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SINGLETON, St Albans Workhouse, 1838
October, 2008
Hank Lake Coghlan (info @t lakecoghlan.co.uk) is researching the admission registers of St Albans Workhouse, and I will be posting mote information later. He has sent some sample pages from the early registers held at HALS which includes information about the Singleton family.
On 30th September John Singleton, his wife Sarah, and two young children, spent a night in St Albans Workhouse. Where they were travelling from and to is not recorded, but they were "trampers" who had insufficient funds to procure a night's lodgings.
The Admissions register records their names, year of birth, responsible parish (in the above case St Albans), their occupation, whether able bodied (and if not the nature of the disability), whether they were getting relief from elsewhere, the reason for seeking relief, other observations, and religion (recorded as Church of England). Relevant information from the discharge register is the responsible parish, name, dates of admission and discharge.
I have been unable to find the family in the 1841 census, but in 1851 they were at Snug Lane, St Pancras, Chichester, Sussex:
| John | Singleton | Head | Married | 44 | Wright Smith Journeyman | Newport, Isle of White | |
| Sarah | Singleton | Wife | Married | 41 | Newport, Isle of White | ||
| Sarah | Singleton | Daughter | Unmarried | 15 | Newport, Isle of White | ||
| George | Singleton | Son | 14 | Scholar | Southampton, Hants | ||
| Ellen | Singleton | Daughter | 11 | Scholar | Dartford, Kent | ||
| Thomas | Beding | Father-in-law | Widower | 72 | Pensioner | Chipping, Lancashire | Blind |
A "Wright Smith" might be the job of someone who makes the iron rims on wheels for a wheelwright, or it might be an error for a "White Smith" who could well have travelled around mending pots and pans. As the family appear to have been very mobile I suspect the latter possibility.
A check on familysearch shows that John Singleton married Sarah Riding at Whippingham, Hampshire on 24 August 1834. Their daughter Sarah was baptised on 21st April 1837 at All Saints, Southampton, Hampshire. [Either Riding or Beding is presumably a transcription error.]
There is a web page for St Albans Union