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Deane Road Cemetery, Liverpool
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Here are biographies of some of the most notable residents of Deane Road cemetery. Those currently featured are:
I would like to thank all who have contributed to this page. If you know of anyone else buried at Deane Road who may be worthy of a feature on this page, please contact me.
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Henry Aarons (c.1801-1874) by Lois Kaufman
The inscription on Henry Aarons’ tombstone reads “Erected by the Old Hebrew Congregation to the memory of Henry Aarons, a faithful servant for thirty years”. Henry was the shamash (beadle) of the congregation from approximately 1845 until his death in 1874.
Henry Aarons was born either in Holland or London in about 1801. His father, Solomon Aarons, was an established businessman living in Duke Street, London, in the shadow of the Great Synagogue of which he was a privileged member. His business interests included owning a Hebrew bookshop at 21 Duke Street, and insurance records suggest that at various times he also traded in stationery, china, glass, earthenware and wine.
Very little is known about Henry’s early life. By 1841, he was living in Liverpool and in the 1841 census his occupation was given as stationer. He married Kate (aka Kitty) Woolf, daughter of Woolf Woolf, in Liverpool in 1843. Kitty was born in Holland in about 1823. During the 1840s Henry and his wife lived in Roscoe Lane, Brownlow Hill and Back Berry Street. In the 1851 census, Henry gave his occupation as “doorkeeper of synagogue”.
The minute books of the Old Hebrew Congregation provide some interesting insights into the life of Henry Aarons, specifically his earnings. In 1845, his annual salary was £31 17s 6d, which is equivalent to £2,473.81 today. Compare this to the salary of Rev MS Oppenheim (chazan and first minister) who earned £170 10s 6d (£13,234.41), Rev R Barnett (shochet and third minister) who earned £79 (£6,131.18), and A Abraham (caretaker of Deane Road Cemetery) whose annual salary was £17 17s (£1,346.53).
In 1848, the minute book states that it was part of Henry’s duties as a doorman to light and attend to the gas and fires. As well as this, it would have been his responsibility to maintain decorum during services and ensure newcomers were received and had sight of the appropriate prayer books.
According to the minute books, in December 1853 a charge of assault was laid by a Simon Hyam against Henry Aarons. The charge was investigated by the Synagogue’s minister, the Rev A Fischel, and Henry was duly reprimanded.
By the 1870s, Henry was living at 64 Russell Street with his wife and many children. Several of these children married at Seel Street Synagogue, but most ultimately moved away from Liverpool, to London or the States. In 1873, Henry was earning £52 per annum (equal to an annual salary of £3,303.37 today).
Kitty died in December 1872 and was buried at Deane Road. On 5 May 1874, while carrying out his duties at Seel Street Synagogue, Henry fell while taking a lamp off a hook on the ceiling of the building, broke his leg and was taken to Liverpool Royal Infirmary. He subsequently contracted erysipelas (a skin condition commonly known as St Anthony’s Fire) and died on 9 September 1874, sadly never to perform the duty of shamash at the congregation’s new and imposing premises on Princes Road. His youngest daughter Rose was 11 at the time.
Upon his death, Henry’s son Jacob Lyon Aarons, aged 23, took on his father’s position at the same annual wage of £52. According to the financial registers of the Liverpool Old Congregation, in each financial year from 1875 to 1877 the Board of the Children of the late Henry Aarons paid a sum of about £35 annually for the upkeep of the Aarons’ children.
Links http://www.lancashirebmd.org.uk
Other Sources - Jewish Chronicle Archives (available on subscription at http://www.thejc.com). - UK and US census data (available on subscription at http://www.ancestry.com). - Minute books of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation (held at Liverpool Record Office).
Grave References
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Israel Barned (1777-1858) by Saul Marks
Israel Barned was born in Portsmouth but moved to Liverpool some years before his marriage in 1811. He seems to have spent the first half of his career, like so many Jews of the early nineteenth century in Liverpool, as a watchmaker and goldsmith, gradually incorporating bullion and banking transactions in the early 1820s. He may taken over from his uncle’s earlier work in that field, following his death in 1819. Barned was very successful and, by 1825, owned a number of properties in the city. Around 1830, the Barned & Co Bank was formed, as a private concern, owned by Barned and the three Mozley brothers, who also owned property of their own. The Bank specialised in loaning money to shipping, cotton and timber firms.
