By Christine Swan

This summer, I have put pen to paper with an intention of writing my first book. I have researched my family tree for in excess of twenty five years and have been fascinated by some of the characters that I have come to know. One family stand out as being shockingly criminal, surviving in the ruthless environments of the rookeries of the East End of London. All claimed to have a legitimate trade but their extra-curricular activities were, for some, what made them newsworthy.

Frances Kinman was my fourth great grandmother, I believe. Illegitimacy does cast a question mark, so I cannot be certain of the paternal line, but in any case, she was the mother of Daniel Crudgington, who was the purchaser of our family grave in the City of London Cemetery, which was a prompt for me to undertake my quest, and the starting point of this blog.

Frances was born 7^th May 1794 in Clerkenwell, to parents Thomas and Mary. She was baptised in Saint Sepulchre Church, which now sits on the A40 at Holborn Viaduct. The family lived in nearby Fleet Lane which would have been situated close to the River Fleet, which now runs underground. Old Fleet Lane is a little stump of a road leading to a car park, sandwiched between two sets of tall city buildings. It is hard to visualise Old London through looking at this very twenty first century arrangement.

The River Fleet in 1844 – By William H. Prior – Old and New London: Volume 2. Walter Thornbury, 1878., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11741549

Frances always gave her birthplace as Hatton Garden, which is an area of London deeply associated with the jewellery making trade, although Thomas was a coachmaker. However, that wasn’t Thomas’s sole trade. He was also a thief. Although he was eventually acquitted of the first crime that I found recorded, he was found guilty of stealing a box of goods from a wagon in nearby St John Street in 1804, when Frances was ten years old. After being imprisoned in Newgate gaol, he was sentenced to being transported for seven years. However, Thomas Kinman was pardoned after agreeing to serve in the Navy instead. During this period, the Napoleonic Wars kept the naval fleet occupied and the need for additional sailors led to the development of press gangs. Allowing prisoners to commute their sentence to honourable naval service, in return for a pardon, would have appeared the lesser of two evils. Either option left Mary without a husband and breadwinner, and Frances without her father.

Frances Kinman is baptised in Saint Sepulchre church in 1795

Frances married John Crudgington when she was seventeen years old, in Christchurch Greyfriars in Newgate in 1811. The couple were living in what is now Cyrus Street Clerkenwell, but was then called King Street, when their first child, Daniel, was born in May 1815. He was baptised in the magnificent surroundings of St James Clerkenwell. I am guessing that there may possibly have been children born prior to Daniel, but perhaps they did not survive. Clerkenwell Green was a different place to how we see it today. Now it is a place with historical chic and character, but in the early nineteenth century, it had its fair share of poor housing and criminality.

Christchurch Newgate, sadly destroyed during WWII, where Frances Kinman married John Crudgington in 1811

More children came along in a regular procession of offspring – John and Frances junior, Eliza, twins Charles and Mary Ann, Isaac, Edward and Joseph. The family moved about to accommodate their expanding brood – first to Commercial Street, Spitalfields, then the infamous Flower and Dean Street, which achieved notoriety as the site of the lodgings of two of the Whitechapel Murder victims, before settling in a roads that became entwined in Crudgington history, Collingwood Place, Bethnal Green.

The site of Flower and Dean Street – a notorious address in the nineteenth century

In 1827, John Crudgington senior was convicted with David Baron,  of stealing a pig with the intention of selling it at market. He was sentenced to six months hard labour, leaving Frances to manage the family finances. In 1834, Daniel was convicted of stealing shoes, and transported to New South Wales for seven years. On the day of his trial, the family were informed that his case would be heard in the afternoon, the clerk advising them to go home until then. In fact, Daniel was tried and sentenced in the morning. I sense genuine grief and a slight sense of panic, in the petition that the family hastily put together, but, it was all in vain and Daniel was transported  to Australia.

The impressive Sessions House in Clerkenwell

The entrance to the cells under Clerkenwell Sessions House

John and Frances Crudgington were living in the same house in 1841, however, they did not remain under the same roof

It is with some pride that Frances continued her trade as a ladies’ shoe maker. This would have provided her with an income stream independently of her husband. Although they were living together in Collingwood Place in 1841, John and Frances appeared to have lived apart afterwards. Frances continued to describe herself as married until her death in 1871, when she was living with her son Joseph in Collingwood Street. Perhaps this was the recipe for a perfect relationship? The Crudgingtons and the Kinmans certainly experienced their fair share of dramas and perhaps Frances wanted a quieter life? Unlike a number of other women that have been the subject of my research, Frances had her own trade. Shoemaking was strongly associated with the Crudgingtons and she continued this tradition as matriarch.

Frances living with her son Joseph, and his family in Collingwood Street in the year that Frances died.

Frances’ burial record in July 1871