Family History 4.04

Robinson story

Extract from "Robinsons of Rotherhithe" by Joanne Robinson

 

 

Twins

 

Were Joshua and Caleb included when upper-middle-class men were granted voting rights in 1832? This same year saw them both taking the plunge into matrimony. Joshua was first, marrying Elizabeth Jones on the 20th of August 1832. Elizabeth was a Welsh girl, born in Bangor. They were married north of the river at St Dunstan's in Stepney.

 

The church was built in the second half of the 13th century, repaired in 1633 using Portland stone to reinforce the outer walls, and as a result the main body of the church withstood the Great Fire [1666]. The tower and steeple had to be rebuilt and this was done by Sir Christopher Wren of St Paul's fame. After a hurricane swept London in 1703 Wren was told that the steeple of every city church had been damaged, and he is said to have commented with quiet assurance, 'Not St Dunstan's, I am sure.' His confidence in its structure was not misplaced and today that is all that remains after it was bombed in the second world war.

 

[Remember the nursery rhyme "Oranges and Lemons"? 'When will that be? say the bells of Stepney]

 

Caleb followed Joshua and married Sarah Malyon on the 2nd of September at St Mary's in Newington, a parish of Bermondsey. We know nothing of Ebenezer and Jemima's lives.

 

Over the next ten years, Queen Victoria is crowned, the registration of births, deaths and marriages is started, railway building booms particularly in the London area, the first opium war between China and England begins and many thousands emigrate after a great famine in Scotland [including the first two shiploads for Auckland].

 

Over these same ten years both brothers are to have four children each: Joshua, three girls and a boy: Jane, William, Lydia and Jemima, while Caleb had one girl and three boys: Mary, Thomas, William and Caleb, all born in the Bermondsey area.

 

Here we will let Joshua continue the narrative of their lives.