My London ancestors chose various trades, whether making barrels, working with wood, driving coaches, or gardening for the elite. A doorway into London social history is opened up more and more as one researches into their lives.
Robert Bunney was born on 18th December 1758 (a Sagittarius) to Robert Bunney (senior) and Ann (nee Aylward). He was baptised three weeks later at the church of All Hallows the Great in central London.
Baptism in All Hallows church, London, of Robert Bunney, son of Robert and Ann Bunney
All Hallows the Great church, which had no spire nor pinnacles, gave the impression of being unfinished. It no longer exists, its location now being a fire station on Upper Thames Street.
So a little background first - Roberts family was originally from the Bermondsey-Southwark area, south of the Thames, but had relocated into central London a few years before his birth. His paternal grandparents were William Bunney, who was a coachman of Southwark, and Elizabeth Martha née White. These grandparents had married in 1724 at the church of St Mary Magdalene in Bermondsey (the very church in which Elizabeth Martha had been baptised back in 1703 on 1st November - she was born 11th October which makes her a Libra). Elizabeth Martha Whites parents, Charles White (who was a gardener and a waterman) and his wife Martha lived at Grange Lane in Bermondsey, which was on the ruins of the old priory (which still retains a few of its structures). The White family I can trace back to at least the beginning of the 1600's in this same location. Our family had much association with his medieval church which had been set up for those who worked in the abbey and lived in its precincts. Therefore Mary Magdalene would have been a long time inspiration for my family. And I have seen that other land adjacent to the priory was anciently owned by the Knights Templar's. Eleanor of Aquitaine at one time lived in the Bermondsey priory. For hundreds of years, since the 1400's, the tanneries of London were also located in this area, mostly in the vicinity of Long Lane, producing much of Britain's leather, the location being ideal for this due to Bermondsey's presence of oak trees, open spaces for animals to graze still and plentiful water.
St Mary Magdalene church from an engraving in 1776
Grange Lane, home to the White family, as portrayed by author Walter Thornbury
Baptism of Robert's granny - Elizabeth White at St Mary Magdalene church on 1st November 1703, (born October 11th) her home being the Grange, her parents being Charles and Martha White, her father being a gardener
Roberts father - Robert Bunney Senior born in 1729 to William and Elizabeth Bunney and baptised at St Mary Magdalene, Southwark
'Roberts father, Robert Bunney, was baptised at the same church of Mary Magdalene, in Bermondsey, along with his twin sister Elizabeth (who did not survive), on 1st December 1729 (both twins born on 30th November 1728). He apprenticed originally as a barber-surgeon and later as a cooper. His first apprenticeship was at the age of 13 in 1743, his tutor being Samuel Hucks, who would later teach him the skills of a cooper too, and this being so because two years into Roberts training, the barber-surgeon occupation historically ended, the 'barbers' sticking with hairdressing and shaving clients, while their former surgical aspects, as in bloodletting, dentistry and setting bones, and all other medical practices of the time, became the realm of professional doctors only, who previously had contented to maintain but an intellectual role in medical matters. Switching to training as a Cooper, Robert would have made and repaired barrels, tubs, and casks, for securely holding, amongst other products, ales and beers, which were skillfully crafted using wooden staves & hoops. The Bunneys, way back, would have originally been hot cross bun makers, always creating the sign of a cross on their buns to keep away evil, as was the old tradition. Robert the elder's wife was Ann Aylward (Aleward), whose surname would carry on as a middle name on within the family, not that they married for quite some time (and I know not why), but they had a number of children before legally tying the knot. Finally on 26th February 1764, Robert Bunney marriage to Ann Aylward. Ann Aylward, had been baptised in the same church of Mary Magdalene on 22nd February 1731 (two years after Robert Bunney was baptised there) and her parents were named as John Aleward and Amy (née Tanney), who were a family of Bermondsey, Ann's father John noted as being a carpenter, as was John's own father, William Aleward, in turn, a carpenter too. Ann already had barber-surgeons in her family, one namely being her uncle Robert Aylward, which could have been how it was that she and Robert Bunney were introduced to one another. Even her younger brother John Godson Wylward apprenticed to their uncle Robert, though by then only the barber element was he learning. At the time of Robert Bunney senior and Ann Aylward's births in Bermondsey there was still a statue of Mary Magdalene upon the church tower, but this was removed when Robert would have been four years old, in 1733, to discourage local lads from climbing upon the tower. When Robert the elder was 26 years of age, his father William Bunney (the coachman died) and its its if interest to see his burial records, these being for 13th November 1755 at the church of Mary Magdalene. William was 60 years old, note being made that he was a coachman and that he lived on The Road. The funeral expenses which altogether came to six shillings and four pennies covered a minister, sexton, clerk, grave digger, the ringing of a bell and the ground plot, .
