Mary Ann (1839-1925) BENDON (etc.) of east London
New page 5 October 2014. I owe many many thanks to Rachel Barreca, a cousin in this line, for providing much of this evidence and helping make out its meaning.
Links:
Immediate ancestors: Isaac Elias and Nancy ABENDANA (aka BENDON) - Immediate descendants: Henry and Maria Ann ANTHONY
The Abendana-Bendon story - BENDON and ABENDANA research notes
index of surnames
It is the work of this page as a whole to show that all the various life stages and bits of evidence described relate to the one person, Mary Ann BENDON aka Miriam ABENDANA (and later ANTHONY and TIZLEY). But the basis for believing that she was the mother of our next ancestor Henry is that she registered herself as his birth mother and appears as his mother on the 1871 and 81 censuses. This childhood evidence for Henry is tied to his adult life because the 1881 appearance is the only one in London of the the right name and age (to within two years) to match later censuses (and in fact his age is spot on and his birth parish matches too), and the 1871 family matches the 1881 one on many points. And Henry gives Edwin ANTHONY as his father at marriage, just as in the 1871 and 81 censuses.
Mary's parents were Isaac Elias and Nancy ABENDANA. This is known from a civil birth certificate and is apparently also registered at the Bevis Marks synagogue in east London (I need to do more work on them and their dual registrations, but discuss this more on their page. They had Mary (actually Miriam on her civil birth certificate) in March 1839 in the Portuguese Jewish Hospital in Stepney. (This birth date gives a mismatch with Mary's adult census entries, but tallies with her childhood censuses.) Mary was the youngest of at least ten - tallying them is complicated by at least some of them apparently having both Jewish and English names, and possibly also by age inconsistencies.
Isaac's occupation varied from record to record. He was a general dealer in the synagogue registration of Mary's birth, but a singer on the civil certificate. I wonder if singing was not respectable enough for synagogue?? In any case I imagine he sang when he could but needed a day job at least some of the time.
Mary's childhood is detailed on her parents' page. I haven't found her or her family in 1861.
In the 1860s, Mary had three children with a registered father who is so far difficult to trace:
Anne (or Anna), born 4 October 1864, 38 Plummers Row, Mile End. Father Henry BENDON, general dealer. Mother Mary Ann BENDON, formerly BENDON
Moses, born 1 April 1866, 28 York Street, Mile End Old Town. Father Henry BENDON, general dealer. Mother Mary Ann BENDON, formerly BENDON
Israel, born 7 May 1868, 38 Plummer's Row, Mile End Old Town. Father Israel BENDON, general dealer. Mother Mary Ann BENDON, formerly BENDON.
Let me note briefly Mary's addresses at these dates - she obviously moved around a bit. 28 York Street is not where she was living in 1861 (I checked - there was a Mary Ann of the same age there, but I have confirmed this is a different person by finding her in later censuses), and 38 Plumber's Row is not where she was living in 1861 or 1870, so she was at at least five different addresses in ten years, one in two separate spells, presumably moving her children with her as she went. I haven't found York Street on the map, but Plumber's Row is in what is now labelled Whitechapel, between Whitechapel Road and Commercial Road, near the junction of the two. It is not coloured on Booth's Map of London Poverty, but the nearest graded streets are Very Poor.
Obviously the big question is, was she married to (or at least with) a man who shared her maiden surname, who was a general dealer, and who went by either Israel or Henry at different times? Or was she registering her births with a fictional father, and giving him details that varied slightly from one birth to another? I haven't found a marriage between BENDON and BENDON in the 1860s. There are two somewhat plausible Henry BENDONs who might have known her - one a very young lad from Whitechapel, and one a married musician from Cambridge who appears in London in later censuses. More work to do on whether either possibility can be substantiated. There are no candidates under Israel or under ABENDANA or variant surnames. She may well have been simply making up the father on the registration to avoid admitting to illegitimate births. The question then is who was the father? In the absence of any positive evidence, we may suspect, but can't be sure of, the first man she can definitely be connected with...