Barned served consecutive years as Senior Warden of the Seel Street congregation from 1831-33, and again in 1838-39. It was during the 1830s that his most productive work for the congregation was done. In 1833, he was elected chairman of the committee which investigated and reported on the status of the burial ground on Oakes Street, and concluded that a new cemetery must be acquired. The majority of that committee formed the committee for the acquisition of a new burial ground, later in 1833, again with Israel Barned in the chair. This committee and, in particular, Barned, his brother-in-law Elias J Mozley, Abraham Jackson and David J Jackson, was responsible for the purchase of the land on which Deane Road stands, and the establishment of the cemetery.
Barned's standing in the Liverpool Jewish community had obviously not declined some 20 years later when, in 1852, he ceremonially laid the foundation stone of the synagogue in Hope Place. This was to by the first purpose-built home of the Liverpool New Hebrew Congregation, when had seceded from the Old Hebrew Congregation in 1838. At the laying of the foundation stone, his brother-in-law, Charles Mozley gave a keynote speech, and the ceremony was attended by the Chief Rabbi, Nathan Adler. The New Hebrew Congregation moved from Hope Place to a new synagogue building on Greenbank Drive in 1937, where it remains in existence today.
When Israel Barned died in London in 1858 (leaving an estate worth £200,000), the bank came under the control of Charles Mozley. In 1865, Mozley converted the bank into a limited company, with £2 million in capital, but it collapsed in the following year, due to suspected poor management, the sharp decline in the shipping industry, the effects of the American Civil War and the scandal of fraud allegations against one of the Mozleys’ cousins, who later vanished.
In Barned's will, he set up an annuity fund, to pay impoverished members of the Liverpool Jewish community £20, assuming they had lived in the city for two or more years. The fund existed until 1998.
Links http://www.eraoftheclipperships.com/page45web7.html http://www.eraoftheclipperships.com/page56.html http://www.charities-database.co.uk/251112.html
Other Sources - Hudaly, D (1974) "Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation 1780-1974", Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, Liverpool. No ISBN. - Wolfman, J (1994), untitled article in “Together – the Journal of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation”, Sep 1994, page 22. - Wolfman, J (1993/4) "Liverpool's Jewish Mayor" in "Merseyside Jewish Representative Council Year Book 1993-94", pages 60-67.
Grave References
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Rev Raphael Barnett (c.1814-1887) by Saul Marks
Rev Raphael Barnett was born in the town of Krotoschin in Prussia (now Krotoszyn, Poland) c.1814. His father was the noted Rabbi Isaacher Beir Lichtenstadt (1760-1837) and was part of a large family with many siblings. Isaacher and his wife and children came to the UK probably in the late 1830s and took the surname Barnett. One of Raphael’s sisters was Rose Barnett, who married Louis Benas.
Raphael had married in Krotoschin and had a daughter there named Bertha around 1838. His name appears on the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation (LOHC) accounts sheet for the financial year 1842-43 as receiving a wage for services rendered as “third minister and shochet” (i.e. kosher slaughterer).
In the early 1850s, there is correspondence between members of the Liverpool and Krotoschin communities regarding Raphael’s personal affairs. It appears that Rev Barnett had come to Liverpool without his wife and daughter and had an arrangement to pay his wife £3 per quarter for Bertha’s upkeep. Raphael’s wife, whose name may have been Johanna, stated that she had not been receiving the agreed payments and those she had received were late. She wrote to LOHC begging for help to resolve the matter and Raphael was duly called before the committee and asked to explain himself. He appeared to have provided satisfactory proof that he had paid his wife the agreed sums.
By the late 1850s, Bertha had arrived in Liverpool and married Joseph Levin at LOHC in Seel Street Synagogue in 1858. She proceeded to have 9 children in 13 years and died in 1873 aged just 35. Although she died during the period that Deane Road Cemetery was highly active, she was not buried here.
