Two family churches in Shadwell

Many of the buildings and places associated with our family history disappear or change over time, but churches often survive. They may not tell us a huge amount about our families’ lives, but the fact that they are associated with the key vital events in lives, baptism, marriage and burial, makes them significant places. Today I visited two churches in Shadwell that are connected with my father’s biological family line.

St George in the East

A quick trip on the Docklands Light Railway to Shadwell, then a short walk brought me to St George in the East Church.

My paternal great grandfather, James Herne Everett, was baptised in this church in 1856. His family was living nearby, at 14 Johnson Street and his father was working as a dock labourer. James seems to have been the only one in the family who was baptised there.

St George in the East is an Anglican Church, which was built from 1714-1729. It was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture and contemporary of Christopher Wren, with whom he worked as a clerk in the early stages of his career. Hawksmoor’s other works include The Queen’s College and Worcester College at Oxford, and the west towers of Westminster Abbey. He also contributed to the design of St Paul’s Cathedral and Hampton Court Palace (which I will be visiting in a couple of days).

View of St George in the East from the churchyard (Lautrec, 2024)

Ruins of the mortuary, St George in the East Church (Lautrec, 2024)

St George in the East is one of the twelve churches built as part of a plan to build fifty new churches in London. I found the image below in a book in the Internet Archive, which is a great place to go to find images that are out of copyright (note: not all images in the archive are out of copyright – check the dates!). I cleaned this image up in my photo editing software.

Illustration of St George in the East, 1830s. [3] This view is from the opposite direction to the photograph above.

The interior of the church was unfortunately destroyed during World War II and a new interior was built in 1964.

Behind the church is almost two hectares of gardens, which are the former churchyard grounds. There is little sign of graves remaining, though there are headstones lined up along the walls.

St George in the East, headstones (Lautrec, 2024)

St Pauls Church

A short walk to the east brought me to St Pauls Church at Shadwell.

The original parish church was built in 1656 and known as the Church of Sea Captains, though it also served watermen and lightermen, which is of interest to me as I have many of those in my family. It was reconstructed as St Pauls in 1669, but that building was demolished in 1817. The current building dates from 1821. The building survived the Blitz, but unfortunately all the parish records were destroyed. ^[5]

The original St Paul’s parish church, Shadwell, London, seen from the northeast, in an engraving published 20 February 1819 (Public Domain, Wikipedia Commons)

The current church does not quite have the same aesthetic impact of the original church (Lautrec, 2024)

Graveyard appears pretty intact, with many sarcophagi (Lautrec, 2024)

My archaeology training always tempts me to search out and read the conservation plans for buildings and this time I found something intriguing. The plan for St Pauls says that Captain James Cook’s eldest son was baptised there in 1763. ^[6]

The reason that I find this intriguing is that my family connection to this church is my 3x great grandparents who were married there in 1851 – George T Seaborn and Emma Cook. I know Cook is a common name, but I had wondered if there was a connection to him. I was put off by the fact that he was born in Yorkshire. Now I know that he was in the same parish as my Cook family, albeit 90 years apart, I think I will revisit this issue.

Sources

1. Anon, ‘Nicholas Hawksmoor‘, Wikipedia, accessed 23 April 2024  
2. Anon, ‘Hawksmoor, Nicholas‘, Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, accessed 23 April 2024
3. Britton, John; Pugin, Augustus; & Leeds, William Henry, Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London: With Historical and Descriptive Accounts of Each Ediface, Vol. 1, J. Weale 1838
4. Defoe, Daniel, The history of the great plague in London in the year 1665, containing observations and memorials of the most remarkable occurrences, both public and private, during that dreadful period, London, Renshaw and Rush, 1832.
5. Anon, ‘Conservation Area Appraisals and Management Guidelines’, St Paul’s Shadwell Conservation Area, Tower Hamlets, accessed 23 April 2024
6. If you are not familiar with Australian history, his journey to Australia on the Endeavour in 1770 is noted as the first recorded European visit to the continent. We used to be taught that he ‘discovered’ Australia, but this version of history has since been corrected.

Finding family in West Ham

I think my search engine is faulty, or at least, poorly designed. It thinks that I want to visit West Ham because of football! Even when I added in the word ‘history’, I was told all about the history of the team. Fortunately I know about improving online searches, so I added ‘-united’ to my search terms and the results were much better! I’ll have to write a blog post about that one day.

West Ham, and the areas around it such as Manor Park, East Ham and Forest Gate, are associated with my most recent family history – that of my father’s biological father and his parents and grandparents. They arrived in the area in about 1881, from other parts of Essex (Aveley, Brentwood, South Weald).