The first traceable father we have on a birth certificate for one of Mary's children is Edwin Herbert (or Edward) ANTHONY. We have two birth certificates naming him, and the census evidence that they remained together while they were all born implies he was father to all of:
Charlotte in 1870 in the parish of St George in the East (as were the rest).
Elizabeth in 1872
Hannah in 1874
Edwin Herbert in 1876
Mary Ann in 1878
I have found no record of Mary and Edwin marrying, though they clearly lived as husband and wife, and Mary and her older children took his surname, as well as the children they had while living together.
The family lived at a number of addresses in the parish of St George in the East (a docklands area which has seen a lot of modern dvelopment, being now Shadwell and Wapping and maybe part of Whitechapel, between the river and Commercial Road), and Edwin worked at at least two or three fairly menial (as far as I can tell) jobs in manufacturing firms.
In 1870, at Charlotte's birth, they are living at Grove Street, St George's, and Edwin is a porter in a mustard[?] mills. I haven't located Grove Street yet.
In 1871, at the census, they are at the same address, but Edwin is given as a packer - this may be the same job he had for the next several years. The family is enumerated as Edward, Mary, Anne, Moses, Isreal and Charlotte. There is another couple, with their six children, at the same address - this was rather crowded accommodation.
In 1872, at Elizabeth's birth, they are living on Providence Street, St George's, and Edwin is a packer in a toy warehouse. Providence Street looks to be south of Commercial Road, in a now-redeveloped block between Fairclough St, Ellen St and Christian Street. On Booth's map it is not graded but surrounding streets range from Poor to Lowest Class.
By 1874, they were on Jane Street, St George's, where they stayed for the rest of Edwin's life. Jane Street is south off Commercial Road, near to the modern Shadwell station on the Docklands Light Railway (only a stub or two of it now remains, most of it being under a modern school site). The road is rated as 'Poor - 18 to 21s a Week' in Booth's map.
The address is known from a record of Charlotte, aged 4, enrolling at Berners Street Board School. According to a somewhat later description, this school was housed at least partly in an old industrial building and had a majority of Jewish pupils. Charlotte and the other girls would have learned cookery, laundry, sewing, English (many did not initially speak it), reading and writing, drawing tables, some science, and religion. The boys at the school studied crafts such as woodwork and metalwork instead of the housework type skills of the girls. Berners Street was renamed Henriques Street, which is also south of Commercial Road in Whitechapel, but further west than Jane Street, nearer to Aldgate East underground station and Plumber's Row and Providence Street mentioned above. It is not graded on Booth's map, but nearby streets are Poor or Very Poor.
In the 1881 census, they are still at the Jane Street address and Edwin is still a packer (this time Mary is a furrier as well). The names of the family are enumerated somewhat differently: Edwin, Mary, Anna, Henry, Isedoar, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Hannah and Mary Ann. By the ages, Henry is Moses and Isedoar is Israel - there looks to be some shift from Jewish to 'English'. Edwin Herbert does not appear and presumably has died if he belongs to this family at all; there is a death registration Q3 1878, ANTHONY Edwin, age 2, Whitechapel 1c 244.
There are two other couples at the address this time, but only one with a couple of kids, and the ANTHONYs are listed first so may occupy more of the house.
I was initially thrown by the name differences for the two older boys (and some slight age inconsistencies), and wondered whether I had the right family. But there are so many similarities, and connections later in life (see below), that I am convinced. They may have changed their names altogether in this period, or they may have always had dual names, and the difference between 71 and 81 be in which was given to the census enumerator.
In 1882, Edwin died, of tuberculosis. His death certificate shows that he was still living on Jane Street, and that his occupation was warehouseman. This may have been synonymous with his previous description of packer in a warehouse, but I sort of suspect it reflected a shift from the core business of packing, which presumably had to be done with rapidity and may have involved some heavy lifting or carrying, to lighter duties around the place as he got seriously ill. Mary Ann was with him when he died and registered the death. She was at this point 43, (though she had been knocking off three or four years while with Edwin, at least for purposes of the census). The children were aged from 18 (Anne, who seems to have already left home) down to 4 (Mary Ann).
