David Waghorn was born on 21st August 1848 in Whitechapel, his parents were James and Harriet bi corr(1). He was baptised in St Mary’s, Whitechapel with his sister on 30th August 1857 ch. His date of birth, however, was recorded as 21st July 1849. It is quite possible that this year of birth was mis-remembered, it was also used to calculate his age in the 1851 census. He grew up in East London in a large family, living at 2 Finch Street, off Brick Lane, in 1851, then at 1 Montague Place in 1861. 8 children survived infancy. cs
David followed his older brothers into engineering, and although there are no records for the family in 1871 we know that by 1872, when he was 22 years old, he was employed by contractors working for the India office at their depot where he was an engineer’s fitter. corr(2)
He married Mary Nichols when he was 25 years old at St Matthew’s church, Bethnal Green on 23rd May 1874 and they set up home at 17 Seabright Road, in Bethnal Green. mc
By 1881 David and Mary were living in Olga Street, Bethnal Green, with the Wilson family: George a vinegar distiller, Susan, his wife, an ‘envelope folder’ and little Florence aged 2yrs. There were now two little Waghorn children, George and David. cs
The family then moved to the growing suburb of Tottenham and in 1891 were living at 4 Siddon Street with their 5 children, the youngest of whom was Albert Edward Waghorn. David was an ‘iron fitter’. All the children, apart from 2yr old Albert E who was 5 years younger than the others, were ‘scholars’. With them lived a boarder, 17yr old Peter Salter, a ‘brass finisher’. He may have been the son of Peter Charles Salter who was David’s witness at his wedding. cs
On 5th February 1898 David was taken onto the staff of the India Office as an engineer, one of the Staff Artisans. His job was to look after the hot-water boilers, tanks, valves and piping. corr(1) In 1901 the family was living at 52 Foyle Road, Tottenham. The eldest son had left home, the next two sons, Charles and Arthur were both engineers, Jane Matilda was a dressmaker and 12 year old Albert Edward was presumably still at school. cs
In 1909 David invented a new kind of Letter Copying Press. Before he could apply for a Patent from the Patent Office he had to ask permission of the Surveyor’s Department of the India office. This was approved in council by the finance committee on 21st October and David was informed that he could apply, but there were conditions attached concerning any rights of use or payments for licenses which might arise. On 29th December a member of the Surveyor’s department was required to submit a diagram and specification of the printing press and asked in a memo ‘In the event of the Secretary of State not desiring any further information may David Waghorn be given full permission to take out his patent?’ We have no evidence as to whether David did apply for a patent, but none was granted. corr(3)
In 1911 David, now 62 years old, and Mary now 58 yrs old were living with their youngest child, Albert Edward, at 23 Lordsmead Road. cs
In 1913 David was 65 yrs old, the retirement age for those with a post on the Permanent Establishment. David, however, was not in a permanent post, his employment could have been terminated at any time with one week’s notice, and he was therefore able to continue work for another year. In 1914 his pay was 45shillings a week, £117 per year. Under the Superannuation Acts, he was not eligible for a pension because he did not hold a permanent position. If he had been he would have been eligible for a pension of 16/60ths of 45shillings a week. In a written submission to the finance committee from his department it says “He has served well all the time he has been on the staff, and I think that the maximum amount of Compassionate Allowance may be given him for his past faithful service.” As requested by his department he was awarded a ‘Compassionate Allowance’ equivalent to the Superannuation pension, ie 5s2d a week, with the proviso that it would be decreased by the amount of any old age pension that he may be granted at the age of 70. corr(2)
Mary died in 1916 di and in late 1917 David married again mi. His second wife was Hannah, née Nichols. Could this have been the same Hannah Nichols, who had been a witness to his first marriage and was probably Mary’s older sister? In 1922 David, now 73 years old, and Hannah are listed as living at 103 The Avenue, Tottenham, but by April 1925 they had moved to one of the Draper’s Almshouses in Bruce Grove hb. They were both living there in 1926, but by 1928 Hannah had died. er Den remembered visiting his grandad at the almshouse, but although he said ‘we visited’ he could not remember who he went with. What he did remember was that at the end of each visit he was given a silver threepenny piece from a box in the attic.
David’s death was reported to the Court of Wardens of the almshouses on 20th February 1935, he had died on the 17th when he was 86 years old. iw The almshouse records show that he received a pension from the India Office of £42 and OAP of £26. corr (4) When he died he left his estate of £207 10s 9d to William Thomas Peterson. William was the husband of David’s daughter, Jane Matilda.iw
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