LiveTheirStory

In my first post about Charlotte, I noted how she and Isaac often named a newborn for one of their deceased children, a poignant way of memorialising them. But what happened to her after he left for prison in March 1842? The prison admission record states that she was living in the workhouse, so I visited #NorfolkRecordOffice to investigate the records of the Forehoe Poor Law Union in that fateful year between losing her husband and her own death.

Looking at the Wicklewood workhouse admission and discharge books drew a blank: she is not listed as an inmate, but my previous experience exploring the North Witchford Union records for #ChatterisMuseum told me to go and look in the Minute Books of the Board of Guardians, where people receiving relief outside the workhouse are often mentioned. What I found was explosive…

We know from her death registration record that Charlotte died on 30 November 1843. On 4 December of the same year the Board of Guardians investigated a complaint:

The Minister of the Parish of Wicklewood preferred a complaint against Mr White the Relieving Officer, for having neglected or refused to afford Relief to a Woman named Charlotte Knott of that parish, who was confined on Friday the 24th of November and died on the Tuesday following [sic, actually the Thursday]. The Relieving Officer being called upon for an explanation of the circumstances, stated, that finding the woman had been delivered of an illegitimate child, he did visit her on the day of the confinement and requested to know who was the Father of the child, but this information she refused to give __ he then told her he could give her no Relief unless she told him who the father was, and that as she had a Donkey and Cart, he did not consider her destitute __ he also stated there was no application for Medical Relief. __ He however admitted that he was requested to visit the case on the Monday following, but that he neglected so to do.

The Board having heard the complaint and also the Relieving Officer in explanation, were of opinion that the Woman did not die from Starvation, or for want of proper nourishment, as it appeared that was provided for her by other means, but that he ought to have administered temporary Relief and also provided Medical assistance __ that it was a case of great neglect on his part, and more particularly in his not having visited the person on the Monday of her confinement when requested so to do.__ Under all the circumstances the Board considered the Relieving Officer’s conduct to have been highly reprehensible and strongly admonished him against a recurrence of such negligence.

So Charlotte had an illegitimate child long after Isaac left, but was dismissed by White because she would not name the father (whom the Board would have pursued for maintenance, and about whose identity we can only speculate). But what happened to the child, I wondered?

I went back into the Admissions and Discharge books, and found an entry for ‘James Knott, orphan’, born 1843 in Wymondham and admitted to the workhouse on 1 December by the same Mr White. Could Charlotte have given birth in Wymondham? Circumstantial evidence suggests her sister Mary/Maria lived in the town, but Charlotte’s own death took place in Wicklewood. Did she travel home in the intervening period between the birth and her death, hence requesting a visit from the Relieving Officer again on the Monday?

I don’t think so. I strongly suspect, given the subsequent complaint, that Mr White tried to cover up his neglectful treatment of Charlotte by changing the birthplace in the 1st December record. He brings the child in, a day after Charlotte’s registered death, and simply states he is an ‘orphan’, no connection, no questions asked. And that absence of connection in the written record meant that little James, who died two months later in the workhouse, could easily have been left an orphan in the records as well as real life.

Why do I think this is Charlotte’s son? Two things: one, as mentioned at the start, she reused names of her deceased children, and her lastborn was named after her firstborn, James Green Knott. Two, James Coe White turned out to be a basically dishonest man: in January 1844 he was imprisoned in the County Gaol for nine months on two counts of embezzlement, forcing the Union to advertise for a replacement Relieving Officer.

The workhouse at Wicklewood became a hospital, then a school, and is now a private estate. A memorial was erected in 1927 by the Guardians to all who were laid to rest in the adjacent burial ground. I have been fortunate in being able to visit the site, hosted by two of its residents, to whom I send warmest thanks. James is one of those buried ‘herein’, and we have discovered him together.