The Maturin and Johnston Families
Frederick Charles
111326 Frederick Charles Maturin was born at Bantry, Co. Cork in about 1822 (1). An undated internet reference noted that Elizabeth, William Peter's wife, accompanied her husband on the Commissariat posting to Bere Island in Bantry Bay: deduction places that posting in 1822. Following the 1798 rebellion, the attempted French landing in Bantry Bay and the renewed hostilities after the collapse of the Peace of Amiens, in 1803 it was decided that Bantry Bay in the far southwest of Ireland would be fortified with Martello Towers and a permanent garrison on Bere Island. That British presence remained in a Sovereign Base there until 1938. In 1822 it was an outlandish posting, surrounded by the Irish-speaking Gaeltecht. As a Commissary Officer William was responsible for all the logistics of victualling and supplying the garrison.
Details of William Peter's subsequent postings are scarce; copies of his accounts for 1826-28 evidence his posting to Bermuda (2), but the birth places of his children indicate only stations within Ireland. It is not known if or how many of the family moved to the various postings but certainly their daughter, Olivia Emily (born 1821), lived with her mother's sister, Mary Ann and the Revd Ellis Anwyl Owen at Llanystumdwy, near Criccieth for much of her young life. The Owens also gave refuge to another niece, Louisa Mary Kensington, whose mother Catherine Gwynne was sister to Elizabeth Maturin and Mary Ann Owen. Catherine had married John Larkins Kensington in 1813. In 1810 John had been appointed to the Commissariat and served under Wellington in the Peninsular War until his resignation in 1813 when he returned to Wales to marry Catherine. When they needed to attend to the family estates in Tobago their children, Louisa and Charles Jephson William, remained in Britain (3). Olivia Emily married Charles Jephson - an alliance which her young brother Frederick was unashamed to exploit in later years.
Colin John Jones was the father of Mary Ann (Owen), Catherine Gwynne (Kensington), Colin Henry Paget Jones (known as H P Jones to avoid confusion with his father) and Elizabeth (Maturin). Colin was a Royal Navy officer whose service included the West Indies (reported as being at the Siege of Havana in 1762) before transferring to command the Royal Mail packet Duchess of York on the run to Corunna from 1795 to 1797. With his knowledge of deep-sea sailing for a year or so he was transferred to command the Swallow running the gauntlet of privateers between Falmouth, Jamaica and Barbados. In 1798 he exchanged tropical warmth for the Irish Sea on the daily packet run from Holyhead to Dublin until 1810 (4). William Peter's father, William, was Keeper of the Alphabet at the Dublin Post Office (as well as Clerk of the Munster Road) and as such had responsibility for the important mails from London. The two men respected each other sufficiently for William Peter Maturin to marry Elizabeth Jones.
Frederick in the West Indies
According to his own record Frederick served "as an officer" in the Royal Navy on HMS Vestal and HMS President "on the West Indies station" until he "retired at the request of his father" but "carried with him the unquestionable approbation of the officers under whom he served" (5). HMS Vestal sailed from Portsmouth in October 1833, enforcing the suppression of the slave trade from Africa into the Spanish colonies; she did not return to British waters until about 1842/43 (6). A zealous anti-slaver, Commodore William Jones (born 1792), was in command but there is no known connection to Colin John Jones. HMS President was in those waters from February 1832 to 1838. In begging letters to Sir T F Fremantle (as chairman of the Board of Customs) in 1862 Frederick claimed to have been on board HMS President with Stephen George Fremantle on the North America and West Indian station (7). There is no record of Frederick being commissioned as Lieutenant on the National Archives Navy List but it is possible that he was a very young midshipman as they were often recruited at the age of 12 or 13. He later claimed to be a Royal Navy Captain, and was described as such on Emily Collinson's marriage certificate in 1891. The Collinson family also had the tradition that Frederick had been involved as captain of an illegal slave ship operating out of London; of such contortions myths are made (8).
Frederick's statement does ring true that he was employed by the General Post Office in June 1842 (9). His appointment as Surveyors Clerk in the West Indies was recorded on 27 September 1843 as a new position, without referee or recommendation noted in the Postal Service Appointment Book (10).
On 25 February 1843 at St Michael, Barbados, Frederick married Mary Anne Swain who was the daughter of Charles and Margaret Anne Swain, born 15 June 1824 at St Michael (11). Charles Swain, born in London in 1793, had been appointed Clerk in the Commissariat Dept. on 13 January 1814, being posted to Barbados in July 1822. Charles rose to the position of Deputy Commissary General. Apart from a three-year tour of duty in Nova Scotia from 1827, he remained in the West Indies until his retirement to St Helier, Jersey, in 1859. Mary Anne's brother, Charles Oulton Swain, also joined the Commissariat and though only a lowly Clerk in 1843 at the time of his sister's wedding received many postings and was promoted to Assistant Controller (equivalent to a Lieutenant Colonel) in 1871 (12). Such connections would give Frederick Charles a degree of credibility. Swain family tradition says that Frederick and Mary Anne's first child died as a baby and that the body was sent back to England in a small barrel of rum.
At this distance of time it is difficult to know exactly why Frederick acquired the position of Surveyor's Clerk with the General Post Office - or why he chose the West Indies. There were a number of links including possible connections between William Maturin, Charles Swain and possibly John Larkins Kensington in the Commissariat, the family precedents with both grandfathers working with the Mails and close connection to the Kensingtons who had their sugar plantations on Tobago (13).
Frederick greatly annoyed his Post Office masters on many occasions. He pointed out to his superiors that "merchant clerks and Agents" in the West Indies received no less than $5 or £6 a day (equal to 20/10d or 25/-) as well as being able to enjoy the benefits of any hospitality shown them "an advantage prohibited to Surveyors Clerks in the performance of their duties" whereas he only received an inadequate 15/- a day to add to his miserable £100 a year salary (14). It is implied that it was Frederick's representations which led to the Post Master General persuading the Treasury to increase travelling allowances to 20/- a day. His file in the Royal Mail archives records him disobeying all the rules about expenses by taking postage revenue money from the various post masters (and mistresses) around the Caribbean and using that to reimburse his official costs.