West Ham is in East London. I am staying in the west, so getting there was a bit more of a challenge than most of my outings.

Key locations in West Ham (Lautrec, 2024)

West Ham was originally a hamlet on the western border of the ancient parish of West Ham and the county of Essex. West Ham and East Ham were both absorbed into the London Borough of Newham in 1965. This kind of information is important when researching family history. It helps you locate records but it also helps you decide whether or not you are looking at the same person in two different records. For example, records state that my great grandfather was born in Essex and buried in Newham, but they were in fact the same place.

Another important thing to know is exactly what area a name refers to. West Ham, for example, is a hamlet/village, parish, sub-district and a district!

I have not researched the early history of the area, given that my family only arrived there in 1880s. However, I did read that it was an area where some wealthy Londoners built country houses and that there was quite a lot of damage taken to buildings during World War II, resulting in major reconstruction and redevelopment. Despite this, it seems most of the houses of my family are still there. I did not actually get to see them, unfortunately, as I my foot is sore and I had to limit my walking today.

West Ham Cemetery

First stop was West Ham Cemetery, at the end of Tower Hamlets Road.

The cemetery opened in 1857 as one of London’s first publicly-owned cemeteries. It is spread over 22 hectares, with the Jewish Cemetery adjacent.

Gatehouse to West Ham Cemetery

I downloaded a plan of the cemetery before visiting, so I was able to find the sections where my family members were buried.

My father’s biological grandfather, James H Everett, died 1930. His parents James Everett died 1896 and Sarah E H Everett (nee Redknap) died 1885. I did not really expect to find their graves and I was right. I did brave the long grass, but either they had no headstone or it has been lost or fallen.

They are in this bit, somewhere

Headstone for the family of John Everett

I did manage to find a headstone for an Everett family – they are probably related in some way.

One of the reasons I had difficulty is that there are only index records of burials available as the full burial register records were irrecoverably damaged by flooding. The indexed records are available on Deceased Online.

Finding James’ wife, Anne Everett, my father’s biological grandmother, was also a challenge. She died in 1896 and was buried with her father George Thomas Seaborn in section SE. Presumably her mother Emma Seaborn (nee Cook), who died 1914 West Ham, was also buried there but I did not find her record in Deceased Online. This section of the cemetery is quite large and a large number of the headstones are so weathered that they are illegible.

Ann and George are in here, somewhere

Example of weathered headstones

Bow Street Church

In 1804, my 4x great grandparents (on my father’s biological line), Reuben Pressman and Hannah Argent, were married in Bow Street Church. Hannah had been baptised there in 1779 and it is likely that Reuben was also baptised there.

Bow Church is the parish church of St Mary and Holy Trinity, in Stratford, Bow. Not to be confused by the similarly named St Mary le Bow (I was!). It is now located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies squeezed between two roads and seems to be bravely trying to resist them pressing in on each side. Double decker buses were constantly parading past – I had to patiently wait for a break in the traffic to get a decent photo!

The church is the oldest building in Bow. It was originally built as a chapel of ease in the 14th century and it is believed to still contain some structures from this period. It was included in the 1711 plan by Hawkesmoor to construct and expand fifty London churches. ^{[4, 5]} It was consecrated as a parish church in 1719.

There are a few headstones in the grounds of the church and a couple of sarcophagi. The gardens are small but gorgeous, I can imagine the church is still popular for weddings.

Bow Church front

Bow Church side wall shows different eras of construction. Perhaps those windows once held stained glass?

I am glad that I made the trip to West Ham and I am not disappointed that I did not find their actual graves. I still feel like I have come closer to them.

Wikitree game of connections

No famous connections to check for this location, but if you want to check your connection to my family, here are a few:

• James Herne Everett – Everett-4935
• Sarah Redknap – Redknap-8
• Reuben Pressman – Pressman-53 and his wife Hannah Argent – Argent-233

Sources and more information

https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/West_Ham,_Essex_Genealogy

1. Newham Council, ‘West Ham Cemetery burial records’, https://www.newham.gov.uk/births-deaths-marriages/burial-records
2. Deceased Online, West Ham Cemetery
3. Findagrave Cemetery ID 658435
4. Anon, ‘Bow Church’, Wikipedia
5. “Stratford-le-Bow | The Environs of London: volume 3 (pp. 489-502)”. British-history.ac.uk. 22 June 2003, accessed 12 April 2024.
6. Bow Church website, https://www.bow.church/heritage