Personal Information Removal Order Name: Sophia Marchant Spouse: Robert Marchant Children: Robert (6) William (4), Mary (8 mos.) Date: 10 Apr 1832 Parish: St Michael Town: Lewes County: Sussex ESRO: 414/32/2/89 View image Page 2 Personal Information Removal Order Name: Sophia Marchant Spouse: Robert Marchant Children: Robert (7) William (5) Mary Ann (2) Date: 16 Oct 1833 Parish: St. Clement Town: Hastings County: Sussex ESRO: 367/32/2/165 View image SOURCE: East Sussex Records Office/The Keep, Woollards Way, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 9BP; Phone: 01273 482349. National Archives: Lewes / Hastings.

"No wonder that the lower classes dread the very name of the Poor Law,—no wonder that they look upon the Union house as worse than a prison, and that in fact many rather than become the inmates of a workhouse, commit some petty felony that they may obtain, to them, a far lighter punishment—incarceration in a gaol (jail)!"
—"Extracts from the Diary of a Workhouse Chaplain," by the Rev. D. L. Cousins, A.M. London: J. Hatchard and Son, 1847.

"Coxheath Poor Law Union" Workhouse site (renamed Maidstone Union Workhouse in 1836), from the north-east, c.1905. © Peter Higginbotham.

   In 19th-Century England, parishes were legally responsible for looking after their own poor. This was funded by the collection of a poor-rate tax from local property owners. Workouses were then created to provide work for the unemployed able-bodied (with the threat of prison for those who refused). They also provided housing for orphans and the "impotent poor" (the elderly, chronic sick, etc.) The Marchant family would eventually qualify for all of those categories.
   Maidstone was the location of the "workhouse" where Sophia and the children were sent. The Maidstone Union Workhouse was built in 1836 at a site to the south of Heath Road in Coxheath "for 600 paupers." The design was of plain brick construction and comprised a large quadrangle enclosed by two-story buildings. A further building, thought to be the workhouse school, were erected nearby at the north side of Heath Road. The dormitory blocks, which were referred to as 'cottages' measured 15 feet by 10 feet, lit by a small window. There was a single ground-floor privy on each side of the courtyard.
   Workhouses looked like prisons from the outside, and life inside them was miserable—and intentionally so. The government, terrified of encouraging 'idlers' (lazy people), made sure that people feared the workhouse and would do anything to keep out of it—including stealing pork and risking imprisonment, like Robert.
   Here is what our ancestor William Marchant, a child under ten years of age, faced in the workhouse:

LIFE IN THE WORKHOUSE

Upon entering the workhouse, the Marchant family would have been immediately separated, and Sophia would only have been allowed limited contact with her children—perhaps for an hour or so a week on Sunday afternoon. William and his siblings had to rely on each other to survive. William's clothes were removed and stored. He was searched, his hair was cropped, and he was bathed (under supervision). Supervised baths were then given once per week. He was made to wear a uniform, so that every inmate looked the same, and everyone outside knew he was poor and lived in the workhouse. William was given a striped shirt, ill-fitting trousers (the length being adjusted at the knee with a piece of string), thick vest, woollen drawers and socks, a neckerchief and (in winter) a coarse jacket. Sophia and the girls were given a shapeless, waistless dress which reached the ankles, made of striped (convict-style) fabric, a shapeless shift, long stockings and knee-length drawers, and a poke-bonnet. All the inmates were given hob-nailed boots. Women, children and men had different living and working areas in the workhouse. Married couples, even the elderly, were to be kept apart at all costs so that they could not 'breed'. They could be punished if they even tried to speak to one another. Although the workhouse was required to provide free education and job training for William, the education he actually received would not have included reading and writing—which were the two most important skills needed to get a good job. The food in his meals was tasteless, and they rarely changed. Commonly, the meal would have been gruel, which is a thin food made by boiling oatmeal or some other grain in water. Other base ingredients to boil could include breadcrumbs or ground crackers. Often the quantity, quality and lack of nutrition meant that workhouse inmates were on a slow starvation diet. William's 'work' would have consisted of stone-breaking, bone-crushing, sack-making, driving the corn mill, or picking apart "oakum" (old ropes), sometimes tarred or knotted. These ropes had to be unpicked inch by inch and a day's work would be to unravel 3 lbs. of rope. The corn mill was driven by inmates walking round on a treadwheel. (Women had to do domestic work: scrubbing floors and tables, polishing brasses, black-leading kitchen ranges, and so on.) William could also find himself 'hired out' to work in factories or mines.

Article Information Newspaper Newspaper: Maidstone Gazette and Kentish Advertiser Date: Tuesday 03 December 1839 Page: 4 Column: 3 Title: Police Date of sentencing: 30 Nov 1839 View image SOURCE INFORMATION: The British Library, 96 Euston Rd, London NW1 2DB; Maidstone Gazette and Kentish Advertiser for Kent, Sussex, Surry, and Essex, #2801 (full page).

   Despite their rocky relationship and forced separation in the workhouse, Robert and Sophia were out of Maidstone Union long enough to have two more children, Henry (b. 1834) and Elizabeth (1837-1841). But Robert never found steady work, and they always seemed to end up back in the workhouse. Life was hard for everybody—the average life span of people around London at this time was 27 years, but for members of the working class, that number dropped to 22. In the workouse, however, life itself was seen as a burden on society, and as a result the buildings were filled with misery, rampant disease, and death, from which the Marchant family would not be spared: William's mother became ill in 1839, while in the workhouse. She would have been housed separately in a sick-ward, with no visitors allowed, including William and the other children. The workhouse sick-ward took in all cases, so at any one time there may have been patients suffering from any variety of complaints ranging from broken legs, measles, typhoid fever and smallpox to blindness, scarlet fever, diphtheria and dysentery. It was the worst place for a sick person to be.

