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b.c1828–d.1902
Background
Margaret was born c1828 in the St James Westminster area to Patrick Allen. No baptism record or 1841 Census return have been found to establish who Margaret’s mother was.
In 1850, Margaret was aged 22 when she gave birth somewhere in London to her daughter Harriet. Unfortunately, their whereabouts in 1851 is unknown.
1861 Census
When the 1861 census was taken, Margaret appeared as the ‘wife of William Tibbs’. Eleven-year-old Harriet was recorded as a ‘daughter’ but the name Tibbs was not dittoed after her name. William was working as a porter at the time, and the family address was recorded as Ham Yard, St James Westminster, Middlesex. Ham Yard derived its name from “The Ham”, an early 18th-century public house. The area suffered extensive WW2 bomb damage, and the land became desolate for decades before being rebuilt on.
I have not found any further records for Margaret’s daughter Harriet.
Marriage
Margaret and William both gave Chapel Court as their address when they married the following year on 23rd July in St Mary Le Strand Church, Westminster. William was recorded as being a widower, and the son of Jacob Tibbs, also a porter. Margaret, who signed the register with a cross as her signature, was recorded as a spinster, and the daughter of Patrick Allen, a costermonger. Witnesses to their marriage were Felix and Sarah Ray, a couple that had been neighbours to the Tibbs family in the 1841 census.
A second marriage
At some point unknown, William died (or had disappeared) as on 13th March 1865, Margaret declared herself a widow when she married James Flannery in St Giles in the Fields, Holborn. James, a bachelor, was living at 26 Great St Andrews Street, Seven Dials, Holborn. Both he and his Irish father, Patrick Flannery, worked as labourers. Margaret, who again signed the register with a cross as her signature, was living at 4 Great St Andrews Street and recorded that her father, Patrick Allen, was now a labourer. Their witnesses were M. Baylin and John Thornbury.
Two tragic deaths
Margaret and James’ two daughters were both born in their home at 42 Ham Yard, St James Westminster. Bridget was born on 13th December 1866, followed by her sister Margaret on 8th September 1867. Sadly, Bridget died in 1869 when she was three years old.
The 1871 census recorded that Margaret aged 43, James aged 48, and Margaret aged 4, had moved to number 16 Ham Yard, St James, Westminster. James’ occupation was noted as being a bricklayers’ labourer.
On 7th October 1880, their daughter Margaret was only aged 13 when she died at 15 Great Ormond Yard, Queen Square, London from a ‘cerebral abscess asthenia’. This was a pus-filled swelling in the brain, a life-threatening condition usually caused by an infection or a severe head injury. Great Ormond Yard was situated just south of Great Ormond Street, directly opposite the entrance to the Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Whether number 15 had any connection to the hospital is unclear. Great Ormond Yard’s other claim to fame was that it was where textile designer, poet, and artist William Morris opened his workshop between 1875 – 1881, and where he produced his first woven fabric named Willow.
Having lost two, possibly three, young children must have had a devastating effect on the couple, especially when asked by the 1881 census enumerator for their family details. Lodging in their home at number 16 Ham Yard, which also housed four other families, were Irish widows Margaret Laney, a flower hawker, and Mary Meany a laundress and charwoman.
Widowhood – and the workhouse
Margaret’s husband James was aged 60 when he died on 17th February 1883 at 7 Angel Court. His brother John, of 3 Tylers Court, St James Westminster, was present at his death.
Where Margaret went to between after her husband’s death and her discharge from the Westminster Union Workhouse on 14th March 1901 is unknown. She was readmitted there four days later where it was recorded that she was a Roman Catholic. She was still there when the census was taken on the evening of 31st March 1901. The census recorded that she was a widowed pauper inmate, and that she was an independent ‘Oyster and Fruit Stall Keeper’.
Death in Horton
Margaret was discharged from the workhouse into the care of Horton Asylum in Epsom, Surrey, on 8th September 1902, where she died from chronic renal disease a few weeks later on 7th October 1902. Her death certificate states that she was the “Widow of unknown Flannery of Westminster Workhouse“.
Margaret’s body was buried on 13th October in grave 60 in Horton Estate Cemetery, Epsom.
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