Student Showcase: Nathaniel John Hudson

This is part of the series of blog posts from students of Janet Few's Are You Sitting Comfortably?: writing and telling your family history (216) course.

Janet says: "I have been tutoring the course for several years. Three years ago the option to submit an assessed piece for feedback was added. Since then, each time the course has run, several students have taken this opportunity and have sent in a section of their family histories. They are given about six weeks after the course finishes to do this. I have been in awe of what they have produced in a comparatively short space of time. It is a pleasure to be able to feature some of their stories on the Pharos blog".

This offering comes from student, Susan Pepper, and tells the story of Nathaniel John Hudson (1818-1875)...

Nathaniel John Hudson

My Brewis grandfather’s mother, Anne Beatrice Hudson, died when he was only five and I grew up knowing very little about the Hudson side of the family.  In fact, the only thing I knew was that my exceptional height and long feet came from my Hudson great grandmother!  When I started researching family history, I discovered that some of my Hudson ancestors were barge builders and that had a particular resonance with me as a keen dinghy sailor.  Last summer, I found the family grave of my third great grandfather, Nathaniel John Hudson, amid the tangled undergrowth in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park and I resolved then to tell his story.

Nathaniel John Hudson was born on Monday 5th January 1818 in Greenwich, South-East London.[i] He was born into a country at peace after the long upheaval of the Napoleonic Wars, which had ended with Napoleon’s defeat in the Battle of Waterloo on 18th June 1815.  Nathaniel was Thomas and Sarah Hudson’s fifth child and second son or rather, he was the fifth child for whom I can find records: the gap of years between the second and third children leads me to suspect that there were other births for which I can find no evidence.  Nathaniel John was named after his elder brother, Nathaniel, who had died in November 1816, aged only seven months.[ii]  Where the name Nathaniel came from is unclear as his Hudson grandfather was named Isaac, but the John probably came from Sarah’s father, John Patrick.  Nathaniel John was the only one of the three sons born to Thomas and Sarah to survive infancy; his younger brother, John, died in December 1825, aged 13 months.[iii]

Nathaniel was baptised on Sunday 10th May 1818 at St Alfege Church in Greenwich.[iv]  This Anglican Church was notable for being the first of six London Churches designed by the famous architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor.  Another Hawksmoor Church, St Anne’s Limehouse was set to play an important role in Nathaniel’s future life.  The Parish Register for Nathaniel’s baptism gives the family’s abode as Wood Wharf in Greenwich, but by the time of his sister, Ann’s baptism on 15th February 1824, the family had moved to Poplar and were living within the parish of All Saints, which comprised the hamlets of Poplar and Blackwall.[v]  Apart from a brief period in Lambeth and Southwark around 1850, Nathaniel remained in East London for the rest of his life.

Nathaniel had served his apprenticeship and become a barge builder like his father by the time of his marriage at the age of 20.[vi]  His marriage certificate gives his residence as Limehouse and he and his father must have been working in one of the numerous small shipyards along the Thames from Limehouse to Blackwall.[vii]  This was a thriving time to be involved in ship building in London as the city had become the world’s leading ship builder in terms both of the numbers of ships built and of their technological innovation.[viii]  Living in Ratcliff after his marriage, Nathaniel would have seen the first ship to use screw propulsion instead of paddles, the Archimedes, launched at Ratcliff Cross Dock in 1838.  London also pioneered the building of iron ships, most notable of which was Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Eastern.  This was the largest and most technologically advanced vessel ever to have been built and it was designed to travel to Australia non- stop.  The Great Eastern towered over Millwall docks during its build from 1856-1857 and it is hard to imagine that Nathaniel did not see it.

