By Christine Swan
Ann is my great, great, great grandmother. She was born on 4th August 1815 in Hare St, Bethnal Green. Her father, William, was a silk weaver who employed apprentices and was a key campaigner for the rights of workers and was a trade representative of the Union Societies of the Silk Trade. Her mother, Eleanor, had five daughters and three sons. I get the impression that the family were doing well for a time but, the trade of silk weaving was in decline. Cheap imports and mechanisation were taking work from the handloom weavers and the industry was under threat.
Ann Dighton baptism record 20th August 1815, St Matthew’s, Bethnal Green
The family moved around the area over the next ten years and lived in Brick Lane, North Conduit St and Hunt Street (the cobblestones of which can still be seen in Hunton Street). It was during this time that Ann’s father was particularly active in silk-weaving union campaigns. By 1841, the family had moved to Luke Street, Shoreditch with Ann still living at home aged 25. Ann married Daniel Crudgington in 1844 at St Dunstan’s church, Stepney. Ann’s daughter, Mary Ann, was born in 1842 although, she was baptised in 1853, a considerable time after the marriage. Unfortunately, I have no idea who Mary Ann’s father was. It ,may have been Daniel but 1842 was the year that he married Jane Vincent so may not have been free to marry Ann.
Ann Dighton (Dyton) 1851 census
In the 1851 census records I did locate an Ann Dighton (spelled as Dyton) living in Fleet Street with Esther Dighton, a 62 year old widow. The order of names and ages leads me to believe that Esther junior, aged 28, was indeed the daughter of Esther senior but, as Ann Dighton is listed beneath as being 38 years old, and her relationship to the head of the household is not commented upon. She is listed as unmarried and is using her maiden name. Initially, I assumed this wasn’t Ann but the ages match fairly closely and the out of order ages usually indicate something unconventional. Her occupation is also given as a silk weaver which matches the family trade. Ann’s father, William, had died in 1849 and her mother, Eleanor Ann was to die one year later in 1852 in Brick Lane. I believe Esther senior to be Ann’s aunt. Maybe her relationship was better with her than her mother? Maybe the Fleet St house was better appointed to accommodate her, I do not know. Ann had a troubled marriage with Daniel so it certainly does seem viable for her to leave him, revert to her maiden name and to live in an all-female household of silk weavers. Also listed as residents are Eliza aged 22, also a silk weaver and Mary, aged 9. Mary would match my great-great-grandmother in name, location, and age. I was quite proud to find this all-female household, living just off of Brick Lane, weaving silk. It seems that this was one industry where women had some measure of equality: women and men were paid equally for piece work and could undertake apprenticeships. As the silk weaving industry was mostly based in the workers’ homes, the whole family could be engaged and conditions were considered preferable to work in mechanised factories.
Image from Welcome Images – In a Spitalfields silk weaver’s shop two contrasting apprentices, Tom Idle, asleep, and Francis Goodchild, engrossed in his work, sit at their looms overseen by their master. Engraving by Thomas Cook after William Hogarth, 1749. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:In_a_Spitalfields_silk_weaver%27s_shop_two_contrasting_apprent_Wellcome_V0049196.jpg
Early nineteenth century shawl of Spitalfields silk Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shawl_MET_LC-2016_334.jpg
There must have been a reconciliation because, in 1854 until at least 1861, Ann was living with Daniel in Bath St. Their daughter, Eleanor Ann Crudgington was born in 1854 and was, as far as I am aware, their only confirmed, legitimate child. Daniel did not mend his criminal ways but maybe it was the death of her Ann’s mother in 1852 that drew her back to him. The silk weaving industry slipped into serious decline at several points in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the 1860s, which could also have been a factor in her return. In 1871 and 1881, the Crudgington family were living in Baxendale Street and in both census records, Ann was still recorded as weaving silk. From my research, it seems that the trade shifted to producing smaller items such as ties, trimmings and handkerchiefs towards the end of the nineteenth century. The house in Baxendale St would not have had large upper floor windows commonly seen in Spitalfields weavers’ lofts and the family took in lodgers to supplement their income.
Ann Crudgington (nee Dighton) in the 1881 census living at 30 Baxendale Street, Bethnal Green
Ann died of bronchitis on the 11th of November 1885, aged 70, at 30 Baxendale Street with her sister, Esther Dighton as informant. Ann had a difficult life but worked hard throughout it. She suffered domestic abuse and her husband’s criminal life. I would like to think that she had some relief while living in a female household. Sadly, I have not been able to locate a burial record for Ann and she died before the family grave in the City of London Cemetery was purchased in 1886. I may be able to edit this post in future to add more detail as I discover it. Ann is my great, great, great grandmother, a silk weaver of Bethnal Green.
Further reading
Kean, H (2005) Role of women in silk weaving industry http://home.freeuk.net/nowpeace/IWF_spitalfieldsweavers.htm [Accessed: 01/04/2023]
Alice Pike – a weaver’s daughter – https://eastendwomensmuseum.org/blog/2020/8/26/a-weavers-daughter-alice-pike?rq=silk [Accessed: 01/04/2023]
Higgs, E. and Wilkinson, A. (2016) Women, occupations and work in the Victorian censuses revisited [online] Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/74373925.pdf [Accessed: 01/04/2023]
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 
