Peggy Potts
Was born Margaret Potts in Low Quay in the East End in
1789. She always claimed that she was related to General Havelock of
the Indian Mutiny fame, but her own fame came with her ability to
outwit the law anyway she could that would make her some money, mainly by smuggling.
She would sell fish and cheese from a stall in the Old Market as a
cover for her smuggling activities. One story about Peggy is that she
was carrying a keg of contraband drink when she was arrested by the
customs officer. As he was taking her back to Bodlewell police
station, she asked could she go behind the bushes to spend a penny.
While behind the bushes she emptied out the keg and filled it with
her urine, so that when the customs men examined the contents at the
station they had no proof of her smuggling, again Peggy had outwitted
the law. When old age crept and Peggy could no longer work, she was
placed in the Parish Workhouse in Church Walk where she died on 10th
October 1875 at the age of 86.
Andrew White
Was born in Thorney Close
Sunderland in 1788, his father John was a ship owner and a colliery
owner in Sunderland. Andrew became Sunderland's first mayor on new
years day in 1836, he died twenty year later in 1856.
The French onion sellers
Were familiar
people in Sunderland. Most of the sellers came from Brittany in
France. Monsieur Paul Grall was the most well known of these and would
came to the East End every year for over thirty years and take over
premises in High Street East where he would then send his other 15
Frenchmen out to sell their better quality onions to the people of
Sunderland. They came to the town from as far back as the 1800's.
In those days they
strung their onions over a pole, balancing a bag at each end. In the
later years they acquired bicycles and strung the bags over the
handlebars. High dock charges and carriage rates soon made it
impossible for the onion sellers to come over and make a profit out of
their onions so they gradually disappeared from the scene.
