Leyton & Leytonstone

Historical Society

Cooper’s Lane, Leyton

There were 208 men, women and children staying in Cooper’s Lane in 1841 (108 male, 100 female), 195 in Cooper’s Lane in 1851, and the same number in 1861.  

Victorians expected people normally to be living in households, for each of which there would be a male ‘head’, responsible for the others and providing the main or only source of income.  If there was no adult male member of a household the census takers marked the oldest woman as head of the household.

In 1851 there were 48 heads of household in Cooper’s Lane, 9 of them women, of whom 4 were shown as laundresses, one a needlewoman, 2 as receiving parish relief, and for 2 of them no occupation or source of income is shown (of whom one was living with her laundress daughter).  The head of household laundresses were :

Frances Allen, 36 years old shown neither as married nor widowed but with a 3 year old daughter and a baby son of one year;

Rachael Balch, 46 years old, living with her 86 year old mother Sarah Balch who is shown as the head of the household, and a 44 year old servant Abagail Carter;

Elizabeth Murray, 63 years of age, widowed, living with her 29 year old married daughter (the son in law not resident at the time of the census and perhaps separated), 3 grandchildren 3 years and under, and two nieces of 15 and 12; next door to Elizabeth Murray was her son William living with his wife and 8 year old daughter;

Ann Smith, 27 years old, not shown as married or widowed, living with her daughters of 8 and 3 years and her son of 6 years (born at Greenwich, Stratford and Leyton), and a male lodger 22 years old; and

Elizabeth Smith, 64 years of age, widowed, living with her 15 year old daughter Eliza.

The other laundresses were :

Elizabeth Bonney (aged 56), living with her gardener husband James, her 25 year old daughter Elizabeth who was a dressmaker, and her 15 year old daughter Frances for whom no occupation is shown;

Ann Bugg (aged 57), living with her husband who was receiving ‘parish relief’;

Elizabeth Graham (aged 40), living with her ‘carman’ (horsedrawn delivery vehicle driver) husband and their 5 year-old daughter;

and Frances White (aged 57), living with her gardener husband.