Elizabeth Barrand (b 1787)

Elizabeth was the 4^th child of Thomas Barrand and Susannah Cook and was born on the 21^st July, 1787 and baptised on the 5^th August, 1787. The name was transcribed as Barrend instead of Barrand. It is known that Elizabeth became a servant and housekeeper in 1806 for a James Gadsden, a wealthy sugar refiner, and at the age of 22, she was left an inheritance in James Gadsden’s will in 1809. Elizabeth was given a good recommendation from her employment at James Gladson, and was highly sought after enabling her to gain good quality positions.

On the 15^th November, 1812, Elizabeth Barrand married John James Stead, an artist's colour manufacturer, in St. Anne’s Church, Soho. John Stead was born 1777-1791. (see record from IGI) Both John Stead and Elizabeth Barrand gave their respective ages as over 21 years, and quite correctly, Elizabeth was aged 25 by the date of her marriage. There are no records of any children born to John Stead and Elizabeth Barrand. Elizabeth Barrand is found on the 1841 census living at 33, Princes Street East Side in St. Anne’s, Soho and she is described as aged 50 +/- and “Independent”. From John Stead's signature on the oath of marriage, it would seem he was well educated as the signature is very neatly written. He was very successful in his paint colour business at first, and formed a partnership with a gentleman called J.R. Bullwinkle of Goswell Street, but John suffered from poor health and as a result, he was unable to continue with work and he was summoned to appear in Court as a bankrupt on October 2nd, 1832. His address at the time was 29, King Street in Clerkenwell where he had his premises. The Kelly’s directory of 1832 shows the occupants of 29 King Street were indeed Stead and Bulwinkle. The notice was published in the London Morning Post and Newcastle Journal on (22nd August, 1832) and following the Court appearance, details were published in The Perry's Bankrupt Gazette (13th October, 1832) and Morning Chronicle (13th November, 1832). John Stead was already in poor health by this time and it is believed the assets of John Stead's business were acquired in 1832 after his bankruptsy by William Winsor, a chemist, and Henry Charles Newton, an artist, and they established their partnership at 38, Rathbone Place, London. This was Henry Newton's home, which was then part of an artists' quarter in which a number of eminent painters, including Constable, had studios, and where other colourmen were already established. Henry Newton himself painted many noted paintings and used Windsor and Newton canvasses. They developed the first moist water colours utilising the moisture-retaining properties of a recently discovered material, glycerine. The new water colour pans were much simpler and more convenient to use than water colour cakes and quickly earned well-deserved popularity. Artists such as Turner were now able to paint outdoors prolifically in water colour. In 1842 William Winsor patented the first screw cap mechanism for a collapsible metal tube. Following this invention, tin tubes were very quickly accepted as containers for oil colours and a few years later Winsor and Newton were able to uniquely offer moist water colours in tubes. However, by the Edwardian period the painting market was very different due to the invention of the camera, and artists were no longer in such great demand. The company began to take up craft products, starting with pen painting materials in 1911, and the range was expanded over the following years.

Morning Advertiser 29 April 1830

Morning Advertiser 12 September 1831

From information from the Stead/Inman tree on Ancestry UK, they suggest that John Stead who married Elizabeth Barrand, was a John Stead and he worked as a "Tosher" a name given to sewer hunters who traveled the tunnels and sieved the waste for bones, metal, coins, cutlery, or other valuable goods they also began to venture (illegally) into the city’s sewers, (which would have included rotting flesh, faeces and carried all manner of germs and diseases) and he died in the Holborn Workhouse in 1833 and buried on the 4^th February, 1833. Most toshers worked in gangs of three or four, led by a veteran who was frequently somewhere between 60 and 80 years old. These men knew the secret locations of the cracks that lay submerged beneath the surface of the sewer-waters, and it was there that cash frequently lodged. Sometimes, they would dive their arm down to the elbow in the mud and filth and bring up shillings, sixpences, half-crowns, and occasionally half-sovereigns and sovereigns.

They find these the coins standing edge uppermost between bricks in the bottom, where mortar has been worn away.
There are numerous stories of Toshers’ encounters with rats, and of them “slaying thousands… in their struggle for life,” but most ended badly. Unless he was in company, so that the rats dared not attack, the sewer-hunter was doomed. He would fight on, using his hoe, “till at last the swarms of the savage things overpowered him.” Then he would go down fighting, his body torn to pieces and the tattered remains submerged in untreated sewage, until, a few days later, it became just another example of the detritus of the tunnels, drifting toward the Thames and its inevitable discovery by another gang of toshers–who would find the remains of their late colleague “picked to the very bones.”
After 1840, it was made illegal to enter the sewer without express permission, and a £5 reward was offered to anyone who informed on them. I believe they are mistaken and may have the incorrect John Stead.

