The Family of John Maltman: Further Information, page 1

When I began writing the pages regarding this family I was unsure if the John Maltman and Mary Ann Edwards who married in London in 1827 were the same couple who had my great-grandfather in Hull, Yorkshire in 1839. Several things made me suspect that they were two different couples, including the suspicion that, if they were my great-grandfather's parents, they apparently left children behind in London when they moved north to Hull.

I was also concerned about the fact that the marriage record in London recorded the wife as "Mary Ann" while all of the records I could find relating to my great-grandfather's mother recorded her name as "Mary" - without any middle name.

However, I recently found a reference in the General Register Office indexes to the death of a George Maltman in Hull, Yorkshire in 1838. The indexes for that period do not record the person's age, so this could have been the death of an infant or an elderly man. As my great-grandfather was born in Hull the following year, I decided it was worth the £10 gamble to see if the death certificate would shed any light on this family.

When the certificate arrived in the post I realized that it was £10 well spent. The certificate answered many questions and made me feel confident that the couple married in London were the very same couple who later moved to Yorkshire. This George Maltman, aged 4 months, was born in London but died in Yorkshire - proving that the family moved north. The family lived at West Street in the Myton district of Hull, the same address shown on my great-grandfather's birth certificate. The father was John Maltman, boxmaker, and the informant was Mary Ann Maltman - proving that my great-grandfather's mother did indeed have a middle name.

While this death certificate answered several questions, it cannot answer the most perplexing question: Did this couple abandon their older children in London?

I now know that John and Mary Ann Maltman moved from London to Hull, Yorkshire sometime between the birth of George at the end of 1837 and his death in Hull on 18 May 1838. But what of their older children?

I initially thought that John and Mary Ann emigrated to Canada before the date of the 1841 census but I recently discovered Mary Ann and her infant son Charles William in a London workhouse in 1841. This came as quite a surprise and changed the picture considerably. I thought that the elder children, John Ebenezer, aged 9 years, Mary Ann, aged 8 years, and Jane Elizabeth, aged 4 years, had gone to the workhouse while their parents went to Yorkshire, but I now suspect that the whole family went to Yorkshire and only went into the workhouse on their return to London. (Their daughter Sarah died in the workhouse in October 1837, before the move to Hull).

It appears that John and Mary Ann were unable to support their family and had to rely - at times at least- on Poor Relief. The baptism records for two of their children record their 'abode' as the workhouse, so it would appear that the family did spend periods of time in various London area workhouses. It is even possible that they were forced to return to London by the Poor Law Commissioners in Hull - through what was known as a 'Removal Order'.

I have not been able to find John Maltman in the 1841 census and know that he was in Toronto by the time of the 1842 Canadian census and now suspect that he emigrated to Canada on his own and sent for his family - or some of them - once he was settled.

My earlier theories regarding my great-great grandparents have been proven - in some respects - incorrect and I now have a clearer understanding of their situation, but one thing still troubles me, and that is the fact that, however the family came to emigrate to Canada, they left their eldest son, John Ebenezer, behind in England.

NOTES:
1:	A Removal Order was a legal document, usually issued by a Magistrate on behalf of the Poor Law Union, to send a poor person back to his or her last place of legal settlement. In other words, if someone from outside of the area became a financial burden on the local Poor Law Union they could be sent back to wherever they came from. If John Maltman and his family were in need of Poor Relief in Yorkshire, they may have been forcibly removed from Hull and sent back to London.
2:	I cannot find any passenger lists or other emigration records for this family so cannot be sure exactly when John and Mary Ann left England or exactly who travelled with them.
3:	I believe that the 1851 census of Canada would have answered some questions but the census returns for they city of Toronto appear to be missing.
4:	The above information is based partly on documentary evidence and partly on me grasping at straws.

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