A Baker with Aspirations

Henry signs of one of his letters. His pet name for Maria was 'Ria'.

Thus, sometime in the late 1840s, Henry Smale Bradley, the son of Thomas Bradley, an East End baker, and himself a young baker, if a somewhat unwilling one, happened upon the seductive charms of Maria Robinson. Henry was a young man with aspirations. He intended to climb out of the drudgery of bread baking, and climb the rungs of the ladder that would take him into the ranks of the Victorian middle classes. Did he have the ability? Well, in terms of schooling and education, he was both literate and articulate. Did he have the wealth? Not so much, but neither was he by any means penniless.

The Robinson family too had moved up a rung or so on the social ladder, to the point where they had their own servant, though that was mostly due to the rentals that came in through Harriett Wombwell’s inherited lands in County Down, Ireland. They were probably living at 11 Russell Place, Poplar at this time.

Yet, it seems that as Henry warmed to Maria, and Maria contemplated his gentle charms, that certain tensions had unfolded that would ensure that the course of their true love should not run so smooth... What seems clear in this letter is that Henry and Maria had decided to take their wedding plans into their own hands. The one person who had to be fully kept dark about this was Harriett Wombwell, who, it must be now suspected, disapproved of the relationship on the usual grounds that the suitor in question was not good enough for her daughter. Hence Henry’s somewhat resentful remarks about expenses.

It is clear also that the best relationship that Henry enjoyed with the family was with Maria’s Aunt, Sophia Wombwell, who could be expected to react in more sanguine fashion to the news of the secret marriage, and just perhaps because of the gratification that Harriett's predictable fury would provide.

Henry is also at pains to assure Maria that she will not have imposed on her his own mother (Elizabeth Hounsell) and sister (which was in fact pretty much exactly was going to happen a decade down the line). We must take it from this that Henry’s father, Thomas Bradley was already in the madhouse where he was going to end his days. This would have been another factor no doubt that would not have improved the general temper of Harriett Wombwell.