His most notable act was his decision to take the steamer from Trinidad on 3 June 1848, via Bermuda, to New York arriving on the SS Great Western on 10 June. He had constructed plans to completely rearrange the delivery of postal packets from London to the West Indies - with no official sanction, instruction or permission to leave his post as a surveyor's clerk. The American Post Office was astonished, the Post Master General in London was furious and Lord Palmerston at the Foreign Office referred the matter to an even higher level. The repercussions reached the Prime Minister as diplomatic relations with the USA were already strained. Despite all this the 26 year-old Frederick returned to his post in Barbados. Ironically the reorganisation plans were sensible and something very similar was adopted a matter of months later (14).
His manipulation of his expenses though came to light again and on 5 April 1849 he had to find £97 (about £7000 in 2009) to repay the discrepancy to the Post Office. From his base in Grenada he issued a bill (payable at sight in 90 days) through his bank, Cavan & Co, drawn on his cousin and brother-in-law - “Chas Kensington Esq, Wooton (sic - note 15), Wilts”. On 10 May Cavan & Co wrote to the Secretary of the Post Office that the bill had not been paid; Charles Jephson was informed and asked his uncle Henry Paget Jones to make any necessary arrangements.
14 May 1849 from Dover (to the Secretary at the GPO)
I am required by my nephew Mr Chas J Kensington of Wooton (sic) Devizes to inform you that a bill for £97 having been drawn upon him by Mr Fred’k Maturin of the P.O. Dept Barbados for the purpose of paying that sum ?? the Genl Post Office has not reached him but that when it does it will be duly honoured by him & the money paid ?? the Genl Post Office as directed by Mr Maturin.
I have the honour to be
Sir
Your obedient servant
H P Johns (sic - note 16)
5 St Martin St
Dover
I have taken the liberty of writing these lines hoping to prevent any unpleasant consequences to Mr F Maturin
The matter dragged on. Frederick was suspended from duty on 18 June, despite the assurance from HP Jones to Lt. Col. Maberley (Secretary to the GPO in London) that he would sell 3% consols to ensure that the family name was upheld. At the end of August the matter was cleared and Frederick returned to duty. The sense of obligation to family displayed by Charles Jephson Kensington can but be admired.
Frederick did not mend his ways of accounting for his expenses, however, and he was recalled to London.. A very thick file of correspondence in the Royal Mail Archives displays his proclamations of innocence with tables of figures in justification. A final 29 point, 12 page letter to the Duke of Argyle, Post Master General, dated 4 November 1856, was to no avail and Frederick was finally dismissed.
Frederick in London
It was easy for a young man under a cloud to disappear in London. He had no close relatives living there at the time; two cousins (Washington Shirley and Gabriel James Maturin) passed through briefly but he may have judged that neither were rich enough to be considered as capable of supporting him. His elder brother, William Henry, had been promoted to Assistant Commissary General for South Australia in 1843 and married a very rich heiress, Charlotte Owen Bagot, in 1845. They returned to Britain in 1857, living first in Bayswater and later in Kensington. It could be significant that though Frederick went to his brother-in-law, Charles Kensington, for funds in 1849 rather than his brother, there is no evidence that he made another appeal in that direction. William Henry may have used his influence to secure Frederick the position as District Selecting agent for potential emigrants to Australia from Caernavon and Merioneth with the thought that he would also be able to support his mother and surviving spinster sisters who were still living in Criccieth. It seems that the agency was accepted - but diverted - and there is no evidence of any move to North Wales. By 1861 mother and sisters had moved south to near Bruton, Somerset, to a life of gentility on the restricted means and generosity of Charles Kensington. The Kensingtons emigrated to New Zealand in 1862. The family looked after its own but it seems that Frederick had upset too many of them.
As an aside Frederick's younger brother Augustus had accompanied William Henry to Australia, he obtained a place in the Adelaide Assay Office but he succumbed to temptation and, in February 1855, was sentenced to a year in prison for appropriating an ingot of gold from the Treasury. The Adelaide Times was indignant when a petition to the Governor brought about Augustus' release after seven months; the young man was hounded from South Australia, fleeing under the assumed name of "Collison"! (18). The Times did not need to point out the well-known fact that his brother William Henry was not only the Commissary for South Australia but also sat in the Legislature and was a close colleague of the Governor.
Initially Frederick took lodgings with the Barr family at King Street in Woolwich in early 1854 (19). Thirty-eight year-old Eliza and Sarah were living with their recently widowed mother; both girls could afford to be "at home" (without occupations) on the previous census. The well-spoken, plausible young man with an Irish background must have made an impression on the bereaved family of Stewart Barr, the craftsman from Co Tyrone (20). However, on Christmas Eve, 1854 a weekly paper (21) reported that the 32 year-old Frederick had been arrested in London for defrauding would-be emigrants to Australia.
Frauds by an Emigrant Agent
On Monday, Frederick Charles Maturin, described as a gentleman of 42 King Street, Woolwich and late in the employ of the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners as a district selecting agent, was charged at the Woolwich police-court with obtaining various sums of money from poor intending emigrants under the false and fraudulent pretence of having sufficient influence and interest with the commissioners to obtain for them a free passage to Australia.
The prisoner appears to have pursued a most reckless course. In consequence of his high connections in the colony of South Australia and at home, he obtained his appointment by false representations, and before and after he received it obtained considerable sums of money of intending emigrants by his delusive promises and from several who had already been declared ineligible by the commissioners for a passage to Australia or any other colony at the expense for her Majesty's government. On these people showing the prisoner their refusal orders he made use of such exclamations as "It's all ---- stuff, you are eligible: the commissioners are compelled to send out a certain number of emigrants yearly, and they are compelled to send a great many to my brother, who holds a very high position in the colony".
To others who were eligible he represented that he had sufficient influence at the emigration office in Park Street to obtain passages for them, and enable them to jump over the heads of 15,000 or 16,000 others whose names were on the books. When any of his dupes became clamorous for the return of their money, he either promised to "make it all square and get over the difficulty", or gave them his IOU for the amount received, made payable at the Royal Exchange. One man named John Whitelaw, a carpenter and joiner, who paid the prisoner £9 for his "influence and interest", received his IOU for the amount, and the prisoner, when he gave it to him, said it would be impossible to get him out to the colony as some persons had been splitting on him to the commissioners. Previous to this he had represented to Whitelaw that he had got over the difficulties in his case and he and his wife and family of four children would have a passage granted them to South Australia.
It may appear strange that the prisoner should have imposed on so many, but the secret of it is that several persons introduced to him, of whom he exacted considerable sums of money, received their approval orders and embarkation orders from the commissioners in regular turn with other applicants, and they attributed their success to the prisoner, who had in no way contributed to it, and introduced others who were in want of a passage for themselves and families to the prisoner, and they also expected to be equally successful.