Sadly, there appear to be no records for barges built by Nathaniel, but I do know that they would have been more traditional in design than these pioneering ships. They may have been Thames sailing barges, which were flat bottomed boats, with a lowering mast and five red sails, specifically designed to carry goods up the River Thames under the bridges and also into the shallow creeks off the main river.[ix]  Or he may have built Thames lighters, which were ‘dumb’ goods barges with no mechanical means of propulsion and with a flat box like bow, called a swim head.[x]  Thames barges were made of hard wood like oak or elm, whereas the swim head barges would probably have had a timber frame with an outer skin of iron plates.[xi] Nathaniel would have worked with planks of wood made pliable by heating up to 100 degrees Celsius, and joined with iron bolts and nails.  He would have used traditional hand tools like the adze (axe) and auger (drill), hammers and handsaws.[xii]  He would have worked in the open air in all weathers.[xiii]

1838 saw the coronation of Queen Victoria on 28th June in Westminster Abbey and three days later, Nathaniel married Eliza Pope in St Anne’s Church, Limehouse.[xiv]  Eliza had been born in 1819 in Cowes, Isle of Wight and was the eldest daughter of a sawyer, James Pope and his wife Elizabeth.  At some point in the intervening 20 years, the Pope family had moved to Limehouse as James, Elizabeth and their youngest children, Charlotte and Thomas are recorded as living in Randall Street, Limehouse in the 1841 Census.[xv]

Nathaniel and Eliza’s first child, Thomas (my second great grandfather) was born on 2nd May 1839;[xvi] their second, James William on 15th March 1841.[xvii] The two boys were clearly named after their Hudson and Pope grandfathers and both were baptised at St Anne’s, Limehouse.  

Thomas and James William’s baptism records give their abode as Ratcliff and in the 1841 Census, Nathaniel and Eliza with their two sons are living at 4 Rose Lane, Ratcliff.xviii  Ratcliff was a hamlet beside the River Thames to the West of Limehouse and was an area which had suffered the worst effects of the rapid growth of East London’s population in the nineteenth century.  Charles Dickens even describes it as ‘a place of poverty and desperation, where accumulated scum of humanity seemed to be washed from higher grounds’.[xix]  For Nathaniel and Eliza, it would have meant somewhere to live close to his barge building on the river and where they could afford to live without multiple occupancy or taking lodgers.  Nathaniel is not included in the electoral roll for the hamlet of Ratcliff for 1843 and he was evidently not paying an annual rent of £10, which was the qualification to vote under the provisions of the 1832 Reform Act.[xx] 

The 1840s were an unsettled time with political protest in Britain and in Europe culminating in the 1848 Chartist petition and the revolutionary wave in Europe known as the 1848 Revolutions.  For Nathaniel and Eliza, this was a decade of mixed fortunes.  They had four further children: Nathaniel John born on 21st January 1843;[xxi] Eliza Ann born in January 1845; John born on 1st April 1847;[xxii] James Henry born on 23rd November 1848.[xxiii] However, between 1847 and 1849, they also suffered the loss of three of their sons James William, aged 6, from inflammation of the liver, John, aged only nine months, from bronchitis and one year old, James Henry from pneumonia.[xxiv]  Such losses were not unusual in Victorian Times and the infant mortality rate for Poplar in 1851 was 16%.[xxv]  However, it is interesting to note that the Hudson children did not die, like many others, from infectious diseases and it may be that their respiratory conditions had something to do with the dense London fogs and their damp riverside homes. 

By the time of James William’s death in November 1847, Nathaniel and his family had moved from Rose Lane to a new address in Ratcliff at 3 Caroline Street. They did not stay there long, however, as the address on James Henry’s Death Certificate from December 1849 is 12 Southampton Street West in Lambeth.  This is also recorded as the family’s address in the 1851 Census and this was the only period that Nathaniel and Eliza moved out of the Poplar area.[xxvi]  This house in Southampton Street West may have exemplified the health hazards of being so close to the river as it was in one of the localities most affected by the annual Thames flooding, which brought polluted water and debris into people’s homes.[xxvii] 

By the time of the 1851 Census, Nathaniel and Eliza had had a further daughter, Emma Sarah, born on 5th November 1850 and so had four surviving children, Thomas, Nathaniel, Eliza and Emma.  Their family grew significantly during the 1850s with the births of Jane on 26th November 1852;[xxviii] Charlotte Elizabeth on 21st January 1855;[xxix] Ellen on 18th April 1857;[xxx] Alfred on 24th December 1859.[xxxi] The succession of house moves continued with a move from Southampton Street West to Holland Street, near the river in Southwark, by January 1853.[xxxii] The family were back in Poplar by March 1855, when the record of Charlotte’s baptism gives their abode as Pennyfields, Poplar.[xxxiii] At this time, Britain was at war again, in the Crimea, but Nathaniel’s life would have been little affected, although he doubtless joined in the popular support for the war against Russia.

