My Family

Matters

Researching the origins of my ancestors, the Dear family, is ‘Work in Progress’ - a tag that can be applied to all family history investigations. But in this instance, I believe that there is more to be discovered, for a certainty. The family has been traced back to the clustered streets around Aldergate and Cheapside, near St Paul’s Cathedral in London. In view of the details which have already been uncovered, I am confident that there is more to be found about the Dears.

These are the tantalizing facts that provide loose ends in abundance: John Dare (sic) began an apprenticeship to be an engraver in 1790. I have a copy of his signed agreement which reads: May 5 1790. Be it remembered that I, John Dare, son of John Dare of Jewin Street, London, carpenter, do bind myself to John Whittingham of Staining Lane, London, engraver, citizen and Goldsmith of London, to learn his art as an engraver for the term of seven years from this day (Signed John Dare). (Extracted from the Goldsmiths’ Apprentices Book 9; page 216)

For some reason, after seven years, John did not receive his Freedom following his apprenticeship. This was granted in 1803. The Goldsmiths’ librarian, David Beasley, sent me this e-mail: ‘I can confirm that the apprenticeship record of John Dare is exactly that spelling and signature and that by his Freedom date (6 April 1803) he had become John Dear. There is a marginal note in the Freedom Book to this effect - “see appr(entice) book 5 May 1790: he signs Dare”’.

So, with the benefit of these details, what follows is the earliest known history of the Dare/Dear family.

John Dare - born  1750c - my greatx5 grandfather

We know where he lived - Jewin Street      - and his trade - carpenter. Jewin Street was so named as it was an ancient burial place of Jews. It lay in the labyrinth of streets between St Paul’s Cathedral  (to the south) and the Barbican and straddled the two parishes of St Giles Cripplegate and St Botolph without Aldersgate.

Much of the street was destroyed by a great blaze in 1897 when it comprised of mainly large, six storey business houses. The process of devastation was completed by the blitz of 1941 after which Jewin Street was no more.

In view of his trade and as his son was literate (a pre-requisite of an apprenticeship), one may infer that John was also educated.

It is worth noting that a John Dare (son of William and Sarah) was baptised on 12 March 1753 at St Vedast, Foster Lane and St Michael Le Querne. This parish is about half a mile south-east of Jewin Street, close to St Paul’s. Perhaps, this record relates to my ancestor, John Dare,  and should be investigated further.

John Dare/Dear - born 1776c - my greatx4 grandfather

The date of John Dare’s birth may be roughly calculated from the start of his apprenticeship - May 1790. John was probably about fourteen years old at the time and so was born in around 1776. Unfortunately, there is no local corresponding entry in the parish records of the IGI (International Genealogical Index) and so the date of John’s baptism cannot be established.

John began his apprenticeship with John Whittingham, an engraver of  13 Staining Street      , Wood Street which was less than a mile south-east of Jewin Street - a fifteen- minute walk from home and 250 metres north-east of St Pauls Cathedral, close by Goldsmiths’ Hall in Foster Lane.

We can deduce much about John from his chosen profession. The art of engraving involves cutting away metal with a tool that produces a fine, vee cut. The lines vary in depth and width and the resulting decoration has a crisp quality that catches the light. It is a demanding and skillful craft that has much in common with fine ink drawing - in fact, the successful engraver must have the ability to draw.

When he was aged about twenty-five, John (now Dear) married Mary Brooks at nearby St Giles, Cripplegate on 13 January 1801. Both signed and were described as being of this parish.

As yet I have found certain evidence of only one child born to the couple, a son, Frederick John Dear - my greatx3 grandfather. Probably they had other children who are yet to be discovered. More about this later.

At this point,  the trail of what became of John and Mary Dear grows cold. They do not feature in the 1841 census when John was about sixty-five and I haven’t discovered a note of their deaths.

Left, St Giles, Cripplegate

Frederick John Dear (1804-1845) - my greatx3 grandfather

Right, an example of John Whittingham’s work - a bright-cut engraved and floral-pierced wine label produced about the time that John Dare joined his firm. Also shown, is John Whittingham’s silver mark

Concerning Frederick John Dear, data has been disgorged in a satisfying torrent. He was baptised on 13 March 1804 at St Giles, Cripplegate.

Although he was silversmith with his own mark, I have not found any details of his apprenticeship. He married Emma Brown, the daughter of a builder and lessee of property and taverns, on 21 December 1828 at Hampstead - Emma was just fifteen years old!  Their first child was born a year later. The couple had a total of six children.

Frederick John Dear

bapt 13 Mar 1804 Cripplegate

died 27 Dec 1844 St Lukes

Emma Brown

born 22 July 1813 Marylebone

m 21 Dec 1828 Hampstead

died 7 Apr 1866 Clapton, M-sex

Frederick George Dear

born 16 Dec 1829

 Shoreditch

William Sydney Dear

born 19 Jan 1831

Shoreditch

Emma Amelia Dear

born 3 Mar 1834

Shoreditch

Matilda Dear

born 12 Dec 1836

Shoreditch

Edmund Dear

born Mar Qtr 1839

Shoreditch

Alfred Samuel Dear

born Mar Qtr 1841

Clapton, M-sex.

Frederick was a plate worker. He traded from these addresses:

A 30 Phillips Street, Kingsland Road (1 Jan 1839)

B 3 Whitmore Row, Hoxton Fields (25 Mar 1840 and 6 June 1841)

C 8 Union Square, Chapel St, Pentonville (23 Oct 1843)

D 3 Kings Square, Goswell Street Road ( 12 Aug 1844)

Right, Frederick Dear’s mark

It was while Frederick was living at 3 Kings Square that he succombed to phthisis pulmonalis (TB) on 27 December 1844. He was thirty-nine years old and left behind a thirty-one-year-old widow and four children aged ten or under.The task of informing the registrar of his father’s death fell to my greatx2 grandfather, William, who was fourteen.

