CROUCH, Peter John (1821?-1902)— London
Artist, bookbinder & printer. Drew & lithographed Grand National Exhibition. Crouch’s strangers map of London 1851, co-published by his brother William Alfred Crouch (1820?-1881).
Born in Bloomsbury and baptised Jan 14 1821 at St. Giles in the Fields, the son of George Crouch, a Scottish bookbinder, and his wife Margaret Wright, who married in 1820. Crouch was deaf and dumb from birth, as was his wife Rosamond Swallow (1819-1906), daughter of a gunmaker, whom he married at St. Dunstan in the West 26 Oct 1845. Recorded as an artist in 1841, living with his parents and three younger siblings. On 25 Nov 1850 he testified at the Old Bailey through an interpreter — “I am the prosecutor’s son. On 12th Nov., about half-past three o’clock in the afternoon, I was standing at the first-floor window and saw a crowd — the prisoner and another man stood behind my father — the other man took my father’s watch from his pocket, and gave it to the prisoner — I ran down to the people in the shop — I am certain the prisoner is the man — I was not quite the width of this Court from him — I did not know him before — I saw him again at Guildhall, and pointed him out”. By 1851 he was working as a bookbinder, resident in Southwark with his wife and two small children. The whole family, including four children, were admitted to the workhouse in Southwark 27 Oct 1855. For unknown reasons he was working and boarding in Maidstone, Kent, in 1871. In 1881, the couple were living in Battersea with son Leonard Dalton Crouch (1862-1907), a printer. By 1891, Crouch and his wife were living on the support of two sons. By 1901 the couple had moved to Cardiff, where some of their children were living, and both died there.
1 Crown Court, Tudor Street, Blackfriars — 1841
Water Street, St. Dunstan in the West — 1848
20 Edward Street, Lambeth — 1850-1851
7 Prior Street, Walworth — 1854
1 Church Passage, Harp Alley, Fleet Street — 1862
Lanes Cottages, Westminster — 1868-1869
54 Tufton Street, Westminster — 1871
39 Broughton Street, Battersea — 1881
40 Russell Street, Battersea — 1891
Census 1841-1851,1871-1901. Hyde. OB.