Burial details for William Bunney, coachman, aged 60, at St Mary Magdalene Church, Bermondsey
So we have seen that one grandfather was a horse drawn coach driver and the other was a carpenter. One great grandparent was a gardener and waterman. And Roberts own father was a cooper, as would be young Roberts trade too.
Robert and Sarah Bunney's married life together began at her parents house in St John's Court in between Somerset Street and Half Moon Alley
Robert the younger grew up in central London where he came to love a teenage girl named Sarah Harbridge, seven years difference in age and rather young. When they married he was 21 and she was only 15, which was anyway fine for the times. Sarah was from the London area of Aldgate, where she lived with her family in Johns Court which was off Somerset Street. Her parents were William Harbridge and Elizabeth née Minsham. but in order to get on with the story of Robert and Sarah's life I shall write of her parents separately, albeit to say of Williams occupation I don't know what this as yet, whereas I can trace the Harbridge family fairly well in regard to where they lived, via their children's baptism records. There was a London based William Harbridge who was a coach driver so this is a possibility. He was said to have driven the Manchester Mail out of London every evening performing one hundred miles every night.
Baptism at St Botolph of Sarah Harbridge, daughter of William and Elizabeth of John's Court, Somerset Street
St Botolph in Aldgate where Sarah Harbridge was baptised in 1765
At Robert and Sarah's marriage, after the customary three weeks of banns, in the church of St Mary in Newington, London, Sarah was aged only 15, and Robert was 21. The witnesses to the wedding were William Keene and Mary Dubber. William Keene was an uncle, who was a yeoman, related to the family by marriage to Robert's aunt Mary Aylward. All participants were able to sign their own names rather than doing the usual cross. The church of St Mary, like that of All Hallows the Great, also no longer exists. Only a clock-tower remains on the site of the old church.
Marriage on 9th Jan 1780 at St Mary's, Southwark, of Robert Bunney and Sarah Harbridge, witnessed by William Keene and Mary Dubber
St Mary church in Newington where Robert and Sarah got married
In married life Robert and Sarah moved address often, never contenting with one place for too long, as can be seen from the various locations in which they baptised their children. At first they lived for a while with Sarahs parents in Johns Yard, off Somerset Street and this we know because there is a record of Robert having voted using this address in the Westminster elections in 1874. In politics Robert supported Charles Fox who was a radical whig anti-slavery campaigner, advocating individual liberty and religious tolerance. One of Fox's lovers, the Duchess of Devonshire ran his campaign, charming the locals into voting for him and kissing at least one man, a shoemaker, to get his allegiance. Charles Fox, who was regarded by king George III as a trouble maker, was elected by a very slender margin.
1784 Poll book, Votes in Westminster elections, parish of St Margaret Westminster and St John the Evangelist
Robert Bunney, Address: St Johns Court; Occupation of cooper; Voted for Fox
The baptism of Robert and Sarah's first known child, Mary Ann, reveals that they then lived in the region of St Sepulchre, which was by the Old Bailey. hence its nickname: the 'Bells of Old Bailey'. They would have had constant awareness in such an area of the fate of Londons criminals, for every time one of the condemned men made his final lifes journey from the prison there towards the gallows the great bell of St Sepulchre would toll. These executions were public, always attracting large crowds and took place just outside the prison.
