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Cable Street, Stepney |
Their only son, Job Thomas Sweeney (right), was born at 25 Monteagle Street, Stepney (which further research suggests was a boarding house) on 27 Aug 1897 and baptised at
St Dunstan and All Saints, Stepney, on 19 Sep 1897.
Eliza Louisa Tompson, was born on 24 Aug 1868, at 299
Cable Street, St George in the East. When I searched at the
General Register Office for Eliza Louisa's birth, I discovered that her mother's maiden name was
GREEN. In 1870, Eliza Louisa's grandad, Edward Green, died, as did her mother, Mary Ann, on 19 Mar 1870 at 363 Cable Street, after giving birth to a son, Dan Edward Green Tompson. The causes listed on Mary Ann's death certificate state "Childbirth 7 days, Scarlet Fever 4 days, exhaustion". After that, I was able to locate the 2 year old Eliza Louisa (listed as Thompson), living with
her maternal grandmother, Eliza Green, landlady at
The King and Queen Public House in Tait Street, St George in the East, in 1871.
In 1881, Eliza Louisa (12) was living with her father, Dan Tompson (32) and his wife (his 2nd, it transpires, who he'd married in 1871) Sarah Jane Baker (29), in
Watney Street, St George in the East, along with three of her half-sisters: Sarah Sophia (5), Mabel Grace (3) and Mary Adcock (0).
In 1891, Eliza Louisa (22), a 'fancy box maker' was living with
William and Ellen Burton, in
Knapp Road, Bromley, Poplar. Eliza Louisa was listed as their niece, actually their step-neice, because Ellen Burton (née Baker) was the sister of Dan's 2nd wife, her step-mother, Sarah Jane Baker.
My mother always claimed that her father and grandmother, Eliza Louisa, had been living in Sidney Street at the time of the
Siege of Sidney Street, or Battle of Stepney that took place in January 1911. It's not impossible, but I can find no records to support this. Of course, Eliza Louisa was well away from the area when Cable Street was made famous by it's own
battle in 1936.
By the time of the census on 2 April 1911, the family were living at 102
Fore Street, in the City of London. They lived in a flat above the warehouse that came with the job, where Job Sweeney (41) was employed as Packer and Caretaker; Eliza Louisa Sweeney (41), Job Thomas Sweeney (13) and, presumably visiting, was Amy Dolson (19) Domestic Servant, Friend.
In 1921, Job Sweeney (51) Packer, was still living and working at 102, Fore Street, City of London, for
Hoffnung & Co Shipping Merchants; with wife, Eliza L Sweeney (52) and son, Job T Sweeney (23) Warehouseman, working for Wills & Co (
W.D. & H.O. Wills) at their
Holborn Viaduct factory (for whom he eventually worked for around 36 years.)
Eliza Louisa was still living at 102 Fore Street with her son and his wife, Elizabeth (Bet) and granddaughter, Ivy, in 1939 and remained there until their home was destroyed in WWII, thought to have been on or around the night of 29–30 Dec 1940, the so-called
Second Great Fire of London.
Eliza Louisa Sweeney, otherwise Sweney (as it says on her death certificate), died on 13 Feb 1953, in Hornchurch, Essex, from coronary thrombosis, influenza, chronic bronchitis and old age. She was 84.