Pettifoggers: The Bilton legal dynasty

By Andrew Griffiths

In the 18th century, pettifogger, under-strapper and Wapping attorney were all pejorative epithets for a certain class of disreputable lawyer. My solicitor forebears came from Wapping, but I hope to present sufficient evidence in these pages to acquit them of any charge of pettifoggery or under-strapping.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BoD - Books on Demand
• Release date: May 27, 2024
• ISBN: 9783759726582

Andrew Griffiths

The author, who lives near Darmstadt in Germany, has been researching this branch of his ancestry for over ten years.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Foreword

Frontispiece

Cover illustration

Origins

The Fawcetts

Wapping

Articles

Pettifoggers, under-strappers and Wapping attorneys

An unexpected marriage

The brawl in the vestry

The Vestry Clerk election

Stepney

Whitechapel

Camberwell, Vauxhall, Brixton

Overflowing Privies

Elizabeth Ann Bilton

Thomas William Bilton

Julia Driver Bilton

Emma Bilton

Alfred Bilton

Foreword

In the 18th century, pettifogger, under-strapper and Wapping attorney were all pejorative epithets for a certain class of disreputable lawyer.

My solicitor forebears came from Wapping, but I hope to present sufficient evidence in these pages to acquit them of any charge of pettifoggery or under-strapping.

Readers should expect to encounter several generations of Thomas Biltons, but the simplified family tree at the end should help in telling them apart.

Andrew Griffiths in March 2024

Ober-Ramstadt, Germany

Frontispiece

Miniature of Thomas Bilton the elder (1762-1833), painted the year of his marriage in 1790. A lock of his hair is attached to the rear of the frame.

Cover illustration

A potpourri of Bilton memorabilia.

Origins

Imagine finding an old family Bible in an attic with the names and dates of your ancestors inscribed on the flyleaf going back to the mid-18th century, all neat and in chronological order. What a treat for a family researcher!

Unless, that is, he (or she) then spends months, or even years, chasing red herrings up blind alleys, only to find that the information on the flyleaf was wrong all the time.

In my case, it was not a Bible, but a family register, which came into my hands through my uncle, Frank Powell. The first entry on the first page, which is reproduced overleaf, states quite clearly that a certain Thomas Bilton, born at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1738, married an Ann Fawcett from Whitby.

The thing to note about this family register is that it was not begun until nearly ninety years had elapsed since the marriage between Thomas Bilton and Ann Fawcett, because the entries on the first two pages were all set down by their grandson using the same pen, up to and including his own mother’s death on the second page, in 1846. Even if he obtained the information directly from his father, who was only eight years old when the first Thomas Bilton died in 1770, the writer of the family register was recording a family legend, not established fact.

The truth is that Thomas Bilton, in all likelihood, was not born in Newcastle upon Tyne and Ann Fawcett was not from Whitby. The supposed year of Thomas’ birth (1738) may well be wrong and he was not buried at St Paul’s Church, Deptford, as the family register claims, but at the other parish church in Deptford, St Nicholas.

There is certainly useful information in the family register as well, some of which I would not have been able to find elsewhere; for example, that the Thomas Bilton who was born in 1797 had a twin brother, who did not survive.

All I can say with certainty about the origins of Thomas Bilton, my 4th great grandfather, is that he came as a young man from northern parts to London, where he married Ann Fawcett in 1760. I did have more luck with tracing Ann’s origins and I will come back to these shortly.

Another fact, which the family register ignores completely, is that Thomas Bilton, despite his youth, was already a widower when he married Ann Fawcett. His first wife was a Mary Stodart, whom he married in the church of Horselydown St John, Southwark, on August 23rd 1757. Thomas was a resident of that parish, but Mary was from Stepney.

Thomas married for the second time at the the church of St George in the East, a parish on the Middlesex side of the River Thames, neighbouring Wapping, on October 19th 1760. Confirmation that we have the same Thomas Bilton in both cases is supplied by his own signature on the forms of marriage, shown here in the order they were written, in 1757 and 1760:

A third example of Thomas Bilton’s signature can be seen on the flyleaf of his prayer book, which is in the possession of a cousin in Australia. This is very similar to the one on the earlier marriage record, and may have been inscribed about the same time.

This prayer book, which was printed in London in 1714, displays faded vestiges of other Bilton¹ signatures, suggesting that it had belonged to one or more members of earlier Bilton generations.

The statement on the flyleaf that Thos Bilton departed this life March the 18th 1770 aged 32 years was presumably added later by his son and this may have been the source that his grandson used for the family register. The burial of Thomas Bilton, cordwainer from Flaggon Row, actually took place on March 21st 1770 at the church of St Nicholas, Deptford, which is consistent with the date of death from the family register and the prayer book.

Burial of Thomas Bilton on March 21st 1770, St Nicholas, Deptford

Burial of Thomas Bilton on March 21st 1770, St Nicholas, Deptford

Before continuing the story of Thomas Bilton and his descendants, I need to find a way to differentiate between three generations of Thomases. Wherever there is a need to be specific, the first one (my 4th great grandfather) will therefore be termed "Thomas Bilton the cordwainer². His son, the first solicitor and attorney, will be Thomas the elder and his grandson, who was also a solicitor. Thomas the younger". Thomas the younger was followed by two generations of Thomas William Biltons.

Flaggon Row, Deptford, in the 1880s (Lewisham Borough Archives)

Flaggon Row, Deptford, in the 1880s (Lewisham Borough Archives)

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¹ Including an An Bilton, who may have been Thomas’ mother.

² Boot and shoe maker. The word is derived from Cordova, the source of the finest leather.

The Fawcetts

In the absence of any certain knowledge about Thomas Bilton the cordwainer’s northern origins, I resume the tale with his second wife, my 4th great grandmother Ann Fawcett, whose family came from Thorpe Willoughby, in the parish of Brayton, near Selby in Yorkshire.

My starting point is another entry in the register book of St Nicholas in Deptford:

Baptism of Ann Fawcett on October 17th 1778, St Nicholas, Deptford

Baptism of Ann Fawcett on October 17th 1778, St Nicholas, Deptford

The baptism of Ann, daughter of George Fawcett, mariner in Flaggon Row, is dated eight years after Thomas Bilton the cordwainer had died there. This George Fawcett must have been visiting Deptford with his pregnant wife, because there is