By 1788 the family were living in Field Lane in the Holborn area, as seen in the baptism records of two of their children, Sarah Ann and John Price, at the church of St Andrew there.
Baptisms for two of the Bunney children Ann Sarah and John Price at St Andrews church reveals the family is living at Field Lane
In the book of Oliver Twist it was the location of Fagin's den. Field Lane was a district all unto itself, where shops would profit their wares from pick-pockets, there being enough of shops selling pilfered handkerchiefs, which hung dangling from pegs outside windows and from door posts. There is recorded to have been there a barber, a coffee shop, a beer shop and a fried fish warehouse, to which must have been added our own family's locale and pastime of making and mending barrels. I have already written of this area in regard to daughter Hannah Bunneys childhood there, of this being part of an area known as Jack Ketch's Warren, a name given to every hangman since an original Jack Ketch, and this infamously being a haunt of 'the dangerous classes'. St Andrews church served the area in which Field Lane was situated and was also within the story of Oliver Twist. Field Lane survives today in the southern end of Saffron Hill as part of Shoe Lane.
St Andrews church
Being in such a dodgy locale the clergy of St Andrew's church were obliged, on visits outside, to be accompanied by policemen in plain clothes. Both Robert and Sarah ended up being buried in this churches graveyard. The original St Andrew church isn't the same as now, for it was bombed and gutted by German bombs during the war, and had to be rebuilt, though in the same style and form as it was before it had been destroyed.
In 1790 both Robert and Sarah were witnesses to the wedding of Sarah's younger sister Christian and her lover Robert King, at St Alban church on Wood Street. Christian although still a teenager had been living with her fiancée at Silver Street in St Olave parish. She was young to be getting married, just as Sarah had been herself ten years previously, both of them brides at the age of 15.
Robert and Sarah were witnesses to her sister Christians marriage at St Alban church on 6th February 1790
In the winter of that same year Robert and Sarah moved out from central London, south of the Thames to Deptford and there they resided for some years in Lower Road, close to the river. Deptford with its shipbuilding yards and maritime industries would have seen plenty of work opportunities repairing and providing barrels to the wharfs and riverfront dockyards. While there, two more daughters were born, firstly Marina and secondly Hannah Aylward (my ancestress), baptised in two different churches, Marina at St Paul and Hannah at St Nicholas.
Baptism at St Paul, Deptford, of daughter Marina on 22nd November 1790, showing Robert Bunney is a cooper and they live at Lower Lane
Lower Road in Deptford where the Bunney's lived
While still living at Deptford, in 1792, Robert learn of his fathers death, Robert Bunney Senior, who at that time was living at St Giles in the Fields, for which they had to travel into London to attend his funeral, back at St Andrews church.
It was in 1794 that daughter Hannah Aylward Bunney (my ancestress) was born, her name being chosen in honour of Roberts mother. Alyward being a middle name already used in the family for Roberts brother Thomas Aylward Bunney.
Daughter Hannah Aylwood Bunney's baptism at St Nicholas church in Deptford, showing the address of Lower Street and Roberts work as a cooper
By at least 1801 Robert and family were living back in central London, using the same family church of St Andrew, in their old home back in Field Lane. A new baby was born there, Thomas Harbridge Bunney, who was given mother Sarah's maiden name as a middle name and baptised at St Andrews.
In 1801 a son Thomas Harbridge Bunney is born, baptised at St Andrew, while the family are living at Field Lane in Holborn
Sadly for the family baby Thomas Harbridge Bunney died at the age of only 11 months.
The family moved again, not so far though, only to Plum Tree Court, which led off Shoe Lane (an extension from Field Lane), and there another daughter was born, Amelia Martha.