The prisoner, on being appointed district selecting agent, no doubt expected the clerks and others in the emigration office in Park Street, to connive at his proceedings; for he invited some of the principals to his house to dine, which invitation they never accepted; and asked Mr Kent, a gentleman of high respectability and probity, to pass those emigrants introduced by him as quickly as possible, out of their turn, and he would make it worth his while. Mr Kent indignantly rejected the prisoner's overtures, and looking upon them as an offer of a bribe to violate his duty, reported the matter to the other clerks in the office. The commissioners no sooner heard of the prisoner's irregularities than they placed the matter in the hands of Capt. Lean, who, with his accustomed zeal, soon discovered sufficient to warrant him in giving the prisoner into custody, and has discovered that he has completely ruined many poor mechanics and their families by his shameful exactions. A number of cases were now proved and the witnesses were bound over to appear and give evidence at the January sessions of the central criminal court.
A number of intending emigrants, who had parted with their money to the prisoner, asked Captain Lean how they were to be reimbursed, and some said they had been totally ruined.
Captain Lean said that he felt deep sympathy for the unfortunate people who had been so scandalously defrauded by the prisoner, but he really could do nothing for them. The emigration commissioners could not indemnify them for the losses they had sustained, and had no funds in their possession for that purpose. The only hope for the sufferers was in an appeal to the public, which, he trusted would be liberally responded to. The prisoner was committed."
The following extract of the verbatim report of his (unassisted) self-defence at the trial (22) gives some idea of Frederick's articulate and plausible style:
(The applicants) all came to me from Camden-town and the different suburbs; they all came to me, knowing the advantage they would have in coming to me; knowing that they would get there for 2l.; this was the reason why so many persons sought me; when Hales came to me, he came with Thompson, and he must have had conversation with him, and he must have known what he had said; I said, "I am not going to run about for you without I am paid for it"; he then gave me 1l. as he states to you, and he said he would leave that; I said, "I don't want any more money till you get your orders"; in case of any one not going whom I apply for, I return their money; Hales states that he was not to pay me till he received his approval order, and then only a portion, and the remainder when he got his embarkation order; this was my own proposal; this shows that no felonious intention was in my mind; from the confidence which these persons had in me, I might have obtained from them and the numerous persons who applied, a vast amount of money had I chosen to act fraudulently; I had every possible means of leaving the country, and going where I thought proper—having been in the earlier part of my life in the Royal Navy, I had volunteered for the Black Sea, the ships were going out day after day; I might have lined my pockets pretty well, and joined one of the ships in the Mediterranean, or the Black Sea; if I were desirous of remaining at home, my residence was in Wales where my mother and the whole of my family reside; I was anxious to go there and retire for a short while, and then go to the Mediterranean; the whole of our family are known in Carnarvon and Monmouthshire; under these circumstances, I applied to the Commissioners to appoint me their agent there; if I had designed to defraud these men, it is not likely I should have applied to the Commissioners; I must have known it would eventually have come to their knowledge; Learmond said to me, "Mr. Maturin, you have always behaved to me as a gentleman; I am perfectly satisfied with what you have done"; Osborn went with me there, and he expressed himself satisfied; another man was found ineligible, and he said he would like to go to some other place, and afterwards he said he would not go at all; I said, "Very well; I must return your money; I will not retain any man's money that I do not do the business for";
£2 in 1855 would be roughly equivalent to £130 in purchasing power in 2009 but in relation to average earnings it would be worth £1300.
Eliza Barr cared enough for him to appear at his trial, emphasising that "a great number came" for his help, for which he only charged his expense, and he always stated clearly that he had no power or authority with the Emigration Committee. His reputation as a successful fixer had spread. Eliza's plea in mitigation failed (23).
On 2 February 1855 he was found guilty of using his brother, William Henry's, name, position as Commissary General and reputation to recruit, and illegally take money from, ineligible workers in London. His remit as commission agent for the Commissioners for the Promotion of Emigration was strictly limited to specific skills, age and family groups in Caernarvon and Merioneth. On 29 January Frederick's record was marked as "Judgement respited" (24). Only on 8 April 1855 was his sentence of Confinement for Two Months passed (25). An application was made in May for his release (24); though all the money obtained by fraud had been repaid to the victims, by "the defendant" (or perhaps another benefactor in this case), the Recorder was not prepared to release him from custody "in a case of this description". (26)
Frederick could perhaps not return to Woolwich on his release from prison. The support given to him by Eliza Barr must have evaporated. Instead he moved north of the river and his presentation to the Post Master General, the Duke of Argyle, (above) in November 1856 was addressed from "Johnsons" 21 Blueburne Street, Drury Lane. That street cannot be identified but at that time there was a Blue Boar Court in that area.
It was a part of London well-known to Charles Dickens; Warren's Blacking factory was at Charing Cross at the western end of Frederick's new patch and the Inns of Court at the eastern end. From about 1830 to his death in 1870 Dickens wrote about life in the London which Frederick would not only recognise but know intimately. By Dickensian coincidence Frederick's cousin, the Revd Charles Henry Maturin, returned from Paris in 1832 to set up the "London High School" in Tavistock House, charging £15 per annum for day boys or 70 guineas for borders. Dickens lived in that house from 1851 to 1860. Frederick is unlikely to have known of that connection.
Caroline Collinson
Frederick had a second family in London with Caroline Collinson. The Collinson family regarded the parish of St Clement Danes and the area between Drury Lane and Temple Bar as home. It was close to Frederick's lodgings near Drury Lane. She was born in St Clement Danes parish in 1837 (27). The 1841 census had recorded her aged 4 at Hemlock Court with parents, John (a house painter aged 40), Mary (aged 41), brother Peter (aged 9) and sister Jane (aged 6). A John Collinson's death was registered in the Strand district in the second quarter of 1841. Hemlock Court was demolished in 1870-72 to make way for the Law Courts between the Strand, Cary Street and Chancery Lane. The 12-year-old Caroline was noted in Streatham Almshouses in 1851 as a servant to an Ale Master. Widow Mary, a laundress aged 52, was at 3 Grange Court, St Clement Danes in 1851 with her son, William Edward Collinson aged 19, a barristers' clerk, born in St Pancras (later he married Martha Nowlan at Islington in December quarter 1853 and moved to 12 Desborough Street, Paddington; their daughter Martha Ann was born in 4th quarter 1854).