Of Emma Dear - Frederick’s widow

Bereft of her breadwinner, how could Emma support her family? Six month’s after her husband’s demise, Emma began trading as a silversmith in her own right.

On 20 July 1845, she  joined forces with  Henry Dear (probably her brother-in-law) in a business that operated from 48 (Great) James Street,      Hoxton. Then, she moved to trade from 4 St James’ Walk     , Clerkenwell and registered her own silvermark.

So, was Emma herself a silversmith ? It was not unknown for ladies to learn the craft, but the view of the Goldsmith’s librarian is that she probably ran the business rather than getting her hands dirty - literally so, as silversmith’s hands became very stained. Indeed, in the censuses between 1841 and 1861, Emma was not described as a silversmith.

In 1841, Emma Dear’s father, William Brown, was living on the northern outskirts of London near Clapton. A little earlier, in 1833, William had taken a 57-year lease on a house and some land off Lea Bridge Road. He was living in the house in 1841, and by 1851, he had built a new dwelling, Pond Cottage, on the land near his home. This cottage was to be inhabited by William’s descendents for more than sixty years.

It is perhaps not surprising that two other branches of my family were in the Clapton/Lea Bridge area during the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Greens lived beside the River Lea from the 1840s and the Dees were at Stoke Newington and Clapton - William John Dee had a shop near the corner of Lea Bridge Road and Upper Clapton Road.

Emma’s situation improved following the death of her father in August 1849. By the terms of his will, she received a bequest of £20, two silver tablespoons and four teaspoons and the ‘leasehold tavern’, The Duke of Cambridge, Cambridge Heath, Bethnal Green was placed in trust for her. 1851 found her living at Pond Cottage with all her children - she was described as a ‘house proprietoress’. Emma remained at that home until her death on

7 April 1866. After an inquest, the coroner noted the cause of her death as a sudden rupture of the aorta. Emma was fifty-two.

Canal

Canal

A

B

To Shoreditch

To Hackney

Kingsland Road

C

Pentonville Road

Union Square, Pentonville was about a mile south-west of Whitmore Row and closer to the Clerkenwell area. Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations are further to the south-west

D

Kings Square was half-a-mile south-east of Union Square and north of the Barbican.

*

*

*

*

*

Hoxton Street

Kingsland

Road

*

*

*

Chatsworth

Road

Pond Cottage

N

Lea Bridge Road

River Lea

Lea Bridge Dock

Chatsworth

Road

Pond Cottage and land

Wm Brown’s house and land

Otley Terrace

School Nook

To Clapton

Lea Bridge Place

A pair of rococo salt cellars with Emma’s mark sold by

Christies for £1380

Other children of John and Mary Dear ?

Now we enter the shadowy land of speculation - yet there may be good reasons for our theories. So, if one discovers other silversmiths with the surname, Dear, is it not likely that they are related to my family?

With regard to Henry William Dear, there are several reasons to conclude that he was Frederick’s brother. In the absence of any information about his baptism, censuses reveal that he was born at Clerkenwell in around 1814 - the area where John and Mary were residing. Henry was a silversmith. He married Eliza Brooks - was she of the same family as Mary Brooks whom John Dear married? Both Frederick (1 Jan 1839) and Henry (25 Oct 1838) are recorded as trading from 30 Phillips Street, Kingsland. When Emma Dear was widowed she went into partnership with Henry, who had also lost his wife? Bearing in mind the prohibition at the time that widow/ers were prohibited from  marrying their spouse’s siblings, both had a business and an emotional need.

In view of these considerations, there is a strong case for saying that Henry was Frederick’s brother.

Henry William Dear

Henry was born at Clerkenwell in around 1814. He was a silversmith with his own mark. In 1891, he was noted as working in gold.

On 25 October 1838, he was based at the northern fringe of London at 30 Phillips Street, Kingsland where he was joined two months later by his brother, Frederick. Shortly afterwards he married Eliza Brooks on 18 March 1839 at St John’s Baptist Church, Shoreditch.

The census of 1841 shows that Henry and Eliza were living at Ivy Street, Hoxton Old Town and that they had a young son, Henry John who was born in the spring of 1840. A daughter, Eliza Mary Dear was born in the autumn of 1842, but apparently there were complications - her mother, Eliza died and little Eliza died a year later. Henry was never to re-marry and attached himself to the Osborne family for the rest of his life - lodging with various members. He always described himself as a cousin (a catch-all description of a family connection) and probably he was related through his mother’s family, the Brooks.

In 1851 he was living with Thomas and Ann Osborne at 84 Pearson Street, Haggerstone, London. Ten years later, he and Thomas were lodging at the Wagon and Horses Inn, Hurst, Berkshire. In 1871, he was with Ann Osborne at 46 Linton Street, Islington.

A decade later, Henry was lodging with William and Eliza (nee Osborne) Edwards at 64 Dumont Road, Stoke Newington. Finally, he was to be found with Edwin and Rosa (nee Edwards) at 49 Sparsholt Road, Upper Holloway, Islington in 1891. This was the end of the line for Henry as he died, aged 77, in the autumn of that year, still living in the Islington district.

Home page

Top

Maps of London reproduced with the kind permission of Mark Annand. The Greenwood map of London (1827) can be found at this Link: Greenwoods map of London.