Richard Hooper 1831 - 1880

Richard Hooper was born on 20th August 1831 in Field Street, Saint Pancras, which was just south of the Pentonville Road. Later he moved with his father's family into Pentonville itself which is on the north side of the Pentonville Road. He married Martha Hancock in 1851. He brought up his family in Pentonville until 1858. He lived at several different addresses, identified on the map and list with dates and events. Kings Cross station is at the left. The station opened in 1852 so it didn't exist for the early part of this narrative, and was under construction at the time Richard married in 1851. All the street names are on the map except one - Prospect Row. It's the arrow marked with the letter P. Mexican Terrace is hard to read - it's arrow is marked M.

The marriage record shows both Richard and Martha to be of full age, which meant 21 in those days. Actually Richard was 19 and Martha was 30. Clearly with Henry George arriving just over a week after they married, they had known each other since Richard was 18 and possibly younger. Whatever the circumstances Richard finally married Martha and settled down in Pentonville. Why their marriage took place in Hampton is a mystery, but the imminent arrival of our great grandfather Henry George might provide the underlying reason.  Martha was pregnant so had she moved away to avoid gossip from people that knew her? Did Richard's work as a scenery painter involve travel to different places? We'll never know the real reason, but they soon moved back to Pentonville after they were married. 

Pentonville was originally an estate owned by Henry Penton to the north of Clerkenwell. It was popular with Londoners as an area for recreation, playing bowls and so on. It was gradually developed from the 1760s into a pleasant northern suburb with wide streets and mixed types of housing. By the time Richard was born in 1831 Pentonville was becoming a less grand area with a lot more shops and smaller houses, but still a clean and respectable area. This picture from Oliver Twist is set in Pentonville at about the time Richard was born, and it gives an idea of the kind of place it was then.

So how did Richard support his family. When he married Martha he was a scene painter, probably working for a theatre as an artist. Look at the letter R in his signature - it looks almost as if it's a cartoon of a running man.  Is it a clue to an artistic talent? His father Henry at this time is a theatrical machinist, which is a sort of odd job man making things for the theatre. It strongly hints that Richard and his father could both be working for the same theatre company. Or maybe the music hall? Who knows. A couple of months later in the 1851 census Richard says he is a master painter. 

But things soon changed. The next few years see Richard working as a Gas Meter Maker. He probably decided that he needed to do something with a more reliable income than what he was getting as a scene painter, particularly with a growing family to support. At that time the gas industry was thriving with the demand for gas lighting and cooking. There was a manufacturer of gas meters and appliances less than half a mile away towards Euston - Defries. It's very likely that Richard was working there. He joined them in 1851/2 and stayed there until early 1858.

So what exactly was a marine store dealer. It's what we would know as a junk dealer, or rag and bone man. They were very common in Victorian times, and several appear in Charles Dickens works, notably in Bleak House:

'She had stopped at a shop over which was written KROOK, RAG AND BOTTLE WAREHOUSE. Also, in long thin letters, KROOK, DEALER IN MARINE STORES. In one part of the window was a picture of a red paper mill at which a cart was unloading a quantity of sacks of old rags. In another was the inscription BONES BOUGHT. In another, KITCHEN-STUFF BOUGHT. In another, OLD IRON BOUGHT. In another, WASTE-PAPER BOUGHT. In another, LADIES' AND GENTLEMEN'S WARDROBES BOUGHT. Everything seemed to be bought and nothing to be sold there. In all parts of the window were quantities of dirty bottles - blacking bottles, medicine bottles, ginger-beer and soda-water bottles, pickle bottles, wine bottles, ink bottles . . . There was a little tottering bench of shabby old volumes outside the door, labelled "Law Books, at 9d." . . . several second-hand bags, blue and red, hanging up . . . heaps of old crackled parchment scrolls . . . rusty keys, of which there must have been hundreds huddled together as old iron . . . litter of rags tumbled partly into and partly out of a one-legged wooden scale . . . bones in a corner, piled together and picked very clean . . .'

And here's the illustration that goes with it.

Marine Store Dealers also appear frequently in newspapers - mainly in connection with the Police Courts. They had a deserved reputation for receiving stolen goods. As we shall see the courts view was that marine store dealers were a menace in providing an easy way for felons to dispose of their stolen goods.

This was the trade that Richard entered in 1858. Two other family members were already marine store dealers, his older brother Thomas, and their brother in law George Wilson, both in Pentonville. It's possible that Richard had worked in their shops and gained an understanding of the business. Then he might have found out through the trade about an opportunity in Poplar. But however it might have happened Richard and his family moved to 16 John Street Poplar.

Poplar

From the baptism dates of the last three children, and from electoral rolls we know that Richard and his family moved to John Street Poplar in about 1858. John Street was a short road at the western end of Grundy Street, just north of the East India Dock Road. In 1865 it was amalgamated with Grundy street.

It wasn't long before Richard took a wrong turn. They had been in Poplar for about a year when he appeared before the courts for a typical Marine Store Dealer offence.

A month later Richard was released and we hear no more of him in the courts. He seems to have learned his lesson.  His brother Thomas, who we mentioned earlier was another marine store dealer, also appeared at least once before the courts on a similar charge of receiving stolen goods, but we don't know the outcome of his case. It was probably useful to have connections with family marine store dealers in Pentonville. Items could be moved around between them easily - maybe that was what happened when Richard got caught?

Richard and his family continued to live in John Street for more than another  twenty years. There are many records of their existence there in trade directories and electoral rolls, and in particular the 1871 census. Richard and Martha are there in what is now 16 Grundy Street with four of the children. 

As we said earlier their last three children were born here in Poplar but they were taken back to Islington to be baptised. They did this probably to establish all their children's rights to poor law relief in Islington as their settled parish. The address given on the baptisms was Henry, Richard's father, who also had his son in law George Wilson living there - one of the other marine store dealers.

But we have never found any claim for parish relief so Richard must have been making ends meet. Eventually all the children left leaving Richard and Martha on their own.

What's going on here? This can't be his own house and shop because he goes back there after he's released from prison. So did he own it? Or was he a letting agent? A mystery to be investigated. One small clue comes from the later marriage of his brother Emmanuel, where he refers to their father Henry as a house agent. Something worth investigating.