Caroline would have been about 20 at the birth of Arthur Frederick Collinson, registered in the Strand district for the June quarter of 1857; the christening of Arthur Fredrick Maturin is recorded in St Mary le Strand in July 1857. The only trace of the family in the 1861 census however is of Caroline Collinson (an unmarried embroideress aged 24) visiting her mother Mary Collinson (laundress) with Frederick aged 4 and Hubert aged 2 (described as Mary's grandsons, but no more is heard of Hubert) at 15 Craven Buildings, Drury Lane, Westminster. There was no sign of Frederick Charles; for lack of evidence it can only be a suggestion that he had travelled back to the West Indies in search of funds, and happened to father John Roy in Barbados in 1861. Frederick was again recorded in Britain with an address at 11 Bells Buildings, Salisbury Square (by St Bride's Church just south of Fleet Street) when, on 28 November 1862, he wrote to the letters to Sir T F Fremantle asking for work (7). He gave the address at 64 Old Broad Street, London in 1863, when the lease in the court case brought by Edward Reeves (28) was negotiated by him on 22 December that year. Mary Collinson died on 25 March 1867 at 2 Craven Buildings.
The Reeves court case was recorded in November 1864 when Frederick was sued in his capacity as agent for a property company, The National Volunteer Hotel Co. Wimbledon, buying the site of Spencer Villa on Wimbledon Common from Edmund Reeves (28). It is unclear who the promoters were, but it is unlikely that Frederick himself would have had the means to raise even the £500 deposit, let alone the remaining £6,500 capital. His defence was that he had signed the agreement on behalf of the company and though his was the only signature on the document his employers' solicitors knew his status and had arranged the payment of the deposit; the vendor's solicitors (the highly regarded Lee Pemberton and Reeves practice) were also fully aware that he was merely an agent. It appears that Frederick was unsuccessful in persuading the court that it was the directors of the promotion company who should have been sued and not him personally.
The family was at 206 Fleet Street for 14 August 1866 when Caroline Mary was baptised at the age of 3 1/2 at St Clement Danes, her father being described as a Sea Captain. On 19 November that year, Frederick Charles Maturin, still of 206 Fleet Street but trading at 27 Coleman Street, London, ship and commission agent, was declared bankrupt and imprisoned for debt. He was summoned to appear on 11 December for his meeting of creditors. On 25 December the London Gazette announced that his last examination and application for discharge would take place on 18 January following. (29). Meantime he languished in gaol.
In May 1870 Frederick sued Mylius Cohen, the owner of a Thames-side store and wharf for breach of contract (30). Through an agent, George Frederick Druce, he had contacted Cohen with the story that he needed a riverside premises to work on a patent method for "making bricks by a chemical process without baking them". High pressure tactics by Druce induced Cohen to sign an agreement, dated 28 February, drafted by "Captain Maturin care of H C Vernon Esq., Navy Agent and Banker, 6 New Inn Strand" to allow his wharf at East Greenwich to be used for 6 months for the sum of £50. Druce demanded a commission of £10 for facilitating the deal. "Captain Maturin" was described as a gentleman of good family with a large estate at Lytham in Lancashire and a brother in the treasury in Dublin with a salary of £5000 a year. Eventually suspecting sharp practice Cohen investigated matters with Vernon at the New Inn (one of the ancient Inns of Court) and, not satisfied with the answers, discovered that Captain Maturin had a residence at Plumstead - 3 to 4 miles from East Greenwich. When he arrived there on 3 March no-one was available but the neighbours informed him that the sheriffs had forced a sale of the furniture and effects earlier that day and that his potential lessee was "a man in very needy circumstances". Matters were not improved when Cohen returned to his wharf to find that, despite being repeatedly told that no building materials on the wharf were for sale, Druce had informed employees that all materials had been bought for £30 and they would be collected shortly. Not only that but at 6.00 am the next working day a barge arrived to load them up and take them away. Fortunately Cohen knew the bargee well and he accepted that the materials had not been sold. Records of the outcome of the case are still being researched!
In 1871 Frederick and the family, comprising Arthur Frederic, Emily (aged 7) and Caroline Mary (christened August 1866), lived at 30 Bouverie Street, London south of Fleet Street, near Whitefriars in St Dunstans parish, Faringdon Without - effectively parish no. 10 on the plan below (26). Frederick was described as "Late Inspector Post Office Packet Service, West Indies" born in Bantry, Ireland.
Frederick became adept at begging letters. In July 1873, writing from 30 Bouverie Street, he applied to the Colonial Office asking for help from the Governor of Barbados as, although he was the son of a "President of Council in Tobago" and had formerly "held some office in the Windward Islands", he had fallen on hard times through taking shares in a patent anchor. His appeal was passed to The Society for Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity who knew him well as "a begging letter writer 50 years of age with a wife and four children". In 1871 he had asked them for a loan of £10 for clothing so that he could obtain a situation. Saying that he was due to receive a remittance having sold property in Barbados and he would therefore not agree to paying back the loan on instalments from his salary. Further, when he saw a list of who was on the Committee he believed his application would not succeed as several of the members knew him. He was summed up as a "man of good ability but very extravagant and addicted to drinking and immorality". They also commented that "The house at which Maturin lives is a well-known resort of begging letter writers. The landlord states that he {FCM) is constantly writing letters asking for money on various pretexts sometimes for himself, sometimes for his daughter and sometimes for his son." The Society secretary wrote "He alleges that he has a claim against Government for some invention of his (wire rope) which has been adopted. He also purported to be employed writing an elaborate work on Irish Fisheries." On 25 August 1873 his application was refused. (31)
By 1881 they had moved to 78 Paul Street, West Ham, Frederick was noted as a Life Assurance clerk and the family had grown with the addition of Frank (aged about 8) and Norah (about 10 months).
Frederick's death from a diseased heart on 24 April 1889 at the age of 69 (sic) was registered in the name of Frederick Charles Collinson by the Resident Officer at the City Infirmary, Bromley by Bow, Stepney (33). Described as a "seaman" his home address was given as 13 Kings Head Court (see below). The City Infirmary was part of the Poplar and Stepney Asylum institution which eventually became St Andrews Hospital. Frederick would have had little other option for medical treatment but to be taken the 6 miles across the City. The nearest cemetery may have been at Tower Hamlets, one of the showpiece Victorian burial grounds and now a nature reserve; if his family could not afford a private plot Frederick would have been buried in a shroud in a public grave, some of which were 40 feet deep and held up to 30 bodies. This was a far cry from his brother, William Henry, who also died in 1889 - on 2 March in Kensington leaving a fortune of £28,726 (perhaps £1.5 million in 2005).
