I should have known things wouldn’t be any different, even back in the 1700’s, given that my grandparents up and relocated to Canada from Leicestershire, England in 1913. People have always migrated, generally either to escape their current situation or to find better opportunities elsewhere. My grandparents were no different, and in their 40’s with a 9 year old son, they migrated to Canada looking for a better life.
I attended the Exodus: Movement of the People Conference in Hinckley, LEI in September 2013 sponsored by the Halsted Trust. I heard speakers talk about all types of “Migration”. Some folks moved down the road from village to village or village to city, while others moved from halfway around the world.
This got me to thinking….my ancestors were all Midland people from Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire or so I thought. Had any of them moved on to other areas of England, even to other countries? One day while I was looking at Non-Conformist Church Records, I decided to do a general name search for one of my lines, the Mason’s of Warwickshire. I knew that in the late 1700 their children had been baptized at the Independent Chapel in Stretton under Fosse, WAR. Along with all the records I expected to find, up pops a Mason in London. Now this wasn’t a surprise, as Mason is a very common surname. What was a surprise was the name Spencer Mason, a less common christian name. In 1745, John Mason had married an Ann Spencer in Withybrook, WAR. The Spencer name was then used as a christian name in subsequent generations. I knew that John and Ann had a child they christened Spencer. Could this be the same Spencer Mason, who with his wife Martha, was having his children christened in London in the late 1700’s at St. Luke’s.
I began my search and soon discovered that my Spencer Mason had been baptised in Withybrook at the Parish Church November 5, 1750. In the transcription on Ancestry, they had not been able to read the Christian name and wrote “Sp???? son of John and Ann Mason. When I checked the original record, I could clearly see the name was Spencer. So I confirmed a Spencer born in Withybrook who was my ancestor. The Baptism Records 0f St. Luke’s Church on Old Street, London showed Martha as Spencer’s wife. Further checking and I located a Marriage Record in Warwickshire for Spencer Mason of the Parish of St. Luke’s Old Street, London and Martha Compton of the Parish of Withybrook. They were married by License on March 6, 1776 at the Withybrook Parish Church. Martha had been baptised in Withybrook on 28 Jan 1755, the daughter of John and Martha Compton. It looks as if Spencer was already living in London but returned home to marry Martha. They then returned to London to live, as their first child is christened at St. Luke’s, Jun 15, 1777. Spencer Mason also turns up on the London Tax Records for 1780 as a tenant in the house of Joseph Foster Pryor in St. Luke, Old Street, Borough of Islington. He appears in these records until 1802, although the proprietor is now listed as John Martin. Spencer’s burial is listed in the Bunhill Fields Burial Grounds on City Road (Non-Conformist Records Bunhill BG 1800-1803) on December 16, 1802. His Will lists his address as Old Street Square.
Old Street showing St. Luke’s Church and Old Street Square where Spencer and his family lived until his death in 1802.
St. Luke’s Parish Church
Old Street area showing the Bunhill Fields Burying Grounds where Spencer Mason was buried in 1802.
During his lifetime, Spencer worked as a Baker. He and Martha had a number of Children, all of whom were baptised at St. Luke’s, Old Street. Following naming patterns, his first son was John, named after his father John Mason and his first daughter Ann Spencer, named after his mother. Listed below are the Birthdates for the children:
John Mason 18 May 177
Ann Spencer Mason 26 Mar 1779
Martha Spencer Mason 09 Jul 1781
William Spencer Mason 16 Aug 1784
Samuel 01 Jun 1786
William Henry Mason 11 Jul 1788
Mary Ann Mason 05 Sep 1790
Daniel Spencer Mason 01 Jan 1793
Eliza Mason 15 Feb 1795
Bunhill Fields Burial Ground today
I located a will for Spencer Mason and at the same time found one for his youngest son, Daniel Spencer Mason. It was this one that intrigued me as the heading was “Daniel Spencer Mason: A Gentleman of Islington”. Daniel would have been only 9 years old when his father died. How did he come to be called “A Gentleman”. A new investigation began.
Daniel Spencer Mason: A Gentleman of Islington
To a degree, gentleman came to signify a man with an income derived from property, a legacy or some other source, and was thus independently wealthy and did not need to work. The term was particularly used of those who could not claim any other title even the rank of esquire.
Records of Admissions indicate that Daniel Spencer Mason was admitted to St. Paul’s School London on October 23, 1804. He was age 11 and it was noted that he was the son of the Late Spencer Mason, Baker of Old Street Square.