Ellen was baptized on 12th July 1857 at All Saints Church, Poplar and from then on, all of Nathaniel and Eliza’s children were baptized at this church.[xxxiv] This large and impressive Georgian building had been built in 1821-3 for the newly created parish of Poplar and the 1851 Ecclesiastical Census Returns show that it was extremely well attended with 1100 in the morning congregation on Sunday 30th March and 800 in the evening.[xxxv]

By 1861, Nathaniel and Eliza had moved again and the Census records them as living at 16 Wint Terrace on Manchester Road in Cubitt Town on the East of the Isle of Dogs.[xxxvi]  This terrace of houses was newly built, having been developed between 1853 and 1861 as part of the new settlement of Cubitt Town.[xxxvii] Nathaniel and Eliza were then living with all their surviving children (Thomas, Nathaniel, Emma, Jane, Charlotte, Ellen and Alfred) with the exception of Eliza, who was in service in the household of Henry Reuben Bates, a Nurseryman and his wife Mary in Lambeth.[xxxviii] The Wint Terrace property clearly qualified Nathaniel as a voter under the terms of the 1832 Reform Act and he appears on the electoral register for the borough of Tower Hamlets in 1860, having just missed the opportunity to vote in the indecisive General Election of 1859, where no party gained an overall majority.[xxxix]

That same year, Nathaniel bought a lease on land for his own shipyard to carry out his barge building trade.[xl] This land was at Folly Wall, literally round the corner from where he was living in Wint Terrace. The yard had previously been used as a stone wharf by Charles Ross and a number of iron and ship building industries had already developed in the area.  John Stewart’s Blackwall Iron Works, established in 1851, was to the north of Nathaniel’s yard and to the south, in Hope Yard, was the successful ship building business run by the Yarrow Brothers.  Further south was the works of shipbuilders Joseph d’Aguilar Samuda and his brother, Jack, who pioneered the use of steel in shipbuilding.[xli] Nathaniel also had an unusual neighbour in the ‘Royalist’, an old warship that was moored by Folly Wall and served as a Thames River Police Station.[xlii] The 1861 Census describes Nathaniel’s eldest son, Thomas as a barge builder and his second son Nathaniel as apprentice to a barge builder and it is reasonable to suppose that they were both working with their father at his new yard.[xliii]  In 1871, Nathaniel is described as a Master Barge Builder, again suggesting that he would have taken at least one apprentice.[xliv] 

After buying the lease on Folly Wall, Nathaniel and Eliza moved into a cottage, 1 Folly Cottages, on the Folly Wall site and following his marriage to Emma Jones on 25th December 1861, their son, Thomas, moved into another of the cottages.[xlv]  Tower Hamlets was the first area to be surveyed, in 1886, for Charles Booth’s Inquiry into London Poverty and the findings are likely to be relevant to the couple of decades before.  Although the purchase of a lease suggests Nathaniel’s growing prosperity, he was still living in an area categorised by Booth as ‘poor’.  Booth comments that, on the Isle of Dogs, ‘no one on the island seems to be rich’ and ‘the poorest streets are those nearest the water’.[xlvi] He also refers to the lack of entertainment on the island as there were no music halls, but just public houses with singsongs.  In Nathaniel’s time, Folly Wall had two public houses, the Prince of Wales and the close by Folly House Tavern, which was noted for its whitebait suppers.[xlvii] Life on Folly Wall must have had its challenges as inadequate drainage led the sewers to flood in heavy rain.  The problem was solved by the building of a storm pumping station, but not until after Nathaniel’s time, in 1886.[xlviii]  The shops also appear to have been on the West side of the island on Ferry Road West, giving Eliza a mile’s walk for shopping either into Poplar or to the other side of the Isle of Dogs.[xlix]

From 1862, Nathaniel appears on the electoral register for Tower Hamlets for his address at Folly Wall, so, as at Wint Terrace, he clearly qualified as a £10 householder.  There was no contest in the Tower Hamlets constituency in the General Election of 1865, but Nathaniel would have had the opportunity to vote in General Elections in 1868 and 1874.[l] He would have had a personal interest in these elections as one of his neighbours on Folly Wall, the ship builder, Joseph d’Aguilar Samuda was standing as a Liberal.  Samuda was elected both times, even in 1874, when the overall result in the country was a landslide victory to Disraeli and the Conservative Party.[li]

