Life after service
Marriage registered
James Pegler married Charlotte Pitt, March Quarter 1868, Clerkenwell.
Marriage certificate for James Pegler and Charlotte Pitt, 1869
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Marriage certificate
The parish church of St James Clerkenwell, Middlesex.
The marriage of James Pegler, Batchelor, Porter, and Charlotte Pitt, Spinster (no occupation shown), took place on the 9th of January 1868.
Both were of "full age" (i.e. over 21) and living at 91 Corporation Buildings.
James Pegler's father, also James Pegler, is described as a "Servant". Charlotte's father is named as William Pitt, Blacksmith.
[Source: London Metropolitan Archives, Saint James, Clerkenwell, Register of marriages, P76/JS1, Item 056. [PB]]
Corporation Buildings, Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell, in the 1860s
James and Charlotte Pegler were early tenants of these new model dwellings. They went to their wedding from here in 1868, and would have been their daughter Lottie's first home. Recently built by the Corporation of London, they were England's first "council houses". However, the neighbourhood was profoundly disturbed by the construction and operation of the Metropolitan Railway and industrial and commercial buildings nearby. Farringdon Road itself was one of many new arterial roads created at this time to speed transport to and from the City. Notice for example clear views towards St Paul's (left) and cattle in the road (right), being driven to slaughter at nearby Smithfield Market.
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Birth registered
Lottie Pegler, December Quarter 1868, Clerkenwell.
1871 Census
James Pegler, aged 37, Head, married, Railway Porter, born Tilehurst, Berkshire.
__________
Caversham, Oxfordshire.
Lotty [sic] Pegler, 2, born London, was visiting her widowed aunt, Ann Selkirk, 41, a Draper, born Tilehurst, Berkshire.
Others in the house were Ann Selkirk's unmarried sisters, Mary Pegler, 30, a Dressmaker, also born Tilehurst, and Olive Pegler, 24, a visitor, born Godalming, Surrey.
[PB: Given her aunts' occupations it is no surprise that in later life Lottie will be a Seamstress and Tailoress.]
Charlotte Pitt [wife]
PB/CP: After they married, James and Charlotte had a child, Lottie. But they are never listed in e.g. Censuses together again, and Charlotte seems to have disappeared. This led us to ask what can have happened to Lottie's mother and to search for her, initially fruitlessly.
It is hard to be sure, but we now believe that certain facts fit so well with details given at her wedding that it seems likely that the information given below does indeed describe James Pegler's wife:
The names, dates and ages are compatible. Charlotte Pitt's father is described as a Blacksmith in the 1841 Census and on her marriage certificate, and in 1861 she is working in London, where she may have met James Pegler. If this is indeed her, by the time of her marriage she would have been in her late 30s.
1841 Census
Linton, Herefordshire.
William Pitt, 45, Blacksmith.
Charlotte Pitt, 40.
Wm, 15.
Abia, 15.
Charlotte, 10.
Milson, 8.
Amos, 3.
1851 Census
Longhope, Gloucestershire.
Charlotte Pitt, 19, unmarried, House Servant, born Linton, Herefordshire.
She was working for Henry Clement Davis, a Baptist Minister.
1861 Census
149, New Bond Street.
Charlotte Pitt, 29, unmarried, Cook, Linton, born Herefordshire.
1871 Census
Not found.
She may already have entered the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum (see below, 1881), possibly suffering from "puerperal insanity" (a common diagnosis at the time). However, she has not yet been located there as names of inmates are only given as initials, and places of birth simply as e.g. "England". She would have been about 37-39 years of age.
The records of Hanwell Lunatic Asylum are held by the London Metropolitan Archives, so it is possible that more information can be recovered there.
1881 Census
St Bernard's Hospital, the Middlesex Lunatic Asylum, Norwood, Uxbridge.
In 1881, a Charlotte Pegler, aged 47, married, a Domestic Servant, born Herefordshire, is recorded as a "Patient" and a "Lunatic".
The Middlesex Lunatic Asylum in 1843. Charlotte Pegler was a patient here in 1881, and may already have been an inmate for more than a decade. She died in 1892 without ever, so far as we know, leaving the institution.
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Hanwell, opened in 1831 for the "pauper insane", was the first purpose-built asylum in England and Wales. In the 1880s, the Asylum was the largest in the world. When the hospital was handed over to the London County Council in 1888 it contained 1,891 patients — well over a thousand of them women and girls.
[Source: http://www.victorianlondon.org/health/hanwell.htm, (accessed 5.10.12). See also Hanwell Asylum. The archives are described here and are now [2014] located in the London Metropolitan Archive. ]
Death registered
Charlotte Pegler [wife], aged 57, December Quarter 1892, Uxbridge. [Uxbridge is near the Asylum.]
1881 Census
Combermere House, Combermere Road, Lambeth.
James Pegler, aged 46, head, married, Railway Porter, born Berkshire.
Lottie, 12, Scholar, born Clerkenwell.
PB: There were a number of others lodging in the house, including George English, an Osler (a note adds "Groom"), with his wife and four young children, and Thomas Hodges, a Smith, and his wife. Although for some time a Railway Porter, clearly James Pegler continued his association with horses.
Electoral Registers
115 Hargwyne Street, Lambeth, Brixton.
James Pegler: 1890, 1892, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897.
1891 Census
115, Hargwyne Street, Lambeth.
James Pegler, aged 57, head, married, Railway Porter, born Tilehurst, Berkshire.
Marriage registered
Lottie Pegler married Vacslav Vincent Wysner, December Quarter 1893, Marylebone.
Death registered
Vacslav Vincent Wysner, aged 41, March Quarter 1899, Steyning.
Marriage registered
Lottie Wysner married Edward George Dolton, September Quarter 1900, Marylebone.