In Revd Edmund Maturin’s Pedigree it is just noted that in 1880 Frederick Charles “was in China and other foreign countries but still living”. Edmund obviously had no idea of his actual whereabouts. By 1891, as a widow, Caroline with Frederick, Frank and Norah had moved back to 13 Kings Head Court, an insalubrious alley according to earlier proceedings at the Old Bailey, running parallel to Fleet Street from the top of Wine Office Court (and the notable Cheshire Cheese) east to Shoe Lane (33). They had all reverted to take the name of Collinson. At present it is unclear if that decision had been taken by Frederick as part of a "disappearance" from The Strand to live incognito at West Ham; in such a patriarchal society though it is unlikely that Caroline would have dictated such a change. On Emily Collinson's marriage certificate to Henry Roach on 31 May 1891 her father is described as "Frederick Charles Collinson - Captain - deceased" (34).
Low-rental accommodation in Caroline's home patch between Ludgate Circus and the Strand was steadily cleared from the 1870s onwards so that when her daughters, Caroline, Emily and Norah married they moved north to Islington. It appears that Caroline followed them there. The 1901 census finds her as a 63 (!) year-old charwoman, born in St Clement Danes (to confirm her identity) in a multiple tenancy at 29 Trinity Street in the Holy Trinity parish, which is not immediately obvious on a modern street map but the parish is close to Pentonville Road (35). There is registry entry of the death of Caroline Collinson in the June quarter of 1907 at the age of 69 in Islington.
Frederick's family with Mary Ann Swain was:
1113261) Vicurza Willesley Maturin, christened 15 July 1846 at St Michael, Barbados. Married John Oadcott Spriggs on 26 March 1870 at St Michael (IGI).
1113262) William Frederick Paget Maturin was born in about 1847 in Barbados according to 1871 and 1881 English census returns. He was probably named Paget after his grandfather’s friend, Colin Henry Paget Jones, who was in turn, it is suggested, named in honour of the Marquess of Anglesey (Henry William Paget). In an age of patronage it did no harm to have illustrious links. William appears to be the only one of the first family to follow their father back to England.
His father must have begged a favour from a friend. William, as a solicitor’s clerk, is witness to the will of Royal Navy Lieutenant, Alleyne Polkinghorne Poscoe, on 24 August 1869. The document was drawn up by Henry Charles Vernon, Navy Agent of 6 New Inn, The Strand, who had his clerks Edward Curtis and Wm Paget Maturin, sign as witnesses (i). Henry Vernon (as a Navy Agent and Banker) is mentioned above as Frederick Charles' agent in connection with the breach of contract case against Mylius Cohen in May 1870. Plainly the employment was not long lasting.
In the last quarter of 1870 William married Mary Ann Maddocks at St George Hanover Square (ii). They are noted in 1871 at 118 Great Titchfield Street, Marylebone, London as a 24 year-old unemployed clerk with his wife "Marianne" aged 28, a waistcoat-maker. Their first child, Lionel Ernest Paget Roye, was born on 18 Aug 1871 and baptised at St George Hanover Square on 22 October that year (iii). The birth of Ernest Oscar was registered in 1873.
In 1871 they shared accommodation with “Carlotta” Maddocks, described as William's sister-in-law, aged 17, also a waistcoat-maker. Mary Ann and Charlotte were the daughters of Thomas and Mary Ann Maddocks. Thomas was born in about 1808 in Whitchurch, Shropshire and Mary Ann in Newcastle-under-Lyme in about 1810. Their first six children were born in Newcastle and Whitchurch and the last three in Leek, Staffordshire. North-west Staffordshire, north Shropshire and southern Cheshire was a very important silk production region. All three towns originally had flourishing silk mills but the operation in Newcastle was erratic, closing in 1830 and reopening periodically until 1877 when it became a shoe factory. Similar patterns were experienced in Leek and Whitchurch. Thomas must have had special skills with silk and followed the available work as a tailor. All his children at some point were described as tailors or waistcoat makers. Mary Ann (junior) was the fifth child (born first qtr 1842) and Charlotte the youngest (born in the last qtr 1852). By 1861 the family had moved to Hurst Street in the centre of Birmingham. The East Midlands had become the centre for fine fabrics as industrialisation brought prosperity and their eldest son, John, had moved there before 1861, being noted as a foreman tailor in that census. By 1871 Thomas had taken his family east and was also described as a foreman tailor with son Richard just as a tailor, living with Mary Ann in Birstall Street, Leicester. The descriptions and details of neighbours and their occupations imply that up to 1871 the family could afford reasonable accommodation as they had complete dwellings to themselves and no indication of multiple tenancies. (iv)
On 10 June 1875 The Times reported that William had appeared at The Old Bailey on 5 June as a bank clerk at the Covent Garden branch of the London & County Bank accused of "an ingenious manipulation" to transfer cheques for £49, £20 and £44 16s to the account of Ambrose Brown, a tailor in The Strand, and share the proceeds. The truth is difficult to extract from the evidence as Brown implies that “Mat” gave the impression that he was very well connected, had funds and was prepared to lend money from his own private bank account at Vernon’s (at 6 New Inn), dictating letters for Brown to send to support the dubious passage of cheques through the banking system and making all the necessary arrangements. There is the suggestion that the charges brought were the only ones with sufficient evidence to convict but that further discrepancies totalling £340 had also been detected. The total would be the equivalent of £18,000 today. They were both found guilty, though Brown was given “an excellent character” and given 12 months imprisonment but William was sentenced to 5 years penal servitude (v). The circumstances exactly match those quoted by Frank Holl, the almost forgotten Victorian social realist painter. Holl amplified the graphic word pictures of London’s underlife by such authors as Charles Dickens into startling visual images published in The Graphic (competitor to the Illustrated London News). Those engravings were also worked up to very popular full-size oil paintings (vi).
