This is a little wandering tale...
On Monday 17th August we were going to London's South Bank to see Estrella Morente sing her flamenco heart out (we ended up doing the same at a Flash Flamenco workshop!). I thought it might be time to wander the streets of Shadwell, following up the place where Antony and Julia were married.
Their marriage record says the Parish Church, which is known as St Paul's, Shadwell, the Sea Captains' Church, owing to the number of sea captains who were married there.
On the other hand, about half a mile away, there is another church called St Paul's, Dock Street, also called the Seamens' Church. Entries for the latter on local websites described how it was built as the successor to the Floating Episcopal Church, specifically for sailors who wandered the streets of Wapping. It was next to the Sailors Home, where one might surmise Antony stayed during his time on land in London, given that he used sailors' homes in Cardiff and Bristol as his addresses.
The marriage record says that they were married following Banns, that is, the calling of their marriage for three weeks in succession, and that they both were resident in Shadwell. No other information is available, but in order for the banns to be called they would have had to register their intention to marry in the parish, and in her home parish. I don't know (yet) where Antony was in 1869, on which boat, and when he docked, though his journeys tended to be "foreign-going", lasting 6 months or more, and from a range of places in the UK: Liverpool, Dartmouth, Whitehaven...
On Monday 17th August we were going to London's South Bank to see Estrella Morente sing her flamenco heart out (we ended up doing the same at a Flash Flamenco workshop!). I thought it might be time to wander the streets of Shadwell, following up the place where Antony and Julia were married.
Their marriage record says the Parish Church, which is known as St Paul's, Shadwell, the Sea Captains' Church, owing to the number of sea captains who were married there.
On the other hand, about half a mile away, there is another church called St Paul's, Dock Street, also called the Seamens' Church. Entries for the latter on local websites described how it was built as the successor to the Floating Episcopal Church, specifically for sailors who wandered the streets of Wapping. It was next to the Sailors Home, where one might surmise Antony stayed during his time on land in London, given that he used sailors' homes in Cardiff and Bristol as his addresses.
The marriage record says that they were married following Banns, that is, the calling of their marriage for three weeks in succession, and that they both were resident in Shadwell. No other information is available, but in order for the banns to be called they would have had to register their intention to marry in the parish, and in her home parish. I don't know (yet) where Antony was in 1869, on which boat, and when he docked, though his journeys tended to be "foreign-going", lasting 6 months or more, and from a range of places in the UK: Liverpool, Dartmouth, Whitehaven...
I do not know if Julia was living in London at the time either, rather than in East Brent. We do know that she was 6 months pregnant by the time they married in April, and that Ellen was born in July, back in East Brent, so can we surmise that she was just up for a few weeks in Shadwell, waiting for Antony to return?
Shadwell Parish Church itself is built on a former Chapel of Ease from 1650, and was rebuilt in 1820. Now, with the pews out and a large space available for social activities as well as services, it is part of the "Brompton" church planting plan... dwindling congregations allowing the Kensington-based takeover squad to seed new life into ageing communities, where young couples now throng to buy original properties, such as in the Spitalfields movement! Still, it has been kept open, and the people who were looking after it were really pleasant and helpful! Aaron confirmed that it was the right church, and that all the records had gone to the LMA. The archivist there says there are no banns registers...so I am trying the East Brent Family History Group's contacts!
Shadwell Parish Church itself is built on a former Chapel of Ease from 1650, and was rebuilt in 1820. Now, with the pews out and a large space available for social activities as well as services, it is part of the "Brompton" church planting plan... dwindling congregations allowing the Kensington-based takeover squad to seed new life into ageing communities, where young couples now throng to buy original properties, such as in the Spitalfields movement! Still, it has been kept open, and the people who were looking after it were really pleasant and helpful! Aaron confirmed that it was the right church, and that all the records had gone to the LMA. The archivist there says there are no banns registers...so I am trying the East Brent Family History Group's contacts!
After wandering about it a bit & taking a few photos, we walked away, up towards the site of the Sailors Home, in Wells Street, now Ensign Street. We wanted to see the other St. Pauls, as it seemed to be more interesting, as the link will show you! One of the significant things was that the weathervane was a golden ship, originally on the top of the spire, and latterly fixed to the wall of a neighbouring primary school. The church is now a nursery school.
The "Asylum and Sailors Home" was a large handsome building, built to sleep 100 sailors, and soon extended to accommodate 500. Its story is inspiring because it was built by public subscription to try to "rescue" sailors who would leave their ships with all their money on docking at Wapping, and be lured to various drinking dens, so that within a short while they had nothing left, nothing to send home to their families especially. This was the practice of 'crimping', about which Charles Dickens Jr wrote: http://www.stgite.org.uk/media/sailorshome.html
The home eventually took over all of the block, both in Ensign Street, and in Dock Street, up to where Wilton's Music Hall is, and south to the Highway. It's now incorporated into a block of flats, but it's possible to see the old building under the new.
The "Asylum and Sailors Home" was a large handsome building, built to sleep 100 sailors, and soon extended to accommodate 500. Its story is inspiring because it was built by public subscription to try to "rescue" sailors who would leave their ships with all their money on docking at Wapping, and be lured to various drinking dens, so that within a short while they had nothing left, nothing to send home to their families especially. This was the practice of 'crimping', about which Charles Dickens Jr wrote: http://www.stgite.org.uk/media/sailorshome.html
The home eventually took over all of the block, both in Ensign Street, and in Dock Street, up to where Wilton's Music Hall is, and south to the Highway. It's now incorporated into a block of flats, but it's possible to see the old building under the new.
It was walking between the two St Pauls that we came across the third church, the 'Ulrika Eleonora', in the Swedenbourg Gardens, a Swedish Lutheran church built in 1727 for the growing community of Scandinavians who moved to the area. The main group were eighteen-century Swedish timber merchants whose ships unloaded at Wapping, and who recreated elegant mansions in Wellclose and Princes Square. This Spitalfields Life blog entry by William Palin shows the history of the area. So.... I speculated - might Antony actually have had some contact with fellow-Swedes in the area, and lodged with them instead of staying at the sailors' home? Did he worship at Ulrika, not either of St Paul's Churches? The Port Cities website has a few pages about the Scandinavian communities in the area, which included a Swedish Temperance home!
And, just to bring the tale full circle, the current gardens boast what look like original trees from the churchyard, with reminders that two famous Swedes of the time - Swedenbourg himself, and Daniel Solander, Captain Cook's botanist -were buried in its grounds... with a quote from our dear old Carl Linneas on the tree's raised edging.
And, just to bring the tale full circle, the current gardens boast what look like original trees from the churchyard, with reminders that two famous Swedes of the time - Swedenbourg himself, and Daniel Solander, Captain Cook's botanist -were buried in its grounds... with a quote from our dear old Carl Linneas on the tree's raised edging.