Mary Ann's first documentable marriage is to Frederick TIZLEY,in 1886 (Q3 1886, TIZLEY Frederick to ANTHONY Mary Ann. Mile End, 1c 842). I don't have the whole certificate, but Rachel Barreca reports that Mary claims on it to be 39 (I make it 47 - Frederick was 31, ref Births Mar 1855 TIZLEY Frederick St Geo E 1c 424) and gives her father as Elias Bendon, vocalist. This rare occupation I find quite important in securing the connection between Mary's later life as TIZLEY, and the 1839 birth registration that tallies in date and father with her childhood census appearances. The ANTHONY surname links in the intermediate phase.
Frederick TIZLEY was in reality about 16 years younger than Mary, and was also from east London, in the docks parish of St George. While living with Mary, his occupation was car man. He had previously (1871 census as a teenager) worked as an assistant to a wine merchant (I guess he may have done deliveries?). By his old age, he gave his occupation as cart man for a cartage contractor.
Frederick and Mary, and some of Mary's children, lived at 26 Sidney Street, Mile End Old Town. The 1891 census return suffers from difficult handwriting and sloppy data collection/entry, but with some squinting and cross-referencing with other sources, I reckon we have:
[Frederick] TIZLEY, 38, Head, Carman [birthplace, like all the others, just given as England]
[Mary Ann] TIZLEY, 43, Wife, Furs Sewer
[unknown] TIZLEY, [age perhaps something in 20s or 30s], Sister, Cap Maker
Lizzie ANTHONY, [age completely illegible], Daur
Hannah H ANTHONY, 17, Daur, Cap Maker
Mary ANTHONY, 13, Daur, Cigar Maker
William CRUSE, 7, Grand Son, Schoolboy
and, in the next household,
Ann CRUSE, [a widow living alone, age illegible], Needlewoman, London Limehouse
I haven't researched Fred TIZLEY's family to know who the sister might be. Mary's daughters we know from her previous family and the ages are about right. I believe that William CRUISE is probably the son of Mary's eldest daughter Ann - see discussion below. I note that Mary snr's age is under-reported by nine years here - she's actually 52 - and Frederick's exaggerated by two.
In 1901, they are at the same address (ref RG13/0327/~F117)
Frederick TIZLEY, 52, Head, Carman (worker), St Georges E, London
Mary A TIZLEY, 54, Wife, Whitechapel, London
William CREWS, 17, Boarder, Horse Keeper Groom (worker), St Georges E, London
Chas DOVE, 32, Visitor, Gate Keeper [Harb?] (worker), St Georges E, London
Elizabeth DOVE, 28, Visitor, St Georges E, London
Elizabeth DOVE, 5, Visitor, Stepney, London
Chas DOVE, 1, Visitor, Stepney, London
The household occupies 3 rooms, and there is another in the other 2 rooms, containing a couple in their 30s and their 5yo daughter.
So Frederick and Mary are straightforward. Mary is reducing her age by eight years, but Frederick is now overstating his by six, acknowledging almost no gap between them. William CRUISE is still with them, though described as a boarder rather than grandson. Rachel Barreca tells me that the DOVEs are confirmed by their descendants to be the family of Mary and Edwin's daughter Elizabeth.
Mary lived with Fred TIZLEY at the same address for the rest of her life, dying in 1925, aged 86 (but the certificate admitting even then only to 79) of heart failure due to old age. The death was registered by one H Overbury, daughter, who was present at the death. I believe this was Hannah nee ANTHONY, now aged over 50 herself. The death was registered for Miriam TIZLEY, which ties back to the birth registration, and rather shifts the impression given by most of the other records, that she left the Jewish name Miriam behind in her early childhood.
Fred TIZLEY survived Mary by seven years, dying in 1933 aged 78, in Stepney district.
I have not yet looked for wills or similar.