Holl had the opportunity to paint events at Newgate Prison and obtained permission to visit several times and record his impressions. After one breakfast with the Governor he witnessed a scene which matured in his mind for some while before being committed to canvas. His daughter later wrote: “A young wife was seeing for the first time her husband, a young man of good family, and who had filled a trusted position in one of the largest and most important banking houses. Falling amongst evil companions, he had been tempted to misappropriate a very large sum of money, and the loss was only discovered by the firm quite by accident, a short while afterwards. He was arrested tried and sentenced to five years’ penal servitude. (Holl) happened to witness the meeting between husband and wife, when she was admitted for the first time since his imprisonment.” (vii) To avoid identification of the guilty and the innocent Holl painted the people using his customary models so these are not portraits of the participants. Artistic licence would have allowed two ragged girls to create more empathy than the two small boys of reality. Holl must have been aware of the Maturin name from the Governor and the significance of it from his journalistic connections to “The Graphic”. William Frederick’s uncle, William Henry Maturin, had retired as Assistant Commissary General for South Australia and returned in 1857 with his heiress wife Charlotte (Bagot) to take up City directorships and a genteel lifestyle in Bayswater and Kensington. Holl used his early engravings and paintings to emphasise the gulf between rich and poor and the invisibility of poverty to many of the more fortunate who could read The Graphic and attend exhibitions. It is possible that the furred and bejewelled elegant lady on the right of the picture represents William’s aunt, Charlotte, as a symbol of the “good family” connection; it is unlikely that his aunt would have attended in person as it appears that his father had totally alienated the rest of his family. Holl wanted his public to imagine their own interpretation and the two ladies with their delicate hankies, talking to the jailer, could be intended to illustrate the reaction of those unaccustomed to the stench and tragedy of Newgate.
Originally the emphasis of the painting was the meeting between the bank clerk and his family but Holl reconstructed the composition to place a frightened mother with her babe highlighted in centre stage with a glowering husband clawing at the cage bars, perhaps furious at his wife for turning him in after a brutal attack. The warder patrols the passage between them, listening and ensuring that there is no retribution - or opportunity to pass banned objects. In reality the trial after William’s on 5th June was of an abusive, drunken blacksmith with DTs, John Lynch, who had accused his wife, Emma, of infidelity resulting in the birth a baby five months previously. He had attacked Emma with a hammer, wounded her to the bone (though "there was not much hair torn off") and was sentenced to 16 months (viii).
Though the picture does not portray William or Marianne it does give an accurate snapshot of life within Newgate, with the pair of gratings between the prisoners and their visitors, the caging of every sort of inmate together from fraudsters, thugs and swindlers to Artful Dodger boy-thieves. William must have been traumatised by his time there.
The picture named “Newgate: Committed for Trial” was finished in 1877 and hung at the Royal Academy in 1878. Edward Hermon MP bought it for 1000 guineas, the highest price Holl was ever paid for one of his subject paintings (as opposed to his portraits) and it now hangs at Royal Holloway, University of London. A darker repainted copy hangs in the Touchstones Rochdale Gallery; for this Holl employed different models and the elegant lady's furs became a fabric coat! (ix)
Marianne (or Marion or Mary Ann as she is variously noted) moved to Leicester during William's imprisonment to be close to her parents and elder brother, John. The birth of Reginald Paget M Maturin was registered there in the last quarter of 1875. The death of an unnamed Maturin boy, noted in Leicester in the third quarter of 1875, is something of a puzzle as there appear to be no other Maturin mothers in that area at that time; one possibility is the premature birth of a stillborn twin to Reginald.
The 1881 census shows that William had rejoined his family and was a tobacconist at 18a Market Street, Leicester, that Marion's age had dropped by two years and that the two boys were at school. Hilda Marian was born in 1883 but died 10 weeks later. A report in the Derby Mercury on 13 October 1886 named Mr W Paget Maturin as appearing on behalf of the Conservatives at a revision of the voters’ lists for the Alfreton district of Derbyshire.
William was admitted to the South Yorkshire Asylum (under the lunacy procedures) on 6 November 1894 and died there on 17 February 1897 (in the Wortley registration district between Leeds and Bradford), recorded as aged 49. Mary Ann Maturin moved back to London and in 1901 is back at 99 Praed Street, Paddington as a 55 year-old widow, "May", with her son, Desmond. She died in Marylebone in the third quarter of 1904 aged 59.
Their family was:
11132621) Lionel Ernest Paget Roye Maturin born 18 August 1871 in Marylebone, London and christened at St George's Hanover Square on 22 October. The family address on the baptism record was Gt Portland Street. Noted on the 1881 census as a scholar living at home. The only other detail is that he died in late May 1896 and was buried at St Peter & St Paul's, Felixstowe on the 3 June. His tombstone gives his age as 24 but the registrar notes it as 21.
11132622) Ernest Oscar Desmond Paget Maturin born 4th quarter 1873. Noted as Oscar Ernest on the 1881 census but he may have been known as Desmond. The 1901 census records him at Praed Street with his mother, employed as a barman. There is no trace of him in 1911 but another stray registration quotes that a Desmond Maturin aged 42 died in Paddington in the second quarter of 1909. Only the certificate will reveal if this was Ernest Oscar Desmond.
11132623) Unnamed Maturin boy died 3rd quarter 1875 in Leicester. See above
11132624) Reginald Paget M Maturin born 4th quarter 1875 in Leicester.
11132625) Hilda Marian Burnaby Maturin born 4th quarter 1883 in the Blaby district of Leicetersire but died 10 weeks later and was buried at the Welford Road cemetery in Leicester in January 1884.
i) Last Will and Testament Alleyne Polkinghorne Pascoe - availble online
ii) Register of Baptisms 1871 St George Hanover Square
iii) GRO index of marriages for Dec qtr 1870 St George Hanover Sq volume 1a p 491 lists Mary Ann Maddocks marrying William Frederick P Matwin
iv) Census records for 1841 (Thomas Maddocks at May Street, Newcastle-under-Lyme), 1851 (at 3 Market Place, Leek), 1861 (34 Hurst Street, Birmingham) and 1871 (Birstall Street, Leicester)
v) Brief biography of Frank Holl available online
vi) Proceedings of the Old Bailey 5 June 1875 available online
vii) The Life and Work of Frank Holl by Ada Mabel Reynolds 1912
viii) Proceedings of the Old Bailey 5 June 1875 available online
ix) Online collections at Touchstones Rochdale available online
The other family with Mary Anne Swaine was:
1113263) Florence Trowbridge Maturin christened 27 September 1848 at St Michael
1113264) Annie Louisa Maturin, christened 15 May 1850 at St Michael
1113265) Augusta Stanhope Maturin (christened 14 January 1852) who married Joseph Collymore at St George, Barbados on 19 July 1873. Their daughter Sarah Kathleen May was christened at St George, Barbados on 27 May 1874.
