The Horn Family

Page Five

Annie Elizabeth Horn

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                Johann Wolfgang Horn Born 1737. Married Sophia Dorothea Shenaman

                Charles Frederick Horn Born 1762, Married Diana Arbonean Dupont

           Charles Edward Horn Born 1786, Married Matilda Ray/Maria Horton

                      Charles Horn Born 1811 Married Jeannette Prosser/ Sarah Brown

                         Charles William Horn Born 1847 Married Emily Dady

                             Annie Elizabeth Horn Born 1884 Married John Benjamin Deacon    

Annie Elizabeth Horn

Annie Elizabeth lost her Father, Charles William,  in 1906 when she was twenty two years old. He died of cancer in  St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. She lost her mother a year later in 1907, also from cancer, in the Hackney Union Infirmary in Homerton. She had already been working away from home since an early age, On the census of 1901 she was working at 168, Watergate Street, Deptford,  (south London) as a general domestic servant. The census makes no mention of the address being a public house or hotel but the head of the household,  Horace Rickett, was a licensed Victualler (working at home) and another servant was described as a barman also working at home. From this information we assume the building was some sort of inn. Annie's  employer, Horace Rickett was twenty six years old and was born in Chingford Essex. Twenty years previous, in 1881, he was living with his parents at the Royal Oak public house in Kings head hill, Chingford, so the assumption that the Deptford address was a public house of some description is not unreasonable.

 

Watergate Street Deptford about 1900

It was far from uncommon for a young girl to find herself  living away from home at such a young age (Annie was 17 years old in 1901). From her parents house in Dalston she was probably sent to Chingford and from there on to Deptford with Horace Rickett and his wife.

Annie's eldest daughter Beatrice has recollections of stories told by her mother which she has kindly passed on to me. These stories relate to these early years: 

"Mother was put "into service" at the Kings Head Hotel, Kings Head Hill, Chingford which at the time was owned (or run) by a family named Horton. She was trained as a cook and a barmaid."

The memories Annie had of her young life may have faded by the time they were recalled, she may have confused one hotel with the other but equally they may be accurate. She may well have been sent to the the Kings Head hotel and then gone on to the Royal Oak sometime later, or vice versa. It is possible she returned from Deptford and continued working at the Kings Head hotel before she was married. We may never know. 

Whilst Annie had been sent away her elder sister Jessie still lived in the family house in Dalston. Maybe because she was already in employment and bringing in an additional wage. Jessie moved into a house in Mayfield Road after marrying Frederick Dale in January 1906 three months before her father died. Frederick was printer by trade, he had completed his apprenticeship with a school friend named John Benjamin Deacon who had moved into the basement area of the same house. Annie's daughter Beatrice recalls the words of her mother 

"He (John Benjamin) and Fred Dale had been doing an apprenticeship with a  printing  firm and they were always in trouble staying out late, card parties, drinking together and occasionally in the police' bad books." 

 

17, Watergate Street Deptford dated 1926

 

Nevertheless Annie married John Benjamin Deacon in 1910 and later, probably around 1914/5 Annie's first child, Beatrice remembers being sent to Boscombe, near Bournemouth  to stay with a Mrs Horton for a brief time, she was told Mrs Horton was her Godmother.
On their marriage certificate both John and Annie were living at the same address of 10, Durban Road, Tottenham, curiously Durban Road is a turning off Pretoria Road near White Hart Lane in Tottenham and Pretoria Road Chingford was where the family lived many years later. It is not unusual for couples to be shown living at the same address on a marriage certificate, Jessie and Frederick Dale were both living at 20, Market Row at the time of their marriage and  John Benjamin's own mother and father were both living at 3, Napier Street, Hoxton when they married in 1874. Many families took in lodgers to supplement their income, in some cases it was their only income and without it survival would have been very hard. The other reason was Parish boundaries, in areas like Tottenham, Hackney and Shoreditch the population was expanding at such a phenomenal rate the traditional Parish's were simply not able to cope with the extra demand, so new Churches were built and the original Parish split into four or five or more smaller Parishes, making the population covered by each Parish much smaller. The original Parish was referred to as the "Mother Parish". If both parties applying to marry lived in the same Parish everything was much simpler.

After the marriage John Benjamin and Annie Elizabeth Deacon found a small flat in Tottenham where their first child was born, Beatrice Annie ( 4th May, 1911).  Also in 1911 Annie's younger sister Emily Maria married a carman, George Mercer of Stanley Road, Chingford. At the time Emily was living at The Hollies, Gordon Road, Chingford, close to the boundary of Epping Forest.