Ann married William Henry CRUISE in 1883 (ref Q2 1883 KRUSE William Henry ANTHONY Annie. St Geo East 1c 671). They had a son later that year (ref Births Q4 1883 CREWS William Henry, St Geo East 1c 380) and his birth certificate gives his father's trade as sugar refiner and their address as the same Jane Street house where Ann had lived with her mother until at least 1881. Let us take it that Ann was the widow next door in 1891 - William snr looks to have died by then (though there are many possible death registrations and none obviously perfect - in any case he's not on the scene and Ann is saying he's died). In 1894 Ann married again, to a John OSTERVELD (ref Sep 1894 OSTERVELD John and ANTHONY Annie, Mile End 1c 750b). John was a carman as well, and about 4 years younger than Ann, according to the 1901 census, which places them as a childless couple on Clark Street, Mile End Old Town. The best match in the death index for name and age is Sep 1915, Annie OSTERVELD, age 50, Romford 4a 444. John looks to have survived her until 1935.
Henry has his own page, but it probably also belongs here to say that he married very young - in 1884 aged just 17 (he claimed 18), to Maria Ann EDNEY (even younger than him) in Bethnal Green parish church. A Mary Ann ANTHONY was one of the witnesses - presumably his mother, as his sister was just 7 at the time.
Israel (later Isedore) was eventually baptised in the Church of England. This was in 1886 when he was 17, and he used the name John. He also gave his birth date as 1 April, which according to the birth certificates is not his birthday but is his older brother Henry's. John then married, in St Thomas church, Stepney, in 1888, Elizabeth SELBECK. Their address (or at least an address on the certificate) was Jubilee Street (presumably likewise Stepney) A witness to the marriage was Mary Ann TIZLEY. Which ties things together nicely - TIZLEY, ANTHONY, John, Israel/Isedore and BENDON. I don't have details of John and Elizabeth's children but they must have had some because a descendant, Kathy ANTHONY, provided information about them, including from the baptismal certificate (I haven't found an online record of this baptism, and I don't think I have even looked for his siblings, so it may be that others of them were baptised as adults, especially those who married in church).
As noted above, Elizabeth maried Charles DOVE, in St Philip's, Stepney in 1894. He was a porter a few years older than her. The (or an) address on the marriage certificate was Sidney Street - where they were still living with Frederick and Mary in 1901. Elizabeth's siblings John and Hanah witnessed the marriage (more confirmation that John is part of this family despite the name change and the birth date discrepancy). They had five children - Elizabeth, Charles, Alfred, Hilda and Gladys. Rachel Barreca is descended from this branch, and cracked the puzzle of Mary Ann/Miriam with Elizabeth's birth certificate, which gave us the BENDON maiden name.
Hannah married David OVERBURY (a little younger than her and a carman like her father Frederick, though the son of a master tailor). They married in in 1895 in St Philip's, Stepney, and the address was again Sidney Street. The witnesses were Frederick TIZLEY and Mary Ann ANTHONY (I think this Mary Ann would be Hannah's younger sister, though she was only about 17). Hannah died in 1947.
Poor Edwin died of a kidney illness (Bright's disease, as the Victorians called it) aged just two, in 1878. He died at the London Hospital, Whitechapel.
I don't have information on Charlotte or Mary Ann jnr as adults (the last mention of Charlotte was the 1881 census when she's about 11, and of Mary Ann it is her witnessing of Hannah's marriage).
If you are interested in this family I'll be pleased to hear from you. Click this link to email me at deletethis.ianwilliamson161@gmail.com but delete everything up to and including the first dot, leaving just my name and number @ service provider. Please do not delete the automatically-generated subject line, so that I know your email is not spam. You can add more to the subject but if you delete what appears I may not read your mail.
Links:
Immediate ancestors: Isaac Elias and Nancy ABENDANA (aka BENDON) - Immediate descendants: Henry and Maria Ann ANTHONY
The Abendana-Bendon story - BENDON and ABENDANA research notes
index of surnames