Angelina
Armitage was born in 1868 in Saltash (near Plymouth), Cornwall. She was the
second of seven children born to Edward Armitage and his wife Mary nee
Willcocks. Edward (1839-1880) was an elder brother of my great grandfather
Robert Melton Armitage (1846-1910). A profile of Edward’s life is on this blog.
Angelina was a cousin of my grandmother Emma Ivall nee Armitage (1883-1970).
Angelina’s
family moved to London in late 1870 / early 1871. The 1871 census shows Edward,
aged 32, a police constable, living in Tottenham with his wife Mary (34) and
children Angelina (3) and Thomas (7 months). Around 1875/6, Edward and his
family moved to Hackney. In 1880, Edward died suddenly from a ruptured blood
vessel, when Angelina was aged 12.
The
1881 census shows Edward’s widow Mary (aged 43, a laundress) with her children
John (6) and Ernest (2) living at 5 Gainsboro Square, Hackney. His daughter
Angelina (aged 13) was an orphan scholar at Cumberland House Orphanage,
Greenleaf Lane, Walthamstow.
Angelina
married Stuart Gladstone Fildes on 20 June 1889 at St Mary the Boltons Church,
Kensington.
From the
church marriage register
I wonder if they got married without telling their
families, as the witnesses were not family members ?
Stuart
Gladstone Fildes was born in Chorlton, a suburb of Manchester. He is shown in
the 1881 census aged 13, the only child of Thomas Fildes (41), a member of the
Manchester Stock Exchange, and his wife Jessie Macblane Fildes nee Mackie (32). They
were living at a house called Fairlawn in Lytham, Lancashire. Also listed at
the address were a butler, a cook, a kitchen maid, two housemaids, a nurse, two
grooms and a coach man. Thomas Fildes died in 1887 aged 47. His personal estate
was declared as £25,660 for probate purposes. This is equivalent to about
£12,000,000 now (estimated in relation to the earnings index). The house
Fairlawn was advertised for sale after his death. It was clearly a large
property with 4 entertaining rooms, 11 bedrooms, stabling for 8 horses and 4
acres of grounds. Thomas was a wealthy man! His widow married Edmund William Birley in
1888.
It
is perhaps surprising that Stuart, a man from a wealthy family, married
Angelina, who was from a lower social class and must have been quite poor. They
set up home at 15 Redcliffe Street, South Kensington but the marriage was not a
success and Stuart left Angelina on 7 October 1889, only 15 weeks after their
marriage. Angelina asked him to return but he refused. Later that year she
applied to the courts for “restitution of her conjugal rights”. Such a case could be brought against a husband or wife who were living away from their spouse without a good reason. If the suit was successful, the married couple would be required to live together again. The case papers
can be read on the Ancestry website. The Lichfield Mercury dated 7 November
1890 reported the outcome of the case (Angelina was the petitioner and Stuart
the respondent).
A PRESTON MATRIMONIAL CASE.
The case of
Fildes v Fildes was heard in the Divorce Court. It was a suit instituted by the
wife, praying for the restitution conjugal rights. Mr. Middleton, who appeared
for the petitioner, said the parties married on the 28th June, 1889, and after
that they lived for some time in Redcliffe Street, South Kensington. The
respondent, on the 7th of October last year, left the petitioner, and went to
his mother's house at Preston. In the following November there was an interview
between the husband and wife, and on the 5th of last December the petitioner
went down to Preston and delivered into the hands of her husband the final
notice required before the suit for restitution could be commenced. Upon its
being served, the respondent disappeared, after which application was made for
substituted service. There was an appearance under protest, but it was
overruled by the learned President of the Divorce Division. The petitioner said
that when she married Mr. Stuart Fildes she believed him to be a gentleman of
independent means. On 7th of October last year he left home and she had never
lived with him since. The last time she saw him she asked him to return to her,
but he refused to so.
Mr. Justice
Butt: What reason did give for leaving you?
Petitioner: He
never gave any.
Mr. Justice Butt
granted a decree as prayed.
Stuart’s
disappearance was presumably an attempt to avoid allowing the suit to progress.
“Substituted service” is the indirect delivery of legal documents to request an
individual's presence in court. Stuart did not defend the case and costs were
awarded against him.
Even
though Angelina won the case, her husband did not return to live with her. In the 1891
census there is an Angelina Fieldes, aged 23, born in Cornwall, living in
Cadogan Terrace, Hackney. Her occupation is described as “living on own means”.
