Frances Backler (1779 – 1833)

18. Backler sisters at Geffrye’s Almshouses

Hannah and Sarah Ann Backler:
Half-sisters who lived in Sir Robert Geffrye’s Almshouses

Geffrye Feb 2012

The 1851 Census shows half-sisters Hannah [aka Anna] and Sarah Ann BACKLER living in Kingsland Road Ironmongers’ Almshouses. They were two unmarried daughters of the 14 children of Sotherton BACKLER (1746-1819), who had been Clerk to the Society of Apothecaries.

Hannah BACKLER, daughter of Sotherton BACKLER and Frances nee HARRIS: Hannah was christened on 11 June 1780 at St Ann’s Blackfriars, on the same day as her brother John (see previous blogs for his story and those of is children). Given the christening dates of the previous two children, Sotherton (1778-1786) and Frances (1779-1833) and the marriage date of Sotherton and his first wife Frances HARRIS on 11 February 1777, it seems likely that Hannah and John were twins.

Sotherton and Frances were married at St Mary’s Stoke Newington. Witnesses were Hannah HARRIS [mother? sister?], John FREEMAN (most likely husband to Sotherton’s sister Ann, who married a John FREEMAN in 1770), and Nathaniel JENNINGS. Frances (Harris) Backler presumably died around the time of, or just after Hannah and John’s christening date. I have not succeeded in finding anything about Frances’ origins, nor a date for her death or burial.  I also have no further information about the other two children of this marriage, Sotherton and Frances (who was buried at Bunhill Fields in 1833).

Sarah Ann BACKLER, daughter of Sotherton BACKLER and Hannah nee OSBORNE: Sotherton married his second wife, Hannah OSBORNE, in Bocking, Essex in 1782. (I have not seen the record itself, and so I do not know the name of Hannah’s father, which I suspect could be Thomas Osborne (July 1796 – November 1796) – the name of one of Sotherton and Hannah’s several short-lived children.) Together they had 9 children, the first-born being Sarah Ann, christened on 10 August 1783 at St Mary’s Stoke Newington, as was her next sibling, my 3x g. grandfather Samuel BACKLER, on 18 August 1784. All the subsequent children were christened at St Ann Blackfriars, neighbourhood church to the Society of Apothecaries.

Two daughters married:

  • Mary (1791- 1860) to John James Joseph SUDLOW, a lawyer. They had very many children and descendants and will feature in a future blog.
  • Jane Ozella  (1795 – 1830) to Daniel BURTON, who re-married after Jane’s death and the birth of their child, Sarah Ann BURTON (1828-1916). Their tree can be seen here:  Jane Ozella family tree

The Geffrye almshouses – for the elderly poor:  Sir Robert Geffrye was a prosperous merchant of humble origins. He was twice Master of the Ironmongers Company, and in 1685 became Lord Mayor of London. Among his many legacies to charitable causes, he bequeathed a substantial sum to the Ironmongers Company for the building and maintenance of almshouses. A plot was found on Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, where the buildings, finished in 1715, now stand as the Geffrye Museum. [1]

So what else is known of Hannah and Sarah Ann? Precious little! With luck there could be some information about them in the records of the Ironmongers’ Company, which I have not yet managed to access. Sarah Ann’s mother Hannah (Osborne) died in 1803, when Sarah would have been about 20 and Hannah just a bit older. Did these two young women (and their sister Frances, who died in 1833) remain at home with their father, in particular to look after their much younger siblings? (Their youngest brother Sotherton was born only in 1798 – much more about him in a future blog.)

Death of their father, Sotherton BACKLER: I have already described in a previous blog how, at the time of Lord Nelson’s funeral in January 1806, their father Sotherton had just been appointed Clerk to the Apothecaries, having been acting Clerk for some time. It is possible that he was on the Society’s barge in the funeral procession from Greenwich to Westminster, but in any case, the three young women would surely have viewed the funeral procession as it made its way to St Paul’s, as well as the procession of barges along the river.

