Last Sight of Henry and Maria

The last sight we have of Henry and Maria together is in the 1871 census in Hackney. Henry, an intelligent and literate man, as we have noted, was now a fully-fledged surveyor, no mean achievement, one suspects. Six children had been born since Henry had proposed to Maria a flight by cart through the streets of the East End, and one may imagine that there was much that they did not choose to pass on to their respectable middle class progeny about the wild adventures of their youth. And did Henry remember his early letters to Maria, when he poured out his heart to her and promised that there was no question that she would have to share her residence with his mother or sister? Well, one may guess that he did, because it would hardly have been human if Maria had not taken several opportunities over the years to remind him of the fact.

79 Clifden Road, Hackney, 1871 census

By the time the 1881 census came round though, things had changed. There is just Elizabeth Hounsell, another all-conquering matriarch, now aged 87 and head of a household of Bradley grandchildren. Both Henry and Maria had departed from the scene, and perhaps if their feelings had held true, the loss of one had led to the heartbreak of the other, and they chose to pack their final trunk and board their final cart in tandem. One may hope so, at any rate.

Maria Harriett Robinson died in Hackney on the 27th April 1879, aged fifty. When exactly Henry caught his final cold or chill is not quite so clear from the records, but it was most likely the very next year, 1880, the year of the great fog in London.