Rev Raphael Barnett remained in the employment of LOHC until his death in 1887. Census records suggest his wife never joined him.
Sources - Jewish chronicle, 4 May 2007, page 25. - Papers of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation.
Grave Reference
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David Behrend (1792-1863) George Henry Behrend (1826-1903) by Joe Wolfman and Saul Marks
David Behrend was born in 1792 in Hanover and came to England in 1809. He seems to have arrived in London penniless. A German nephew of his recounts that during a visit to England in 1856, his uncle showed him in one of the slums of the City of London the "most miserable of all houses where he had once as a hapless youth at the beginning of the century found shelter at night with money obtained by begging." He may have been in Liverpool by 1812, and he was soon prosperous enough to rent a seat in Liverpool's Seel Street Synagogue. In 1816/17 he is on the books of the Liverpool Philanthropic Society as a donor, not a recipient. He may have already been working for Charles Bahr, a Dane, who had established a ship-broking agency (i.e. an agency arranging the shipment of goods). In 1835, he became a partner. The firm of Bahr Behrend exists to this day in Liverpool.
David married twice: Priscilla Aaron of Liverpool in 1823 and, two years after her death, in 1835, Maria Hess, who belonged to a leading Liverpool family. He had two sons by Priscilla, George Henry and Henry Michael, and one son by Maria, Samuel Hesse. David was Senior Treasurer of the Old Hebrew Congregation's Seel Street Synagogue in 1845-46 and Senior Warden twice: 1851-52, 1855-57.
George joined the family firm and was very close to his father in business and synagogal affairs. He and Charles Bahr's son continued and expanded their fathers' business during the second half of the 19th century. George was Senior Treasurer of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation in 1861-62 and Junior Warden in 1870-71. He was also Norwegian Vice-Consul. His second wife, Hester Philips, lived to be 92 years, and a copy of a book of Jewish prayers and meditations which she compiled is in the Montagu Yates Library in the Liverpool Reform Synagogue. She was the last person to be buried at Deane Road cemetery, in 1929.
George's son, Edward A Behrend, became the third generation of the family to serve as a warden of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation when her was elected Junior Treasurer in 1913. He served in that post until 1917, when he became Senior Treasurer - a post he held until 1922.
Links http://www.bahragencies.co.uk/profile/who_are.htm
Other Sources - Sonneborn, CB (2000) "The Behrends of Rodenberg: a Worldwide Family Genealogy", privately published, pages 185-214. - Wolfman, J (1991) "Archivist's Corner" in the magazine of the Liverpool Progressive Synagogue, November/December 1991, page 8.
Grave References
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Louis Benas (1820-1890) and Family by Saul Marks
Family History
Louis’ tombstone reads “A descendant of Don Isaac Abarbanel of Spain and of the Maharam of Padua, Italy”. Abarbanel (1437-1508) was one of the wealthiest and most important Jews in Spain, but his bribes to the king failed to prevent the expulsion of all the Jews in 1492. Eventually, he settled in Venice. His lifetime religious and philosophical works are still greatly respected by Jewish scholars today. The Maharam of Padua was born Meir ben Isaac (c.1482-1565) in Katzenelnbogen, Germany, and took Katzenellenbogen as his surname. He served as the chief rabbi of Padua for much of his life and was a leading authority in world Judaism in the first half of the 16th century. His descendants included many rabbis.
Louis Benas’ son, Baron (see below), explained the family’s connection with these reminiscences:
“An ancestor of mine was one of the Sephardim who may be regarded as having inaugurated Jewish communal existence in Liverpool. This particular ancestor sprang from those bands of voyagers, who at the time flourished in the Peninsula, and, when forced by Spanish and Portuguese persecution to seek homes elsewhere, settled in the West Indies, and cultivated a trade with English ports engaged in trans-Atlantic commerce...
