John Gadsden and family at West Ham

 

West Ham lies on the east bank of the River Lea and so before inexorable growth ... it was the last place in Essex before London and the first staging post in Essex from London … The great Roman road between London and Colchester was diverted through Stratford in the 12^th century when Bow Bridge was built. 

The largest settlement in West Ham, Stratford, developed due to two factors: bread and cattle. Corn from Essex was brought to the many windmills and watermills along the Lea and its back rivers. Flour from the corn was turned into bread using ovens fired with wood from Epping Forest, which then stretched down almost to the Romford Road. Stratford bakers were exempt from City guild controls and were frequently in court for giving short measure. Cattle were brought to Stratford from the eastern counties for slaughter or onward transit to London, and tanning and other leather-based industries developed there. The presence of a large monastic foundation with many royal connections, Stratford Langthorne Abbey, no doubt attracted further wealth to the area.

The River Lea was the stimulus for further early industrial activity. Silk-weaving and calico-printing were undertaken in the 17^th and 18^th centuries and Bow porcelain was made in Stratford in the mid-18^th century. Distilling and gunpowder-making were also important. 

The rest of the parish comprised a scattering of small agricultural hamlets which included Plaistow, Church Lane, Forest Gate and Upton. The marshland in the south of the parish was used for grazing cattle and pasturing horses. Places like Upton and Plaistow were pleasant enough rural retreats to attract City merchants who built substantial houses there. By the late 19^th century the separate hamlets of Plaistow, Stratford, Upton, Canning Town and Forest Gate had merged in a sea of bricks and mortar and West Ham was the eighth largest town in Britain.’

It would be unrecognizable today to John and Mary Ann Gadsden as the picturesque rural spot where they spent the halcyon days of their early married life, and where their first two children were born. By 7 November 1828 they spent some time at Clapton, as shown in the register of St John Hackney, where their daughter Mary Rochenda was baptised, having been born in the July of that year.  She died aged only four months and was buried 24 November 1828, also recorded at St John Hackney.

Their next child, another daughter, Emily, was born in July 1830 in Waterford, Ireland, where a new chapter of this Gadsden family unfolded.

John Gadsden at Upton House, West Ham

 

My great great grandparents, John Gadsden (1794-1853) and Mary Ann Bone, were married at St John Hackney on 27 March, 1821. However, by that year there was a ‘New Church’.* At the time the couple were living at Upton House, West Ham [see watercolour, partly after a photograph, partly after a sketch by Mary Lister; source Wellcome Library]. Their eldest son, Moreton Champness Nevins Gadsden was born at Upton House.

Upton House was situated on the opposite side of Upton Lane to Ham House, which was also, confusingly, known as Upton House for a short time in the eighteenth-century.  It was typical of a number of fine seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses built in West Ham as country retreats for City merchants and businessmen.  Upton House (that is, the one the Gadsdens lived in) was rebuilt in 1731 and was the birthplace of (Lord) Joseph Lister (1827-1912), the founder of antiseptic surgery.  It was demolished in 1968.’ [Source: From  ‘Britain in Old Photographs: Stratford West Ham & The Royal Docks’ by Stephen Pewsey  pub: Sutton Publishing Ltd 1996]

Clearly, if Joseph Lister was born at Upton House in 1827 it is reasonable to suppose that the Gadsdens had moved elsewhere by that date. John and Mary Ann re-emerge in the City of Waterford, Ireland, where John was a provision merchant. He and his brothers Charles Edward Gadsden and James Eyre Gadsden apparently left England and went to live in Waterford where all three produced children as baptismal records show. It is possible that John at least 'commuted' between Waterford and London, as ties with West Ham and Hackney continue until 1828 when John and Mary Ann’s daughter, Mary Rochenda, aged only 4 months, was buried at St John Hackney on 13 November of that year.

A Gadsden marriage at St John Hackney and a home at Upton House

St John Hackney in late 18th c

My great great grandparents, John Gadsden (1794-1853) and Mary Ann Bone, were married at St John Hackney on 27 March, 1821. However, by that year there was a 'New Church'.* At the time the couple were living at Upton House, West Ham [see watercolour below, partly after a photograph, partly after a sketch by Mary Lister; source Wellcome Library]. Their eldest son, Moreton Champness Nevins Gadsden was born at Upton House

'Upton House.  Situated on the opposite side of Upton Lane to Ham House, which was also, confusingly, known as Upton House for a short time in the eighteenth-century.  It was typical of a number of fine seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses built in West Ham as country retreats for City merchants and businessmen.  Upton House (that is, the one the Gadsdens lived in) was rebuilt in 1731 and was the birthplace of (Lord) Joseph Lister (1827-1912), the founder of antiseptic surgery.  It was demolished in 1968.' [Source: From  'Britain in Old Photographs: Stratford West Ham & The Royal Docks' by Stephen Pewsey  pub: Sutton Publishing Ltd 1996]

Clearly, if Joseph Lister was born at Upton House in 1827 it is reasonable to suppose that the Gadsdens had moved elsewhere by that date. John and Mary Ann re-emerge in the City of Waterford, Ireland, where John was a provision merchant. He and his brothers Charles Edward Gadsden and James Eyre Gadsden apparently left England and went to live in Waterford where all three produced children as baptismal records show. It is possible that John at least commuted between Waterford and London, as ties with West Ham and Hackney continue until 1828 when John and Mary Ann's daughter, Mary Rochenda, aged only 4 months, was buried at St John Hackney on 13 November of that year.

Map of West Ham, left, shows Upton also Ham House, Plastow [sic, usually Plaistow], West Ham Abbey; note Woolwich across the river. 

Location of East Ham helps to explain why West Ham is so-named i.e. though in the east of London, West Ham lies to the west of East Ham! Devil's House, on East Ham Level, invites further exploration.

* The old parish church of St Augustine had been largely demolished in 1797 when the new parish church of St John, Hackney was built.  Only the tower and the tomb of the Rowe family...remained.  At first the tower was kept to hang the peal of bells, as the parishioners had little faith in the strength of the new church tower and later local sentiment saved the tower from demolition. [Source: Old Ordnance Survey Maps Hackney 1870 Godfrey Edition London sheet 41]. Originally dedicated to St Augustine it was known as St John from circa 1660.  [Info from London Collage website (Guildhall Library Collection)]. 


John Gadsden was in partnership with Joseph Nash in the provision business in Bridge Street Waterford from at least as early as 1824, according to Pigot's Directory.