Their father Sotherton died intestate in 1819. Administration was granted to his oldest surviving son, John Backler (as noted above, possibly Hannah’s twin), and on 26 October 1819 the Minutes of the Court of Assistants of the Society record a letter from Mr. John Backler, son of the late Sotherton, requesting that the sum of £50 be granted to Frances and Anna [sic] Backler, Sotherton’s daughters. This was duly agreed, and letters of thanks from the recipients were recorded at the Court of Assistants on 21 December 1819, after which there is no further mention of the daughters in the records of the Society. The oldest daughter Frances (who died in 1833) does not appear to have needed this extra sum.  I wonder why.

Census returns for Hannah and Sarah Ann: The 1841 Census shows that Hannah, age 60, was living at the Geffrye almshouses. I cannot find a record of Sarah Ann in 1841, but both are shown in residence in 1851 at Jeffries’ Alms [sic], both ‘Almswoman’, Sarah A, 67, at number 5, and Hannah, 71, at number 14, the house which has recently been restored to show how the residents might have lived, in the 1780s and 1880s. The picture here shows the interior as it could have been in the 1880s.

14 Geffrye 2 Hannah Backler 1851

Sarah Ann’s death was registered in 1857, but Anna [sic] Backler appears in the 1861 Census, aged 82, shown as ‘formerly Companion’. This time the house is not numbered on the census return, which helpfully indicates the former status of residents, many shown as ‘widow of …. [citing their late husband’s occupation]’. Hannah’s death was registered at the GRO in 1870, presumably while she was still resident.

Family connections with the Ironmongers – introducing the Pellatts: There was a family connection by marriage to the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers. Hannah’s half-brother, and Sarah Ann’s brother Samuel BACKLER married in 1810 to Mary PELLATT, oldest of the 15 children of Apsley PELLATT (1763-1826), a well-known glassmaker with his son, also Apsley, who later became a member of Parliament. Mary’s grandfather Apsley PELLATT (1735-1798) was Master to the Ironmongers in 1789; his son Apsley (Mary’s father) was a member of the Ironmongers, and another son Thomas was clerk to the Ironmongers. Whether this family connection had anything to do with Hannah and Sarah Ann ending their days in the Ironmonger’s almshouses remains to be discovered.

[1] For much more detail about the history of the Almshouses, see ‘A History of the Geffrye Almshouses’ by Kathy Haslam, published by the Geffrye Museum – no date.

12. Sotherton Backler (1746-1819) – the last years

In which we consider events at the Society of Apothecaries during Sotherton’s reign as Clerk, and record his demise in 1819.

Sotherton Backler was elected Clerk to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries on 15 January 1806, just days after the funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson (see previous blog).  In this role he administered the workings of the Society, in particular recording proceedings in his immaculate hand in the Minute Books of the Court of Assistants.  His years as Clerk were to be of great importance for the Society.

The history of apothecaries as a trade or profession was long one of rivalry between different types of practitioner, ranging from physicians and surgeons to chemists and druggists, and from tradesmen to medical practitioners.  The rivalry with the Physicians was resolved at least in law by the case of apothecary William Rose in 1704. The House of Lords over-ruled his conviction for treating a butcher name Searle. This established the right of apothecaries to practice medicine, and changed the role of the Society from one of subservience to the physicians to a more complicated multi-purpose function of both professional and trade regulation, as well as trading in its own right.  This dual nature was to persist right through to the Apothecaries Act of 1815.

sotherton backler TIMES 1815 soc apothIn the period leading up to the passage of the Act, Sotherton, among others, was engaged in considerable negotiation and lobbying. The Society, initially reluctant to accept change, in the end took on the role of formalising a curriculum and overseeing examinations which, along with apprenticeship, attendance at lectures on such topics as anatomy and physiology, and other matters, led to the Licentiateship of the Society of Apothecaries, precursor to what we now know as General Practice.  (The extract right from The Times of 21 July 1815, announces the changes which the Act brought.) At the same time, chemists and druggists, who during the latter part of the 18th century had begun to usurp the dispensing role of apothecaries, began to formalise their own training and qualifications, resulting in the establishment of the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain in 1841.

Despite the formalising of apothecaries’ education and training, a sore point remained their inability to charge for medical advice or attendance – a hangover from earlier days of dispute with the physicians.  Apothecaries could only charge for medicines, until a court case in around 1830 ruled that they could also charge for visits and medical advice, thus reducing their previous tendency to over-prescribe medicines in order to cover their costs for practising, in effect, as general practitioners.

