john matlock

Subject Name :  John Matlock (b ca 1822 – d 1884)

Researcher : Sue Driscoll

John Matlock shunned family life, preferring to work on farms in and around Worplesdon.  In later life, he fell foul of the law, being imprisoned for assault and then again when he preferred to be locked up for a week rather than work to pay for his stay at the Guildford Union Workhouse.

John was born in Worplesdon, Surrey around 1822, the sixth child of Thomas and Jane Matlock (or Madlock) née Goddard and was baptised on 29th December 1822 at the village’s St Mary’s Church (1, 2).

His parents had married in the same church on 19th January 1813, though this record proved difficult to trace as the vicar had written Thomas’s surname, perhaps appropriately, as Wedlock! (3)  

The only other records for the family traced before the 1841 Census were five more baptisms and, sadly, the two deaths of his brothers in Worplesdon, leaving John as the only boy (4,5).

The 1841 Census showed John’s parents Thomas, an agricultural labourer, and Jane, both 45, living in Stringer’s Common, Worplesdon, along with five of John’s younger sisters and a nephew but not John himself (6).  Where John, aged about 20, was at this time has not been traced. 

He may well have not gone far from Worplesdon, as the 1851 Census showed 31-year-old John in Whitmore Farm, Sutton Green, Woking, a farm servant for farmer Richard Mason (7).

John was back in Worplesdon at the time of the 1861 Census, lodging with blacksmith Charles Puttock in London Road (8).  Probably written as age 37 in the indistinct entry on the Census, John was an agricultural labourer and still unmarried.

By the start of the 1870s, John was spending time in the Guildford Union Workhouse.  Although there are no admission records for that time, the 1864-71 Guildford Union Poor Law Accounts Book showed that John was an inmate for 40 days in 1870 and at least another 94 in the six months ending March 1871, although no reasons were specified (9).  The Census for that year, taken on 7th April 1871, confirmed John as an inmate, noting him to be a 51-year-old unmarried agricultural labourer (10).

John did not remain in the workhouse, but was soon in trouble with the law.  In December 1873, it was reported that John, an ‘elderly labourer’ for farmer George Burt in Worplesdon, had assaulted a young gardener outside a pub in Stoke Next Guildford (11).  The County Petty Sessions noted he had been brought up on a similar charge three months earlier, so John was sentenced to a month’s hard labour in Wandsworth Prison.  His prison record described him as age 51, 5ft 7¾ inches (1.72m) tall with grey eyes and hair and a scar on his nose (12).   He was released on 26th January 1874, having lost 7 pounds (3.2kg) in weight during his time in Wandsworth, dropping to 12 stone (76kg).

John was back as a Guildford Union Workhouse inmate when the 1881 Census was taken, a 60-year-old unmarried agricultural labourer (13).  Whether he was still working at this time is not known, but within three years, he was a tramp in the casual ward of the Guildford Union Workhouse. 

Being in the workhouse was clearly something he did not relish.  The Epsom Journal of 15th January 1884 reported that John had been charged with refusing to do his allotted task of work to ‘pay’ for his stay in the Guildford Union Workhouse (14).  After the Guildford Bench had sentenced him to seven days hard labour, John laughed as he said: ‘I would sooner go to gaol than back to workhouse!’.  

The West Surrey Times, reporting on the same story, quoted the Master of the Workhouse, Mr Davis, who said John ‘had been in and out of the Workhouse for the last four years, and had been a great nuisance and trouble’ (15). John himself had made ‘a long statement of his hardships to the Bench’.

Despite his dislike of the Guildford Union Workhouse, John was back soon after.  He passed away there on 24th June 1884, aged 62, having suffered for two months from an abscess on his thigh and abdomen (16).  He was buried four days later in his home parish of Worplesdon (17).


August 2022, updated March 2024

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References

Note :  records can be found on Ancestry.co.uk and FindMyPast.co.uk, unless otherwise referenced

  1. John Matlock Baptism 29 Dec 1822  Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England.
    Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
  2. Sarah Madlock Baptism 13 Jun 1813  Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; Reference WOKP/2/2
    Mary Madlock Baptism 5 Mar 1815  Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; Reference WOKP/2/2
    George Madlock Baptism 30 Mar 1817  Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; Reference WOKP/2/2
    Elizabeth Madlock Baptism 18 Apr 1819  Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Woking, St Peter 1813-1837; Reference WOKP/2/2
    James Matlock Baptism 19 Aug 1821  Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
  3. Thomas Wedlock sic & Jane Goddard Marriage 19 Jan 1813 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1837; Reference WOR/2/3
  4. Caroline Matlock Baptism 23 Jan 1828 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
    Eliza Matlock Baptism 29 May 1831 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
    Harriett Matlock Baptism 11 May 1834 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
    Helen Matlock Baptism 18 Dec 1836 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
    Emma Matlock Baptism 14 Feb 1841 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
  5. James Madlock Burial 27 May 1824 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1837; Reference WOR/5/1
    George Matlock Burial 6 Jan 1822 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1837; Reference WOR/5/1
  6. Thom, Jane, Caroline, George (illegitimate child of Thomas & Jane’s daughter Mary, so nephew of John), Harriett, Ellen, Emma, Eliza Matlock 1841 England Census for Stringer’s Common, Worplesdon, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1080; Folio 36; Page 7.
    George Matlock Baptism 19 Jan 1834 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1813-1854; Reference WOR/4/1
  7. John Matlock 1851 England Census for Whitmore, Sutton, Woking, Surrey; Class HO107; Piece 1594; Folio 61; Page 19.
  8. John Matlock 1861 England Census for Worplesdon, Sutton, Woking, Surrey; Class RG9; Piece 424; Folio 99; Page 11.
  9. Guildford Poor Law Half Yearly Accounts 1864-1871 Reference: BG6/33/1. Available at Surrey History Centre, Woking.
  10. John Matlock 1871 England Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke Next Guildford, Surrey; Class RG10; Piece 813; Folio 82; Page 9.
  11. Assault at Worplesdon – Severe Sentence 30 Dec 1873, County Petty Sessions, Epsom Journal, page 2. FindMyPast.co.uk / British Newspaper Archive
  12. John Matlock committed 27 Dec 1873 Register of Prisoners; Wandsworth Prison 1873-1874; PCOM 2.
  13. John Matlock 1881 England Census for Guildford Union Workhouse, Stoke Next Guildford, Surrey; Class RG11; Piece 778; Folio 95; Page 11.
  14. A Troublesome Tramp – Guildford 15 Jan 1884, County Bench, Epsom Journal, page 3. FindMyPast.co.uk / British Newspaper Archive
  15. County Petty Sessions 19 Jan 1884, County Bench, West Surrey Times and Guildford Gazette, page 8. FindMyPast.co.uk / British Newspaper Archive
  16. John Matlock death 24 Jun 1884 England & Wales Deaths; Apr-May-Jun 1883, Guildford, Surrey; volume 2A; page 57. Digital copy of original certificate from General Register Office GRO.gov.uk
  17. John Matlock Burial 28 Jun 1884 Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England. Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Worplesdon, St Mary 1879-1946; Reference WOR/5/2