1
0
b.1856-d.1910
Henry Bremmicombe’s birth was registered in the Jan-Feb-Mar quarter of 1856 and his baptism record gives his date of birth as 17th January.
He was baptised along with his older brother William James who was born 6th September 1853, the second child of this name, the first having been born and died in the same year, a year earlier.
Parents and Family
His father John Edward Brimmicombe was born approx. 1826 and baptised in St Clement Danes Church, Westminster in London. His mother, Anne Clarke, was born approx. 1833 in Lambeth, London. There is no record of how they met but they married on 25th February at St John the Evangelist, Westminster, in the City of London which I believe was John’s parish. John’s rank or profession on his marriage was given as carver and gilder, as was his father before him. Anne has no occupation listed and her father’s occupation was listed as a painter and glazier. Both of these were skilled occupations.
Their first born and Henry’s eldest brother was John Edward born 5th January 1851, then came two boys named William James. Next was Henry, then Francis in 1859, Frederick Thomas in 1860 and lastly a daughter Anne in 1863.
1856 – 1891
Henry first appears on the 1861 census with his parents and brothers at 3 Little Thomas Street, Lambeth. They have the property to themselves. The neighbouring Isabella Street is noted as purple which denotes, ‘mixed, some comfortable others poor’ twenty years later on Charles Booth’s Poverty Maps of London. These maps are descriptive of London Poverty and perhaps the most recognised product of Charles Booth’s Inquiry into Labour in London (1886-1903). An early example of social cartography, each street is coloured to indicate the income and social class of its inhabitants.
In 1871 Henry is living with his mother Anne who is now a widow, his father having died in 1863, and his brothers and sister at 38 New Street, Lambeth. The family’s fortunes have clearly changed as they are now sharing the house with two other families. New Street is just off of Short Street and Mitre Street in St Thomas Parish. Charles Booth’s maps have coloured this light blue, denoted as ‘poor, 18s. to 21s. a week for a moderate family’.
In Henry’s admission papers to Horton Asylum, he stated he had been in prison and there is a record of him being sentenced to 21 days for stealing eleven skins in February 1873. Aged just fifteen he was found guilty and sent to Wandsworth prison. Historical records from the time suggests that the sentence would mean a flogging as well as the harsh conditions. This would have been the adult prison as there were no separate facilities for children, and of course he would not have been considered a child in 1871 as he was already working and expected to bring an income into the household.
By 1881 both his older brothers John and William have left home. John had married Mary Ann Corne in 1872 at St Martins in the Fields, London. They are now living nearby in Isabella Street Lambeth, with their son John Edward. William is a lodger with an Edmonds family in Frances Street, Lambeth in the 1881 census. Henry is living with his mother Anne and his younger brother Frederick and sister Anne at the same address as in 1871.
His younger brother Francis married Sarah Wright on Christmas Day 1880, a common wedding date when the working week was six and a half days and there were few official holiday days – just four holiday days a year for workers: Good Friday, May Day on the 1st May, All Saints Day on the 1st November, and Christmas Day. Extra days called Bank holidays, were introduced by the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, which designated holidays in England on Easter Monday, the first Monday in August, the 26th December and New Year’s Day.
In the 1891 census the family consists of his mother Anne, Henry, and William. Both sons are still single. They are still living in Lambeth at 8 Webber Street but now sharing with three other families and sadly the area around Webber Street is designated Dark Blue, ‘Very poor, casual. Chronic want’ and Black which is ‘Lowest class. Vicious, semi-criminal’ on Charles Booth’s maps. Ann does not have an occupation listed. Henry is a general labourer and William a carman. A few years later, in 1895 Henry’s mother dies aged sixty-four.
The family from 1901.
On the 1901 census Henry was living with his brother William at 39, Caffyn Street, Lambeth, London. Their surname appears as Brimmer, a name used at various times by members of the family.
We do not have information on where Henry was living from the 1901 census until he was admitted to Lambeth Infirmary. I have not found any workhouse or infirmary records for this but his Horton Asylum case notes state he was admitted from Lambeth Infirmary, his symptoms had begun one month earlier and the diagnosis was for epilepsy. He was transferred to the asylum on 14th February 1908.
His next of kin was given as his brother Frank, which would be his younger brother Francis.
In spite of the epilepsy diagnoses on the admittance form, notes under the heading ‘facts indicating insanity’ state that “he screams for long periods of time without apparent cause and viciously resents any interference. He frequently calls out, “God help me” and says he has heard the other patients plotting to throw him in the river.”
In notes from Ethal Green dated 8th of February 1908, a Lambeth Infirmary Nurse states “he is very noisy and swears for long periods of time at the other patients under delusions that they are talking against him and plotting to injure.”
There are also detailed notes of his physical state and appearance and of the shape and size of his skull and facial features. This was at a time when a revival of interest in phrenology occurred, a pseudoscience that involved the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits. Another question on the notes was about the genital system under which interestingly he states, he had a sore some twenty years ago, quite pertinent as his death certificate records his cause of death as General Paralysis of the Insane as well as Chronic Nephritis. Although recognised for many years there was no reliable treatment for syphilis as penicillin was not developed or introduced until 1940.
Henry died 15th January 1910, and his death was registered in Croydon in 1911.
Of his brothers and sister, his eldest brother John and his wife Mary appear on a Poor Law Removal and Settlement order dated 16 Nov 1900 made against John that they be removed from the charge of Shoreditch Union. Mary is listed as being in the Infirmary. John then appears in the City Road Workhouse, St Luke´s Workhouses Register, showing his admittance and discharge to Mitcham. His death is recorded in Wandsworth in 1927.
William was admitted to Southwark Workhouse on 19th October 1909 and was recorded as dying there aged sixty-one the next day.
Francis was living with his wife Elizabeth and children in Southwark until his death in 1914. It was Francis who is listed as Henry’s next of kin.
Frederick Thomas died from tuberculosis and pneumonia in April 1901 and his youngest child John Richard died in June 1901, also from tuberculosis. He was just four years old. His wife Anne signed both certificates with her mark X and it must have been a difficult time for her. Anne and their remaining children, who were all single, emigrated to Canada arriving there in April 1907. They all went on to marry and have children. Anne lived with her daughter’s family and died on 27th May 1939.
Henry’s youngest sister Anne married Richard Walters in 1888 and they settled in Lambeth in London and had two children. She died aged 43 in 1907.
Until I sent for Henry’s death certificate I wondered if the gradual loss of his family, his brother’s family emigrating and especially William and his sister Anne’s death, both of whom he had lived with as adults, was a factor in his illness and death, though it is difficult to know if he had visitors or how much he knew of life outside of the asylum.
I also find it difficult to reconcile the photograph of Henry presumably taken on his admittance to Horton with the asylum records as in spite of what must have been a hard life, I think he looks he looks quite gentle and a friendly, sympathetic soul and is that a twinkle in his eye?
Notes:
https://booth.lse.ac.uk/map/17/-0.1021/51.5047/100/0?marker=530737,179056
https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/extras/bankholidays.pdf
https://www.workhouses.org.uk/Lambeth/