The Society’s records yield evidence that Sotherton Backler lived at Apothecaries Hall during at least part of his tenure as Clerk.  His wife Hannah had died in April 1803, leaving Sotherton with a large number of surviving children presumably still at home.  It seems likely that some of the older siblings would have taken charge of the household and care of the family.  On 20 March 1807 the Society was in receipt of a letter from the Secretary of the London Bridge Water Works, revealing the discovery by the Collector of the Water Rents that there might be a supply to Apothecaries’ Hall over and above that already known, ‘to the Dwelling House of Mr. Backler, for which he [the rent collector] has received an Annual Payment of £1-8-0…’  The letter asserted that additional water was now found to be supplied to ‘a large Back and two Cisterns’, estimated value of £10 a year.  The Board suggested a payment of £200 to cover arrears of water supply for an unknown period!  However, by May, it had been decided on further examination that there was no service of water other than to Mr Backler’s house, and there the matter rested, useful indeed in our ascertaining Sotherton Backler’s residence at least at that time.

And so his duties – and presumably residence – continued until 0n 23 August 1816, Sotherton Backler ‘resigned his situation as Clerk to the Society, but was requested by the Court to continue in it until a proper person is chosen in his room…’  By the 30th of October, this had been achieved, and ‘it was resolved that the Thanks of this Court be given to Mr Sotherton Backler, for his faithful and diligent discharge of the Duties of Clerk of this Society for many years past, and as a small testimony of their perfect approbation of his services, he be presented with a piece of Plate of the value of Fifty Guineas.’

rubbing 18 June 2012Hannah and Sotherton Backler and Mary SudlowIt is presumed that Sotherton then ceased residence at the Society.  On 7 January 1817, the Court Minutes noted a payment to S. Backler for coals, of £9 – 14s – 0d.

Sotherton died on 12 September 1819 in Kentish Town, and is buried with his wife Hannah and grand daughter Mary Sudlow at Bunhill Fields Burial Ground. The death duty registers show that he died intestate – unfortunately for family historians.  (Death Duty Register IR27. Register October 1819, p. 10 Ref: Vol 2, Folio 392.  IR27_28_018[1]) Administration was to his oldest son by his first marriage, about whom we will hear in later blogs: John Backler, 19 Golden Square, Westminster.

A touching endnote was the application by John to the Court of Assistants on the 26th of October 1819, ‘soliciting the Benevolence [of the Court] in favor of two daughters of the late Mr Backler and the same having been read and taken into consideration, Resolved that the sum of Fifty Pounds be given to Frances Backler [1779-1833] and Anna [Hannah] Backler [1780-1870], daughters of the late Mr. Sotherton Backler in equal shares between them.  On 21 December 1819, the Court Minutes note that letters of thanks were received from both daughters and John Backler.

And there ends the direct association of the Backler family with the Society of Apothecaries.  In subsequent blogs we will first trace the life and times of the two apothecary sons of Sotherton – the above-named John Backler, and his half-brother (my 3x great grandfather), Samuel Backler. We will then look at other descendants of Sotherton Backler.

9. The Family of Sotherton Backler 1746-1819 with his wives Frances Harris and Hannah Osborne

I which I set out the families of Sotherton Backler with his first wife, Frances Harris and his second wife, Hannah Osborne.  I know little about the wives, but quite a bit about their offspring!  The story becomes quite complicated for some of them, so I sketch just a very brief outline here. Later blogs will follow the different families in turn.  I will look at my 3x great grandfather Samuel Backler and his descendants after I have covered all the others.  But in my next blog I will trace what is known of the career of Sotherton Backler, Clerk to the Society of Apothecaries.  His period of office spanned (just) the funeral of Admiral Lord Nelson, and the Apothecaries Act of 1815m a very important landmark in the regulation of the medical profession.

IMG_3340 (2)

Sotherton Backler, Clerk to the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, married twice, first to Frances Harris on 11 February 1777, at St Mary’s Stoke Newington (the old St Mary’s, pictured).  Witnesses were Hannah Harris, John Freeman and Nathl Jennings.  John Freeman was most likely Sotherton’s brother in law, married in 1770 to his sister Ann.

