My Family
Matters
William Brown
(1766 -
William Brown was my greatx3 grandfather.
A portrait of him existed in 1847. It would be satisfying to fill the frame shown above sometime.
The first evidence of his family was found in an Assignment of Trustees document
dated 1872. His seven-
William Brown was baptised on 15 May 1766 at Oakham, the county town of Rutland,
near Leicestershire. He was the third son of John and Mary (nee Maydwell) Brown who
were both from gentry farming stock -
William had married and moved to London in his early twenties. We know this because
when John Brown snr made his will in 1812, he left £5 to his grandson, John Brown
-
William’s will, dated, 1844, mentions four surviving children -
In the census of 1861, Sarah Brown (66) said she was born at Hampstead Road, Middlesex. This provides an address for William in 1794 and a clue to his wife’s identity. A Sarah Brown was baptised at nearby St Mary le Bone on 5 October 1794, having been born on 19 September. Her parents were William and Ann Brown.
James Brown was also baptised at St Mary le Bone on 24 June 1807, having been born a month earlier on 24 May. However, his parents were William and SARAH Brown. Further details about William at this time are provided by a deed dated 1809 which establishes that William was a builder, living at Baker Street.
Regents Park
Scale
= 500 feet or 150 metres
Hampstead Road is about a mile north-
Richard Brown was born to William and Sarah on 7 November 1710 and christened at
St Mary le Bone on 30 November -
Finally, Emma Brown was born on 22 July 1813 and was baptised on 3 August also at St Mary le Bone when her parents were also recorded as William and Sarah.
From these established facts it may be inferred that William had other children between
the gaps of baptisms in the known record. However, there were more than one William
and Ann and William and Sarah couples having children baptised in this parish around
the time and so it is impossible to tell which progeny were born to my ancestors.
Naming patterns are of no help. But it seems certain that William’s wife, Ann, died
-
Because William Brown (and also Sarah and Ann) are common names and as the venue
of his marriages cannot be discovered -
William Brown
Sarah
Ann
John Brown
bn 4 April 1790
Sarah Brown
bn 19 Sept 1794
James Brown
bn 24 May 1807
Richard Brown
bn 7 Nov 1810
Emma Brown
bn 22 July 1813
William Brown’s homes
From parish records of baptisms, deeds of property transactions and William’s will, it is possible to track his movements around London.
As already noted, William was at Hampstead Road in 1794 and at Baker Street in 1809. By 1825, he had moved to Hoxton Fields, to the south of Hackney and that same year he had moved again to Felix Street, Bethnal Green (see later). In 1833, William took the lease of a property at Lea Bridge, Clapton.
William’s signature in 1809, 1821 and 1825
William Brown’s financial dealings
In his will, William alluded to his purchase of a piece of ‘freehold and hereditaments situate on the south side and abutting north on the Commercial Road in the hamlet of Ratcliff in the parish of Saint Dunstan, Stepney....which I purchased in 1805 from the Commissioners of the road’. He leased this property to Richard Ward for 999 years at £2 pa. The approximate location was somewhere along the red line shown below. It was about a quarter of a mile north of the Thames, and just west of Limehouse.
Four years later, on 30 June 1809, William bought a lease for 94¼ years from the
Duke of Bedford at £6 12/-
As the clipping below illustrates, William still used the stables in 1817.
William’s father, John Brown, died at Oakham in 1814 and left William £100 in his
will. By 1825, he had amassed a large sum of money because he purchased a triangle
of land at the junction of Felix Street and Cambridge Circus, Hackney Road, Bethnal
Green that included the newly-
The plot of land was described as being ‘at the north-
After acquiring the lease to the Duke of Cambridge for almost 58 years (the original
lease was for 60 years from 1823), William immediately sold it on -
He and his heirs received £52 10/-
William’s next piece of business, on 30 August 1833, was to buy a sixty-
There were other pieces of business dealings -
The will of William Brown
William’s will was originally drawn up on 17 April 1844 when he was still living at Lea Bridge. His executors were his son, James Brown and his friend, Charles Coley.
The will contains considerable information about William’s family and property, as follows:
The property at Commercial Road, Ratcliffe (see above) to son James Brown and heirs.
The Bridport Arms to son James Brown
The Glob, Shoreditch to son Richard Brown
The Three Cups, Bow -
The Duke of Cambridge, Bethnal Green -
£100 was to be invested by his executors in public funds and the dividends to be paid to sister Sarah Rawlings, wife of Richard of Oakham, ‘for her sole and separate use free from the debts of her present or any future husband’. On her death, the dividends were to be paid to her children.
Nineteen guineas were to be paid to William’s executors ‘for their trouble’.
Sarah Stimson and Emma Dear were to be given £20 ‘for their mourning’.
Each of William’s four children -
Sarah Stimson was to have six teaspoons and sugar tongs.
Emma Dear was to have four teaspoons and sugar tongs.
James Brown was bequeathed a metal cased watch.
James and Richard Brown were left William’s wearing apparel.
The residue of his estate was to be divided equally between his children, James, Richard, Sarah and Emma.
In a codicil dated 20 December 1847, William noted that his proposed executor, Charles Coley had died and stated that Sarah Stimson, now a widow, should replace him. Sarah was also to have William’s portrait.
If one can tell the man by the company he keeps, some information about Charles Coley may be pertinent.
Charles was about eight years younger than William. He died and was buried at St James, St Pancras on 14 August, 1847.
