Widow (Mary) & Mitchel Underdown
206 Lower Street
Occupation:
According to Deal’s 1821, a Widow Underdown was living at the beginning of Lower Street. As this was next door the Walmer Castle Hotel it can be assumed that this dwelling was 206 Lower Street. As head of the household, only her name is given though, the census does record that another female is living with her. This is probably her spinster daughter Rebecca. By this time Mary had been a widow for eleven years. Mitchel her husband having died in 1810 ‘at his home in ‘Southend’, Deal’. So again the assumption is that this is 206 Lower Street. He was buried on 8 February in a vault in the Chapel field of St. George’s Church but this no longer exists.
A bit more about Mitchel
On the 3rd December 1765, Martha Twyman a single woman, swore on oath before Thomas Oakley junior Mayor and JP, that she is with child by Mitchel Underdown a mariner. Mitchel was then ordered to pay £50 to maintain his illegitimate child who was born in January 1766 and baptised later that month on the 30th at St. Leonard’s.
Mary Underdown D of Martha Tywman by Mitchel Underdown
Mitchel is recorded on the 1801 census and living with him is one other male and five females. If these are just family members then they could be Richard his son, who married in 1815, and daughters Sarah and Ann who both married in 1802, Rebecca, who remained a spinster throughout her life and finally Mary, his wife.
Kentish Gazette – Saturday 22 November 1777
The Deal censuses prior to 1821 did not record the street names so we can not assume that Mary and Mitchel had lived in this house or even in Lower Street since they married in 1767. Especially as Mitchel and an Elizabeth Underdown were selling a property in 1777 in the ‘Southend of Deal’. This Elizabeth could be Mitchel’s aunt who was born in Deal in 1706. An Elizabeth Underdown died in 1781 and was buried in ‘Mitchel Underdowns Vault’ in St. George’s Chapel field (church-yard). So this does fit. We don’t know if that property was sold but if not then this too could be 206.
Nothing more is found about Mary until her death in 1834. She was buried in St. Georges Church Yard, on Wednesday 10 September aged 89 years, presumably in the vault with her husband.
Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal – Friday 02 February 1810