John Roy Maturin
IGI records a christening at St Michael, Barbados of John Roy Maturin on 6 September 1862, noting his mother as Mary Annie Maturin. It is not clear if this was a delayed baptism as there is no record so far of Frederick returning to Barbados after he left in 1854, though equally there is no trace of him in the UK in the 1861 census. John Roy married Sophia Estelle Chase on 30 April 1884 at St George, Barbados. Sophia Estelle Maturin arrived in New York on 14 August 1904 from Barbados with her son Lisle Symon aged 11 (born 1893), daughter Mildred Gladys aged 7 (born 1897) and 16 year-old West Indian servant Edith Green. With only $15 in her purse they were visiting 15 St John's Place, New York. In September 1903 Randolf Maturin (aged 12) had sailed from Barbados for New York, making his first visit to the USA with the stated purpose of visiting his brother in New York. A Victor D Maturin (born in Barbados in 1888) is recorded in the 1920 US Census, a single man living at Mercer, New Jersey. Book 9 of the Marriage Records Index for Delaware County, New York State (12 August 1919 to 20 October 1920) records the marriage of William Roy Maturin to Adele Myrtleland Rice with John Roy and Sophie Estelle named as the groom's parents. Lysle Maturin (noted as being born in Barbados in 1891) is in the 1920 US Census in Queens, New York with his wife Anna Maturin (born in New York of German-born parents) and three-year-old son John Roy Lysel. Lysle J Maturin, from Nassau, New York, born in 1916 is recorded as enlisting as an aviation cadet in the Air Corps on 20 June 1942; in civilian life he had been a "bandsman, oboe or automobile parts clerk - 69" tall and 153 lbs. These leads have not been followed up yet to prove or disprove the connections.
The second family with Caroline Collinson was:
1113265) Arthur Frederick (Frederick) Maturin / Collinson, registered as Arthur Frederick Collinson in the Strand district for the June quarter of 1857, christened as Maturin on 26 Jul 1857 at St. Mary le Strand, Westminster, London. Frederick Collinson (aged 4) was in the 1861 census as grandson of Mary Collinson at Craven Buildings; Frederick Maturin (aged 13) at Bouverie Street, in 1871; Frederic A Maturin (aged 22) "laborer" at Paul Street, West Ham in 1881; Frederick Collinson (aged 33) dock labourer at 13 Kings Head Court in 1891; in 1901 Arthur Frederick Collinson (44, a stevedore and still single) was a patient at Holborn Union Infirmary, Archway Road, Upper Holloway, Islington, presumably having moved there to be nearer his sisters and mother in his illness as it was at least 8 miles from there to his work in the docks (note 25). So far there are no more identifiable records of his next whereabouts or death.
1113266) Caroline Mary Maturin / Collinson, born 2 March 1863 (registered as Maturin) and christened as Maturin on 14 Aug 1866 at St. Clement Danes, Westminster, London. The family address was then 206 Fleet Street. Married George Griggs on 28 October 1894 at St Silas, Pentonville. In 1901 George, aged 33, a bricklayers' labourer, and Caroline declared as aged 30, were living at the same address as Ethel and Henry Roach, 26 Hermes Court, Clerkenwell which is in the parish of St James, Pentonville (see above)(29).
George and Caroline had family:
George Griggs born about 1896
Kate Griggs born about 1897
Sidney Griggs born about 1900
1113267) Emily Ethel Maturin / Collinson born about 1868, (died 18 June 1946, Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield) married William Henry (Henry) Roach (born about February 1867, Kitchbourne Court, Holborn, London, died at 6 Maygood Street, Islington on 26 March 1933) on 31 May 1891 at St Mary's Church, Upper Street, Islington. On the certificate their address is given as 9 Lavina Grove, Islington, Henry is 25 and Emily 22, as the bride's father Frederick Charles (deceased) has been given the surname Collinson with the rank of Captain. In 1901 the family was living at 26 Hermes Street, with Caroline and family in the same household and only a stone's throw from Norah and their mother. Henry is described as a bricklayer. Had family:
Ethel Edwards / Roach born 1885, Homerton, Hackney, London (16) though the registration notes her as Ethel Adeline Collinson, born in Hackney (June quarter 1886, volume 1b p 16). She was christened at Holy Trinity, Gough Square (200 yards from 13 Kings Head Court) on 18 June 1886 (having been born on 21 March). Her parents were Charles (presumably Edwards, though noted as Collinson - boiler maker) and Emily Ethel Collinson. Ethel Edwards was staying with her grandmother, Caroline, at Kings Head Court in 1891 when she is noted as a 5 year-old. In 1901, at 26 Hermes Court with her mother and step-father, she is a machine hand at a printers aged 15.
Jane Caroline Roach born 1898, Clerkenwell, London married Charles Andrews
Florence Ada Roach b. 15 March 1901, Clerkenwell, London died October 1982 married Harry Collins
Charlotte Lilian Roach born 3 August 1905, 34 Vittoria Street, Islington, died 29 August 1958, Hostel of God, Clapham: married Charles Arthur Thomas Lambert (born 31 December 1903, 30 Muriel Street, Islington, London. England) in December 1926 at Holborn. Had family:
Charles Ronald Lambert born 15 December 1927, Barnsbury, Islington, died 7 November 1993, Princess Alice Hospice, Esher married Margaret Lillian Horne (born 28 September 1932, Hampton, Richmond upon Thames, died 10 February 1997, Ashford Hospital, Stanwell). Has living family.
Marion Emily Roach born 1 October 1906, 1A Vittoria Street, Islington, London, England died 26 Febrary 1972, King Edward VII Hospital, Old Windsor. On 13 July 1929, St. Mark’s Parish Church, Clerkenwell, Holborn, London
Marion married George William Allen (born 4 May 1904, 29 Noble Street, Clerkenwell, Holborn (off Gresham Street, behind St. Paul’s Cathedral) died 26 May 1987, Hackney, London, England).
Nora Roach
1113268) Frank Maturin / Collinson born about 1873 in Middlesex. In the 1891 census he is noted as a painter aged 19. By 1901 Frank Collinson had married "Margaret" (born in Draycott, Oxon) and their daughter, Daisy Margaret, had been born in Holborn in 1st qtr 1900; they were living at 50 Winchester Street, Clerkenwell and Frank was a general labourer at a sweet factory.