St Paul’s was founded in 1509, at the height of the Renaissance in England. It may be that its founder Dean John Colet of St Paul’s Cathedral intended his friend Erasmus to be the first High Commissioner, though the plan never came to fruition. Colet made The Mercer’s Company trustees to the School, rather than the Church or Oxford or Cambridge, because he found less corruption among married men of business. Originally situated by St Paul’s Cathedral, the school moved four times before occupying its present, riverside site in 1968. It survived the Plague, the Great Fire and the Civil War and in 1870 was one of only two day schools included by the Clarendon Commission as one of the the “Nine Great Public Schools of England”.
Full text of “Admission registers of St. Paul’s school, from 1748 to 1876”
http://www.archive.org/stream/…/admissionregiste00stpa_djvu.txt
……Daniel Spencer Mason, aged 11, son of the late Spencer M., baker, Old Street .
i8o4] SCHOLARS OF ST. PAUL’S SCHOOL. 229
Admitted.
Aug. 11. James Phillips, aged 10, son of Richard P., lighterman,
Hungerford.
Oct. 4, John Corrie Hudson, aged 8, son of Thomas H., of the
Stamp Office.
Entered the Legacy Department, Somerset House ; died about 1879.
William Kynaston; aged 13, son of John K., hosier, of
Newgate Street.
See July 31, 1804.
„ 5. David Henry Flack, aged 11, son of Henry F., school-
master, of Broad Street, St. James’s.
„ 6. Thomas Stroud, aged 8, son of Thomas S., haberdasher, of
Ludgate Street.
Charles George Dixon, aged 9, son of George D., of St.
Martin-in-the-Fields.
„ 23. Daniel Spencer Mason, aged 11, son of the late Spencer M.,
baker, Old Street Square.
Dec. 22, Robert Rowley, aged 9, son of Robert R., surgeon, of High
Street, Borough.
I kept searching and found mention of Daniel Spencer Mason in Electoral Registers, The London Gazette, The Law Advertiser and the Records of the Sun Fire Office.
He is mentioned in the London Electoral Registers 1832 – 1965 in the years:
1832 Shoreditch, Ward St. Leonard, Shoreditch Borough of Tower Hamlets.
107/108 Shoreditch High Street today
1835, 1836, 1837 #107 Shoreditch
In the London Gazette 18 Oct 1837
NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership formerly
subsisting between us the undersigned, Daniel Spencer
Mason and Jabez Balch, carrying on business at No. 107,
High-street, Shoreditch, as Linen-Drapers, Mercers, Hosiers,,
and Haberdashers, was. dissolved on the eighth day of October
1837 ,by, mutual consent—Dated this 27th day of June 1837.
Daniel Spencer Mason.
Jabez Balch.
Records of Sun Fire Office – The National Archives | Access to Archives
……Insured: John Dorset Pool and Daniel Spencer Mason 107 Shoreditch linen …
The Law Advertiser – Volume 2 – Page 149
1824 –
POOL John Dorsett, and Daniel Spencer Mason, of Shore- ditch, linen-drapers 1 May
Partnership was dissolved May 1, 1824.
Daniel died 1846. Age 53. Record indicates on 25th July his body was brought to the Bunhill Field Burial Ground from New Norfolk Street, Islington.
(Piece title 4000 BFBG 1838 – 1846)
His will is Dated Aug 1, 1846. He leaves his estate in Brinklow, Warwickshire to his youngest sister Eliza and the rest of his estate to be divided between his sisters Ann Spencer Mason and Mary Ann Mason Finch, widow. On the 1851 Census, Mary Ann is head of the household at age 60, Ann is 72 and Eliza 56. They are all listed as Fund Holders ( A Fund holder is someone who does not have land but has funds in government bonds, then known as consols or consolidated annuities) and are living at 19 Brudenall Place in the Parish of Shoreditch. On the 1841 census the sisters were living in Islington at New Norfolk Terrace. Daniel Spencer may have been in Warwickshire visiting as there is a Spencer Mason listed as a visitor at the farm of John Mason in Withybrook. In 1846, it is the New Norfolk Terrace house from which Daniel’s body is removed.
Here we have a glimpse of the Spencer Family who left Warwickshire to seek their fortune elsewhere. I found this all very interesting as when I made trips to London in recent years, I stayed at Rosebery Hall in Islington. I walked many of these streets, little knowing that 200 plus years ago, my ancestors had made their home in this area.
An area in Islington today which remains much the same as when the Spencer’s lived here.
Rosebery Avenue outside Rosebery Hall
A Genealogist goes Wandering 