Also listed with Angelina is Robert E A (the
initials are unclear) Fieldes, a son aged 3, born in Hackney. There are no
Robert Fi(e)ldes birth registrations that match this. The best candidate that I
can find is a Robert Herbert Ernest Armitage birth registered Q4 1887 in
Hackney. There is no mother’s maiden name registered with this birth,
indicating that the mother was unmarried. I can find no marriage or death for
this person and he does not appear with Angelina in any later records. Perhaps
he was born to Angelina before she married and later given up for adoption?
This is speculation on my part.
The
1891 census shows Stuart living as a boarder at Dyffryn Aled, Llansannan,
Denbigh. This was a 25 bedroom house on remote moorland in North Wales. It
sounds like he may have been in hiding to avoid complying with the court order.
Electoral
registers show Angelina at 1 Kings Court Mansions, Fulham Road, London in 1900.
The census in 1901 shows her aged 33, living alone in High Street, Yoxford, a
village in Suffolk. Stuart was a visitor at a guest house in Sidmouth. The occupation
for both was “living on own means”.
There
were dramatic events in 1909. The item below was printed in The Barnet Press
dated 29 May 1909.
SOLICITOR AND LADY
Exciting Interview.
Last week, a
well dressed woman called at the London offices of Mr Charles Henry Cumberland,
solicitor, who resides at The Firs, Bell Bar, Hatfield, and the interview took
such a dramatic turn that the woman was charged before Mr Curtis Bennett at Bow
Street Police Court with threatening to murder Mr Cumberland, and with
unlawfully presenting a revolver at Police Constable McDonald, with intent to
do him grievous bodily harm.
The woman, who
gave her name as Angelina Fildes, declined to state her age, or give her
address. Mr Cumberland was called on by the police to give evidence. He said he
did not think it expedient to charge the defendant himself, as he did not
consider that she was responsible for her actions. About 20 years ago he acted
for the trustee of a settlement in which she was interested, and, under their
directions, he paid her a regular allowance for about two years. The matter
then passed out of his hands, and he had not seen her or had any communication
with her from that time until the previous day, when she called his office by
appointment. The trustees of the settlement had recently asked witness to act
for them again, and that was why the defendant called at his office on Friday.
When she entered witness said to her: “I presume you have come to give me
instructions as to the mode of paying your allowance from the trustees?” She
replied, “I have no instructions to give, and I will not be under your thumb
again”. Witness told her that he had been instructed make certain payments to
her, and he wished to meet her convenience in every way. She had previously
been receiving her money direct from the trustees. Defendant said she would not
have an allowance and demanded her husband’s address. Witness said he must
decline to give it to her. Thereupon she left the chair in which she had been sitting,
took two or three steps backward, and produced a revolver, which she pointed at
witness. With the weapon held in that position she said: “I am a desperate
woman, and I not going leave here until I get my husband's address.” Witness
still refused to give it, and the defendant said: “You won’t?” In order to
temporise, witness asked the defendant if she would be satisfied if he asked
her husband to meet her at his office; but he did not catch her reply. He then
called over the telephone his clerks’ office and asked them to go for the
police. The defendant heard him, and said sarcastically: “Oh, I did not think
you would have been so kind.” She remained leaning over the back of a chair,
pointing the revolver at witness until P.C. McDonald entered. On seeing the
revolver the officer said to her: “Put that thing down.” The defendant said:
“Who are you talking to?” At the same time she turned the revolver towards the
constable, who made a sudden rush and seized her by the hand. At that moment
the revolver went off and the bullet entered the office wall. The defendant was
then arrested.
The Magistrate:
Have you any questions to put to this witness?
Defendant: No; I
refuse to be under his thumb. He will allow me the income as long as he thinks
proper, and then he will stop it.
Witness: I have
no discretion
The defendant:
You have. It is a discretionary allowance.
Witness: It is
discretionary so far as the trustees are concerned. I have no discretion.
The defendant:
For 19 years you have been my bitterest enemy. Nineteen years ago you did me a
deadly wrong. Understand that.
P.C. McDonald
said he did not actually seize the defendants hand when she refused to comply
with his request to put the revolver down. He rushed towards her and knocked
her hand up and at that moment the revolver went off.
Inspector Bailey
said the revolver was loaded in four chambers, and contained one empty cartridge.