Daisy does not appear in the 1911 census but Frank is noted as Frederick, a 37 year-old chocolate maker. He and Margaret, now an "office attendant", are parents to Caroline L. (9), Margaret E. (8), Ellen (7) and Frank (1), living in two rooms on the ground floor at 23 White Lion Street, Pentonville.
1113269) William Maturin / Collinson born about 1875; died in West Ham 3rd quarter 1878
111362T) Norah Maturin / Collinson born about 1880 in West Ham / Plaistow, Essex: married Richard George Burrows (born 1878 Soho) at St John's, Holborn in March quarter 1901. In 1901 census at 55 Albert Street, Islington (in the ecclesiastical parish of St Silas, Pentonville but the exact location of this Albert Street is unclear at present) Had family:
Edward Burrows born 1902, Islington
Richard Burrows born 1904, Islington
William Burrows born 1906, Stoke Newington, London
George Burrows born 1908, Stoke Newington, London
Clara May Burrows born 31 January 1910, Stoke Newington, London died 31 Jul 1991, San Juan, New Mexico, USA
Special Acknowledgement - Darren Reynolds has been particularly generous in his permission to use his extensive research, together with copies of the supporting certificates, on the Collinson family in the above article. That help is greatly appreciated.
1) According to FCM'S declaration on the 1871 and 1881 English censuses
2) National Archives AO 2/6, 2/11, 2/17 Accounts for the Commissariat Abroad Bermuda
3) Travelling with the Kensingtons - Louise Buckingham and Ann Buckingham (privately published family memoir) pp 70-71
4) ibid p.55-56
5) Royal Mail Archive File - Post 29/74 F C Maturin. Appeal to the Duke of Argyle 4 November 1856 - point 2
6) http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/18-1900/U/05005.html Naval Database
7) Letters from FCM to Sir T F Fremantle 1862 Buckinghamshire Archives, Ayelsbury D-FR/64/2
8) Collinson Family verbal history from Darren Reynolds
9) Royal Mail Archive File - Post 29/74 F C Maturin. Appeal to the Duke of Argyle 4 November 1856 - point 1
10) 1843 Postal Service Appointment Books POST 58 Ref no. 38 pp 333/334
11) IGI
12) Swain family archives with thanks to Claude Swain
13) Travelling with the Kensingtons - Louise Buckingham and Ann Buckingham. Chapter 12
14) Royal Mail Archive File - Post 29/74 F C Maturin - extensive correspondence in 1848
15) Royal Mail Archive File - Post 29/74. All correspondence in this file was copied so transcription errors are inevitable. This should be “Worton” where Charles Jephson William Kensington lived at Princes Hill from 1846 to 1855.
16) Ibid. “HP Johns” is in fact Colin Henry Paget Jones, but always known as HP to avoid confusion with his father, Colin John Jones. In 1849 he was a lieutenant-commander in the Royal Navy, stationed at Dover in command of the Violet. He died in Dover in February 1854.
17) Royal Mail Archive File - Post 29/74 F C Maturin. Appeal to the Duke of Argyle 4 November 1856
18) The Courier (Hobart, Tasmania) 8 September 1855
19) P 419 Proceedings of the Criminal Court 29 January 1855 p 419 - 2nd paragraph - Eliza Barr states that Frederick had been lodging with her and her mother for "about eleven months".
20) A 35 year-old Eliza Barr appears living with her parents Stewart and Frances in the 1851 census at King Street, Woolwich; Stewart Barr's death is registered in Greenwich in June 1852.
21) Issue 62 of the Lloyds Weekly Newspaper, Sunday 24 December 1854
22) Proceedings of the Old Bailey 29 January 1855 t18550129-299 - available online
23) Eliza Barr's plea in mitigation ibid p 419 - available online
24) Criminal Registers - England & Wales, National Archives HO 27; Piece 110: page 367
25) Proceedings of the Central Criminal Court 9 April 1855 - p 157 / v - sentencing - no. 18 - available online
26) Report in The Argus (Melbourne, Victoria) Thursday 24 May 1855 - "The Fraudulent Emigration Agent" - Frederick Charles Maturin, who was convicted at the January sessions of obtaining money fraudulently from a number of poor persons, under the pretence that he could assist them to emigrate, was placed at the bar. Mr Ballantine said that he had prosecuted the defendant under instructions from the Government, and he was now requested to inform the court that during the interval that had elapsed since the last session, the defendant had restored the whole of the money he had obtained to the poor persons who had been defrauded. Taking this fact into consideration, and also that he had been already four months in prison, it was thought by the authorities that the justice of the case would be satisfied by the defendant being at once discharged from custody. The Recorder said that he could not adopt the course that was suggested without some consideration, and that the matter must stand over to the end of the session.
27) In 1841 Caroline's age was recorded as 4, 1851 as 12, 1861 as 24, 1871 as 31, 1881 as 41 and 1901 as 62. In 1881 and 1901 her birthplace is noted as St Clements Danes
28) National Archives C16/228/R78 Reeves v Maturin
29) Reports in the London Gazette on 30 November 1866 (page 6735) and 25 December (page 7155) .
30) National Archives C16/657/M56 Maturin v Cohen
31) National Archives CO 28/219/90 folios 371-387
32) Map of the Parishes in London and Westminster, outside the City of London - available online
33) Kings Head Court is no 26 on the 1720 Richard Blome engraving - available online
34) With thanks to Darren Reynolds for his research into the Collinson descendants and obtaining census returns and BMD certificates
35) Parishes of Islington in 1903 map on the Genuki site by kind permission of David Hawgood - available online
36) Parishes of Finsbury in 1903 map http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/Finsbury/outline.htm again by kind permission of David Hawgood and Genuki - available online
The eastern end of Bere Island, Bantry Bay with a Martello Tower just visible on the right hand hill
Wych Street in 1870
ran from Drury Lane (near Craven Buildings) to St Clement Danes (the tower is in the background)
Jane with Emily Ethel
Parish 10 & 10 a - St Clement Danes, 11 - Precinct of the Savoy, 12 - St Mary le Strand; in 1763 (32)
The Caribbean - John Tallis 1852 - click here to see a larger version
The Strand - looking west - in 1890
Islington parishes in 1903 - 30 Holy Trinity, 38 St Silas, (35)
Finsbury parishes in 1903 - 1 St James Pentonville (30)
“Newgate: Committed for Trial” 1878 by Frank Holl (1845-1888)
