In which we explore another unusual marital relationship (or not) and the parentage of several children, this time of Henry Apsley Pellatt, son of Henry Pellatt and his wife Mary Backler. It all centres around one of the houses above, in Roupell Street, near Waterloo Station in London.

A distraction:  I was meant to be exploring the life and times of my 3x great grandfather, Samuel Backler (1784-1870).  Once before I was diverted from the chronological account of my Backler ancestors by the story of Thomas Meriton Pellatt – or Sargeant, at https://backlers.com/2014/11/06/thomas-meriton-pellatt-or-sargeant-who-is-the-father/   Thomas was the son of Samuel Backler’s oldest daughter, Mary Backler, and her husband Henry Pellatt – or was he?  I described my suspicions in the blog post.

Now, in thinking about Samuel’s bankruptcy in 1831, the topic of a recent post, I have come across some interesting stuff about another of Mary and Henry’s sons – Henry Apsley Pellatt (c. 1835-1905).  I cannot resist writing this all up while it is fresh in my mind.  It illustrates how powerful is the new General Register Office facility to search for births after 1837 by mother’s maiden name.

My curiosity was piqued by my inability to find any record of the birth of Henry Apsley Pellatt’s four children, who appeared as follows in the 1861 Census:

In the Borough of Marylebone, Parish of Old Pancras, 1 Tavistock Square:

• Henry A Pellatt, Head, married, 26. Proprietor of Boarding Establishment.  Born Middx London
• Mary Pellatt, Wife, Married, 32. Born Middx. London
• Mary Ann Pellatt, Daur, Unmarried. 6.  Born Surrey N.K. [registration district not known]
• Jessy Pellatt, daur, unmarried, 3. Born Surrey N.K.
• Henry A Pellatt, son, unmarried, 1. Born Surrey N.K.
• Willm M Pellatt, son, 5 days. Born Middx St Pancras

Additionally were a Nurse, a Waiter, and three other servants, as well as two other families.

In retrospect, I could have wondered why the birthplace of the three older children was ‘not known’, in the County of Surrey.  Why didn’t the parents have this information to hand?

The 1871 Census showed the family far from London, in Hanley, Stoke upon Trent, Staffordshire, at 10 Windmill Terrace:

• Henry A Pellatt, Head, married, 37. Commercial Traveller. Born [inexplicably] in Richmond, Yorkshire.
• Mary Pellatt, Wife, married, 43.  Born Middlesex, London.
• Henry A Pellatt, Son, 11. Born Surrey, Kennington.
• Mary A Pellatt, Daur, 16. Born Surrey, Camberwell.
• Jessy Pellatt, Daur, 13. Born Surrey, Camberwell.
• William H Phillips, Boarder, unmarried, 30, Banker’s Clerk. Born Staffs Leigh.
• Ann Kelly, Servant, unmarried, 19. Born Staffs, Stone.

By 1881 the family were, at best, difficult to trace.

• Young Henry Apsley Pellatt and Jessy Pellatt had died.
• Father Henry Apsley Pellatt is next sighted in Australia, on the occasion of his marriage in 1885.
• Mother Mary (nee Tull, see below) Pellatt is, I think, found as a Lodger, Music Teacher, married, age 52, born Middx St Georges in the East, in the home of Albert and Elizabeth Paul and their family, at 74 Daneville Road, Camberwell.
• Young Mary Ann (born 1854) is not to be seen until her marriage on 21 July 1885 to 48 year old Widower, Frederick Martin Howard, Publican, of Camberwell New Road.  Mary Ann is shown as ‘27’ [this is a bit out…], spinster, father Henry Apsley Pellatt, Farmer [presumably, by this time, a farmer in Australia].  Witnesses were Mary Ann’s uncle William Cowper Pellatt and his wife Eliza Ann.  I cannot find anything more about this couple, anywhere!

No birth registrations surname Pellatt:  I could find no birth registrations for the children of Henry Apsley Pellatt and his wife Mary.  I tried FreeBMD, Ancestry, findmypast and the GRO newly-released digitised indexes, all to no avail.  But these children had to be somewhere.

I decided to search just on ‘Henry Apsley’ – no surname.  This search turned up a Henry Apsley Pellatt Middleton, birth registered in Sep quarter 1859, Newington 1d  203. A search for this person on the GRO birth search showed the mother’s maiden name as TULL.  The actual certificate shows that he was born on 8 July 1859, at 15 Allen’s Terrace, Lorrimore Road, Walworth.  The father was shown as John Middleton, the Mother as Mary Middleton, formerly TULL.  She registered the birth, as of the above address, on 19 August 1859.