John Stead died very shortly after his bankruptsy and, after John Stead's death in 1833, Elizabeth Barrand is next found living with an Ann Barrand in 1841. Elizabeth Stead is shown as "Independent" aged 50, so living on her own means and this usually infers that the person was able to support themselves. Also shown as aged 50 +/- is an Ann Barrand working as a female servant and this is most certainly Elizabeth’s unmarried sister, Ann.

On the 1851 census for 33, Princes Street, Soho, Elizabeth Stead is shown as a widow and aged 65, but her place of birth is shown as Idle in Yorkshire, which is incorrect, but there is no sign of Ann Barrand.

The burial records of 1857 show Elizabeth Stead aged 72 and still living at 33, Princes Street, Soho where she died.

The series of London maps from John Rocque shows Princes Street very clearly on his large scale map of 1746 - Wardour Street'. Then south to Compton Street is Old Soho; then down to Coventry St. is Princes Street.

Richard Horwood, on his large map of 1799, uses street names but leaves just Wardour, Princes and Whitcomb Streets. The houses have individual numbers by then and are shown in detail on Horwood’s map of 1799. Wardour Street, with Princes Street, opens up a direct line of communication between Oxford Street and Leicester Square. Branching off on the east from Princes Street is King Street and Compton Street.

Poultry and Princes Street

Compton Street Princes Street Soho Square Oxford Street 7-Dials Clare Market

33, Princes Street, Soho where Elizabeth Barrand died

ELIZABETH BARREND Female

Event(s):

Birth: 21 JUL 1787

Christening: 05 AUG 1787 Saint Mary-St Marylebone Road, Saint Marylebone, London, England

Parents:

Father: THOMAS BARREND

Mother: SUSANNA COOK

Source Information:

Batch No.: Dates: Source Call No.: Type: Printout Call No.: Type:

C035242 1782 - 1790 0580906 Film NONE

IGI Record of the birth of Elizabeth Barrand

Baptism record of Elizabeth Barrand

Transcript of James Gadsden’s will

GADSDEN, James - Will - summary of PRO PROB 11/1497, 1809

In the name of God Amen. James Gadsden now of St Thomas’s Square, Hackney in the County of Middlesex, but late of Gt. St Helens Street, London [Sugar Refiner] …

* All his debts, funeral expenses etc, to be paid.

* To his cousin James Gascoigne late of Tower St London Sugar Broker but now of Loughton in Essex £200.

* To his acquaintance John Hawkins of Mare St, Hackney, Gent £20.

* To his acquaintance Thomas Hampshire of Homerton, Hackney, Gent £20.

* To Elizabeth Shroves now of late of Holborn Lane, Chatham, his late housekeeper who quit her service on account of her poor state of health an annuity of £20 a year paid half yearly.

* To Elizabeth Barrand his present housekeeper £50, and £10 for mourning. Also 3 old silver tablespoons, 4 old silver tea spoons, the bedstead and furniture in the fore garrett, and all his wearing apparel, shirts, stocks, stockings and handkerchiefs, and such of his kitchen furniture that his executors think will be of use to her.

James Gadsden was buried on the 2nd May, 1809, aged 76 years.

Map of 1830 showing Princes Street

Licence for John Stead to be married

Copy of marriage certificate of Elizabeth Barrand and John Stead 1812

Name: John Stead

Age: 23

Birth Year: abt 1778

Event Date: 7 Nov 1812

Parish: Westminster, St Anne County: Middlesex

Spouse's Name: Elizabeth Barrond

Spouse's Age: 23

Spouse's Parish: Westminster, St Anne:

Allegation Reference Number: Ms 10091/190

Parish Record of Elizabeth’s marriage to John Stead

John Stead and Elizabeth Barrand both of this parish were married in this church by licence on the 15th Day of November 1812

by me: Michael Murton.

This marriage was solemnised…..John Stead

Between us ......Elizabeth Barrand

In the presence of us....Joshua Davies............May Ann Wright

Transcript of marriage Certificate

JOHN STEAD

Event(s):

Birth: 12 DEC 1778

Christening: 03 JAN 1779 St Martin In The Field, Westminster, London, England

Parents:

Father: JOHN STEAD

Mother: ELIZABETH

Source Information:

Batch Number: 7622216

Sheet: 23

Source Call No.: 1058612 Type: Film

IGI Record of the baptism of John Stead

John Stead in the England, Select Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991

Death of John Stead 1833

Burial of John Stead 1833 aged 56 - b c1777

1841 census – Elizabeth Stead + Ann Barrand in Princes Street

1851 Census 33, Princes Street, Soho

Burial of Elizabeth Stead 1857 – address 33 Princes Street – St Anne’s, Westminster aged 72 (b 1785)