Fosh/Fouache and Chadwick

[n4mv3t]

G'day all 

My tree branch of Robert CHADWICK who in 1845 marries Elizabeth FOSH (my Gx2 grandparents) has for a time been a dead end at Elizabeth FOSH. Then, last week, yet another "desperate" Google search on my Grandmother Rose Louisa ESTALL b.1891 brought up some unexpected 'finds' with some information on Elizabeth FOSH'S forebears. Most of this info has no corroborative documentation and so I am currently sifting through it all and intend progressively sourcing essential certs/docs etc.
... amongst the info is a Margaret FOSH b. 29 November 1754 in Lock Alley. I have checked a number of maps of that time (using http://archivemaps.com/mapco/london.htm)  but haven't located a Lock Alley ... NOTE: She was baptised at St Leonard's, Shoreditch and died in Bethnall Green, so I have been assuming that Lock Alley was a place/district or street in or around the area.
So where is/was Lock Alley? ... any help on this would be greatly appreciated

I have given more info than needed for a simple "where is Lock Alley" question as I expect I'll be posting further Fosh related questions in this thread (as I sift through the info I have) and thought it better to have the Fosh's in one place to help future researchers of the name. Hope that's OK.

 

[Morganllan]

Hello
there is a "Lock Alley" mentioned in "Old and New London: a narrative of its history, its people, and its places by Walter Thornbury (1873)

you can access it here:

http://www.archive.org/stream/oldnewlondonnarr03thor/oldnewlondonnarr03thor_djvu.txt

Best wishes
Morgan

[Morganllan]

It's also mentioned in here "Some account of the parish of Saint Clement Danes (Westminster) past and present"

http://www.archive.org/stream/someaccountofpar01dipr/someaccountofpar01dipr_djvu.txt

[n4mv3t]

morganllan ... many thanks for that info ... very interesting reading, however the location described in those texts puts Lock Alley between Marble Bar and the Strand, but near the river (am I right?). As Margaret's grandfather's address is Spitalfields and her parents address is Spitalfields, Bethnal Green and Mile End, I am doubting it is 'my' Lock Alley. Her parents were married in Jan 1754 and Margaret was born in Nov 1754 which would suggest it wasn't an 'away from home birth'
... btw, I have bookmarked those links for future reference ... again, thanks

[Morganllan]

Perhaps Margaret's Mother went to stay with family for the birth? Often women went home to their Mother for a first delivery 

[n4mv3t]

Perhaps Margaret's Mother went to stay with family for the birth? Often women went home to their Mother for a first delivery 

... that's always a possibility, or perhaps an Aunt ... Margaret's Mother was a Marshall and Margaret was a Higginson (born at Cripplegate, so nearer to Temple Bar) ... so more English family resources than the relatively new French family, it does make it a possibility ... thanks again for your input ... much appreciated

[Morganllan]

You're welcome 

Remember to link your threads when you start new ones on the same family 

[n4mv3t]

You're welcome 

Remember to link your threads when you start new ones on the same family 

... about 'linking threads' ... how is that done? ... have looked 

[richarde1979]

Right I think I have the problem here...somebody has misread the original baptism record.



It's not 'Lock Alley' rather 'Cock Alley'

This is a map of the area made 8 years previous to her baptism by the Huguenot map maker John Rocque:



You can see Cock Alley coming off Cock Lane. The area was fairly dense in the 1740's and 1750's and  housed many of the journeymen weavers, whereas the richer silk weavers and masters lived in and around Christchurch Spitalfields and Norton Folgate directly to the south. By the early 1800's most of the weavers had moved out further East into Bethnal Green, and by the Victorian era  it had decended into really dire poverty, comprising part of the 'Old Nichol' estate, which was fairly notorious as the site of the East Ends  worse poverty and crime. It was the first singled out for 'slum clearance' in the 1890's, and the 'Boundary Estate' put up in it's place, which still stands today. This marks the fact that the area forms the boundary between Bethnal Green and Shoreditch parishes.

Incidently the Fosh's/Fouaches married into my Mallandains in Bethnal Green the 19th century, though not on my own particular branch.