Researched and written by Carole Moody
John was in trouble; it was April 1868 and he had been charged and remanded for collecting alms with false pretences. He appeared in The Police Gazette as “a man calling himself John Alexander Blow,” and was described as:
“5 feet 6 inches high, brown hair and whiskers, mixed with grey, whiskers meeting under the chin, hazel eyes, sallow complexion, long crooked nose with a mark down the centre, fourth finger on left hand and third on right contracted; dressed in old greasy black coat, and vest, light brown trousers with dark stripes, black cap, elastic-side boots and old black neckerchief padded with paper.
He said he had worked as a loader in tea warehouses in London and had two girls aged about 12 and 8 with him.”
We first meet John in 1851, when he says he is an unmarried sailor, living in a lodging house in Eastfield Street, Limehouse, with two children, John 6 and Elizabeth 4 months. Also, in the lodging house and it’s unclear whether in the same rooms, is Julia McMaster, unmarried, a tambour worker, the daughter of a builder.
They were married less than a year later, in January 1852 in Saint Philip, Bethnal Green, the only Blow/McMaster marriage registered between 1837 and 1870. But in the June quarter 1846 there is a birth registered in Bethnal Green, for Horace Blow, mother’s maiden name McMaster. He would be the right age to be the John who is with John Alexander in 1851 and Elizabeth was born in Stepney Workhouse in November 1850, to Julia Blow. So why were they claiming to be married in 1846 and 50, but single in 1851?
On the marriage entry, John is a mariner, the son of John Aitken Blow, a Captain in the Royal Navy. This appears to be correct; his father had gradually worked his way up in the Royal Navy, to command small warships. Unfortunately, he had to leave active service after challenging a fellow officer to a duel and in 1813, when John Alexander was born, he was part of the recruiting/pressgang party in Folkestone. During retirement he was advanced to have the title of Captain.
Captain John Aitken died in South Hackney in December 1848 and in his will, dated April 1866, he left everything to his daughter. There is no mention of son John in his will, so we assume that they were estranged.
John and Julia were now legally married and living in East London. They went on to have at least three more girls, Alice Catherine in Q4 1853, Louisa Matilda in Q2 1856 and Florence Harriet in Q2 1861, all in East London, but life was not easy for them. John was working as a labourer, sometimes in the docks, and probably on a day-to-day basis, going down each morning and hoping to be taken on for the day.
In July 1852, just months after their marriage, Julia and toddler Elizabeth are in Stepney Workhouse. Twelve days later John returns and takes them both out, but son John was not in the workhouse with his mother, so was he with his father? Were they travelling round begging, or looking for work? John junior was only 6 and wouldn’t have been useful to a man hoping for employment.
The two Johns, father and son, appear to work together; in October 1855 they are both in Stepney Workhouse for four days, due to illness. They are discharged, but two days later John (the son), his mother and 2 children are destitute and in the workhouse. John, the father, having been ill, there was probably no money coming in and after just a few days they had nothing left for food, rent or anything else, and no other option but the workhouse. About 10 days later they are sent to South Forest Lane, possibly another workhouse. No further workhouse records have been found for this, but they were eventually discharged, or maybe taken out again by John when he found some work.
By 1861, life seems to be improving a little. They are living at 10 Rose and Crown Court, St. Botolphs, which is probably very small and crowded, but it is a home. John is now 16 and both he and his father are labourers at The Tower of London, so there was regular money coming in. John senior is now claiming to be a former officer in the Royal Navy. Maybe this helped him get the job? There are 4 other children at home, Elizabeth 10, Alice 7, Jabes 4 (a daughter) and Violet under 1 month. Jabes’ age matches with Louisa Matilda, born in 1856 and
Violet with Florence Harriet. Why the names are different is another mystery. Were these pet names for them or could the census enumerator not read their entries?
In 1861 a second son’s birth is registered in Shoreditch, Alexander Munroe. This is still very much keeping up the family names. Alexander was John’s middle name and Munroe was his mother’s maiden name. No further records of Alexander have been found and so, sadly, he probably died young. There is, however, a Hector Blow, born 1863 and died 1865, buried in Cheriton Road, which could be Alexander.
By 1868 they are in Folkestone, where Julia died in Lyminge Workhouse in January and was buried in Cheriton Road Cemetery. Soon afterwards John appears in The Police Gazette.
This was the start of a sad time for John. He travelled round the country. There are two accounts of him in 1870 and 1871 from Hampshire and Dorset, being taken in for begging – often with Flora and Julia – and receiving prison sentences. On one occasion he admitted that he had been educated as a gentleman and had failed to make proper use of his advantages.
In 1871 John was in a lodging house in Chatham, described as a retired mariner, with Flora (probably Florence) 20, a servant. In 1877 he was questioned by the Board of the workhouse in Sheerness, which is possibly the saddest of all. He and a 15-year-old daughter (probably Florence,) were admitted as being destitute and in poor health. The report of the Board says that he “represented himself to be the son of a late Post Captain of the Royal Navy, who formerly commanded the Old Temeraire in Sheerness,” which ironically, is true, or mostly true. He said that he had tired all his friends and the Board decided that he had brought his present condition on himself and he was to be discharged as soon as he was fit.
The last record we have of John in is 1881 when he and Florence are in Lyminge workhouse, where he died in 1889. Let us hope that he spent his last few years there, warm, fed and living in relative comfort.