Personal Information Death Record Name: Sophia Marchant Year: 1839 District: Maidstone County: Kent Volume: 5 Page: 213 View image SOURCE INFORMATION: General Register Office. England and Wales Civil Registration Indexes. London, England: General Register Office.

   Sophia Jones Marchant passed away in October of 1839 in the Maidstone workhouse, leaving five children between the ages of two and 12 to fend for themselves.⁴ Rosanna Balcomb, a widow and possibly Sophia's sister, had been sent back with Sophia to Maidstone from Sussex, and it's likely that she kept an eye on the children after Sophia died.
   Robert Sr. wasn't around to watch over the children. In fact, the Maidstone Journal and Kentish Advertiser of Tuesday 3 Dec 1839 reported that a Robert Marchant was convicted of deserting his wife and family, and sentenced to three months imprisonment in the house of correction. While we can't be sure if this particular Robert is our ancestor, we do know that Robert soon left Kent and moved to Surrey—where there was more work, and where his brother was already living, in the London borough of Lambeth, where he passed away in January of 1884.

NOTES ON THIS PAGE

¹—Paul Harrington (Sun, Aug 20): "Here's a reasonable chronology:

• 1784 Mary Ferrell had a daughter out of wedlock baptised 29th February in Salehurst. Eleanor was 14 days old when she was baptised and is called the bastard daughter of Mary Ferrell.
• 1788 June 30th Mary Ferrell married John Jones at Herstmonceux. Above John and Mary in the records, married on the same day, are John Brazil and Hannah Jones. This caught my eye because Brazil is a well documented traveller name in Sussex. That they were travellers is confirmed by later baptisms.
• In 1789 July 19th they have a daughter Elizabeth baptised at Guestling when they are called 'beggars.'"
• In 1799 February 13th they have a son John baptised at Sedlescombe when they are called 'travellers of Penshurst in Kent married at Hurstmonceux'. Interestingly, they are not defined by their status when they have a John baptised in 1792 July 15th at Salehurst. We have suspected for some time that Sophia's family were travellers. Based on names, and the proximity of the marriages, the John and Mary who married at Hertstmonceux on the same day as John and Hannah are also likely to be travellers. Hannah is probably John's sister. The name Hannah is interesting in that Rose Jones is Rosanna or Rosannah in the records. Her name seems to be a combination of Rose and Hannah.
• 1808 9th April Eleanor Ferrell married William Bryant in Rolvenden. They settled and had a family there and were living there in 1819.
• 1819 George Balcomb and Rose Jones were married May 3rd at Rolvenden. George is of Cranbrook. Rose is of this parish. The witness at their marriage is William Bryant.

I don't think we'll get better 'provenance' than this. Eleanor Ferrell Bryant is the answer to the question 'why did George Balcombe and Rose Jones go to Rolvenden to marry?' She must be. It's not credible that it is just a coincidence her husband is the witness at George and Rose's marriage. Mary Ferrell is her mother and Rose's mother. She is Rose Jones' full, or half, sister. So it looks like:

• Rose (baptism not found; died 1841; There is a Rose d. of a John and Mary Jones baptised in Maresfield Dec 5th 1790;—but this would put her aged 50 in the 1841 census if she's 'our' Rose. Too vague to verify as yet.) and Sophia Jones (baptised 15th February 1807 at Salehurst; died age 32 in Maidstone workhouse 1839) are the daughters of John Jones and Mary Ferrell. John Jones may or may not be Eleanor's father.
• Henry George Jones baptised Bodiam 24th November 1811 to John and Mary is their brother. His, and likely their, father is a hawker. He says this at his marriage.

There are other births to a John and Mary that could well be other siblings, but nothing, beyond the fact they are one-off births in a location, necessarily says they are:

Numerous gaps in the births but as we discovered gaps are also there in the Marchant family. John and Sarah Marchant, Robert's parents, have a gap of 7 years. We've always assumed this must be connected to military service during the Napoleonic Wars."

²—Paul Harrington (Sun, Aug 20): "The police report suggests that Sophia had some means of living in the area and was probably in touch with relatives before moving on to Lewes where Rbt was in prison. We know they travelled extensively around Sussex so connections with families (mixed spellings) such as Jones, Ferrell (many confused transcriptions), Bryant, Brazil, Coney etc keep cropping up. Branches of Jones and Ferrells were carpenters and builders and this was railway building boom time—so work available for lath renders (or a chance for villains to take advantage of crowds of strangers?)"

TOP PHOTO: SALEHURST (St. Mary), a parish, in the union of Ticehurst, hundred of Henhurst, rape of Hastings, E. division of Sussex, 6 miles (N.) from Battle. A Cistercian abbey was founded here in 1176, by Alured de St. Martin and Queen Adeliza, and flourished till the Dissolution. The river Rother flows through the parish; and the road to Hastings passes by the villages of Robert's-Bridge and HurstGreen: at the latter beautiful place, petty-sessions are held monthly. The church is a handsome structure in the early and later English styles, with a square embattled tower, and contains some remains of stained glass. There are places of worship for Wesleyans.

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