Searches on the names ‘Mary Ann’, ‘Jessy’, and ‘William M’ revealed that all appeared under the surname ‘Middeton’, mother’s surname TULL.

‘Middleton/Tull’ births: I decided to go back to the beginning of the Middleton/Tull partnership and find all the births registered to those two names – starting with the marriage of Mary Tull to John Henry Middleton, and looking at Census records along the way.

Marriage:  On 25 June 1839 at the Parish Church of St Giles Camberwell in the County of Surrey, John Henry Middleton,  of full age, Bachelor, married Mary Tull, spinster, possibly also of full age (although this is written only once under the ‘age’ column).  He was of Orchard Row, a Slater, and his father Jno Middleton was also a Slater.  She was of Portland Row, her father Jno Tull also a Slater.  The couple both signed the register, as did their witnesses, John Middleton and Elizabeth Middleton [his parents?].

1841 Census:  The 1841 Census finds this couple in Mile End:

John (20) Slater and Mary (15).  Were they really of full age when they married two years previously?

Now for a search on Births registered, using the new GRO indexes:

• John Charles Middleton (mother’s maiden surname: TULL) Mar 1843 Stepney 02 496
• Henry William Middleton (TULL) Dec 1849 Lambeth 04 319
  • Death: Henry William Middleton Dec 1849 Lambeth 04 243
• Harriet Hannah Middleton (TULL) Sep 1851 Lambeth 04 329
• Mary Ann Middleton (TULL) Sep 1854 Camberwell 1D 438
•  Eliza Middleton (TULL) Mar 1856 Lambeth 1D 244
  • I believe Eliza’s death may have been registered as Eliza Pellatt, ‘11’ (I am told the GRO register list sometimes lists the figure which should be months, as years…) in 1857 MAR qtr, Newington, 1D 153.  The Newington location would match with the registration of Jessy’ s birth, below.
• Jessy Middleton (TULL) Sep 1857 Newington 1d 194
  • Death: Jessy Pellatt: SEP 1872. Lambeth 1D 291
• Henry Apsley Pellatt Middleton (TULL) Sep 1859 Newington 1d 203
  • Death: Henry Apsley Pellatt MAR 1876 Hackney 1b 331
• William Mill Pellatt Middleton (TULL) Jun 1861 Pancras 01B 43
  • Death: William Mill Pellatt:  Jun 1861 Pancras 01B 29
• Florence Pellatt Middleton (TULL) Dec 1862 Kensington 01A 9
  • Death: Florence Pellatt Dec 1862 Kensington 1a 13

And finally – giving the game away, with the Pellatt surname …

•  Frederick William Pellatt (TULL) Mar 1864 Brighton 02B 186
  • Death:  MAR 1867 Marylebone 1A 388

Eureka – the 1851 Census reveals all:  It was only latterly that I thought to check out the Middletons in the 1851 Census.  Lo and behold, there they were in the household of my many times great aunt Mary Backler and her husband Henry Pellatt, the very same couple whose relationship had troubled me when I was looking into the parentage of their [supposed, presumed, or actual] son Thomas Meriton Pellatt, later Sargeant.

The picture at the start of this post is of the houses on Roupell Street, which are in a conservation area and remain largely unchanged today.  They were built between about 1825 and 1835, and were intended as artisans’ conttages – an interesting choice for the fairly large family of lawyer Henry Pellatt AND the Middletons!

Residing at 66 Roupell Street, very near the later-built Waterloo Station, were:

• Henry Pellatt, Head, married, 55. Solicitor.  Born Surrey Peckham
• Mary Pellatt, Wife, married, 38. Born Middlesex Islington.
• Henry [Apsley] Pellatt, Son, 16, unmarried, Clerk.  Born Middlesex Islington.
• Victoria Pellatt, Daughter, unmarried, 14. Born Middlesex Holborn.
• William Pellatt, Son, 8, unmarried, Born Middx Shepherd’s Bush.

At the same address, separate household:

• John Middleton, Head, married, 32. Slater. Journeyman. Born Hartford [sic] Hertfordshire
• Mary [nee TULL] Middleton, Wife, Married, 28. Born Middx. St George.
• John Middleton, Son, 8, Scholar, Born Middx St George.

Well, well.  It looks as if Mary (Tull) Middleton was due to set up a liaison with Henry Apsley Pellatt, 12 years her junior, the first child of this union to be Mary Ann Middleton [mother surname Tull], born in 1854 and to appear from 1861 as Mary Ann Pellatt in the household of Henry Apsley Pellatt and his supposed wife Mary.

