The Wastell Family History

William Wastell was born 23 Oct 1771 in Briant Street, Shoreditch. He was baptised on 8th November in St. Leonards, Shoreditch. The church is dedicated to St Leonard, the patron saint of prisoners and those who are mentally ill, there has been a church here for many centuries. It was this church which became the actors’ church. The first English theatre was close by in New Inn Yard where several of Shakespeare’s plays had their initial performance. Many of the Elizabethan theatrical fraternity are buried in the medieval church under the crypt.  The church features in the nursery rhyme Oranges & Lemons. “When I grow rich, say the bells at Shoreditch.” On the 19 Nov 1798 in Spitalfields Christ Church, William Married Lydia Ayres. Some French Huguenots used Christchurch for baptisms, marriages and burials but not for everyday worship, preferring their own chapels. At the birth of their first child, James in 1805, William was living in New Inn Yard...

Chapter 4 – Silk Weavers Riot Spitalfields had been a centre of the silk-weaving industry since the early seventeenth century. Towards the end of the century, at the time when the Huguenots arrived from France, large numbers of Huguenot silk-weavers settled in the district thanks in large part to the decision of William and Mary to invite Huguenots being hard-pressed by the French crown to relocate their talents across the channel. This now-domestic industry quickly began supplanting formerly dominant French imports. But as the 18th century unfolded, even the most industrious Spitalfields weavers came under increasing competitive pressure especially from Chinese and Indian imports. Weavers attacked in the open street wearers of cotton stuffs - the "Calico Madams" - even tearing the clothes off their backs. In petitions to Parliament the calicoes were denounced "as a worthless, scandalous, unprofitable sort of goods embraced by a luxuriant humour amon...

1)            THOMAS BELLOTT b.1640 THOMAS BELLOTT was born in 1640 in St. Martin, Puy-de-Drome, Auvergne, France. 150km west of Lyon. He married JUDITH LE SAUVAGE . She was born in St. Martin Le Bolbec, ( Nr La Havre) Normandy, France.     Thomas Bellott and Judith Le Sauvage had the following children: 1)      THOMAS BELLOTT was born in 1670 in Seine, Maritime, Normandy, France. He married MARIE GUELLE. She was born in 1670 in Mazange, 41131, Loir-et-Cher, Centre, France.     2)      SUZANNE BELLOTT was born in 1661 in Seine Maritine, Normandy, France. She married Jacque Quesnel in 1691. Around the same time it appears that her brother Thomas married Marie Guelle. Records of the Threadneedle St Church, most important of London’s numerous Huguenot Churches (there were 9 of these in 1700), show that Thomas and Marie acted as godpare...

In the first installments of Charles Dickens’ article “Spitalfields,” published in his weekly journal “Household Words” on 5th April 1851, we accompanied Dickens and his sub-editor W.H. Wills to a silk warehouse where they met Mr Broadelle, the manager. In this third installment, they set out with Mr Broadelle as their guide to explore the narrow streets of Spitalfields, illustrated by this engraving of Pelham St (now Woodseer St) off Brick Lane, lined with weavers’ cottages, distinguished by the long windows of the weaver’s lofts upon the top floor. Let us hurry to keep up with, Dickens, Wills and Broadelle as they make their way… From fourteen to seventeen thousand looms are contained in from eleven to twelve thousand houses – although at the time at which we write, not more than nine to ten thousand are  at work. The average number of houses per acre in the parish is seventeen; and the average per acre for all London being no more than five and a fifth, Spitalfields ...