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| St Brides Chrurch c. 1825, from The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Every-day Book and Table Book, v. 1 (of 3), by William Hone |
I don’t know anything
definite about James Foskett’s childhood, although given that his father,
Samuel, was a leather dresser, a smelly manual job, and his grandfather, Nicholas
Foskett, was a butcher, it is likely that he spent much time in some of the
less savoury parts of London’s east and south, where such unsavoury trades
tended to be consigned.
By the time James was
nineteen years old, it appears that he was not a well behaved young man. In October 1787, his Grandfather Nicholas
Foskett wrote a codicil to his will, disinheriting James, who had been going to
inherit a butcher’s cart. In the
codicil, Nicholas said “my grandson James Foskett… conducted himself with so
much disrespect toward me that I do not consider him thereby deserving of the
legacy.” I would love to know what James
did or did not do to upset his Grandfather.
The legacy instead went to Nicholas’s wife, Mary, James’s
step-grandmother. As there were no
further codicils, it appears unlikely that James made up with his Grandfather
before Nicholas died in 1792.
Less than a year after the
codicil was written, at the age of 20, James appears to have run off to the
wilds of Essex, with a much older woman, Judith Gravett, who was about 32 years
old. They married in Leyton on 29
September 1788.
In January 1789, James
Foskett became a Freeman of the city of London, joining the Leather Sellers
Guild by patrimony, meaning he was entitled to join because his father, Samuel,
was a guild member. However, through the
1790’s James appears to have worked as a porter.
James and Judith’s first
child, Samuel James Foskett was born less than a year after they were married,
on 11 July 1789. Samuel was baptised a
month later on 12 August at St Mary’s, Whitechapel, at which time the family’s
place of abode was given as “Roadside”.
Roadside was an actual location and did not imply that they were
homeless.
Probably around 1790, the
family moved to Southwark on the other side of the Thames where many butchers
and leather workers, the family occupations, plied their trades. Of James and Judith’s other children, James
(b. 1790) was baptised in St Saviour’s, Southwark in 1799 and Catherine (b.
1792, my ancestor) is recorded in the 1851 census as being born in
Southwark. Catherine was baptised in
1803 in St Leonard’s Shoreditch, so by then the family had moved back north of
the river.
I don’t know of any other
children but given that two children were not baptised as infants, there may
have been others who were not baptised at all.
Also, Foskett is also a challenging name to research as it is often
transcribed incorrectly or was originally written with an alternative spelling
(or both).
James’ brother Samuel died
early in 1804 and mentioned James in his will.
So by 1804, James and his two sons were the only surviving male heirs of
Grandfather Nicholas Foskett that I know of.
Mary Foskett, James’
step-grandmother died later in 1804 and left a legacy to James in her
will. She describes James as a butcher
from Whitechapel. Whatever caused the
rift with his grandfather must have been forgiven by his grandfather’s wife.
The next record I have of
James Foskett is in January 1824. At that
time, James had become ill and couldn’t work, so he needed support from the
parish for him and his wife. They were
living in the parish of St Leonard’s Shoreditch at the time, but a Settlement
Examination proved that they belonged to the parish of St Botolph without
Aldgate due to having rented rooms there for more than a year nine years
earlier (about 1813).
Prior to 1948 in
England, Parishes were responsible for welfare and everyone belonged to a
parish either because they were born there or had other strong ties to that
parish. That parish was responsible for
providing relief and if people fell on hard times after moving away, they could
be returned to the parish that was responsible for their welfare.
I have no further record of
James Foskett. His wife, Judith, died in
the workhouse at Cock & Hoop Yard in the parish of St Botolph’s without
Aldgate in 1829. By this time, they had
at least 10 grandchildren.
A curious note: these Foskett
ancestors on my mother’s side of the family were living in the same parish (St
Botolph’s without Aldgate) at the same time as my paternal Blake ancestors. Perhaps they even knew each
other.
Notes on lineage: Me > Mum
> John Macdonald Charley > Walter George Charley > John Joseph Charley
> Catherine Thompson > Catherine Foskett > James Foskett
