My Family Matters
John Green, my 3xgreat grandfather was a skilled craftsman. All his life he lived near the River Thames, building boats.
John Green was born on 8 October 1800 at Salisbury Street, Bermondsey, Surrey and
baptised at St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey on 2 November 1800 -
John was apprenticed to Thomas Tisdell (a beneficiary of his grandfathers will) on
22 September 1815 for seven years as a shipwright. (Hover cursor on image, right, to read)
His wife was Jane Houghton. (Link: Houghtons) She was born around 1799 in the same
district at Horsley Down. The couple married at St Clements Dane, Westminster on
Christmas Day 1828 -
Judging by his beautifully written and correctly spelt record of their children’s births in Pilgrim’s Progress (see below), John was well educated. He also had a precise mind, recording the exact time of each child’s arrival, by whom they were registered and the registrar’s address.
By 1829, John and Jane had settled at Pratt Street, Lambeth -
Lambeth Palace and St Mary’s Church seen from the Thames
Their first four children were baptised at St Mary’s, Lambeth. The family then moved towards Blackfriars where Vincent was born. Although he died two years later, his sister, Julia was born in Borough during 1841.
Soon afterwards, the family moved north of the river to the Lea Bridge Road area of Clapton. This was to be their home for the rest of their lives. Here, Julia died in the summer of 1842 and their last two children were born: Emily (1844) and Vincent (1845).
On 30 October 1847, John bought a twenty-
On 20 September 1872, John leased this property for thirty-
John Green
(1801 -
Jane (nee Houghton) (1799 -
Anne Green
(1829 -
John Green
(1833 -
Jane Green
(1836 -
Vincent Green
(1838 -
Richard Green
(1831 -
Julia Green
(1841 -
Vincent Green
(1845 -
Emily Green
(1844 -
Westminster Bridge
Palace New Road
Lambeth Palace and
St Mary’s Church
Pratt Street
Paradise Row
John Green jnr’s home is the one at the end of the row
To Tottenham Public Footpath
Gardens
Garden
House
Land at present
In the occupation of John Green
Garden
Waterway
Hammond’s
Tea Gardens
143 ft
64 ft 6ins
114 ft
22 ft 3 ins
Ditch
Bridge
River Lea
Plan of John Green’s leased land.
Boat builders were skilled craftsmen who served an apprenticeship of several years.
The design of boats might be carried in the tradesman’s head, augmented by thumbnail sketches and specifications of more complex details. Often this information was passed down from father to son.
Boat builders required a large working area in which to work -
Boats have curved, almost sensual lines and to achieve these timber must be steamed for it to become pliable. So, a purpose built steam room is essential which is large enough to hold the longest planks. It is fed by a boiler and is sealed to hold steam under pressure.
Another obvious requirement is that the boat yard is near water for the launch. As can be seen from the plan of John Green’s home and land, their location fitted all these requirements.
Boats are built by ‘laying down’ a skeleton of prow, stern, keel and ribs to which
planks are secured. The main components are sculptured from selected pieces of timber
-
Charles Dickens commented on another aspect of the boat builders’ environment. In Great Expectations he wrote, ‘Eight o’clock had struck before I got into the air that was scented, not disagreeably, by the chips and shavings of the long shore boat builders’.
To succeed in his craft and with his craft, John Green would have been industrious and creative; trained and dextrous; educated and literate as well as an organiser of his team. He passed on his skills to his sons, John and Vincent who served apprenticeships under him.
John Green -
When the framework is assembled, then the steamed, malleable planks are secured and
the boat takes shape. The joints are filled using oakum which is plant fibres mixed
with tar. The oakum is hammered into the seams using a mallet and a caulking iron
-
The bottom of the boat is usually made from planks of unseasoned elm as this resists decay when permanently immersed in water. The finishing touches of planing, sanding, coats of varnish and fittings complete the vessel.