Robert and Sarah Bunneys daughter Amelia Martha baptised 14th October 1804 at St Andrew, Holborn, when the family lived at Plum Tree Court
Map showing Field Lane, St Andrews church, Plum Tree Court and the workhouse
Plum Tree Court was another dodgy location, which although being large and well built. was a magnet for thieves, prostitutes and the rough classes; even body snatchers lived there, at the same time our family was there, who would climb at night into a pauper graveyard to steal recently dead bodies which they would then sell to medical schools.
Over the following years, the children grew to become young adults and Robert and Sarah would see them settling down with husbands and wives, firstly Sarah Ann, who at the age of 21 married her her boyfriend Daniel Peat at Christ Church, for which two of her siblings John Price Bunney and Maria Ann (Mary Ann) were her witnesses. Three years later daughter Hannah Aylward (my ancestress) married her sailor boyfriend Philip Barton at Trafalgar Square in St Martin in the Fields, he being a man considerably older than her. On the passing of another three years, in 1815, Robert and Sarah were themselves witnesses for their sailor son John Price Bunney's wedding to his girlfriend Catherine Cooper in the church of St Martin in the Fields. Another son Joseph married in this same year to his bride Elizabeth East, again at St Martin in the Fields.
Robert and Sarah Bunney being witnesses at the marriage of their son John Price Bunney in 1815
It was just a year later, in 1816, that Robert Bunney died, being 61 years old. He was buried on February 4th 1816 at St Andrew, Holborn, the family's residence being noted as still at Plum Tree Court.
Death of Robert Bunney aged 61, resident of Plum Treet Court buried at St Andrews Church in 1816
The newly widowed Sarah Bunney was not to be alone, a daughter Amelia being a teenager at home still and son John Price, although as a sailor he was often at sea, he was based at home still too, his wife Catherine being there and their first child (Sarah's grandchild) being named Sarah Christian Bunney as an honour to his mother Sarah and her favourite sister Christian. Baby Sarah Christian was born a little after Robert Bunney had died, a compensation of sorts, for there is death and then comes life.
Sarah Bunney's first grandchild Sarah Christian Bunney born to her sailor son, John Price Bunney, in 1816, all living together at Plum Tree Court
From 1818 onwards daughter Hannah Alyward Bunney would sometimes move in with her mother at Plum Tree Court, on and off, along with her children, up until they time they upped and all moved south of the river to Greenwich. Sarah Bunney supported herself by working as a servant in the homes of those way better off than a lone widow like herself, and she remained in Plum Tree Court for many many years, even though the place never improved its reputation. Maybe it even got worse, if such was possible, as by 1840 the summer of August it was witnesses that past midnight, at one in the morning, a quarrel took place in Plum Tree Court, involving 200 low Irish folk, prostitutes and thieves. A year later, n 1841 it is stated in a news report that the houses of Plum Tree Court are back to back with cellars that contain an accumulation of every filth for they never get cleared out. 'From these nests of pestilence there hourly issues poisonous gases, fatal to animal life. The mortality amongst children is appalling and the ravages made by all the prevalent diseases exceeds what the most powerful imagination could conceive.' It was in this year that Sarah Bunney resorted to the workhouse of St Sepulchre which was nearby on Shoe Lane, behind which was St Andrew's graveyard. She is seen to be there in England's first census of 1841.
1841 Census London St Sepulchre without Newgate
West London Union Workhouse
Sarah Bunney, aged 85, inmate of workhouse and female servant, born in London
Sarah died at the workhouse in that winter and was buried on Dec 17th 1841 just beyond at the graveyard of St Andrew Holborn. Her age was given here as 99. It's a sure thing that the people of old would get their ages wrong. Maybe she even had to say she was older to be accepted into the workhouse. Really she would have been in her 70's.
Burial in St Andrews graveyard on December 17th 1841 of Sarah Bunney, who died in the City Union workhouse
Robert Bunney the Elder had as a teenager begun training in the understood medical care of his time, in the curious profession of the barber surgeon; only for his course to be thwarted by a historical change of roles, by which he instead became a cooper