My grandmother, Isabel Hoff, was a direct descendant of Don Isaac Abarbanel. I can thus claim kinship to the family of Don Abarbanel Dormido, whose name is prominently connected with the settlement of the Jews in England under the Commonwealth. Through my mother, on the other hand, I am related to several prominent personages in the earlier communal life of the metropolis. One of her uncles was Mr Moses Samuel, of Bath and Park Crescent, and she was a near kinswoman of Sir Benjamin Phillips and of Baron Henry de Worms, who became Lord Pirbright.”
Louis Benas (1820-1890)
Louis Benas (aka Keiler) was born in Krotoschin, Prussia (now Krotoszyn, Poland), in 1820 and married there in 1841. His wife, Rose, had an equally distinguished ancestry. Her father was Rabbi Issacher Beir Lichtenstadt (1760-1837), also from Krotoschin. Both he and Rose’s mother, Rebecca Phillips (1774-1855) were also descended from the Katzenellenbogen family, mentioned above. Rose's brother, Rev Raphael Barnett, settled in Liverpool probably in the late 1830s.
Louis began as a master boot- and shoemaker in London and, in 1854, he naturalised as a British citizen, by which time he was already the "householder of four houses". By 1865, he had moved to Liverpool and established himself as a banker. He owned property in both cities and opened a bank named Louis Benas and Sons, which existed for several decades in second half of the nineteenth century and in which he and all three of his sons were heavily involved. He was also a leading figure in the campaign for full political emancipation of the Jews in England.
Unfortunately, Louis spent around the last 20 years of his life paralysed, possibly from a stroke, thereby excluding him from the municipal and political life in which he had been so active.
Their children
Louis and Rose had eight children, of whom the eldest was Baron Louis Benas (1844-1914). Baron was one of the most well-known figures in the Liverpool Jewish community, leading not only the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, but also the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society. He is noted for writing the “Records of the Jews of Liverpool” (1899), which is the seminal work on the history of the community in the city. Baron’s son was Bertram Benjamin Baron Benas (1880-1968), a much-loved barrister, JP and CBE, who wrote a follow-up to his father’s historical work on the community. Both Baron and Bertram are buried at Deane Road’s successor, Broad Green Cemetery.
Louis and Rose’s second son, Alfred Louis Benas, is buried at Deane Road. He served as Junior Treasurer of LOHC in 1885-86, Senior Treasurer 1886-89 and Junior Warden 1889-91. It is not known why he was never elected Senior Warden, to complete his rise through the officers’ hierarchy.
Sadly, Louis and Rose lost two daughters, one in infancy in London and the other, Louisa, aged 23 in Liverpool, in 1873. She is buried at Deane Road, alongside her parents.
Links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Abrabanel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abravanel http://www.authorama.com/chapters-on-jewish-literature-22.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_ben_Isaac_Katzenellenbogen http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=135&letter=K#403 http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=667&letter=B
Other Sources - Jewish Chronicle 16 January 1914, page 18 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - Liverpool Daily Post 29 April 1890. - Louis Benas (aka Keiler) naturalisation papers, TNA ref HO 1/55/1879.
Grave References
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James Braham (c.1811-1873) by Saul Marks
James Braham was, and remains, one of the most influential benefactors in the history of the Liverpool Jewish community. However, it was not the achievements of his life which earned him this accolade, but rather the contents of his will, which came to be known as the Braham Bequests.
James was born Zachariah Abrahams in Plymouth around 1811, to David Abrahams (c.1763-1840) and Rose Jacobs (1776-1842). Three of Rose's brothers had settled in Liverpool and founded the highly respected Jackson family. James worked most of his life in London as a gold merchant and clockmaker and married his first cousin, Henrietta Jackson, at Seel Street synagogue in Liverpool in 1854.
James died on 5 February 1873 at his home in Upper Norwood, Surrey, a very wealthy man. At the time, the synagogue on Princes Road was still under construction, and was subsequently completed and opened in 1874. The following year, it closed briefly for some alterations, one of which was the addition of two large black marble plaques, one either side of the main doors on the western wall, bearing the Ten Commandments in full, engraved and inscribed in gold. These were a donation by Henrietta in memory of James.
