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I had a rather interesting discovery while doing some research. I was having trouble finding a birth record for Alfred Denhart, who was born in Hoxton about 1878, married in 1905, and had a family. Then I discovered that he and his mother and siblings went into the workhouse in St Mary Islington in 1885.

In September of that year, Florence Denhart, age 36, a charwoman by profession, entered the workhouse with her young children Florence (11) and William (9), from her marriage to her late husband, and Alfred (6) and James (5), who are noted as her illegitimate sons by one Thomas Shipman. In October they were ordered removed to the parish of St Leonard's Shoreditch.

I found Florence and her three sons in 1891, now living in London under the name Shipman and working as a laundress. She is listed as married but there is no husband present. I went searching for the birth records of her children. Her birthplace seems to say "Strasburg" (probably the city called Strassbourg in Alsace). As far as I can tell, Alfred and James have no birth records, not under Denhart nor Shipman. But I did find the birth records for her elder children, where her maiden name is quite unusual -- Merckling.

Alfred's marriage record lists his father as Tobias Denhart. Tobias Denhart did marry in 1872, to a woman named Salome Merckling. I believe I found her in 1871, working as a nurse in a household in Ealing, Middlesex. Her birthplace is given as France. I don't know why Salome chose to go by Florence, but it certainly seems this is the right woman.

Finally, I located her little family in 1881. Salome (now Florence) is living with William (not Thomas!) Shipman in Shoreditch with her two little boys and her daughter, Florence. William is working as a cabman. Florence's birthplace is again given as France, "British Subject". I don't know what happened to William Shipman, but in 1885, as I mentioned before, Florence and her young children would go to the workhouse.

At last, in 1901, Florence has reverted back to the Denhart name and is living in Fulham on her own. Quite a long way from Salome Merckling from Strassbourg!

This family is found in St Leonard Shoreditch, on Horse Shoe Alley, living in an "institution" which I presume is a poor house or some kind of hospital, as several other families are living there. The Ruffell family is:

Samuel, aged 60-64, not born in Middlesex

Elizabeth, 50-54, not born in Middlesex

John, aged 35-39, not born in Middlesex

John, aged 11, born Middlesex (later censuses say Finsbury)

William, aged 9, born Middlesex

On the face of it, this would appear to be a married couple (Samuel and Elizabeth) with their adult, widower son John, and John's two young sons. I can't seem to find the younger John on the 1851 census, although he does appear in 1871 and 1881.

Thank you, everyone!

Curiously there appears to have been three Sampson Boultons living at approximately the same time. One married Sarah Lockett, one married Mary Mayor or Mare, and one married an Ellen Pedley. I see Sampson and Sarah in the 1841 census with a Mary Lockett who is surely Sarah's mother (there's a baptism for a Sarah Lockett in 1790, father John, mother Mary).

Hannah's maiden name in her daughter Ann's birth record is WOODMAN, as per GRO.