The families of John Green and John Hammond were intertwined. Both men were boat builders/proprietors near the River Lea and John Green lived in Hammond’s Cottages. His son, Vincent, married Hammond’s daughter, Sarah. ’The boat builders and boat owners made comfortable incomes in these times’.
John Green was not only a boat builder, based on a bank of the River Lea, but he also hired out boats. The Lea was a popular playground: ‘a great many persons come daily from London to take exercise by rowing’. The Victorian Londoner was anxious for some restorative recreation on Sundays after a week spent working in town and flocked to places like the Lea. Boats were hired ‘at all hours on Sunday’ – including during the time of divine service.
Illustrating how popular a spot this was, in 1872, John Hammond was summonsed for opening his house for the sale of liquor before one o’clock on Sunday, 25 August. It was stated that ‘the place was resorted to on Sundays by thousands of persons who go rowing on the Lea’ and that ‘the defendants house was very much frequented’ and was ‘often open from nine o’clock in the morning’. On the day in question, at 11.45, the doors were ‘wide open’ and four men (some had walked for twelve miles; others, for five miles) were in front of the bar. Hammond was fined £3 and his customers, ten shillings with two shillings costs.
But the River Lea was treacherous and many pleasure-
Some of the drownings in the River Lea, near Lea Bridge
In October 1839, a young man, a pilot, had just married at St John’s, Hackney. The wedding party went to the Ferry House Tavern and after dinner the bride and groom engaged a boat for a short trip along the Lea. Almost at once, the bride was alarmed by the sudden swell caused by a passing barge and asked to be put ashore. During this manoeuvre, the groom overbalanced and disappeared under the boat. Although he was pulled out within ten minutes, his bride was now a widow.
On a Thursday night at about 17.00 in September 1844, a man and woman hired a boat
at the Jolly Anglers. The couple rowed up stream towards Tottenham: ‘the gentleman
appeared to understand the management of the boat and to row well’. At about 19.00
on a foggy, dark night, a waterman hear a cry, ‘Boat ahoy’ from a point 200 yard
s from the Jolly Anglers and jumping into a boat, he rowed to the spot. He found
the gentleman clinging to an up-
Mr Green witnessed the rescue of the gentleman and asked him if there had been anyone
else in the boat. He replied, ‘It’s all right, there was no-
Also, in 1844, eleven people were drowned on the Lea, just north of Lea Bridge. At
16.00 on a Sunday afternoon, six lads aged between twelve and fourteen, hired a large,
pink boat (similar in design to a common Thames wherry) from Mr Wicks of the Jolly
Anglers public house. Further upstream, they overloaded the boat when they were joined
by four more boys ‘to save expense’. (They were all brick-
Two medical students, aged twenty-
John Green hired out a boat to two young men at 20.00 in August 1851. As they were
making their way back to the boat-
On a Sunday in September 1869, two gentlemen and a lady hired a boat from Hammond’s
boat-
These are a few of the fatal incidents on the Lea. One news report described the river as the ‘scene of another of those painful accidents for which it has gained such an unfortunate notoriety’. A coroner commented, ‘Boats are frequently upset on the Lea, particularly on Saturdays and Sundays’.
It may be that this stretch of the Lea was particularly treacherous or even toxic – an expert witness, with thirty years of local experience, declared that ‘he had never known a person that has been resuscitated after having been submerged in its waters for the space of even one minute’. Police patrolled the banks of the river to prevent persons bathing and to hinder boat accidents.
The worthiness of boats on the River Lea
There was an ongoing controversy about the part played by the boat-
During the inquest on the eleven who drowned in 1844 using boats hired out by Wicks of the Jolly Angler, a distraught father said that he hoped that the jury would do something to prevent the letting of such dangerous boats on the Lea. Another bereaved parent, who had been a seafaring man for twenty years, affirmed that he would not trust himself to cross the Thames in one of the Lea boats. A County magistrate added that ‘they were too light and long and narrow and not fit for the water unless manned by skilful rowers’. After inspecting the boats involved, the Coroner also remarked that the smaller boat was evidently too small to be used indiscriminately on the waters of the Lea.