The main Braham Bequest was for the endowment of £13,000 per annum, to be divided equally between the senior and junior ministers of the Congregation, who would be termed the Braham Lecturer and Braham Reader, respectively. The condition of the award was that the ministers both be born in the UK, of British parents. Today, this is seen as a reflection of the exclusive attitude of the Congregation – and Anglo-Jewry as a whole – in the days when the vast majority of its membership was wealthy and highly assimilated. This situation contrasted starkly with the shtibls (smaller, communal houses of prayer) which grew up in the city at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, following the mass immigration of impoverished Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe and Russia.
Another quirk of the Braham Bequest was that it would not become operational until his Henrietta's death. When it became clear, in early 1890, that Henrietta's health was failing, the incumbent minister, Rev Joseph Polack, tendered his resignation, as he did not fulfil the criteria set down by Braham (his parents were not British), and wished to spare the Congregation the embarrassment of dismissing him. To add to the genealogical intricacies, Rev Polack's brother later married Henrietta's great-niece! Henrietta died on 15 February and, the following year, the first Braham Lecturer was appointed: Rev Samuel Friedeberg (later Frampton) of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. In 1894, the first Braham Reader was appointed to join him, namely Rev John Harris of London.
In 1938, the Braham Lecturer, Rev Lewis Phillips, wished to assume the vacant position of Braham Reader in addition to his current post, following the departure of Rev Raphael Levy. It was unsure whether Rev Phillips was entitled to the entire bequest, if he could be seen to fill both posts, but a court ruling confirmed that this was acceptable, and this situation remained for the remaining nine years of his tenure. Following his departure and the struggle to find candidates for his successor as Braham Lecturer, the Congregation arranged to relax the conditions of appointment. The new terms were that successful candidates would have been resident in the UK for a minimum of ten years, and be competent enough in English to preach sermons in it. In recent times, of course, the Braham Bequest has not covered the entirety of the ministers' salaries, and has been supplemented by the Congregation itself.
The secondary Braham Bequest was for an endowment of around £6,000 for the annual benefit of poor Jewish girls of the Hebrew school in Hope Place. Each year, the chosen girl would receive £100, which would be invested and from which she would collect an annual dividend until she married a Jewish man. She would then receive the capital sum, but the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation had to approve her choice of bridegroom! This was clearly a scheme devised by Braham not only to give relief to girls from poorer families, but also to discourage the community's girls from marrying outside the religion. The original method of selecting a winner was to pick three girls aged between 14 and 17 at random from the school, in order to create a shortlist, and pull the winning name from a hat.
The Hebrew school moved to new premises on Childwall Road in 1957, and was renamed the King David High School. The following year, the method of selecting the winner was altered to the form of a competition, but the award was later ceased at some point after 1974. It was revived in 1995 and has been presented annually since 1999, although the capital sum is now awarded in the school year in which it is won, rather than at marriage. Although this negates the incentive for girls to marry within the religion, the sum of £100 is no longer large enough to be an incentive to influence marriage!
Today, the Congregation administers three Braham charities: the Charity of James Braham, the Henrietta Braham Fund and the Henrietta Braham Charity. Although James Braham's name is more well-known in Liverpool than Henrietta's, she also made an important contribution to the Jewish community. Her sister, Eliza Jackson (c.1821-1872), began building a retirement home for Jewish spinsters and widows, and Henrietta later purchased the site and funded the completion of the construction and weekly allowances for residents. The Eliza Jackson Home opened on 21 May 1877 at 30-32 North Hill Street, with rooms for six residents, without children, and it operated until 1958.
James Braham is described as an active member of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, although he served only one year on the Sub-Committee, in 1860-61, as Junior Treasurer. However, it is his legacies to the congregation and to the Hebrew school that ensure that his name is still well-known in the Liverpool Jewish community today, over 130 years after her death.
Links http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/7854/liverpool03.html http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=526494 http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=251108 http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/registeredcharities/showcharity.asp?remchar=&chyno=251483
Other Sources Hudaly, D (1974) "Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation 1780-1974", Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, Liverpool. No ISBN.