Four children of Sotherton and Frances Harris

Sotherton and Frances had four children:

Sotherton Backler (1778 – 1786).  Nine year old Sotherton was buried at St Andrew by the Wardrobe, the companion church to St Ann Blackfriars, on 30 December 1786 – not a very happy Christmas for the Backler family, since this burial took place just just 14 days after the burial of Sotherton’s infant half-brother Thomas (see below).

Frances Backler (1779 – 1833).  Frances fared better than her older brother Sotherton.  She was christened on 23 May 1779 at St Ann Blackfriars, the local church for the Society of Apothecaries.  She was buried at Bunhill Fields Burial ground in October 1833, having been brought from Hampden Street, Somers Town.  Several Backlers and related families seemed to have lived in this area, which is east of Euston Station and north of Euston Road.  Hampden Street can be seen on the map through the link below.

Hannah Backler (c. 1780-1870) and John Backler (c. 1780-1846) These two were christened on 11 June 1780 at St Ann Blackfriars – were they twins?  Hannah later lived at the Jeffrye Almshouses with her half-sister Sarah Anne.  John was the first of Sotherton’s sons to become an apothecary, and will also feature in a later blog.  He and his descendants have fascinating stories to tell.

Is it possible that Frances died at or soon after the birth of the twins?  No death or burial record for her has been traced to date.

Nine children of Sotherton and Hannah Osborne

Sotherton then married Hannah Osborne (c. 1763 – 1803) on 3 October 1782, in Bocking Essex.  Could she have been the daughter of Thomas Osborne, whose signature appeared alongside Sotherton’s in the London Sessions Court document mentioned in my last blog?  So far it has not been possible to trace details about Hannah, although there are some possible leads in Bocking awaiting perusal.

Hannah and Sotherton had nine children:

Sarah Ann Backler (c.1783-1857) was the eldest, christened at St Mary Stoke Newington on 10 August 1783. Sarah Ann died in 1857 at the Jeffrye Almshouses in Shoreditch.

Samuel Backler (1784-1870) – my 3x great grandfather, also christened at St Mary Stoke Newington: a not-quite-qualified sometime apothecary, tobacconist and chemist, about whose business, bankruptcy and eventual demise we will hear about in blogs to come. Samuel married Mary Pellatt in 1810.

Thomas Backler – born and died in 1786 – christened at St Ann Blackfriars on 8 May 1786, and buried at St Andrew by the Wardrobe, 16 December 1786 – just 14 days before his older half-brother Sotherton.  Both were buried in the church.

Joseph Backler – christened January 1788, died 1848.  A famous artist in stained glass, whose son Joseph became a noted convict artist in Australia – much more about them and others of Joseph’s offspring to come. Joseph married Jane Cowie.

Elizabeth Backler – christened 25 June 1789 at St Ann Blackfriars and buried 14 May 1791 at St Andrew by the Wardrobe

Mary Backler – christened 13 April 1791 at St Ann Blackfriars. Married to John James Joseph Sudlow, Solicitor. Died in Southampton 7 March 1860

Benjamin Backler – christened 18 June 1793 – nothing further known about him

Jane Ozella Backler christened 17 February 1795. Married Daniel Burton.

Thomas Osborne Backler christened St Ann Blackfriars 3 August 1796. Buried St Andrew by the Wardrobe 2 December 1796.  Given the traditional naming patterns in this family, and the fact that there was already one son ‘Thomas’, born and died in 1786, I feel the name of ‘Thomas Osborne’ was likely that of Hannah’s father.  This remains to be proved.

Sotherton Backler christened St Ann Blackfriars 4 August 1798.  Died Blatherwycke Northamptonshire 19 November 1875.  No children but lots of information about the Rev Sotherton Backler, and his links with different branches of Backler descendants, including the family of his aunt Mary Backler, married to John James Joseph Sudlow; and the family of his half uncle John Backler, cupper, who had had to flea to Paris to avoid court dealings in around 1820.  As far as I know, his was the last use of the name ‘Sotherton Backler’.