I cannot find anything other than the birth record for ‘Eliza Middleton’, born 1856, but I feel fairly sure her death was recorded as Eliza Pellatt in 1857 MAR quarter, as described above.

Further children clearly (well, presumably) attributable to Henry Apsley Pellatt though registered under the Middleton surname, are

• Jessy (1857-1872);
• Henry Apsley (1859-1876);
• William Mill (1861-1861);
• Florence (1862-1862); and, the only child registered as ‘Pellatt’:
• Frederick William (1864-1867).

A marriage for Henry Apsley Pellatt and Mary Ann Tull?  This marriage cannot be found, but something changed to enable baptism of four of the children in 1867:

• little Frederick William, on 18 February 1867, when he was three years old and just before his death;
• Jessy and Henry Apsley on 16 November 1867, at St Marylebone.
• Mary Ann on 30 November 1867 in St Marylebone

Henry Apsley Pellatt in Australia: The marriage of Henry Apsley Pellatt to Elizabeth Skinner was registered in Victoria, Australia, in 1885.  He died in September 1905, and is buried at St Kilda Cemetery, Victoria Australia.

What happened to Mary (nee Tull) Middleton Pellatt?  I believe, as stated above, that she appears in the 1881 census as a music teacher.  After that I can find no further census records anywhere, nor marriage, nor death.  Hmm….

What of the supposed half siblings, the children of John Henry Middleton and Mary Tull?

• John Charles Middleton (Mother maiden surname TULL) Mar 1843 Stepney 02 496
  • He married Mary Ann Molland and died in 1936. He worked in the foreign office, after being recorded as a drummer boy in his youth (1861 Census), perhaps reflecting the fact that his mother was a music teacher.
• Henry William Middleton (TULL) Dec 1849 Lambeth 04 319
  • Death: Henry William Middleton Dec 1849 Lambeth 04 243
• Harriet Hannah Middleton (TULL) Sep 1851 Lambeth 04 329
  • Harriet Hannah appears to have had a relationship similar to that of her mother.  She took up at some point with George Hagley, Lighterman, with whom she had several children, whose births were registered under the surname of Middleton, with no Mother’s maiden name given, indicating that the births were illegitimate.
  • Like the children of Henry Apsley Pellatt and Mary Tull, some of these children were baptised long after they were born.  No marriage is in evidence for Harriet and George.  For the record, the children were (registered with no mother’s maiden name shown):
    • George Hagley Middleton Sep 1871 Lambeth 1d 292
      • Death: Sep 1871 Lambeth 1d 212
    • Kate Hagley Middleton. SEP 1872, Lambeth 1D 347.
    • [twin] Edith Hagley Middleton SEP 1874 Lambeth 1d 337
      • Death: SEP 1874 Lambeth 1D 200
    • [twin] George Hagley Middleton SEP 1874 Lambeth 1d 337
      • Death: JUN 1884 Woolwich 1d 694
    • Arthur Hagley Middleton JUN 1876 Lambeth 1D 358
      • Death: SEP 1876 Lambeth 1D 205

And then, something changed, perhaps the death of George Hagley’s first wife, to allow the final two births to be registered under the surname Hagley, with mother’s maiden name now shown as Middleton.

• James John Hagley  DEC 1878  Lambeth 1d 349.  Mother’s surname Middleton
  • Bap. 24 April 1891, Birth shown as 28 August 1878.  Parents George (Lighterman) and Harriet, 48 York Road.
• Harry Joseph Hagley DEC 1884 Lambeth 1d 361
  • Death: DEC 1884 Lambeth 1d 214

The 1881 Census shows at 48 York Road, Lambeth: George Hagley, 52, married, Lighterman living with Harriet, wife, 29 and three children, Kate, 9; George 7; and James, 3.

In 1891 the couple are at the same address, with children Kate and James, and George’s widowed sister Jane Sharpe, age 65.

George died early in 1901, so in the 1901 Census, Harriet Hagley was a 51 year old widow, a boarder at 4 Vidal Road, Tulse Hill, Reg district of Lambeth.  She died in 1909 at the Constance Road Workhouse in the parish of St Giles Camberwell.  She had many descendants, who can be seen on an Ancestry family tree.  I can pass on  the relevant information to anyone wanting more information.

Alas…no blood relations for me… As so often seems to happen with my family, some of my best record discoveries are of folk who are no blood relation to me!  These various Middleton/Hagley folk acquire some new Pellatt half-siblings and half aunts and uncles, some of whom will have some Backler and Pellatt ancestors.  But in fact, since all the Middleton/Pellatt children seem to have died in childhood or infancy, this may not make a lot of difference.