Following the death of the two medical students in 1849, the inquest was told by
a juryman that there was a ‘frequent and appalling sacrifice of life owing to the
misconduct of boat-
Specifically, the design of boats was criticized: they should have ‘less shelving about the heads; as a result it would not be so easy to press them down at the stern, thus causing the bows to be lifted which might then run over other boats’.
It may be that Green and Hammond’s boats were perfectly river-
There were so many accidents on the Lea that people living near the banks considered it a nuisance, ‘so frequently were they been called upon to take in drowned persons and to afford succour to those that had been partially so’.
In an incident not related above, following the death of a seventeen-
As a consequence of the fatal accident in 1869 (see above), John Hammond (described
as a beer-
On 21 September, Vernon was walking along the river bank with another man. Hammond approached him and demanded to know what he had meant by speaking against his boats. Vernon denied doing this. Hammond responded saying that this was a lie and that Vernon was ‘a liar, a rogue and a thief’. Hammond then struck him a blow to the mouth and, seizing him by the coat collar, kicked him behind.
Hammond admitted the charge, adding ‘I would not tell a lie for £5 or £50’. He expressed no regret but said that he had offered to settle the matter by giving £2 for the benefit of the widows of the drowned men, if the complaint was withdrawn – which it wasn’t. Summing up, the Magistrate said that Hammond’s assault was unprovoked and that he had shown himself to be a ‘very violent man. He appeared to take no shame to himself for what he had done but seemed rather to have an opinion that he had committed a very plucky action’. Hammond was fined £5 with costs or he could go to prison for two months hard labour.
Overcrowding of boats
One of the major contributing factors to the accidents was the overcrowding of boats
– there were often too many passengers on board for safety and the slightest shift
in weight made the wherries unstable. However, it was a common ploy for someone to
hire a boat and then, to save paying fares, they might stop along the river bank
to take on more of their friends -
After the death of the eleven, the Coroner referred to the Waterman’s Act whereby there was a penalty of 40 shillings or loss of franchise for two months if boats carried more people than were permitted by law. However, it was found that Wicks’ boatman had been given no instructions concerning the avoidance of overcrowding of boats.
Another issue was the hiring out of boats to inexperienced, unpractised people including lads and those who were intoxicated. (Although it was avowed that boats were not let out to people who appeared drunk and people were not permitted to take liquor with them on boats). Indeed, magistrates condemned the indiscriminate letting of boats to all comers, boys or adults, on the River Lea.’.
John Green and John Hammond summonsed
In August 1871, Green and Hammond (together with two other boat proprietors, Robert Serjeant of the Jolly Anglers and Caleb Day, Prince of Wales) were summonsed for keeping pleasure boats for hire without being licensed (re: the Act of Parliament, 1868) and not declaring how many boats they each kept.
For each boat registered, a fee of ten shillings was due with a further annual fee (which was not to exceed twenty shillings) for each boat. As some of the defendants owned fifty boats (worth about £10 each), one can understand their tardiness in registering their boats. They were clearly awaiting a test case when the byelaws could be challenged.
Their defence was that the byelaws were bad; that they exceeded the powers granted by the Act and that the wording of the law was ambiguous. The case was lost and each proprietor was fined two pounds and costs.
An incident involving John Green jnr.
John Green jnr. was aged 32 and employed by his father when, on a Saturday night in September 1876, between 19.00 and 20.00, he was directing a regatta by signals on the River Lea. He was ‘well known to amateur oarsmen of the Thames’.
John was holding a large horse pistol in his hand when his attention was distracted by someone asking about hiring a boat. As he turned to speak, the pistol discharged and Henry Milgrove (a ‘fine youth and the son of the landlord of the Mermaid public house’) was wounded in the stomach. He told a police sergeant, ‘This was an accident. Pray for me. I am dying. It was an accident’. His wound was caused by a large piece of rag used as wadding and was between his navel and stomach: his entrails were protruding. He died at about 20.00.
