Mira Brown was just 44 years old when she succumbed to cholera on 4 October 1854. Her husband Simon was present when she died at St Johns Yard, Tottenham. The All Hallows, Tottenham parish records note that Mira was buried on 8 October 1854. Mira was my Great Great Grandmother, mother of Louisa Brown – later Louisa Muggleton and Louisa was mother of my Grandfather James Alfred Muggleton. Simon and Mira Brown were married on 13 May 1827 at All Hallows Church in Tottenham. It seems Mira was also Brown before her wedding as on their daughter Louisa’s birth certificate it notes the mother as “Mira Brown formerly Brown”. In the 1841 Census, Simon and Mira are living at Brunswick Court, Tottenham. Simon is aged 40, so could actually between 44 and 40 (Born c 1797-1801) as ages were rounded down to the nearest number divisible by 5 and is a “Shoemaker”. Mira is 31 (born c1810). Both are noted as “Born in County”, although Mira is noted in the 1851 Census as having been born in Oxford. They have two children, Henry aged 7 (born c1834) and Lucy aged 4 (born c1837). In the 1851 Census the family is at 4 Brunswick Gardens, Tottenham. Simon age 50 (born c1801) is a “Shoe maker- journeyman” and is born in Tottenham. Mira aged 40 (born 1811) has no occupation and her birthplace is now noted as Oxford. Henry is aged 16 (1835) and a “Chemists Assistant”. There are three new children, Louisa aged 9 (born 14 November 1841), Thomas aged 5 (born Quarter 2 1846) and William aged 3 (born either Quarter 1 or Quarter 4 1848), and these three are all “Scholars” and have all been born in Tottenham. Lucy does not appear at the family home, but I think I have traced her to be a live-in servant elsewhere The first outbreak of cholera in the UK occurred in Sunderland in 1831 and in the following year it appeared in London. The outbreak in London lasted until 1833 and over 6000 people died of the disease. At the time it was thought to be caused and then spread by “miasma” or bad smell in the atmosphere and certainly London was a city of bad smells for most of the 19th Century. The city’s water supply was mostly drawn from shallow public wells where people pumped their own water and carried it home. The sewage system was even more primitive with privies being emptied in to cess pits and cellars with the resulting mess being carried in to streams and rivers. The pervasive smell of animal and human waste combined with rotting garbage made the miasma theory very plausible. A second outbreak hit London from 1848 to 1849 and more than 14000 died. The third outbreak came from 1853 to 1854 when over 10000 died. Resulting from this Doctor John Snow isolated the cause of one outbreak in Soho to one water pump and proved that in fact the disease was waterborne. After what became know as “The Great Stink” in 1858, when even the House Of Commons was affected by the hideous smell coming from the highly polluted River Thames, politicians finally acted and a new water and sewage system was built over the next decades in London and other cities. In 2012 my granddaughter Jodie came to lunch and she was telling me all about her GCSE courses and that in History she was studying the History of Medicine and at the time they were learning about the London cholera outbreaks and Doctor John Snow. She was able to go back to her class armed with a copy of Mira Brown’s death certificate and show them she had a direct link with what they were studying through her Great Great Great Great Grandmother. It’s always worthwhile finding out about our ancestors but something like that makes it even more special. Pictures: 1. All Hallows Church, Tottenham in 1831 2. A cordwainer at work in the mid 19th Century 3. With more than a touch of black humour the disease was known as “King Cholera” and this cartoon appeared in Punch Magazine in 1852 and was entitled “A Court For King Cholera” 4. Death Certificate of Mira Brown 5. Burial record of Mira Brown
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:12:24 +0000
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