by Christine Swan
Daniel Crudgington married twice in his lifetime that I know of. He was transported to New South Wales in 1834, aged just nineteen. He was granted his certificate of freedom and ticket to leave in 1841 which permitted him to return to England, if he could fund his passage.
I don’t know if he worked while in Australia, but I suspect that he did. He was given his freedom in Goulburn, South of Sydney and the other side of the Blue Mountains inland. This was, and still is, sheep-farming country, and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that Daniel found work and managed to save some money. But this would not have been nearly enough to pay passage back to London.
Daniel Crudgington’s ticket of release 1841
I also know that he wrote to his father, John Crudgington, living in Dog Row, Whitechapel. John never received the letter and it was held at the Sydney post office due to insufficient postage. Fortuitous as the record of this letter would not have survived if it had been sent. I can only begin to imagine the contents.
Daniel is listed as having joined the merchant navy, and it is this that would have enabled him to work his passage back to England, and then to London. He arrived back in the East End in late 1841 and in February 1842, he married widow Jane Andrews, nee Vincent at St George in the East church. Daniel’s parents, John and Frances, were the witnesses. Just two years later, Daniel married Ann Deighton. Intriguingly, my great great grandmother, Mary Ann Deighton, was born in 1842, although, on her baptism record, a respectable birth year of 1845 was provided , after Daniel and Ann were married.
Daniel Crudgington marries Jane Andrews in 1842
But what of Jane – who was she? I do have gaps in my research. I know that she was born in Whitechapel in 1813, and baptised alongside her brother, George, in 1816, at St Mary’s Church. Her father, Richard, was a carman, and he and his wife Elizabeth, lived in North St. Jane was a middle daughter. The family had lived in some of the tiny courts and alleyways around Whitechapel. The family would have walked past the famous Whitechapel Bell Foundry in the High Street, as well as the numerous inns that are mere ghosts now.
Jane Vincent is baptised with her baby brother George in 1816
Jane married young and also was widowed in her mid-twenties. Allegedly married to a William Andrews but, I have been unable to locate such a record.
But in 1842 Jane Andrews, nee Vincent, married newly returned convict Daniel Crudgington at the church of St George in the East. Daniel’s parents, John and Frances, were the two witnesses. However, this was not to be a lasting marriage. In the same year, my great, great grandmother, Mary Ann, was born to Ann Deighton. These two events are not unconnected because just two years later, Daniel Crudgington married the same Ann Deighton at St Dunstan’s Church, Stepney, with the same witnesses, John and Frances Crudgington.
I can only imagine the tensions that this caused. Bigamy was not unheard of in the nineteenth century, but, was still illegal. It required neighbours and relatives to keep quiet, which clearly Daniel’s parents did. I found no record of any children of the marriage between Jane and Daniel. I cannot prove that Daniel was Mary Ann Deighton’s father but, after his marriage to Ann, Mary Ann was baptised, along with her sister Eleanor Ann, in 1854. I could not imagine that Daniel would have done this if she had not been his own child.
Daniel Crudgington was a convicted criminal. It appears that Jane was too. She appeared to revert to using the surname Vincent, as well as Andrews, but never Crudgington. Jane was convicted for larceny on at least two occasions, and imprisoned at least once. On one occasion, there appeared to be no sentence, but instead, stated that “bill not found”. I know that she served at least six months in prison. On another, she was found not guilty of stealing a handkerchief, presumably by pickpocketing.
It would be easy for Jane to disappear into anonymity, but the name Vincent did not. In 1861, Daniel Crudgington fought a bare-knuckle boxing match at the Kings Arms Inn, Whitechapel High Street. His opponent was one George Vincent. I can only assume that this was a grudge match. The chance of him fighting an opponent with the same surname as his former wife. Jane’s brother’s name was George, but this was not him. I believe that this was a nephew possibly. Daniel was forty-six and his opponent was twenty-eight. Daniel lost the match after a gruelling twenty-two rounds. The match arose after the trading of insults.
As with many poor families, Jane also knew the inside of the workhouse. One of the issues with researching women is that when they marry, they take their husband’s name. On birth and marriage records, only the man’s occupation is given. It feels almost as if women could disappear. I still have some work to do to find out more about Jane but I know this, she was abandoned for another woman. In my fictional head, the boxing match, almost twenty years later, was some form of revenge.
The sorry state of the historic Whitechapel Bell Foundry today
The Kings Arms pub has long gone, but Kings Arms Court marks where it was on Whitechapel High Street. On the other side of the road stands the former Whitechapel Bell Foundry, now abandoned to an uncertain fate. Just along the road is Altab Ali Park, the memorial park that is also the site of the former St Mary’s Church. There are some pieces of masonry, an entrance arch and gravestones, but that is all that remains.
The entrance to Altab Ali Park and the former site of St Mary’s Church, Whitechapel
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 