The 1860s saw the birth of three further children to Nathaniel and Eliza: Alice Caroline, born on 27th July 1862;[lii] Alice Mary born on 11th June 1863;[liii] George Edward, born on 11th June 1865.[liv]  George was their final child and at the time of his birth, Eliza was 46, had been child bearing for 26 years and had given birth to 14 children (of whom 10 had survived infancy).  Eliza’s story is all the more remarkable given that the maternal death rate in the middle of the nineteenth century was around 5% and puerperal fever was a major killer in this time before antiseptics and antibiotics to prevent or fight infection.[lv]  Eliza would probably have given birth to her children at home, where, ironically, there was less danger of infection than in the lying-in hospitals frequented by wealthier mothers to be.

As mentioned earlier, the infant mortality rate was significantly higher than even the maternal one and Alice Caroline was the fourth of Nathaniel and Eliza’s children to die; she lived for just under a month and died on 20th August 1862 after two weeks of diarrhoea.[lvi]  Her death prompted Nathaniel to buy a private grave (number 4164) in Tower Hamlets Cemetery.  It cost him £4 4s 0d and was 12 feet deep; in time, eight members of the family would be buried there.[lvii] Alice was buried in the grave on 26th August, followed by her grandmother, Sarah Hudson, who died in December 1866 at the age of 80.  Nathaniel’s grandson, Thomas Nathaniel Hudson (Thomas and Emma’s eldest son) was also buried there on 28th March 1870, following his death aged just 14 months.[lviii]

Nathaniel lived to see four of his children married and the birth of six children to his eldest son, Thomas and his wife, Emma.  Nathaniel John married a widow, Mary Matilda Cameron (nee Mate) on 16th August 1871 at Christ Church, Greenwich.[lix]  Charlotte Elizabeth married Francis Overton Overton on 5th October 1873 at St Anne’s Church, Limehouse and on 3rd August of the following year, Jane married John George Pearson at Christ Church, Poplar.[lx]  Francis Overton was a barge builder while John Pearson was a missionary designate for the Church Missionary Society and the two women went on to live very different lives with Charlotte remaining in the Limehouse area and Jane spending much of her life overseas as a missionary wife.

Nathaniel died at home, aged 57, from fever on 5th May 1875 and was buried in his private family grave at Tower Hamlets Cemetery.[lxi] After his death, Eliza sold the residue of the lease at Folly Wall to Yarrow Brothers, who had already taken over the adjoining area where Folly House stood.[lxii] Nathaniel’s legacy as a barge builder continued, however, through his sons, Thomas and Nathaniel and later on, through Thomas’s sons, James and Albert.  After moving from Folly Cottages, Eliza remained on the Isle of Dogs and in 1881, she was at 80 Glengall Road, living with her three youngest children Alfred, Alice and George.[lxiii]  She died on 13th August 1884 and was buried with her husband.[lxiv]

- Susan Pepper

Bibliography

Databases and collections

• 1841 England Census, Ancestry, original data The National Archives, accessed 17th October 2022
• 1851 England Census, Ancestry, original data The National Archives, accessed 18th October 2022
• 1861 England Census, Ancestry, original data RG 9, The National Archives, accessed9 19th October
• 1871 England Census, RG10 Ancestry, original data RG10, The National Archives, accessed 20th October 2022
• 1881 England Census, Ancestry, original data RG11, The National Archives, accessed 20th October 2022
• 1851 Ecclesiastical Census, www.discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk, original data The National Archives, accessed 18th October 2022
• London Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1923 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives, accessed 16th October 2022
• London Church of England Deaths and Burials, 1813-2003 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives, accessed 16th October 2022
• London Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives, accessed 17th October 2022
• London City Directories 1736-1943 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives, accessed 19th October 2022
• London, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-3 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives, accessed 20th October 2022
• London Electoral Registers, 1832-1965 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives, accessed 20th October 2022

Original documents

• Electoral Roll for the Hamlet of Ratcliff 1843, L/RAT/4/17, original document examined at the Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives, 15th October 2022
• James Henry Hudson, James William Hudson, John Hudson, Nathaniel John Hudson Death Certificates in family papers

