Margaret (Lawrence) Roberts (abt. 1788 - bef. 1841)

Wife of John Roberts — married 1809 in St George in the East, Middlesex County, ENGLAND

Descendants

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Biography of Margaret LAWRENCE

From A Baker’s Wife in Early 19th Century London…

Margaret LAWRENCE’s known history begins with her marriage to John ROBERTS on the 28th of December 1809 in the parish of St George in the East, London and Middlesex^[1]. Margaret’s husband was a baker, and with her marriage, Margaret, whose past remains unknown, embraced a busily tumultous life in a hot bakehouse in the very congested inner labyrinth of East End London. A jumbled mix of duties would have occupied Margaret as both a housewife and a baker’s wife, with oven fires to keep hot, an endless supply of baked goods to be prepared, sold and delivered, flour, eggs and butter to be shrewdly acquired at profitable costs, customers to discuss local news and gossip with, household duties and children to tend to, and barely a moment to rest. At the end of a long day, Margaret’s rest may still have been broken by her husband John’s midnight shiftings to prepare the next day’s lot of dough, with doors creaking as he went outside for a breath of cool night air to ease his labours in the hot bakehouse. Baking was predominantly night-work, “caused by the public demand for hot rolls at breakfast”^[2] and the next day’s requisite supply of bread. Despite the demanding life of a baker's wife, Margaret persevered with her eight children, two of whom would not survive infancy^[3].

English Bake Oven

… To An Independent Female Baker

The energy, resourcefulness, and determination that must have buoyed Margaret during these years would have to strengthen by 1829, when after twenty years of marriage, and with her youngest child not even five years of age, Margaret’s husband passed away^[4]. Margaret and her family had been living at 14 Philip Street since 1810^[5][6], yet in 1829, Margaret drew an insurance policy for a new property at 9 Harper’s Place, in her own name, identifying herself as a baker^[7]. Clearly Margaret was resolved to carry on as a baker, a courageously independent move considering that at the time the baking profession was “one of the most slavish and deadly professions“^[8] given its wretched working conditions, the consequences of which had likely been responsible for her husband’s early demise:

They are exposed to heat, which, while it exhausts them, renders them liable to colds, and seems to favour determination of blood to the head; to dust from the flour, which irritates the lungs; and to severe exertion, which leads to palpitation, diseases of the heart, and apoplectic seizures… The diseases to which the bakers are most subject are rheumatic fever, erysipelas, inflammation of the lungs, and consumption; but especially the last two are their most severe and fatal maladies. The less severe diseases of which they complain are colds, rheumatism, indigestion, bowel complaints, skin diseases, and bleeding at the nose. Ruptures are common among them. I should think that there is no class of men, excepting perhaps the grinders of Sheffield, so liable to severe diseases of the chest as the bakers.^[9]

Margaret’s decision also showed pluck, for she would have been a rare female master baker in a profession which was dominated by men who had served several years apprenticing to the trade^[10][11]. However, Margaret too had served twenty years learning the trade, and had the help of her two eldest sons James and John, who would become bakers themselves. James and John likely worked alongside their mother in the family’s bakeshop as young apprentices, the workload perhaps shared by Margaret's other children or by hired journeyman bakers, of whom a ready and plentiful crop existed in London:

In all sickly trades there must always be a great number of men thrown out of work by illness; young healthy recruits are constantly coming up from the country to supply their place; and thus the labour market is overstocked, and that, too, with men impoverished by illness, and too glad to be taken into employment on almost any terms.^[12]

Just how long Margaret was able to persevere in her baking business and if she prospered is unclear. By 1841, it seems Margaret had passed away. Margaret is nowhere to be found on the 1841 census. Her youngest son William Lawrence, at the age of 15, was living and working independently^[13], and the bakeshop at 9 Harper’s Place was occupied by another baker^[14], no longer echoing Margaret’s laudable and determined efforts to maintain a home for her family.

