Joseph Leake, my great-great-grandfather.
I can find little information about Joseph Leake, except that he was born, lived, and died in Southampton. There are no records of his parents, and details on his residences and occupation appear only in the Census Data of 1851 and 1861.
Joseph Leake was born in 1815 and married Elizabeth Willis in 1841 at age 26. During their 17 years of marriage, they had seven children.
In 1851, he lived in Blue Anchor Court with his wife Elizabeth, three daughters—Emma (10), Sarah (8), and Mary Ann (3)—and his son Charles (7 months). Blue Anchor Court was a notorious slum known for overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. Located on the north side of Blue Anchor Lane near West Quay, the court had seven dilapidated houses that were demolished during the slum clearances of the 1890s. A report under the Dilapidated Housing Act described 24 people living in these houses. In the wider Blue Anchor Lane area, overcrowding was common in lodging houses, where people paid a few pennies to share a bed. Residents had a single water tap that flowed only a few hours a day, and the water was often unfit to drink. The court had no ash pit, and all residents shared a single privy. Locals called it Piss Pot Alley. Life must have been unbearable.
The court was once the site of the “Blue Anchor Inn”, named for the fact that when nearby ships brought up their anchors, they would be covered in blue clay.
In 1861, the family lived on Castle Lane, including my great-grandmother Elizabeth Leake.
Joseph died in Southampton in 1867 at age 52.
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