Websites

• CAMPOP Populations Past – Atlas of Victorian and Edwardian Population www.populationspast.org/imr/1861/#6/54.457/-5.867/bartholomew, accessed 19th October 2022

Articles and blog posts

• “Canal and River Barges of South East England” Canal Junction www.canaljunction.com/craft/thames-barge.htm, accessed 11th October 2022
• “Greenwich Built Barges” Greenwich Industrial Society www.greenwichindustrialhistory.blogspot.com/2013/04/greenwich-built-barges.html, accessed 11th October 2022
• Tom Bolton (2015) “The Lost Hamlet of Ratcliff” Spitalfields Life www.spitalfieldslife.com/2015/02/10/the-lost-hamlet-of-ratcliff/, accessed 10th October 2022
• Mick Lemmerman (2019) “Folly Wall”  Isle of Dogs – Past Life, Past Lives www.islandhistory.wordpress.com/2019/06/16/folly-wall/, accessed 10th October 2022
• J Thomson and Adolphe Smith (1877) “Street Life in London” The Dictionary of Victorian London www.victorianlondon.org/publications/thomson-5.htm, accessed 18th October 2022
• Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994). British History Online www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/, accessed 30th October 2022
• Geoffrey Chamberlain (2006), “British Maternal Mortality in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries”, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1633559/, accessed 10th November 2022

Books

• Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps (2019) Thames and Hudson Ltd, London
• Fred M Walker Shipbuilding in Britain (2013) Shire Publications, Oxford
• Lectures
• Elliott Wragg (2016) “From Sail to Steam: London’s Role in a Shipbuilding Revolution” Gresham Lectures www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sail-steam-londons-role-shipbuilding-revolution accessed 10th October 2022