In his will (wherein William is not mentioned), Charles is described as formerly
a wine and brandy merchant of Tuffnell Place, Holloway, North London -
He held the leasehold tavern, The Fox, Old Paradise Row, Islington. He also owned
the houses at 10-
Of William’s children
James Brown was born on 24 May 1807 and was living with his father at Lea Bridge in 1851. He returned to his family’s roots, marrying Mary Ann Royce (born 1815, Oakham, Rutland) at Oakham in 1850.
In 1861, the couple were living at Northgate Street, Oakham. James was described as a ‘Proprietor of homes’. When James died and was buried in the town on 10 April 1871, his effects were valued at under £2,000.
Mary Ann continued to live in Northgate Street, receiving dividends until she also died and was buried at Oakham on 7 March 1896. Her effects were valued at £748.
Sarah Brown was born on 19 September 1794 and married Sherman Stimson (who was also born at Oakham) on 27 December 1821 at St Dunstan’s, Stepney. The couple had two sons, Sherman Brown Stimson (born 1823 at Oakham) and William (born 1827 at Shoreditch).
In 1827, Sherman was described as a victualler of Great Chart Street, Shoreditch
-
In 1841, Sarah and Sherman were living at Jubilee Street, Mile End, Stepney where Sherman was a ‘merchant’. He died in 1845. Sarah was living at 8 Seymour Crescent, Somers Town, St Pancras in 1851 and ten years later, at 2 Brunswick Place, Islington. On each occasion she was noted as a ‘Proprietor of houses’.
Sarah died at Brighton in July 1870.
Sarah and Sherman’s only known grand-
Richard Brown was born on 7 November 1810 and married Elizabeth Herridge on 22 February 1845 at St Andrew, Holborn.
Apart from this marriage, I have found no information about Richard.
Emma Brown -
Then, an indenture, signed and dated 1 July 1872, was made between Mary Ann Brown,
widow of Oakham and Emma (nee Brown) Dear’s children -
Mary Ann Brown, James’ widow drew attention to the fact that her husband had bequeathed his stables at Gower Mews to his sisters Sarah Stimson and and Emma Dear and also the house at Lea Bridge with its neighbouring Pond Cottage to Emma Dear.
As both Sarah Stimson and Emma Dear had died -
For me, the discovery of this document was exciting as it was the first sighting of the ancestors of my great grandfather, William Sidney Dear.
William was still living at Lea Bridge in 1841 with his son James and a servant, but five years later he moved south of the Thames to 26 Park Street, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich. (shown right). He was still residing at Greenwich in 1848, ‘now of Union Place East’ on the bank of the River Thames.
What follows is conjecture and is the result of some detective work. It was probable
for the reasons mentioned earlier that William had married twice. The birth dates
of two of his children born to different mothers suggested that his re-
Armed with this information, could I find William’s second marriage? The obstacles were that William Brown and indeed Sarah are common names, London was a populous place and there is no certainty that they even married in the capital.
I therefore searched all recorded marriages of William Brown’s to Sarah’s in London
-
I found nineteen possible marriages. It was surprisingly easy to eliminate many -
The clincher was the little underlining of the ‘m’ in William found in each of the examples shown above. (None of the other nineteen William Brown’s had underlined the ‘m’) One of these widowed William’s had signed in like manner:
William Brown married Sarah Wilmot at St Botolph without Aldersgate on 29 February 1805. For a comparison, I have also shown William’s signature from 1821 above.
There is the bonus of a family member, William Wilmot, who signed as one of the witnesses.
My only reservation to the fact that this was my forefather’s marriage is the location
of the church -
The death of William Brown
The following news clipping from the Leicester Mercury, August 1849 announced the death of William:
George Royce was a farmer of around 250 acres. He married Mary Ann Brown, William’s
niece by his brother James. George lived in the last house on the north side of Northgate
Street, Oakham -
Station Road which was taken in 1860. George’s house, where William died, is behind the wall to the extreme left.
In 1838, there was an incident at a house on Lea Bridge Road, near William’s home, which provides a glimpse of my ancestor’s world and character.
After dark at 21.00 on 13 December, William Palmer Smith (a solicitor’s clerk) attempted
to serve a writ on Arthur George Small, ‘a gentleman’ of Lea Bridge Road. His knock
at the door was answered by Small’s groom, William Carter who took umbrage at how
late it was in the day -
One of the witnesses called in the case was William Brown. His sworn statement, lodged at The National Archives, was as follows:
“William Brown of the Lea Bridge Road, Hackney, M-
Mr Small said to me when he had engaged the cottage to look out for him a young man to look after his house and to manage the garden. I, knowing the prisoner to be a steady young man, did recommend him to Mr Small and he had expressed to me since he has been in his service how much he suited him” Wm Brown
So a little can be gleaned about William from this account – indeed, even allowing for the strictures of making a statement, something of his manner of speech is revealed. He was a ‘retired tradesman’ in 1838. He enjoyed a little beer in the evening, but was only a moderate drinker. In view of his comments about Carter, he was perhaps not exactly impartial when describing the scene of the contretemps. This conclusion is borne out by what followed.
On 26 January 1839, a petition with more than fifty signatures was sent to Lord John Russell at the Home Office. It was sparked by Carter being urged by his counsel to plead guilty to minor offences rather take a chance on being ‘honourably acquitted’ when his case was heard by a jury. For this reason, a review of his case was suggested so that ‘an innocent man’ was not punished. The first name on the petition was William’s (followed by three other witnesses at the trial, see below). The inference must be that William organised the petition. This was a man with a social conscience and the wherewithal to express it.
