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Matilda Bathurst was born on May 6th 1835 in Hackney to parents Robert (2) Bathurst and his third wife Mary (nee Frost). She was christened at St. Matthew's in Bethnal Green (a sub-district of Hackney) on May 31st 1835 [IGI: Batch C046984].
The 1841 Census finds her at age "6" living with her parents at 10, Bacon Street in Bethnal Green.
She married Alfred (1) Woodhurst in 1849 when she was aged only 14. The GRO index reference [Marriage Index: Bethnal Green II 11, 1849 (Dec)] misspells her surname as "Bethurst". This marriage produced five children of whom only the fifth survived to adulthood. Their first daughter married at age 16 and died tragically 18 months later, after giving birth to her own child. Their second daughter died in infancy. Their first son died in a workhouse at age 17 from chronic abscesses. Their second son died in infancy. Their third daughter was indecently assaulted at age ten by her father (who was subsequently imprisoned for that offence), remained unmarried and died prematurely from diabetes.
In 1851 Matilda and Alfred (1) were living at 17, Rural Place in Stepney [UK 1851 Census]. She was occupied then in bonnet-making, a trade she presumably learned from her father. Subsequently it also became Alfred (1)'s occupation.
In 1862 she left Alfred (1) and married his older brother Richard William (1) Woodhurst (RWW) at Old Brentford. As explained on the page dealing with RWW, it is certain that they each committed bigamy since their former spouses were still living. Matilda bore six children to RWW over the period 1862-78. It is striking that none of her children by either marriage was given a name reflecting that of her own parents or siblings.
The 1871 Census finds her at age "34" with RWW and the first three of their children living at 8, Back [of?] 29, Stoke Street in the St. Thomas ward of Birmingham. She was occupied as a bonnet maker, and RWW as a dyer.
Around the mid-1870s Alfred (1) became mentally ill and was admitted to the Hoxton House private lunatic asylum. On June 26th 1877 he was transferred from there to the Middlesex County Asylum at Hanwell. His other older brother James (2) Woodhurst also became mentally ill at about the same time - he was first admitted to the Bethnal House private lunatic asylum and in 1877 was transferred from there to another Middlesex County Asylum at Banstead. Both brothers were still in these asylums at the time of the 1881 Census. How much Matilda knew of her former husband's fate is entirely unknown.
The 1881 Census finds Matilda at age "45" living with RWW and their six children at 41, Howbury Road in Camberwell, Surrey. She was occupied as a milliner.
RWW died aged 71 on December 10th 1887 at 7, Forest Road in Forest Gate [Death Index: W. Ham 4a 81, 1887 (Dec)].
In 1889, nearly two years after RWW's death, Matilda - now aged 54 - married a third time to James Hines. The marriage certificate [Marriage Index: Edmonton 3a 470, 1889 (Sept)] states that they married on July 14th 1889 at St. Ann's Parish Church in Tottenham. It describes her as a widow of full age and him as a widower and wine porter of full age. She entered her 'X' mark in place of a signature. Her address is given as 48, Stonebridge Road and his as 6, Sherborough Road, both in South Tottenham. Her father is named as Robert Bathurst, a deceased Gentleman, and his father as James Hines, a deceased coal merchant. The witnesses were her daughter Maude Edith and a William Hines, probably the groom's son. By this marriage Matilda again committed bigamy since her first husband Alfred (1) was still alive in the Hanwell Asylum.
The fact that Matilda had finally married a man named Hines was related independently to the site author in the 1990s by his maternal grandmother Maud Ethel Bone, who was herself the daughter of Matilda's daughter Annie (1). James was the son of another James Hines and wife Sarah, and was baptized at Sudbury, Suffolk on December 24th 1831; two of his siblings Hannah and John were baptized there on June 6th 1829 and January 14th 1835, respectively [IGI: Batch 7403013]. The 1841 Census finds James (junior) aged "8" living in Sudbury with his parents in Curds Lane, St. Gregory parish. The 1851 Census finds him aged "19" still living with his parents in Curds Lane, now within St. Peter parish, and occupied as a hand loom weaver of silk. Another of his brothers, Joseph, was meanwhile living with his first wife Emma and several children at Martin's Lower Yard in Braintree, Essex and engaged in the same occupation. The 1861 Census finds James (junior) still unmarried and living in Joseph's household in Plaistow Grove, West Ham in Essex, occupied as a dock labourer. His parents and brother John were meanwhile living in Tenterfield Row in Sudbury St. Gregory, variously occupied in the worsted and silk industries. In 1866 James (junior) married Sarah Fair [Marriage Index: W. Ham 4a 37, 1866 (March)]. The latter source misspells his surname as "Hinds". She was born around 1835-36 in Brentwood, Essex. The 1871 Census finds him living with her and several children in Stratford, West Ham. Sarah died aged "42" in 1877 [Death Index: W. Ham 4a 11, 1877 (June)]. The 1881 Census finds James widowed and living with just his three children William, Clara and Sarah Ann at 8, Grace Road in West Ham, occupied as a wine porter.
The 1891 Census finds Matilda and James living at 4, Stonebridge Villas, Townsend Road in South Tottenham. With them were Matilda's four youngest children Maude Edith, Blanche (1), Annie (1) and Richard (1), together with James' daughter Sarah Ann - shortly to become the wife of Matilda's son William (2). James was working for a wine dealer, Matilda and her three daughters were occupied as bonnet makers and Sarah Ann was a servant. Richard (1) was still at school. The record confuses the parentage of the children, treating those of Matilda as James' and vice versa - due almost certainly to Matilda having filled in the form as though she, and not James, were the head of household.
The 1901 Census finds Matilda at age 65 as a visitor at Morpeth Lodge in Bow, the home of her now-married daughter Blanche (1). The record clearly describes her as a widow, but this was an error - her husband at that time was in the household of her son William (2) at 12, Eighth Avenue in East Ham, Essex.
James may have died - with age cited as "68" (but actually about 71) - in 1902 [Death Index: Hackney 1b 250, 1902 (Sept)].
Matilda died in 1908. Her death certificate [Death Index: Hackney 1b 359, 1908 (March)] states that she died aged 72 on January 23rd 1908 at the Hackney Union Infirmary in Homerton, and describes her as the widow of James Hines, a "porter in distillery". She had been living at 24, Beecholme Road in Upper Clapton. The cause of death was certified as "senile decay, broncho-pneumonia". The informant, in attendance [at the death] was her son William (2), then living at 8, Elderfield Road in Lower Clapton. Beecholme Road used to be situated in the north-east corner of the intersection of Upper Clapton Road with Lea Bridge Road, but no longer exists - the site having since been redeveloped as a school.
In 1871 James and Sarah had with them a boarder Herbert Hines aged "18" with birthplace Sudbury whose relationship to James is not yet known. His birth reference may be [Birth Index: Samford 4a 543(or 545), 1852 (March)].
Clara Hines appears not to have married. She died aged "55" in 1926 [Death Index: Hackney 1b 384, 1926 (June)] and was buried in Chingford Mount Cemetery, Waltham Forest on May 3rd. The burial record gives her former address as 41, Clifden Road, the home of William (2) Woodhurst.