| My MIDDLEBROOK Ancestry |
The East End connection
Jacob MIDDLEBROOK (c1774-1841) was my great-great-great-grandfather. He was, according to the marriage certificates of some of his children (after he died), a mariner, seafaringman or seaman. However he was also described as a labourer (on a number of baptism certificates) and porter. So was he a seaman in his younger days?
He married Ann PRYER (she signed as PRIOR) on 9th February 1825 at St Luke, Old Street, Finsbury. Jacob was a widower and 20 years older than Ann. He fathered 7 children in his 50s and 60s. I do not know if there were any children from his first marriage.This is Jacob & Ann MIDDLEBROOK's family:
| Ann
MIDDLEBROOK (1826-1873) |
Ann
was baptised at St Dunstan, Stepney, on 17th July 1826. In the 1840s
she was employed by the SATCHELL family (where?) as a tailoress
which is where she met their son William SATCHELL.
They married at the Parish Church of St Giles without Cripplegate on 26th
December 1846 (along with William’s sister Sophia).
William’s family were well-to-do and were not happy with the match. William was then described variously as a smith, engineer & engine fitter. They appear in Woolwich, Plumstead (Kent) and Shoreditch before they eventually moved to Hartlepool in the north-east of England in the 1860s. At this time Hartlepool was a centre of heavy industry and William worked in both the maritime and railway industries. They had 10 children between 1847 and 1868 – 7 of them before the move north to Hartlepool. Between 1861 and 1865 there were no children as William went to America for several years. It is not known what he did there or if his wife stayed in London until his return. Certainly he was on his own in Hartlepool at the time of the 1861 census. Ann died in 1873 of phthisis (TB). William remarried 18 months later. His new wife was Hannah FULLFORTH (nee BARLOW) who had also been born in London. At some point in the 1870s William ceased to be an engineer – he bought the Durham Hotel in Hartlepool. In the 1881 census he was described as a Licensed Victualler. By the time of the 1891 census William & Hannah had crossed the Pennines to Oldham (Lancashire) where William was now a grocer. He died later that year. |
| Thomas
George MIDDLEBROOK (1827-1885) |
Thomas
was born on 13th October 1827 and was baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal
Green, on 4th November 1827. He was a weaver, particularly of carpets,
although latterly he appears to have been a labourer. Thomas married
the widow Elizabeth BLAKE (nee FERGUSON)*
on 29th July 1847 at Bethnal Green. There was a child, another Thomas
George, born the previous year. Elizabeth died of phthisis
(TB) on 16h June 1850 aged 26. In her short life she had married twice
and had two children. At the time of his
death he was a Fellowship Porter: “A kind of uniformed bonded messenger,
vetted for honesty etc before admission to the Guild of Fellowship Porters,
to whom they were accountable. You could trust your valuables to them
for transport from your London office to another warehouse, shop or office”.
Another definition is: “... who carried 'measurable' goods (grain,
coal, salt and the like) on and off ships moored in the Thames and in
and out of warehouses”. |
| Jacob
MIDDLEBROOK (1829-1902) |
Jacob was born on 30th July 1829 and baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal Green, on 29th August 1829. |
| James
MIDDLEBROOK (1832-1899) |
James
was born on 22nd August 1832 and was baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal Green,
on 16th September 1832. He pre-empted his older sister Ann by moving
to Hartlepool in the early 1850s where he married Margaret ROGERS
on 25th March 1855. She died in 1862 (aged 29) and a year later he
married Ann MICHAELIN (10 years his junior) on 9th February
1863. Ann died in 1872 (aged 31) and later that year, on 29th September,
James married for a third time. This was to the 31 years old widow
Hannah BLACK (nee PARKINSON). From
these three marriages there were just two children - from the marriage to
Ann. He worked in the heavy industry at Hartlepool, being described as a shipyard labourer, engine driver & engineman at an iron foundry, but there were also several references to him as a mariner (Hartlepool was also a port). In fact Hartlepool became a magnet for the London Middlebrooks as the 1891 census has George MIDDLEBROOK (James’s nephew, the son of George & Maria) staying with him. George was also a shipyard labourer. |
| Samuel
MIDDLEBROOK (1835-1860) |
Samuel was born on 7th January 1835 and baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal Green, on 1st July 1838 (with his younger brother George). He was also a carpet weaver but he died at the young age of 25 due to “Asthma and diseased heart”. |
| George
MIDDLEBROOK (1836-1913) |
George was born on 25th December 1836 and baptised at St Matthew, Bethnal Green, on 1st July 1838 (with his older brother Samuel). Along with several of his brothers he started off as a weaver but by the time he married Maria SALES on 16th December 1856 he was a (market) porter. He remained a porter (along with being a labourer) for the rest of his life. George & Maria had 16 children in the next 30 years but 10 died in childhood. They spent all their lives in the East End of London. |
| Joseph MIDDLEBROOK (1840-1841) |
Joseph was born early in 1840 but died of consumption (TB) in July 1841. |