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Record #16751
Name :
: Henry John JOHNSON


Father
:
Mother
:
BMD and other details
Date of Birth
:

Marriage (1)
:
Marriage (2)
:

Date of Death
:
Abode (1) : Place of BirthEngland
Abode (2) : Place of Death / Burial
Sailing Information
Date of Arrival
: 6 May 1884
Country
: Canada

Ship
: Sarnia

Placement Family
:
Homes / Agencys
Institution (GB)
:

Agency
: Barnardos
NotesNewspaper article 1884 , Shoreditch Middlesex, London
The Johnson Story

In 1835 James Johnson married Mary Ann Wilkinson at Spitalfields, London. In 1841 James and Mary Ann worked as Silk Weavers living and working at 3 James Street, Bethnal Green and later at number 13. On the 1851 census the wife is down as Margaret and in 1861 Marion. But have checked and it is an error on the census. I can under stand how they could have put Marion instead of Mary Ann but Margaret! Somebody?s writing must have been awful. On all the other years the name is correct. James and Mary Ann had four surviving children: Mary Ann - Born c1837 (Later Mrs Boxall) Henry - Born c1839, John - Born c1842, Sarah - Born c1846 (Later Mrs Hunt)
In 1851 James, his wife and eldest daughter are all down as Silk Weavers. By 1861 James was working as an undertaker (Looks like they stayed in James Street for quite a while although the house number changed) I know that Silk Weavers had a really hard time in the middle 1800?s and want to find out why the work disappeared. On the census James and Mary Ann?s next-door neighbour was the local policeman who lived in the churchyard. Is this how James changed jobs? And I have just found out that some of the silk the weavers made was supplied as linings for coffins. I don?t know the answer, but could be possible, as it seems quite a change of employment to me In 1861 John went to Luton in Bedfordshire and was working as a waiter in the George Hotel. George Street. He is down as 19 years on the census, one of the maids was a young girl called Rebecca Sarah Caple (Capel) age 21 from Northamptonshire. On 20th July 1862 John and Rebecca were married in Luton Register Office Between 1862 and 1871 John and Rebecca had five surviving children.
Although all these places are now in the middle of London, in 1800?s London was just the City of London and most of these addresses were in Middlesex.

Sarah c1863 Pentonville Road, Islington.
Emma c1865 Barnardos Report
Hannah c 1866 Barnardos Report
Mary Ann c1869 Barnardos Report
Henry John 1870 Old Ford

The Barnardo?s report has both my grandfather Henry?s birth date and his mothers name incorrect which was why it took me so long to find any certificates etc., but I can understand why they could not find the grandmother, they have her name as Cable not Capel/Caple. But I suppose the only information they had was what they were given. And as it looks as if only some of the population could read and write, so spelling must have been a problem.

On the 8th April 1871 Rebecca Sarah Johnson died in the Hommerton Fever Hospital, Hackney from Smallpox On the 5th November 1871 John married Elizabeth Howard. Elizabeth?s father Lewis Howard (Sieve Maker) and family lived at 19 Chilton Street, Bethnal Green while James and Mary Ann Johnson had moved to number 17 Chilton Street. John and Elizabeth?s surviving children were: Catherine - c1873 Mile End Road (Catherine was on the census as a cripple from birth and stayed with the parents throughout all the problems. Could she have looked after the mother?) L izzie - c1876 Bethnal Green, Susannah - c1878 Bethnal Green, John - C 1880 Bethnal Green (The 1881 census is incorrect and has him down as 6 years not 6 months) Confirmation on Barnardo?s report. Maud - 1st Feb 1884, Lillian -c1887 Hoxton, Walter - c1889 Hoxton.

Elizabeth had a drinking problem, which devastated the family. Below is a copy of a newspaper article and Barnardo?s records.

A copy of a newspaper article:

Henry John Johnson On the date of Boy?s admission Son of John Johnson (43) who formed the subject of the following paragraph, cut from a newspaper of the 25th January 1884: - ?A Wretched Family?. ? At the Mansion House Police court yesterday, John Johnson, a waiter at a restaurant in Fenchurch Street, was charged with attempting suicide. From information received the police proceeded on Wednesday last to the restaurant, and there on the first floor they saw the prisoner seated on a chair, with a number of gentlemen around him. On their asking Johnson what he had done, he said ? I have stabbed myself in the chest with a carving knife. I am in trouble with my wife and children? He was removed at once to Guy?s Hospital, where he has been since. On proceeding to the house, which he occupied in Paradise Place, Cambridge Heath Road, they found the man?s wife in an advanced state of pregnancy and very weak. Three children were huddled together on an old bedstead upstairs, and were asleep. Two other were also asleep in a dark corner of the room, and were quite naked. Near the fireplace were a child of four, with no shoes or stockings on, and a young woman of eighteen with a baby, the father of which, she said, was in the madhouse. The Lord Mayor said the attention of the local authorities should be directed to this case. On the prisoner expressing regret and promising not to repeat the offence, he was cautioned and discharged.

