Sarah Baker

2G-grandmother of Norma Margaret Oliver

Born:

c1792 Deptford, Kent, England

Married:

20 Apr 1813 St Margaret's Church, Lee, Kent, England to Thomas Lane

Timeline

c1792

Apr 1813

1815

1816

1818-1821

1823

1825

1832

1836

1838

1841

1845

1851

1861

Born at Deptford, Kent [1] [2]

Married Thomas Lane at St Margaret's Church, Lee, Kent [3]

Lived with family at Glebe Land, Woolwich, Kent [4]

Lived with family at Coleman Street, Woolwich, Kent [5]

Lived with family at King Street, Woolwich, Kent [6] [7]

Lived with family at William Street, Lock's Fields, Walworth, Surrey [8]

Lived with family at Brandon Street, Lock's Fields, Walworth, Surrey [9]

Lived with Thomas Halifax and children at Oakley Street, Lambeth, Surrey [10]

Lived with Thomas Halifax and children at Burdett Street, Lambeth, Surrey [11]

Lived with Thomas Halifax and children at 45 Brandon Street, Lock's Fields, Walworth, Surrey [12]

Lived with Thomas Halifax and children at Mannings Place, East Street, Lambeth, Surrey [13]

Lived with Thomas Halifax and children at 7 Mill Street, Lambeth, Surrey [14]

Lived with Thomas Halifax and children at Mead Row, Lambeth, Surrey [1]

Lived at 13 Pratt Street, Lambeth, Surrey [2]

Biography

Born in Deptford

Sarah Baker was born around 1792 in Deptford, Kent, on the south bank of the Thames river [1] [2].

Growing up during the Napoleonic Wars, Sarah would have known Deptford as a hive of activity. It had historically been an important naval base, being the location of the Royal Dockyard, which built and repaired the navy's ships [15]. Views of Deptford painted around 1800, pictured below, show us Deptford as Sarah would have remembered it.

Deptford riverfront late 18C-early 19C.jpg

Deptford river front, late 18th century-early 19th century

View of Deptford, 1800

On the 20th of April 1813, at the age of 21, Sarah married Thomas Lane at St. Margaret's Church in Lee [3]. Thomas was a carpenter from Woolwich and, after their marriage, they settled there and began a family.

Old St Margaret's Church in Lee, Kent

Like Deptford, Woolwich was also situated on the south side of the Thames, further downstream, and was a bustling maritime and military hub centred around the Woolwich Dockyard. While the Napoleonic Wars raged across Europe from 1803 to 1815, the facilities at Woolwich expanded, providing employment opportunities to carpenters such as Thomas. Off the banks of Woolwich, prison hulks were moored, housing convicts awaiting transportation to Australia. It would have been a common sight for Sarah to see the convicts being taken to shore daily, to labour at the Royal Arsenal, a vast complex dedicated to the production and storage of military ordnance [16] [17].

View near Woolwich in Kent shewing [sic] the employment of convicts from the hulks, 1800.j

View near Woolwich showing the employment of convicts from the hulks, 1800

Thomas and Sarah welcomed their first child, Thomas George, on the 25th of November, 1814 [4]. Thomas George's baptismal record states that the family lived on "glebe land". In this context, it likely meant church land, so the family probably lived close to St. Mary Magdalene, near the dockyard. Given the couple's proximity to the dockyards and the fact it was the main employer for those in the town, it is probable Thomas worked in the yards and on the ships docked there. At the time, HMS Nelson was still on the stocks under construction and Thomas certainly would have seen it, and possibly even worked on it.

HMS Nelson under construction in Woolwich, 1814

The Napoleonic Wars culminated in British victory at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The following year, Thomas and Sarah's family grew with the birth of their daughter, Mary Elizabeth, in 1816, followed by sons Joseph William in 1818 and John Howard in 1820 [5] [6] [7]. The family continued to reside near St. Mary Magdalene Church, moving from Coleman Street to King Street, which - as can be seen on the map below - were actually part of the same road.

Woolwich as surveyed 1848-1850 - Ordnance Survey - London and its environs Sheet XII.NE.jp

Map of Woolwich showing Coleman and King Street

Move to Walworth

Between 1820 and 1822, the Lane family moved west to Walworth, in south London, to an area known as Lock's Fields. This move was likely driven by Thomas's work, as Lock's Fields and the nearby Brandon Street were home to timber yards and sheds that provided ample opportunities for carpenters [18] [19] [20]. The couple's fifth child, Benjamin William, was born in 1822 on William Street, and their sixth and final child, William Thomas, was born in 1825 after they had moved close-by to Brandon Street [8] [9].

Map of Walworth 1824-1826 showing William Street and Brandon Street.jpg

Map of Lock's Field, Walworth from 1824-25, showing William and Brandon Streets

Despite the growing family, the marriage between Thomas and Sarah began to deteriorate after the birth of William Thomas. Sarah became involved with a man named Thomas Halifax, a boiler maker from Devonshire who was also separated from his wife. This relationship resulted in the birth of two children, Thomas Halifax Lane in 1831 and John James Halifax Lane in 1836 [10] [11].

During this period, formal divorce was difficult to obtain, requiring an Act of Parliament and generally only available to men [21]. As a result, many couples, like Thomas and Sarah, separated informally without legal proceedings. It remains unclear where the children from Thomas and Sarah's marriage lived after the couple's separation, though it is likely they stayed with their mother, supported by the fact that they are living with her and Thomas Halifax in the 1841 census [1].