Notes

1. ↑ London Metropolitan Archives, Parish of Saint George in the East, Borough of Tower Hamlets, Register of Marriages, PG93/GEO, Item 040, page 304, entry 912: London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754 ― 1921, database online at http://www.ancestry.com, '...John ROBERTS, of this parish, a Bachelor, and Margaret LAWRENCE, of the same parish, a spinster, were married in this Church by Banns this 28th Day of December in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Nine ― In the Presence of John James ??? McW??? & Thos ? Thomas BACON...' *John's signature appears on the certificate, yet Margaret simply marked an 'X', indicating that she was illiterate.
2. ↑ Source: #VLD
3. ↑ See the individual profiles for Margaret's children listed above. Margaret's youngest son John and daughter Sarah did not survive childhood.
4. ↑ Margaret's withdrawal of an insurance policy on a new property in 1829 suggests that John had passed away. See note 7. Although a burial record for John has not been positively identified, he is significantly absent from the 1841 Census of England and Wales.
5. ↑ The baptism record of Margaret and John's eldest known daughter Elizabeth gives 'Philip Street' as the family's address. See Elizabeth's profile for details and the citation.
6. ↑ London Metropolitan Archives: City of London, “Records of Sun Fire Office”, The National Archives (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/c2386274-1888-474f-b20d-5b630f92d902: accessed Sept 2015), database entry for Insured: John Roberts 14 Philip Street Back Lane baker, 30 March 1818, reference MS 11936/473/940460.
7. ↑ London Metropolitan Archives: City of London, “Records of Sun Fire Office”, The National Archives (http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/rd/0194ccf6-4df3-4c46-9fd4-e28cfdd1094d: accessed Sept 2015), database entry for Insured: Margaret Roberts 9 Harpers Place Back Lane baker, 4 June 1829, reference MS 11936/520/1092369.
8. ↑ Source: #VLD
9. ↑ Source: #VLD
10. ↑ "Apprenticeship in England". Web article. 6 December 2014. Accessed November 2015 from FamilySearch, https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Apprenticeship_in_England. Article adapted with permission of Family Tree Magazine (UK; http://www.family-tree.co.uk) from Anthony Camp's article 'Apprenticeship' in Practical Family History, no. 64 (April 2003) pages 12-14.
11. ↑ Brozak, Jennifer. "Occupations for Victorian Women". Web article. Accessed November 2015 from The Classroom at Synonym, http://classroom.synonym.com/occupations-victorian-women-18265.html.
12. ↑ Source: #VLD
13. ↑ See William Lawrence's profile for details and citations.
14. ↑ “Thomas Richard Coningham”, notice, The London Gazette, Issue 19963, page 800, 23 March 1841. Online index and digital image, The Gazette, https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/19963/page/800/data.pdf, accessed November 2015, ‘Thomas Richard Coningham … late of No. 9, Harper’s-place, Back-road, Saint George’s in the East, Middlesex, Journeyman Baker …’

Sources

• Source: [VLD] Untitled article from Chambers Edinburgh Journal, 1848. Accessed November 2015 from The Victorian Dictionary, created and edited by Lee Jackson, http://www.victorianlondon.org/frame-professions.htm.

• Source: [BAKE] Fort Vancouver: Historic Furnishing Study: Bakery. Chapter IV. Comparative Data: Bakery Layout and Equipment. Web Page. Last updated 28 Nov 2005. Accessed Sept 2015 from http://www.npshistory.com/publications/fova/bakery_hfs/hfs4.htm.

• Source: Hiestand, Heather. "Baking in Victorian England". Web blog post. English Historical Fiction Authors. 3 July 2013. Accessed October 2015 from http://englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.com/2013/07/baking-in-victorian-england.html.

• Source: London Metropolitan Archives, Parish of Saint George in the East, Borough of Tower Hamlets, Register of Marriages: London, England, Marriages and Banns, 1754 ― 1921, database online at http://www.ancestry.com.

• Source: [LMA] London Metropolitan Archives, Parish of Saint George in the East, Borough of Tower Hamlets, Register of Baptisms, PG93/GEO, Item 007: London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813 ― 1906, database online at http://www.ancestry.com.

• Source: [MAYH] Mayhew, Henry. 1851–1861. London Labour and the London Poor. Researched and written, variously, with J. Binny, B. Hemyng and A. Halliday. Accessed Sept 2015 from Susanna Ives. “Buying Bread and Milk in 18th and 19th Century London”. Web blog post. March 16, 2012, http://susannaives.com/wordpress/2012/03/buying-bread-and-milk-in-18th-and-19th-century-london/.

• Source: Wikipedia contributors, "Apprenticeship," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Apprenticeship&oldid=689876096 (accessed November 12, 2015).

• Source: [VIC] Wilson, A. N. The Victorians. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.