Was Jeremiah Henry Collins a criminal?

[Tigsy]

I wonder if anyone can help me discover if Jeremiah (also known as Henry) was a criminal - my reason for asking is that I have recently discovered that there is housing in St Pancras in the early 1800's that was one of the few in the area that housed 'ex prisoners'. He was born in the Marylebone/St Pancras area around 1798, yet married at St George the Martyr, near Marechalsea Prison in Southwark, before returning to St Pancras.  He was clearly abit of a rebel as he named his youngest son John Francis after the person who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria.

I have always wondered why he would have got married in Southwark, to return to St Pancras. Was he a criminal returning to a place where ex prisoners were accepted or was his father John Collins a criminal and he was living close to the prison.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Ruskie]

Some initial thoughts:

Couples usually married in the bride's parish. Did his wife to be come from Southwark?

What leads you to believe that he named his son John Francis after the person who attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria? It is not an uncommon combination of names.

I may be wrong, but unless you have further information to indicate that he was a criminal, I think you are jumping to conclusions making the assumptions you have with the facts you have related here.

Did he give his address as the housing you mention in St Pancras?

Others may have more knowledge of how to locate records of convicted criminals, but the only things that come to mind are perhaps the Old Bailey records, or newspapers of the time.

[Ruskie]

Do you have Jeremiah and family through the censuses?
Who did he marry and when?

[Ruskie]

Did Jeremiah marry Sarah?

Did they have the following children?:
First name unknown, middle name Charles b 23 Nov 1831
Alfred George b 23 Jun 1840
John Francis b 5 Feb 1843
Address on baptisms given as Upper Ogle St
Jeremiah's occupation is usually a Porter?

Ogle Street (which was known as Upper Ogle St) is still there today, and though difficult to judge, looking at an old map, seems to have been a well to do area.

I think perhaps I may have the wrong Collins family?

[Tigsy]

Thank you, yes this is the family.  I have managed to trace the whole of the family back to Marylebone to the 1660's, and they stayed in the area, until my grandparents moved from Camden in the 1930's.  It just seems strange why to marry in Southwark, close to a prison and return.  Sarah was from Waltham Abbey so nowhere near Southwark. 

[Tigsy]

I am trying to establish where the housing was that 'ex-prisoners' could live in St Pancras, it was on a social housing walk around the Kings Cross area that I found out this fact and put 'two and two' together.  The Collins family mainly lived on Oussleston Street, near to St Pancras Station.

[Ruskie]

I have just added to my previous post regarding the location of Ogle St.

Apart from the three boys, did Jeremiah and Sarah have more children?

I have had problems finding the family in the censuses. From you saying they lived in Oussleston St, I take it that is where they are in the censuses?

[Ruskie]

I am trying to establish where the housing was that 'ex-prisoners' could live in St Pancras, it was on a social housing walk around the Kings Cross area that I found out this fact and put 'two and two' together. 

Can you recall a time frame that the housing was built?

[Bookbox]

It just seems strange why to marry in Southwark, close to a prison and return.

In case it steers your thinking at all, the Marshalsea was essentially a debtors' prison, not a criminal prison.