“Grandad was a Pastry Cook”

 Thomas John Spall was my maternal great-great-grandfather, born in the Old Bailey area of the City of London in 1862 to Jonathan Spall and Elizabeth Arabella Paine.¹ He was the eldest of four children.²

Thomas John married Elizabeth Mary Rose in 1887 and the couple had ten children, three of whom died in infancy.^3,2 My grandfather (Edward John, 1902) was the second youngest of the seven surviving children.²

My mother seemed to spend a lot of time with her grandmother and remembered the tales her grandmother used to tell of her Indian childhood. (see "A Rifleman of the 60th"). Her grandmother also told her that her grandfather had been a pastrycook.⁴

The truth of this was proven by genealogical research with Thomas’ occupation being given as “Apprenticed to cooking” in the 1881 census and as a cook in the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses and the birth registrations of his children.^5,6 So if not a pastrycook per se, he was at least a cook for most of his working life and here the tale may have ended if I had not made contact with a third cousin on my Spall side in 2009.⁷

This lady had a collection of family photos, most of which she was able to identify. However there was one photo which had her stumped. This showed a fairly young man dressed in a full length white gown and a floppy white hat (see image below). I looked at it and immediately thought “cook”!

Photograph of an unknown young man with contacts to the Spall family. Original held by J. Ward.

Two of the keys to dating photographs are fashion and photographer. Fashion cannot help with this photograph, but maybe the photographer can. The photographer’s name on the photo mount is R. Hellis of Notting Hill Gate. Looking R. Hellis up on the internet it seems that one Robert Hellis had a photographic shop in Silver Street, Notting Hill by 1870.⁸ In 1887 the name of the enterprise was changed to Hellis and Son, so the photograph must have been taken before then.

At this time photographs were primarily taken on special occasions, so what special occasion occurred in the Spall family between 1870 and 1887 involving a cook? Well, if Thomas was apprenticed at the usual age (14 years) and had a standard length apprenticeship (7 years) he would have qualified as a Journeyman at the age of 21. This would have occurred in 1883 at the earliest.

I believe there is a strong possibility that this is a photograph of Thomas John Spall on the occasion of his graduation to journeyman cook, taken in the period between 1883 and 1887. So, to quote my mother, “Grandad was a pastrycook”.

Sources

1. England & Wales Birth certificate of Thomas John Spall, born 27 Oct 1862, citing 1c/39/180, Dec quarter 1862, West London registration district, West London sub-district; General Register Office, Southport.
2. Law, Susan, 'Susan Commons Pedigree View - Ancestry.Com', https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/tree/52067358/family?cfpid=13296141854, Accessed 4 Sep 2023 (private tree, access can be requested).
3. England and Wales, marriage certificate for Thomas Jonathan Spall and Elizabeth Mary Rose, married 25 Sep 1887; citing 1c/262/455, Sep quarter 1887, Shoreditch registration district; General Register Office, Southport
4. Commons, Patricia P. L. M., private communication c. 2007.
5. Census record for Thomas J. Spall, aged 18, 14 Victoria Grove, South Hackney, Middlesex, 1881 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, RG11/0317/39/16; Census record for Thomas J. Spall, aged 28, 86 Mintern St, Haggerston, Middlesex, 1891 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, RG12/249/122/33; Census record for Thomas J. Spall, aged 38, 9 Marian St, Homerton, Middlesex, 1901 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, RG13/220/146/41; Census record for T. John Spall, aged 48, 71 Mintern St, Hoxton, Middlesex, 1911 England and Wales Census, The National Archives, RG14/1358/78/47, UK Census Collection, Ancestry.com, accessed 27 Jan 2009.
6. See e.g. England & Wales Birth certificate of Thomas Henry Spall, born 28 Jul 1888, citing 1c/29/113, Sep quarter 1888, Shoreditch registration district, Holywell sub-district; General Register Office, Southport; England & Wales Birth certificate of Horace William Spall, born 15 Apr 1909, citing 1c/64/482, Jun quarter 1888, Shoreditch registration district, Shoreditch north west sub-district; General Register Office, Southport.
7. Ward, J., email communications, 2011.
8. Brunning, Robert, “Robert Hellis (1835-1895): Photographer & Conjuror”, Friends of West Norwood Cemetery Newsletter, No. 87, Sep 2016, page 9, https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2804357498?profile=original, Accessed 2 Sep 2023.