Eulogy 19 - Esther Luttman (1779-1858)

 

LUCKY, SHE DIED AFTER DICKENS WROTE!

(Eulogy written and published on Facebook on 13th August 2019 for
Esther Luttman (m. King) (1779-1858) –
a paternal 4th Great Grandmother of Warren Maloney)

 

If my 4th Great Grandmother, Esther Luttman (King)[1] had died before 1838, before the Poor Act, before the influential novels of Charles Dickens were published[2], her make-shift coffin would have been in a deep pile of up to 17 others, the grave left open to the weather until the hole was full.

But Esther, 79 yrs old and widowed in Sydenham, Oxfordshire, estranged from her 3 surviving children, got her own pauper's funeral and her own grave space, but no individual tomb marking, just a general area commonly known as “Paupers’ Corner”.


Perhaps it didn't matter as no-one was likely to visit. That's not what most of us do! Perhaps we can’t visit, or even find the grave, but we can briefly think of her life.

Esther was the 1st child of the 2nd marriage of John Luttman[3], and the 6th of his 9 children. With those sort of numbers, you had to make your own way in life.

These were the difficult years in England of the Napoleonic Wars when the men fought, and the women just survived.

Esther was pregnant and married at 17. Her husband, Richard King, a lad from the next village, Aston Rowant, managed to avoid enlistment. The rapid acquisition of their children (4 in 6 years) probably helped.

We know little of their married life except that by 1813 both her parents and all but 2 of her siblings were dead.

We also know that in later years Richard was a “Grocer”. Life was complicated as Richard served 2 periods in gaol for sheep stealing and larceny, a total of 22 months, conviction years of 74 and 81. Transportation was not an option under English Law by then. The “Grocer” business was clearly not successful.

By 1857, Richard and Esther, then aged 82 and 78, were declared “Paupers” under the Poor Act. Within a year, they were both buried in Paupers’ Graves at St Mary’s Anglican Church Cemetery,  Sydenham, Oxfordshire.

They were survived by 3 of their 4 children and had witnessed 18 Grandchildren being born. But Esther and Richard died Paupers. Such was and is the way of families.

So, for Esther, Birth through to Death in struggling Poverty. Hopefully there was some happiness along that muddy route.


[1] Esther Luttman (1779-1858) and her husband, Richard King (1775-1857) were maternal 4th Great Grandparents of Warren & Denise Maloney

[2] The publication of “Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens in 1838 brough major changes to the management, ownership, regulations of Poor Houses

[3] John Luttman (1743-1807)




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