Tragically, Thomas Lane's life was cut short when, in the midst of a particularly severe winter, he died of pneumonia on the 12th January of 1841, at the age of 50 [21] [22]. His death certificate records that he was still residing in Lock's Fields at the time of his death. Despite their estrangement, Sarah was present at his death and served as the informant on his death certificate, indicating that there may have been some continued connection between them.

Sarah continued to live with Thomas Halifax, initially at Mill Street, on a property owned by the Collyer family - a family who her son William would marry into - and then to nearby Mead Row, in Lambeth [14] [1].

Thomas Halifax clearly had an influence on his step sons as two of them - Joseph and William - followed him into the boiler making industry, along with their younger half-brother Thomas Halifax Lane [24] [1]. Thomas was also a witness to the marriage of his oldest step-son, Thomas George Lane [25].

Sarah remained close to her children throughout her life. Whilst living at Mead Row in the early 1850s, her son Joseph lived around the corner at 13 Pratt Street before he, too, moved to Mead Row [24] [26].

In 1858, Thomas Halifax died at Guy's Hospital in Southwark from albuminuria, a symptom of kidney disease [27]. By 1861, Sarah moved to 13 Pratt Street, close to her son Thomas Halifax Lane, who lived at No. 14, and her other son William, who lived nearby on Brook Street [2] [28].

That same year, she also helped care William's daughters, Ellen and Elizabeth. First, Ellen - only two-and-a-half years old - became ill, suffering with bronchitis. After three weeks, she sadly passed away. To compound the tragedy, on the day that Ellen died, her 14-month old sister Elizabeth became ill with croup and died four days later. Sarah was there when the girls died, as evidenced by Ellen's death certificate, and was very likely there to help her son and daughter-in-law with caring for girls [28] [29].

Unfortunately, 1861 is the last date we have a record for Sarah. She doesn't appear in the 1871 census and likely had died by this point, however neither a death certificate or burial record have been located for her - the search remains ongoing.

Source information

Sarah Halifax [1851], Census return for Mead Row, Lambeth, Surrey, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Sarah Halifax [1861], Census return for Pratt Street, Lambeth, Surrey, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Thomas Lane and Sarah Baker, Marriage record transcription, Kent Marriages and Banns, 20 Apr 1813, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]
Thomas George Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Magdalene Woolwich Parish Register [Church of England], 26 Mar 1815, Record no: 1655, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Mary Elizabeth Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Magdalene Woolwich Parish Register [Church of England], 22 Sep 1816, Record no: 474, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Joseph William Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Magdalene Woolwich Parish Register [Church of England], 9 Nov 1818, Record no: 1931, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
John Howard Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Magdalene Woolwich Parish Register [Church of England], 16 Sep 1821, Record no: 1350, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Benjamin William Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Newington Parish Register [Church of England], 2 Mar 1823, Record no: 122, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
William Thomas Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Newington Parish Register [Church of England], 22 May 1825, Record no: 550, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Thomas Halifax Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Lambeth Parish Register [Church of England], 22 Apr 1832, Record no: 958, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
John James Halifax Lane, Baptismal record, St Mary Lambeth Parish Register [Church of England], 7 Feb 1836, Record no: 1862, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
John Halifax Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 2nd Quarter 1838 in St Mary Newington, Record no: 221, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Sarah Lane [1841], Census return for Mannings Place, East St, Lambeth, Surrey, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Thomas Halifax, Local and Personal Laws, Part 155, page 540-51, Mill Street Lambeth, Google Books [books.google.com]. This is the record of lessees and occupiers for Mill Street, Lambeth. Thomas Halifax is the occupier of 7 Mill Street.
Deptford, Wikipedia, Last edited 30 Oct 2024 [en.wikipedia.org]
Woolwich, Wikipedia, Last edited 17 Aug 2024 [en.wikipedia.org]
Great Harry to Great War and beyond, London News Online, 2 Sep 2021 [londonnewsonline.co.uk]
Desirable Estates, Walworth and Kent Road, Morning Herald (London), 20 Feb 1832, page 1, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Advertisement for timber yards and sheds at Lock's Fields, Walworth.
To Carpenters, Builders, and Others, Morning Advertiser, 8 Sep 1831, page 4, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Advertisement for stock in trade and utensils for carpenters on premises at Lock's Field, Walworth.
To Timber-merchants, Carpenters, Builders, and Others, Morning Advertiser, 27 Jan 1837, page 4, FindMyPast [www.findmypast.co.uk]. Advertisement for stock in trade for carpenters at Lock's Field, Walworth.
A brief history of divorce, The Guardian, 19 Sep 2009 [www.theguardian.com]
Thomas Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 1st Quarter 1841 in St Mary Newington, Record no: 117, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
1840/41 (winter), Weather in history 1800 to 1849 AD
Joseph Lane [1851], Census return for Pratt Street, Lambeth, Surrey, The National Archives of the UK, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Thomas George Lane and Matilda Priscilla Miles, Marriage record, St Mary Lambeth Parish Register [Church of England], 4 Jun 1838, Record no: 85, Ancestry [www.ancestry.co.uk]
Thomas Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 3rd Quarter 1854 in Southwark, Record no: 299, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]. This is the death certificate for Sarah's eldest son, Thomas George Lane. The informant on the death certificate is Thomas' brother Joseph, whose address was given as Mead Row, Lambeth.
Thomas Halifax, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 4th Quarter 1858 in St Olave Southwark, Record no: 450, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]
Ellen Julia Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 2nd Quarter 1861 in Lambeth, Record no: 27, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]. Sarah was the informant on the death certificate and present at Ellen's death.
Elizabeth Sarah Mary Lane, England & Wales Death Certificate, Registered 4th Quarter 1858 in St Olave Southwark, Record no: 29, General Register Office [www.gro.gov.uk]