Covent Garden – Acquisition of 13 Brydges Street and 15 Charles Street – Death of George Hodgkins – Thomas George Hodgkins – Ann King’s escape to Brighton – Thomas George Hodgkins escape to America – Mother H’s continues.
It not possible to say exactly when Ann King’s tenure of ‘Mother H’s’ began. Thomas Hodgkins, shellfishmonger, is listed as the occupier in 1812. Ann King was associated with Thomas Hodgkins in about 1816, when she had a disagreement with his son, Thomas George Hodgkins. Ann King and Thomas Hodgkins lived together at 15 Charles Street, a house backing onto Mother H’s and ‘knocked through’ at the rear to form the saloon. Renton Nicholson wrote in 1860,
“H’s formerly extended from Bridges Street through to Charles Street, now called Wellington Street. The grand room was the length of both houses”.[i]p28.Rogue’s Progress:The Autobiography of “Lord Chief Baron” Nicholson. ed John L Bradley Houghton Mifflin
On 29 May 1812, the freehold was advertised for sale: [ii]The Morning Chronicle 29 May 1812
“Capital freehold house most desirable situated, 13 Brydges Street opposite the west front of Drury Lane New Theatre called The Theatre Tavern and Hotel, containing numerous chambers and sitting rooms, kitchen, offices and cellaring in the occupation of Mr Benjamin, under-tenant to Mr Hale, who has a lease of 21 years from Christmas 1811 at the very low rent of £100 per annum. The premises have been repaired and improved at great expense and may be viewed ’til the sale with leave of the tenant”.
The nature of business at 13 Brydges Street is shown in newspaper reports of court cases sometimes involving selling wine without a licence, sometimes ‘keeping a disorderly house’ i.e. a brothel, and sometimes the violence of customers engaged in disputes over gambling. On most occasions, fines were avoided owing to the ureliability of witnesses, as in December 1827.[iii]The Examiner 9 Dec 1827
Thomas Hodgkins and Ann King never married. Until the death of Richard Hilliard in 1817, Ann was already legally married to him. Her marriage to Samuel King was probably bigamous. Thomas’ son by his first wife, Thomas George Hodgkins, argued with his stepmother, gave up his studies at the Royal College of Surgeons, and went to sea with the East India Company. He suffered shipwreck and illness, and ended up in the Calcutta Hospital. While Thomas George was away in 1822, his father made his will in which he left his entire estate to Ann King, with the request that she take care of his son, then a minor of 19 years.
Thomas Hodgkins senior bought the lease of 15 Charles Street in 1824 and a 36 year lease on 13 Brydges Street in March 1826. He died in September 1826, age 45, at their house at Askern near Doncaster, leaving in addition to the recently acquired leases in Covent Garden, the lease of the New Doncaster Betting Rooms, a vast gambling establishment, more of which I will reveal in later posts.
Thomas George returned from India to find that he had been disinherited by his father, thanks to Mrs King, who was now the owner of considerable assets. She employed a ‘gentleman’ name of Isaiah Smart (sometimes misspelt as ‘Josiah’) to run 13 Brydges Street and prepared to withdraw from her life of dangerous notoriety. Mother H’s was coming even more under the scrutiny of the authorities. The proprietors were variously named, and included Isaiah Smart, Thomas Hodgkins, and a Mary Ellis. Mary Ellis was probably an alias for Ann King, who was certainly living at 15 Charles Street in 1827-8 when she had Thomas George bound over to keep the peace towards her. It appears that the joint running of Mother H’s was not going smoothly.
At a hearing of the Middlesex Sessions on 8th January 1828[iv]Sussex Advertiser 14 Jan 1828, Ann sought an injunction against her stepson, who on 5th December 1827, had violently threatened her at 15 Charles Street, and two days later, he followed her to Brighton and did so again. On 26th December, Mrs King visited her lawyer, Thomas Burton Howard, in Bouverie Street, and on her return, Hodgkins was waiting for her. She was forced to escape through the top of the house. The court heard that he had said:
“I have owed you a grudge for nearly 12 years, but in consequence of your late kindness to me I thought it was buried, but I find it has only slept – did I say slept? – It has only slumbered, and is now fresh-kindled with 10 times more fury against you. I will be revenged of you”.
Three days after her visit to her lawyer, Ann King proved Thomas Hodgkins’ will. This could explain why Thomas George was acting so aggressively towards her. Her ‘late-kindness’ in taking her stepson into the business, did nothing to assuage his anger at being disinherited by his father. Unwilling and unable to have any further contact with Ann King, Thomas George had to find new means of earning a living and a fresh start in life. It took him a while however, as in September 1829 he was reported in the press as having defaulted on a substantial gambling debt at the St Leger in Doncaster.[v]Leicestershire Journal 2 October 1829 Shortly afterwards, he married Emma Clark, who was his first cousin’s sister-in law. The couple emigrated to America, where they really did make a fresh start.
