By Christine Swan
My great grandfather, David Dighton Taylor, had a half sister, Elizabeth. On his death certificate, the informant was a C Sloper. After much searching, including every first name variation beginning with C, I decided that this had been incorrectly recorded and that this should have been E Sloper, the married name of his older sister.
Elizabeth’s maiden name was Brown. Her father was William Brown, Mary Ann’s first husband. Mary Ann was less than truthful on recording details in official documents, so I cannot with any certainty state that they were legally married and have been unable to locate a marriage record – either with Deighton or Crudgington as Mary Ann’s name. In 1861, she was recorded as a lodger at the Crudgington’s abode in Baxendale Street. Ann was definitely her mother and potentially, Daniel could have been her father. She was living with first husband William Brown and baby son, also William.
William Brown and Mary Ann, Elizabeth’s parents, in 1861
Elizabeth was born in 1862 and I lose track of the family between census dates. William, I believe, died in 1866 and my great grandfather, David Deighton, was born a year later, in 1867. I do not believe that William Brown was David’s father as he never used that name, only Deighton, after his mother. Thus, the loose clan of William, Elizabeth and David, shared a mother and parts of their lives but, I would imagine, little else.
Elizabeth Brown, reappears in 1881, living with her grandparents in Baxendale Street and working as a paste fitter, a trade which she may have learned from her grandfather. This occupation involved assembling boot and shoe uppers ready for stitching. Her mother, Mary Ann Deighton, had died three years earlier, and just two years later, she was to marry William Sloper.
Elizabeth living with her grandparents in 1881
William was the son of a journeyman shoemaker and was born in St Augustine’s, Bristol. William junior hadn’t followed his father’s trade but instead became a house painter and moved from Bristol to London. In 1881, he was lodging in Lambeth and it was here that Elizabeth and William married, in St Mary’s church on the unlucky 13th of May, 1883.
Marriage of Elizabeth Brown and William Sloper in 1883 at St Mary’s, Lambeth
In 1891, the Sloper family were living in Ebor Street, Shoreditch – William, Elizabeth, Kate aged three, Elizabeth junior aged one, and baby Maud. I have walked past what would have been their front door, so many times and I think they would have been astounded by the changes in their street. Home to the luxurious Shoreditch House, complete with rooftop swimming pool and sun loungers, this was about as far a contrast as it was possible to get from the edge of the Old Nichol rookery, with its crime, deprivation and disease. William was still working as a house painter and Elizabeth senior as a boot fitter. From this year on, everything seems to have gone wrong for the Slopers.
The Sloper family living at 15 Ebor Street, Shoreditch in 1891
Baby Maud did not live to see her first birthday. Kate died in 1894. It is difficult to imagine the grief and dreadful plight of this family. At one point, as a desperate act, William senior went to the workhouse to enquire after his wife and children, who were residing there at the time. He was receiving what was termed outdoor relief, that is to say, financial support provided by the union for non-inmates. The local parish had tried to provide him with work but it clearly wasn’t sufficient for the family’s needs. Faced with an official who didn’t seem to appreciate his desperation, and who he described as overbearing and irritating, he punched receiving officer as he retreated out of his office. William was tried at the Worship Street police court and sentenced to one month in jail. Young Elizabeth died in 1895 and another baby William, was admitted to the Waterloo Road workhouse in November, aged just five weeks. His mother did not appear to have been admitted with him but his father was. This baby survived for a few more weeks and then died in January 1896. Another baby boy, Joseph David, died in 1896 aged under one year and William senior himself died in 1898. I cannot begin to comprehend the scale of the tragedy, the grief and the acute need that the family suffered. Elizabeth’s aunt, Eleanor Crudgington, had risen to fame and fortune on the Music Hall stage, yet here was poverty in its worst state.
Elizabeth claimed to have had eight children, but I have only managed to find records of six but only one child survived. Confusingly, another boy – William Nelson Sloper, born in 1893 and named after his grandfather, survived his siblings, including another William who appeared to be born after. Why name two children with the same first name? I assumed that I had made an error but, upon double checking, I realised that I had not. William Nelson was baptised in 1901, three years after his father died. Many of the Poor Law records are still unindexed so after many hours of searching, I have not found the location of William Nelson and his mother Elizabeth in 1901 or the immediate years before and after. However, she resurfaces in 1911, aged forty eight, and living in Frampton Park Road on her own. Elizabeth was still working as a paste fitter.
Elizabeth Sloper living in Frampton Park Road in 1911
At the outbreak of World War I, William Nelson was working as a pastry cook’s assistant and living with his mother in London Lane, Hackney. His is another story but, tragedy was to strike one more time in 1916 when William Nelson went missing, presumed dead in the Battle of Delville Wood. When war ended, there seemed to be a number of communications before medals, effects and other monies were released. This was too long, and Elizabeth died in 1920 so she never received his war medal. Instead, this was sent to his great aunt Eleanor Bridge (Crudgington) which allowed me to confirm their relationship.
Ellena Ann Bridge – Elizabeth’s aunt, the sole heir to William Nelson Sloper’s effects, including his war medal
When I reflect on this family story, I feel an immense sadness for Elizabeth. Her life was relatively short, just 58 years. She lost her father when she was just four years old, he mother at sixteen, her husband, both brothers and every child that she bore. I cannot imagine living with the weight of sadness that she must have carried. She was the last of this branch of the family and the penultimate person in our family grave.
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 