John was beside himself – ‘it would be difficult to express the painful feelings
with which the prisoner contemplated the act of which he had been unwittingly the
perpetrator’. He knew Milgrove -
Poignantly, when Milgrove’s father came on the scene, not knowing the identity of the victim and seeing John’s distress, tried to console him – he was not to blame, it was an accident; he had nothing to fear. When he entered Green’s house and realised that it was his son who was lying there, dead, ‘he became almost bewildered’.
Verdict: homicide by misadventure.
The life of boat builders on the River Lea
The deteriorating condition of the River Lea
The area where John Green lived was occasionally flooded -
Another menace to life in and on the Lea appeared in the early 1870s. Upstream, Tottenham grew as a residential area, reaching a population of 60,000 and the local authority decided to dump the increasing sewage into the Lea, after first treating it with chemicals. Before this, ‘between 1860 and 1870, the river continued to be in good condition and every day during the summer seasons especially on Saturdays and Sundays it was gay with boating parties. The boat builders and boat owners made comfortable incomes in those times.’
However, in August 1871, a letter to the Daily News advised that all those rowing from Lea Bridge to Tottenham would be in no mood to return. ‘The stench near the railway bridge...is really horrible and...is quite enough to cause revulsion in the strongest stomach...The blades of our oars came from the water quite black and my companion was quite prostrated by the obnoxious effluvia. During the fine weather, thousands of people visit the Lea for boating purposes and as many are mere boys, it is impossible to tell what danger may arise...’.
By 1885, the Lea was so polluted that it was dangerous to swim in its waters. A visitor to Lea Bridge described the stench from the river as being worse than the ‘waste tank of a gas factory ...or the remains of a dead camel’.
When he tried to hire a boat he was met with disbelief ‘the smell on the river is so bad, it may make you ill’. The proprietor was near ruin: from keeping 78 boats, hiring 20 to 30 before breakfast and taking £11 on a fine Saturday, he had now earned only 8/6d during the previous week.
The visitor described the Lea as ‘black as ink: black with a glossy surface like oil’. The taste left in the mouth was like ‘sucking a penny’. Local residents kept carbolic acid in their rooms as a disinfectant to offset the odour.
A view of the Lea upstream at Springhill
John Green, probably with his surviving sons:
John jnr and Vincent
N
Bishops Walk
The ‘last days’ of John and Jane Green at Lea Bridge and John’s will
Perhaps as a result of their environment, John and Jane died in the early 1870s -
John’s will answered and raised some questions. His address was given as ‘The Boat House’, Lea Bridge. John’s will was dated 8 November 1869 and a codicil was added later, on 30 August 1870. They were proved on the 10 December 1874. This is an epitome:
His debts and funeral expenses were to be paid ‘as soon as possible’ after his death.
He appointed his wife Jane, son John and son-
Jane was to continue to occupy ‘The Boat House’ and was to receive the rents and profits from his estate.
His freehold house at 1 Victoria Cottages, The Avenue Road, Clapton was to be held in trust for his daughter, Anne Dear, wife of William. Upon her death it was to be dealt with according to her will or held in trust for her children.
John’s freehold house, 2 Victoria Cottages, Clapton was to be held in trust for his spinster daughter, Emily Green. After her death, the property was to be disposed according to her will or held in trust for her child(ren) if any.
The house at Lea Bridge and the goodwill generated by his business were left to his wife, Jane. After her death, it was to be divided between his three sons, Richard, John and Vincent provided Richard was resident in England at the time of his wife’s death. If Richard was not living in England then, the property and goodwill were to be held in trust for John and Vincent until five years elapsed after Jane’s death. If Richard returned, his interest in his father’s estate was only to date from the time of his return. John, jnr was to be allowed to live in ‘The Boat House’ after the death of Jane.
