Matilda LARK
Early life
Matilda (also known as Minnie) was born Matilda Clark on 5 February 1852 in the hamlet of Housham Tye, Matching, Essex. Her parents were Charles Clark, a blacksmith and his wife Mary Surridge (or Surrage). Housham Tye is a few miles east of Harlow, near the village of Matching Green.
She was with her family in Housham Tye in the 1861 and 1871 censuses. In 1871 she was listed as a milliner and dressmaker. We have not been able to find her in the 1881 census (though there is an entry in Lambeth for a Minnie Carolan (25) from Harlow which caught our eye).
In the 1891 census Matilda was living alone in one room at 37 Ambrose Street in Bermondsey: enumerated as Minnie Matilda Clark, widow, age 37, born Harlow, Essex, a mantle maker.
Marriage
In April 1893, as Matilda Clarke, she married William Lark, a poulterer. She gave her age as 39, her status as widow, and named her father as Charles Clarke, deceased, a farrier.
We have not been able to find an earlier marriage for her.
Later censuses
In 1901, William and Matilda were living in a room at 41 Lucey Road in Bermondsey; and in 1911 they had a room at 21 Ambrose Street. Matilda herself completed the household return in 1911, and declared her age correctly as 60 years old.
Insanity
Five months after the 1911 census, in September, the medical officer at Lambeth infirmary certified Matilda to be of unsound mind:
“She told me that her mother was dead, and then she asked if I was going to see her today. She talks incoherently, does not know her age or where she lives”
“Amy Hopkins, nurse at Parish Street workhouse tells me that Patient says she hears voices and sees imaginary people and talks to them, also swears very much.”
She had been admitted to Parish Street workhouse as Minnie Lark, aged 63, and the lunatic reception order was initially made out in that name, before “Minnie” was altered to “Matilda”.
Her mental condition was ascribed to alcoholism.
Matilda in 1911 (AI restored)
Matilda was admitted to Manor asylum on 27 September 1911. She died there on the morning of 14 February 1913, from cancer of the oesophagus.
Visitors
The Manor address book lists several names and addresses of people who came down to Epsom to visit Matilda. Husband William visited twice before he his death in early 1912. There were occasional visits from friends (Mrs Cardy and Miss Webb) and there were several visits from relatives that we could not identify at first. None of them were at their listed address in the 1911 census. The relatives were:
- “Mrs Sales” a sister, from Bermondsey, who also attended Matilda’s funeral
- “Mrs S Robertson” a niece with addresses in Brockley and Bermondsey
- “Mr H Sale” a nephew
- “William Sale” a nephew
Luckily for the researcher, there was only one Mrs S Robertson in Brockley in 1911. This was Susan Robertson (nee Dennis), and she had an aunt, Susan Sale, staying with her at the time. Susan Dennis was the daughter of Matilda’s older sister Sarah Clark, who had married twice: firstly to William Byford in Matching in 1856, and then to Alfred Dennis in 1871. Matilda had been a witness at the 1871 marriage.
“Mrs Sales” was another older sister: Susan Clark had also married twice: first to Henry Daines in Matching in 1876, and then to Frederick Sale in 1882.