Drouet and the Parish
Bartholomew Peter Drouet (1794-1849) was the Master of the Tooting establishment for paupers, commonly known as Drouet's Home. He features frequently in the vestry minutes of Tooting parish, which are held by the Wandsworth Libraries & Heritage Service and which are quoted from below.
Pillar of the community?
Drouet was voted into local parish officialdom as both Surveyor of the Highways and an Overseer of the Poor. These positions included an element of collecting money from local ratepayers, whether to fund the upkeep of local roads, drainage ditches and the like, or provide indoor or outdoor relief to those in need.
While eminently worthy positions to hold, I take Drouet's involvement with a pinch of salt. Aside from the potential for a conflict of interest between receiving money for accommodating the poor, and deciding who qualified for handouts, he sat on a committee deciding the maintenance of Garratt Lane, which must have had a direct bearing on his own property there.
Trouble in the Vestry
One can get a good sense of Drouet's involvement with the local parish from the vestry minutes. The earliest mention I noticed was 20 July 1843, where "the house and buildings of Mr BP Drouet be assessed at £160 [per annum]."
See the catalogue entry for the Tooting vestry minutes 1836-1850, ref. TP/1/1/4
On 25 April 1845 he was appointed Surveyor of the Highways, and on 04 December 1845 he attended vestry in that capacity. This was not a paid position, but typically one to which you were elected.
Drouet's annual appointment was renewed on 26 March 1846, when along with Henry Molyneux he was confirmed as Surveyor of the Highways. He was also made an Overseer of the Poor.
On 28 May 1846 Drouet attended vestry when one attendee William Penfold was taken into custody by the local Beadle for his violent language and disruptive behaviour.
A hand in the cookie jar?
However, this pillar of respectability was not quite as upright as it should be. On 26 August 1847 "the late surveyors Mr Drouet and Mr H Molyneux having been requested by the vestry to deliver up the Rate Books of the last two years, they declined to comply." A motion was put forward to adjourn the vestry meeting for a week for the production of the rate books, but this was narrowly defeated.
07 April 1848 it was "resolved that the amount of [2 pounds 19 shillings] paid to Messrs Drouet and [Henry] Molyneux for summonses be disallowed" and the meeting was then adjourned until the 18th for (once more) the production of the rate books by Mr Drouet and Mr Molyneux.
Why were these rate books being withheld? I smell a rat!
18 April 1848: it was resolved that "the accounts of the Surveyors of Highways stand adjourned until ... the rate books of the late surveyors Mr Drouet and Mr Molyneux are produced." In addition, "that the enclosure made by Mr Drouet in Garratt Lane has not the sanction of the vestry and that he be requested to take down the fence."
Fences closing in
On 12 May 1848 the parish net was tightening on Drouet, it being resolved "that on view of the rate books being withheld by the late surveyors Messrs Drouet and [Henry] Molyneux there appears a large arrear of rates which this vestry consider ought to have been collected by them particularly after so great an outlay for summonses and which ought now to be collected so far as practicable." Summonses had been sent out to collect rates due from local tax-payers, but the money was still not collected, as the rate books (records of who owed what) were either withheld or mismanaged by Drouet and Molyneux.
09 June 1848: Drouet attended a vestry meeting, though matters directly concerning him do not appear to have been on the agenda.
25 January 1849: the first set of vestry minutes after the cholera outbreak and the burial of over 100 children from Drouet's home in the parish churchyard. No mention was made of the tragedy! In fact in all the Tooting vestry minutes reviewed, 1848-1850, I've found not a single mention of the deceased children.
By 15 Feb 1849 Drouet's game was up! At least, Drouet's fence would soon be. It was agreed that the encroachment upon the parish (by the fence) would be discussed at the next meeting, given "Mr Drouet's illness." Thanks were given to a Mr Martin for his "exertions in abating nuisances... especially in respect of the drain in Garratt Lane." Drouet was still ill by the next meeting on 23 March 1849.
On 10 May 1849, some good news for Drouet - the vestry agreed "that Mr Drouet's residence Surrey Hall in consideration of its unemployed state be reduced from £209 to £100" i.e. he could pay less tax now the pauper farm had been evacuated.
On 17 May 1849 Mr Drouet appeared in person at vestry. He "expressed his willingness to comply with the wishes of the parish and to remove his fence in Garratt Lane to such line as may be determined upon by the Lord of the Manor and the parish conjointly." A committee was appointed and on 15 June 1849 it duly reported that Garratt Lane looked much better now that the ditch had been filled in and a "suitable paling" had been erected. They recommended that the vestry should "sanction the enclosure" with some provisos.
Death in Margate
It seems unlikely that the matter of the fence and the approbation of Tooting's parishioners weighed heavily on Drouet's mind as he lay on his death-bed. For his health he moved to Fort Crescent, Margate, the seaside Kent town to which many of his young charges had themselves been sent. But he succumbed there to heart disease and dropsy, or edema in modern terms. This is fluid retention often caused by an underlying heart condition and, as with cholera, was an illness poorly understood at the time.
By 23 May 1850, with Drouet now in Norwood cemetery, it seems that a Mr Lucas had taken over ownership of the Surrey Hall property - at least, he is given thanks for removing a couple of houses there, and that the "vacant piece of ground upon which the two houses stood formerly oocupied by the late Mr Drouet" should be taxed at a nominal rate.
So the parish was at last clear of Drouet's physical legacy; his buildings flattened, the estate broken up.