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Ann Howcutt & Albert Buttivant
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Ann Howcutt married Albert Buttivant in 1871. For
reasons unknown he signed the register as “Albert Huckinbury” and shortly
afterwards was said to be unmarried. This is their story. Ann Howcutt
was born at Plaistow on 23 February 1849, the fourth of nine children of
William Howcutt and his wife Emma Brown. William (also known as William
James) appears to have been a blacksmith throughout his working life. At the
time of the 1851 census, William and Emma were living with their four
surviving children along with two other households at 2 Bell Water Gate,
Woolwich. Ten years later, the family had moved north of the Thames to 3
Arbour Gardens, Stepney, where as well as the parents and their seven surviving
children, Ann’s widowed grandmother, Mary Brown, was also in residence. On
27 February 1871, Ann Howcutt married Albert “Huckinbury” at the church of St James the Great, Bethnal
Green. [1] The groom was a cigar packer. Like Ann, he signed the
register. The witnesses were “Eliza Barley” and Hannah De Gruchy. The
1871 census was held 34 days after the wedding but contains no record of an
Albert or Ann Huckinbury. However, Albert Buttivant was living at 11 Heath
Street, Mile End in a household headed by his widowed mother Hannah. Albert
was described there as “unmarried” but there can be no doubt that he was
actually the same person as “Albert Huckinbury” because the births of all of
Albert Buttivant’s children were registered with
the mother’s maiden name given as Howcutt. Moreover, Eliza Burley and Hannah
de Gruchy - the witnesses to the marriage of Ann
and Albert - were sisters of the bride and groom respectively. In the 1871
census, Hannah was also living at 11 Heath Street and Eliza Burley was living
with her parents nearby at 95 Heath Street. The most plausible explanation is
that although most members of Albert and Ann’s families knew of their
marriage in February the information was kept from his mother – she was the
person who reported to the census in April that her son was still single. No
record has been found of Albert’s wife in the 1871 census with any variation
of the Howcutt, Huckinbury or Buttivant surnames. Ann
and Albert had four children: · Ann Emma (1871-1915) · Albert Edward (1873-1874) · Eliza (1875-1918) · Mary Ann (1877-1960) On 8 January 1877, Ann
Buttivant was acquitted at the General Quarter Sessions held at Clerkenwell
of a charge of larceny in a dwelling house and receiving. [2] The earliest records of
members of the family being admitted to a workhouse are in 1879. [3] On 23
July, Ann, who had been working as a charwoman, along with her three
daughters were admitted from the casual ward [4] to the City of London
workhouse. [5] Emma and Eliza were sent to Hanwell
School on 31 July and 7 August respectively. [6] Ann and Mary Ann
remained at the workhouse until 22 August when, along with Emma, they were
“removed”, though it is no clear to where. Ann and her daughter Mary Ann were
destitute when they arrived at Mile End Old Town
workhouse on 28 November 1879. They remained there for nearly a month and
were discharged on 26 December. On the following day, Albert, Ann and Mary
Ann were admitted to the same institution, where they may have remained for quite some time, as the 1881
census includes Albert and Ann in the list of inmates and their three
daughter as resident in the workhouse school.
In 1891, Albert and Ann were living
in the same area at 87 Ernest Street, along with their two youngest
daughters. Albert was working as a china packer, Ann as a washer woman and
Eliza (recorded as “Ann E”) was a domestic servant. At that stage, Mary Ann
was still a scholar. At
the time of the 1901 census, Albert and Ann were living in two rooms as 42
Blackthorn Street, Bow Common. Albert was the working as a corn porter. The house
was presumably very crowded as the rest of it was occupied by Ann’s sister
Eliza Burley, her husband, eight of their children and a granddaughter. Ann
has not been located in the records of the 1911 census, but Albert appears
there as an inmate of Poplar workhouse. Records exist of numerous occasions
when Albert and Ann were admitted to or discharged from workhouses between
1879 and 1920. [7] Electoral
registers show Albert and Ann Buttivant as resident at 8 Stewart’s Cottages, Poplar
in 1918 and 1919. Albert
and Ann remained in the East End of London for the rest of their lives. They
both died in the Poplar registration district - Ann in 1933 and Albert two
years later. A
great deal of information about Albert’s ancestry and some of the descendants
of Albert and Ann can be found online. [8] Notes [1] St
James the Great was a very popular church for marriages at the time. Since
Easter 1865, the vicar had not charged a fee, in order to encourage couples
to marry rather than just live together. As a result, those seeking an
economical wedding flocked to that church. In 1871, some 1,223 marriages took
place there. [2] The
National Archives: HO27/177, page 175. [3] It is
possible that they were also admitted to the workhouse before that year and
that the records do not survive. For instance, the earliest one for which the
admission and discharge records of the Mile End Old Town workhouse survive. [4] The
casual ward for the City of London poor law union was at Robin Hood Court, at
the south end of Thavies Inn, Holborn. [5] The
main workhouse for the City of London was on the south side of Bow Road.
However, the City of
London Union had expanded in 1869 by taking over two adjoining areas
called the East London Union and the West London Union. [6] Central London District
Schools occupied a site of 160 acres at Hanwell, Middlesex. [7] The following table sets out references
to Ann and Albert Buttivant in workhouse records held by the London
Metropolitan Archives (LMA). The list is probably not complete. The
abbreviation “MEOT” stands for “Mile End Old Town”.
[8] “Edward III Descent for Danny Dyer (b. 1977) on WDYTYA “on Royal Descent blogspot by Brad Verity. |