By the second marriage: - John and Elizabeth's children
Kate (Cripple fom birth age10) Elizabeth (8) Susan (6) John (3) and an infant of seven weeks, all with their parents.



I have cut the Barnard's report on the family as they have to give permission for it to be published.


John was very small for his age at 14 being only 4ft 3ins, He was sent to three farms in Canada where his treatment left a lot to be desired I suppose he was a disappointment and reading between the lines these families did not want a son or daughter just another pair of hands to work the fields. He was sent from farm to farm but being small Henry was not considered strong enough for farm work but he must have learned something as he spent the rest of his life looking after horses.

I felt very sad when reading the Barnardos Report, sad that my grandfather had this sort of life first with his new mother and then what should have being a new start in a new country being less than he must have hoped for. Henry disappeared from the last farm that he had been sent to so there is no information on what he did for a few years. Somehow he found out that his half-sister Maud had been sent to Canada four years later. I cannot find out about John who was also sent. Henry wrote to Barnardos to try to find Maud. He must have found her at some time as part of his Royal Horse Artillery pay was sent to her. The good news is; I have been in contact with her son and his family who still live in Canada.

Henry returned to England, took ten years off his age (good job he was so small) and somewhere, somehow joined the Royal Horse Artillery riding the gun carriages or so the story goes. (See Photos)
Later he met my grandmother Elizabeth Brewster and stayed in England and he spent the rest of his working life with horses. I would like to think he was happy with the outcome.


The Barnardo's reports can be given to family members, so please contact me if you would like a copy.

Copy of letter from RHAM Re- Henry and the Royal Horse Artillery

Ref. Jan.95 Dear Mrs. Ready Thank you for your recent communication. We can confirm that he is wearing the uniform of the Royal Regiment of Artillery; in the named photograph he is wearing the jacket of the Royal Horse Artillery. The medals are most probably the Queen?s South Africa Medal 1899-1902 and the King?s South Africa Medal 1901-1902. Unfortunat ely we are not permitted to hold personal service records in the Royal Artillery library or archives. Such records of individual service as survive are held by the Ministry of Defense or the National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) at Kew. All the surviving records up to discharge in 1918 are now available to the public and can be seen at the National Archives, Ruskin Avenue, Kew, Richmond, Surrey. Please note that the NA will not do research for you and you must either visit or engage a professional researcher. The NA can provide you with a list. Medal rolls, up to and including the First World War, can be seen at the NA at Kew. Occasionally they show additional information that can provide further clues to service. They can also now be purchased online. Other useful sources are the ?Muster Rolls and Pay Lists? of the Royal Artillery (WO10 series). These are the nominal rolls for the companies and batteries of the Royal Artillery. Two useful guides to these records are Laws, Lt.-Col. M. E. S., Battery Records of the Royal Artillery 1716-1859 (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institute, 1952); and Laws, Lt.-Col. M. E. S., Battery Records of the Royal Artillery 1859-1877 (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institution, 1970). These guides also provide tables of battery locations during these years. For Royal Horse Artillery locations, the best source remains Michell, Lt. Col. J. E., Records of the Royal Horse Artillery from its Formation to the Present Day (Revised edition of ?The records of the Horse Brigade) [London: W. Mitchell & Co., 1888]. For battery locations between 1877 and 1914, the best source is the Distribution Lists of the Royal Artillery, published on a quarterly basis. Copies are available in the James Clavell Library of Firepower, The Royal Artillery Museum, in Woolwich. WO69 provides artillery records of service for the periods 1791-1855 for the Royal Artillery and 1803-63 for the Royal Horse Artillery. For Royal Artillerymen discharged between 1856 and 1913, the most important source of service information is usually WO 97: Royal Hospital Chelsea: Soldiers? Documents. I hope this is of some assistance. Yours sincerely 
ContributorsCreated : 2012-09-17 21:44:28 / From original database

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IDNameDOBPlace of birthArrivals & ShipsDest.AgencyFamily links
16751 JOHNSON, Henry John ENG,     May 1884 : Sarnia CAN Barnardos barbarasambridge  
27702 JOHNSON, John1880ENG,    , London Jul 1894 : SARDINIAN CAN Barnardo's barbarasambridge  
16752 JOHNSON, Maud ENG,     Sep 1895 : Sardinian CAN Barnardos barbarasambridge