living at Wood Street (later renamed Rossington Street) in the Upper Clapton area of Hackney. Later records give their full address as 2 Wood Street. John worked as a carpenter.

In October 1845 John was involved in an altercation with a young man dangerously hitting bushes with a loaded gun. John tried to apprehend the man and stop him, but there was some form of skirmish and chase between them (the newspaper reports differ slightly in their accounts), which involved the gun being fired, with the side of John's head being caught in the blast. John was not so badly injured that he couldn't continue trying to restrain the man, eventually managing to do so when others came to his aid. The man was brought before the magistrate and evidence at the initial hearing seemed fairly clear that the man had deliberately shot at John. By the time the case came to court in front of a judge and jury a couple of weeks later, John seems to have been less robust in his evidence, no longer wishing to press the case. Accordingly the man was found not guilty.

Sarah's father died in 1848.

Sarah and John stayed living at 2 Wood Street for some time, appearing there in both the 1851 and 1861 censuses with their children. In 1861 John was described as a builder and undertaker. In 1865 John was the victim of a burglary when two men broke into his workshop and stole ten pounds' worth of tools.

In 1871, Sarah, John and two of their children were living at 18 Grange Road, in the Comberton Road area of Upper Clapton in Hackney. At the time, despite only being relatively recently built, that street was being partially demolished to make way for the new Chingford branch railway line, which would open the following year. A couple of lines after John and Sarah's house in the census, a note records that the numbers jump from 17 Grange Road to 9 Grange Road where "Houses pulled down for Railway".

Sarah died in 1876 in the Shoreditch area, aged seventy. She was buried at Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington on 20th December 1876, in the same grave as her father and older sister. John survived her by nearly seven years.

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Church of England. Parish Registers of St Matthew, Bethnal Green.

   1806 / June / 15 / Sarah Daughter of Peter Vincent and Ann Cassanet born 17th May 1806

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 700; Book 11; Folio 7; Page 8, 6 Jun 1841.

   Address: Wood Street, Hackney, Middlesex
   John Field, male, 25 [1811-16], Carpenter, not born in county
   Sarah Field, female, 30 [1806-11], born in county
   Sarah Field, female, 3 [1837/8], born in county
   John Field, male, 8 months [1840], born in county
   Ann Payne, female, 12 [1828/9], F[emale] S[ervant], born in county
   Peter Cassanet, male, 79 [1761/2], Ind[ependent], French

3. ↑ England. 1851 Census Returns for England and Wales. (
   Kew, Richmond, Greater London TW9 4DU, United Kingdom:
   The National Archives (abbreviated TNA), formerly the UK General Register Office.)
   Class HO107; Piece 1503; Folio 267; Page 68, 30 Mar 1851.

   Address: 2 Wood Street, Hackney, Middlesex
   John Frenchfield, head, married, male, 37 [1813/14], Master Carpenter Employing 1 Man, b. Cassington, Oxfordshire
   Sarah Frenchfield, wife, married, female, 40 [1810/11], b. Bethnal Green, Middlesex
   Sarah Ann Frenchfield, daughter, female, 12 [1838/8], Scholar, b. Shoreditch, Middlesex
   John Frenchfield, son, male, 10 [1840/1], Scholar, b. Shoreditch, Middlesex
   Jane Frenchfield, daughter, female, 9 [1841/2], Scholar, b. Clapton, Middlesex
   Peter Frenchfield, son, male, 7 [1843/4], Scholar, b. Clapton, Middlesex
   Henry Frenchfield, son, male, 5 [1845/6], Scholar, b. Clapton, Middlesex

4. ↑ 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.)
   Class RG9; Piece 153; Folio 51; Page 4, 7 Apr 1861.

   Address: 2 Wood Street, Hackney, Middlesex
   John French Field, head, married, male, 46 [1814/15], Builder & Undertaker, b. Cassington, Oxfordshire
   Sarah Field, wife, married, female, 54 [1806/7], b. Bethnal Green, Middlesex
   Peter French Field, son, male, 17 [1843/4], Merchants Clerk, b. Clapton, Middlesex
   Henry French Field, son, male, 16 [1844/5], Apprentice to his father, b. Clapton, Middlesex

5. ↑ 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 325; Folio 56; Page 49, 2 Apr 1871.

   Address: 18 Grange Road, Comberton Road, Hackney, Middlesex
   John F. Field, head, married, male, 56 [1814/15], Carpenter (Master), b. Cassington, Oxfordshire
   Sarah Field, wife, married, female, 64 [1806/7], b. Bethnal Green, Middlesex
   Peter F. Field, son, unmarried, male, 27 [1843/4], Clerk in Silk Merchant, b. Clapton, Middlesex
   Sarah A. Field, daughter, unmarried, female, 32 [1838/9], Dress Maker, b. Hackney, Middlesex

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

   d. Sarah FIELD, December Quarter 1876, Shoreditch Registration District, Volume 1c, page 114, aged 70 [1805/6]

7. ↑ Abney Park Cemetery Index, accessed 20 Mar 2020.

   bur. 20 Dec 1876, Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, Middlesex: Sarah Field, aged 70

   Buried in same grave as her father Peter Vincent Cassanet (d. 1848), sister Mary Nancarrow (d. 1850) and five other people called Field (one adult and four babies), who seem likely to be Sarah's daughter-in-law and grandchilden.