The picture, ‘Queen leaving Kingston Harbour’, was left to his daughter, Emily Green; the picture of the ‘London Rowing Club,, to his son, Richard; the print called ‘Richard Green from Australia’ and the rowing pictures, to his son, Vincent; the painting of ‘The House’, to his son, John; the portraits of ‘myself and wife’, John and Jane Green, and Richard Houghton (Jane’s father), to his daughter, Ann Dear.
John’s household furniture after the death of Jane was to pass to his children, John and Emily as long as they remained unmarried. If Emily married first, the furniture was to be John’s. If John married first, the furniture was to be divided equally between them. If both remained single, the survivor was to inherit everything.
The following gifts were made: six silver tea spoons marked ‘RAH’ (Richard A Houghton?), to Emily Green; a pair of silver table spoons to John Green and another pair to Vincent Green; four silver tea spoons, two salt spoons, one mustard spoon and a pair of sugar tongs to Ann Dear.
The residue of John’s estate was to be divided equally between his five children (including Richard).
The codicil directed that all rates, taxes and outgoings payable with respect to his house and business should be paid out of his business. The value of the effects of John’s estate was less than £600.
John’s will explains what happened to his son Richard -
Clearly John’s business was lucrative as he owned two freehold houses at Avenue Road,
Hackney (see below). These were situated about a mile and a half from his home. William
and Ann Dear were living at 1 Avenue Road in 1891 -
*
Of John Green, junior and Vincent Green
John Green jnr. was aged 32 when, on a Saturday night in September 1876, between 19.00 and 20.00, he was directing a regatta by signals on the River Lea. He was ‘well known to amateur oarsmen of the Thames’.
John was holding a large horse pistol in his hand when his attention was distracted
by someone asking about hiring a boat. As he turned to speak, the pistol discharged
and Henry Milgrove (a ‘fine youth and the son of the landlord of the Mermaid public
house’) was wounded in the stomach. He told a police sergeant, ‘This was an accident.
Pray for me. I am dying. It was an accident’. His wound was caused by a large piece
of rag used as wadding and was between his navel and stomach: his entrails were protruding.
He died at about 20.00.
At the ensuing inquest, John was beside himself – ‘it would be difficult to express
the painful feelings with which the prisoner contemplated the act of which he had
been unwittingly the perpetrator’. He knew Milgrove -
Poignantly, when Milgrove’s father came on the scene, not knowing the identity of
the victim and seeing John’s distress, tried to console him – he was not to blame,
it was an accident; he had nothing to fear. When he entered Green’s house and realised
that it was his son who was lying there, dead, ‘he became almost bewildered’.
Verdict of the inquest: homicide by misadventure."
John jnr and Vincent didn’t make ‘old bones’. John died in early 1882, aged 48.
Vincent took on the family business and lived with his wife at ‘The Boathouse’. However, on 20 February 1885, aged 39, he too died after suffering from TB of the lungs for two years. It is hard to escape the nagging feeling that the river which provided their livelihood also contributed to their deaths.
Vincent’s simple will was administered by my two great grandfathers, William Sidney Dear (now of 152 Powerscroft Road, Clapton) and George James Dee of 138 Powerscroft Road. Sworn on the 11 February 1885, Vincent left the whole of his estate (which had a gross value of £547 12s 6d) to his widow, Sarah.
By 1891, Vincent’s wife, Sarah and sister, Emily had escaped from the banks of the
Lea and from around 1905 were living together at Tottenham. Emily Green died on
3 July 1931 when living at 20 Cranbrook Road, Tottenham -
Sarah and Emily kept in contact with the Dears and the Dees -
(I am grateful to Brian Gumm for allowing me to use the photographs of John Green
and the page from Pilgrims Progress and to Pennie Hammond for supplying background
information -
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.
Below, John Green’s home and workshop (shown in orange) -
Right, the house John Green jnr built.