When the charge was read to the defendant at the police station she said: “I
did not resist at all. As regards Mr Cumberland, I meant it.”
The defendant
was remanded.
Angelina was held in Holloway Prison and her case was heard at the Old Bailey on 23 June 1909. “The Proceedings of the Old Bailey” website contains
the court’s official record and says
FILDES, Angelina
(41, no occupation), indicted for feloniously attempting to discharge a loaded
revolver at Charles Henry Cumberland, with intent to do him grievous bodily
harm; assaulting and resisting William McDonald, a Metropolitan
police-constable, in the execution of his duty, pleaded Guilty of a common
assault on Cumberland; Not guilty of assaulting the police-constable or of
firing the pistol.
Prisoner has
been in prison five weeks, during which time she has been under observation.
The doctor reports that her mental condition is somewhat unstable, perhaps, and
she seems to have been brooding over more or less imaginary wrongs; but she has
undoubtedly benefited by her detention.
The
case was reported by various newspapers including the Exmouth Journal. The
edition dated 26 June 1909 reads
WOMAN WITH REVOLVER
Angelina Fildes,
the woman who presented a revolver at Mr. Cumberland, a solicitor, in his
office near Bedford Row the other week, was brought up at the Old Bailey on
Wednesday charged with unlawfully resisting P.C. McDonald. The weapon was
discharged as the constable was about to arrest Fildes.
Mr. Morris, for
the defence said the prisoner was married in 1889, and five months later her
husband left her, and she had not seen him since. She had received £8 10s
weekly under trust in which Mr. Cumberland acted and she gained the impression
from a letter written by him that the amount was about to be reduced. Her
intention in going to the office with the pistol was to draw attention to her
life, for she had been living an utterly lonely existence in little villages.
She was prepared to promise to communicate with Mr. Cumberland only by letter
in the future, and go to live with some friends at Brighton.
The Judge
ordered her to be bound over in her own recognisances on the understanding that
this course was taken.
Another
paper reported that
During the
hearing of the case, Mrs Fildes screamed and fell to the ground, being carried
out hysterical.
Angelina’s
weekly allowance of £8 10s in 1909 is equivalent to about £3,200 now, when
related to the earnings index. This figure and the description of her as a
“well dressed woman” in the report of her appearance at Bow Street Police Court
indicate that Angelina was comfortably off.
In
the 1911 census, Angelina (aged 43) and her mother Mary (73) are shown as visitors
at 11 Denbigh Terrace, Notting Hill, the house of Angelina’s cousin Thomas
William Armitage (39). I can’t find Stuart in the census.
The 1921 census shows Angelina (aged 52, married) and her mother Mary (83, widow) as visitors in the house of Angelina's sister Mary Armitage (54, single, a lodging house or apartments keeper) at 48 Cambridge St, near Victoria Station in London. Her estranged husband Stuart was living in Malvern, Worcestershire.
Angelina’s
elder sister Mary Emma Armitage died in 1925 aged 60 at St Thomas’s Hospital,
Lambeth. Probate records give her address as 48 Cambridge Street, Victoria and show that administration of her estate (£341) was
granted to Angelina Fildes.
Stuart
Fildes of Madresfield Road, Malvern is listed as a dog breeder in the 1932 Kelly’s
Directory of Worcestershire. His mother Jessie Macblane Birley died in 1938
aged 89. Her last address was Malvern Hotel, Malvern. Probate on her estate (£1,392)
was granted to Stuart Gladstone Fildes, no occupation.
The 1939 Register shows Angelina living at "The Gables" in the Truro registration district (in Cornwall). Her date of birth is given as 14 Feb 1870 (the year was actually 1868), her occupation as "unpaid domestic duties". She is listed as married (so there had been no divorce from Stuart).
Angelina
died on 26 November 1949 aged 81. Her address was The Gables, Perranporth,
Cornwall. Angelina’s name appears in the burial register of Perranzabuloe
Church (near Perranporth), so she is presumably buried in its churchyard.
Administration of her estate (£2,748) was granted to Barclays Bank.
Stuart
died in 1950 aged 82. His address was 45 Madresfield Road, Malvern
and he died at Clanmere Nursing Home, Malvern. Stuart is buried at Great
Malvern Municipal Cemetery and his gravestone is inscribed “Stuart Gladstone
Fildes, born 18 Jan 1868, died 15 Dec 1950.” Probate records show that his
estate was valued at £30,563.