References

i. Nathaniel John Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P78/ALF/008 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
ii. Nathaniel Hudson, Burial Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P78/ALF/067 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
iii. John Hudson; Burial Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/ALL1/227 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives;
iv. Nathaniel John Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P78/ALF/008 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
v. Ann Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P78/ALF/007 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
vi. Nathaniel Hudson, Marriage Register Entry; London Church of England Marriages and Banns; Reference Number: P93/ANN/029 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
vii. Ibid
viii. Elliott Wragg (2016): From Sail to Steam: London’s Role in a Shipbuilding Revolution www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/sail-steam-londons-role-shipbuilding-revolution
ix. Canals and River Barges of South East England www.canaljunction.com/craft/thames-barge.htm
x. Ibid
xi. Fred M Walker (2013) Shipbuilding in Britain p 12
xii. Ibid p 5
xiii. Ibid p 53
xiv. Nathaniel Hudson, Marriage Register Entry; London Church of England Marriages and Banns; Reference Number: P93/ANN/029 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xv. James Pope, 1841 England Census, Reference Class: HO107; Piece: 701; Book: 12; Civil Parish: St Anne Limehouse; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: 22; Folio: 34; Page: 21; Line: 17; GSU roll: 438814, Ancestry, original data The National Archives
xvi. Thomas Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/ANN/007 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xvii. James Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/ANN/007 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xviii. Nathaniel Hudson, 1841 England Census, Class: HO107; Piece: 714; Book: 4; Civil Parish: Stepney; County: Middlesex; Enumeration District: 7; Folio: 8; Page: 10; Line: 6; GSU roll: 438822 Ancestry, original data The National Archives
xix. Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend
xx. Electoral Roll for the Hamlet of Ratcliff 1843, Reference L/RAT/4/17, The Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives
xxi. Nathaniel Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/JS/001 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxii. John Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/ANN/008 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxiii. James Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/TMS/002 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxiv. James Henry Hudson, John Hudson, James William Hudson Death Certificates
xxv. CAMPOP Populations Past – Atlas of Victorian and Edwardian Population www.populationspast.org/imr/1861/#6/54.457/-5.867/bartholomew
xxvi. Nathaniel Hudson, 1851 England Census, Reference: Class: HO107, Piece 1573, Folio: 436 Page: 8 Ancestry, original data: The National Archives
xxvii. J Thomson and Adolphe Smith (1877) Street Life in London www.victorianlondon.org/publications/thomson-5.htm
xxviii. Jane Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P92/SAV/3018 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxix. Charlotte Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/ANN/010 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxx. Ellen Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/ALL1/015 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxxi. Alfred Hudson, |Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/ALL1/016 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxxii. Jane Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P92/SAV/3018 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxxiii. Charlotte Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/ANN/010 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxxiv. Ellen Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/ALL1/015 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xxxv. All Saints Poplar, 1851 Ecclesiastical Census, Reference: HO 129/25/10 www.discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk, original data The National Archives
xxxvi. Nathaniel Hudson, 1861 England Census, Reference: Class: RG 9; Piece: 311; Folio: 58; Page: 6; GSU roll: 542612 Ancestry, original data: The National Archives
xxxvii. 'Plate 92', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), p. 92. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/plate-92 
xxxviii. Eliza Hudson, 1861 England Census, Reference Class: RG 9; Piece: 359; Folio: 25; Page: 1; GSU roll: 54262 Ancestry, original data: The National Archives
xxxix. Nathaniel Hudson, Electoral Register Entry, London England Electoral Registers, 1832-1965, Ward: All Saints, Borough: Tower Hamlets Year: 1860 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
xl. 'Cubitt Town: Riverside area, from Cubitt Town Pier to the Graving Docks', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), pp. 532-539. British History Online www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp532-539
xli. 'Cubitt Town: Riverside area, from Cubitt Town Pier to the Graving Docks', in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London, 1994), pp. 532-539. British History Online www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp532-539 
xlii. Thames River Police www.british-police-history.uk/f/thames-river
xliii. Nathaniel Hudson, 1861 England Census, Reference: Class: RG 9; Piece: 311; Folio: 58; Page: 6; GSU roll: 542612 Ancestry, original data: The National Archives
xliv. Nathaniel Hudson, 1871 England Census, Reference: Class: RG 10 ; Piece: 588; Folio: 40; Pages: 25; Ancestry, original data: The National Archives
xlv. Nathaniel and Thomas Hudson, 1871 England Census, Reference: Class: RG 10 ; Piece: 588; Folio: 40; Pages: 25-26; Ancestry, original data: The National Archives
xlvi. Charles Booth’s London Poverty Maps (2019) p 61
xlvii. Mick Lemmerman (2019) Folly Wall  www.islandhistory.wordpress.com/2019/06/16/folly-wall/
xlviii. Ibid
xlix. Nathaniel Hudson London City Directories 1736-1943 Page 1478 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
l. Nathaniel Hudson, Electoral Register Entry, London England Electoral Registers, 1832-1965, Ward: All Saints, Borough: Tower Hamlets Year: 1862 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
li. Tower Hamlets UK Parliamentary Constituency, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_Hamlets_(UK_Parliament_constituency)
lii. Alice Caroline Hudson Death Certificate
liii. Alice Mary Hudson Baptism Register Entry; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/ALL1/017 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
liv. George Hudson, Baptism Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/ALL1/016 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
lv. Geoffrey Chamberlain (2006), British Maternal Mortality in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1633559/
lvi. Alice Caroline Hudson Death Certificate
lvii. London, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966 Reference Number: CTHC/01/112, 113 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
lviii. Headstone to Private Grave 4164 Tower Hamlets Cemetery
lix. Nathaniel Hudson England Select Marriages 1538-1973 FHL Film Number 355627 Ref ID v14 p48 Ancestry, original data Salt Lake City Utah: Family Search 2012
lx. Charlotte Hudson, Marriage Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P93/ANN/038 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
Jane Hudson, Marriage Register Entry, London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P88/CTC/011 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
lxi. Nathaniel Hudson, Death Certificate; Nathaniel Hudson, Headstone to Private Grave 4164 Tower Hamlets Cemetery; Nathaniel Hudson, London, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966 Reference Number: CTHC/01/112, 113 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
lxii. Survey of London Vols 43 and 44 pp 532-539 www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp532-539
lxiii. Eliza Hudson, 1881 England Census, Class: RG11; Piece: 511; Folio: 173; Page: 72; GSU roll: 1341114 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives
lxiv. Eliza Hudson, Headstone to Private Grave 4164 Tower Hamlets Cemetery
Eliza Hudson, London, City of London and Tower Hamlets Cemetery Registers, 1841-1966 Reference Number: CTHC/01/112, 113 Ancestry, original data London Metropolitan Archives