Chapter 3 - The French Connection



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, Spitalfields.

New Inn Yard is significant because it was the home of the first Theatre in London, before Shakespeare moved it south of the river to the Globe at Southwark.  It was also home to Robert Norquet whose family were from Celles in France.

 With the birth of their second child, Lydia in 1807, William was back in Bryant Street, where his parents lived.

 By 1830, when Lydia died, William was living in Corbets Court, Spittlefields.  She was buried at Christ Church, St. Mary & St. Stephen.




Like much of Spitalfields, the Court was then predominantly populated by French Protestant refugees and their descendants, with the French Church’s Charity House based there. William was a Silk Skein Dyer. 

 In 1847 William joined the St. Luke’s Lodge of the Free Masons, photo

On 3rd July 1826, William’s son, James married Elizabeth Dodge. Elizabeth was a descendent of Thomas Bellot. He was born in 1640 in St. Martin, Pay-de-Dome, France.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chapter 1 - Beginnings

Image
John Wastell C 1677 There have been Wastells in England since the Normal Conquest of 1066. John Wastell (c. 1460–c. 1518) was an English gothic architect and master mason responsible for the fan vaulted ceiling and other features of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, the crossing tower (Bell Harry Tower) of Canterbury Cathedral, and sections of both Manchester and Peterborough cathedrals. He also worked on Bury St Edmunds Abbey. We know that a Samuel Wastell of Spital Yard paid a Hearth tax in 1666.  This address appears later in our story. The first historically documented evidence for our part of the Wastell family tree begins in the late 17th Century when John Wastell married his wife Ann. John was a Silk Weaver who enjoyed the privilege of Freedom of the City of London. The Freedom of the City of London originate from the medieval trade guilds which were established to regulate particular crafts. Guilds supervised the training of apprentices, controlled standa...
Read more

Chapter 4 - Riots

Image
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...
Read more

Chapter 5 - Huguenots

Image
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...
Read more