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Isaac Bright (1762/3-1849)
There seems to be no definitive record of where Isaac Bright came from originally, or what his original last name was. What is known is that Isaac and his younger brother, Philip, arrived in Sheffield in about 1786 and that both of them became jewellers and silversmiths. They certainly formed part of the earliest community of Jews in Sheffield and possibly helped found the first synagogue there.
Isaac married Ann Micholls, who is also buried in Deane Road Cemetery. She was the daughter of Henry Micholls (also known as Hirsch Nicholls of Dereham, Norfolk). Isaac and Ann had ten children, and dozens of grandchildren, many of whom also became jewellers. The eldest sons, Maurice (1796-1848) and Selim (1799-1891), kept on the family business, Bright & Sons, in Sheffield until Maurice’s death in 1848. After that, Selim continued the business both in Sheffield and in Buxton, where he lived, and Maurice’s widow, Henrietta, and their sons Herbert and Frederick opened yet another branch in Scarborough. Another of Isaac and Ann’s sons, Henry Bright (b.1817), became a jeweller in Leamington and eventually became the Mayor of that town. The youngest son, Edward (b.1819), was in partnership with Henry for a while but then moved to Brighton and set up as a jeweller there.
The youngest daughter of Isaac and Ann was Rebecca (1814-38). She is buried in Deane Road Cemetery along with her husband, Henry Lyon (1805-78) and daughter Charlotte (1837-82). Other descendents included a grandson, Horatio Bright (1829-1906), who was well known in the Sheffield community as a very colourful though successful steel manufacturer. A grandson, Maurice DeLara Bright (1825/6-1902), was a composer who wrote several marches that were played at Buckingham Palace for Queen Victoria, and a great-granddaughter, Dora Bright (1863-1951), was a well known musician and songwriter.
Isaac’s brother Philip Bright (1784-1841) set up as a jeweller in Doncaster. In 1830, he made the Doncaster Gold Cup, with a value of 150 guineas. Philip’s second wife Sarah Jacobs was the sister of David Jacobs Jackson who is also buried in Deane Road Cemetery.
Links http://www.chrishobbs.com/horatiobrightfamily.htm
Source - Lamb, D (date unknown), "Lest We Forget". - Lipson, E (1947), “The Brights of Market Place” in “Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society”, Vol 6.
Grave References
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Rev Raphael Isaac Cohen (1803-1865)
Raphael Isaac Cohen was born in 1803, most likely in Stolp in Pommerania (now Słupsk, Poland), one of nine children of Isaac Freundlich. Raphael left Stolp in the early 1800s and by the 1820s he was living in Hanover, where he was a fellow student of Dr Nathan Marcus Adler (1803-90), who later became Chief Rabbi. A family friendship between the Cohens and the Adlers lasted for a century.
It is unclear why and when Raphael changed his surname to Cohen. A family legend states that his direct male ancestors were Cohanim – the priestly tribe of Israel – and it seems logical that this is why he chose this name.
It appears that Raphael was married twice. His marriage to his first wife, whose name is unknown, produced two daughters, both born in Hamburg: Theresa (born in 1828) and Bertha (born in 1832). Raphael and his family arrived in England sometime between Bertha’s birth in 1832 and 1836, when his wife died. Theresa and Bertha were sent to Hamburg for several years, presumably to be brought up by relatives or friends. Raphael remarried Bloom, a native of Dover, by 1851.
Raphael’s presence in Dover was first noted in 1839, where he is listed as Secretary for Marriages at Dover Synagogue. Dover’s Jewish community has always been small: in 1841, the congregation had only eight families. This was reinforced over a number of years by a Jewish boarding school called Sussex House, which was founded in about 1848 by Raphael Cohen. Descriptions of Sussex House reveal it was exceedingly comfortable and hygienic, with warm and cold bath rooms, a nursery and a playground. The syllabus included “English, mathematics, book-keeping, mental calculation, elocution etc”, as well as French, German and an option of Latin or Greek. In terms of Jewish education, pupils were taught Hebrew, with “the higher classes studying Rashi, Shulkhan Arukh and Mishnah”. By 1851, morning and evening services were held in the schoolroom, as the synagogue was too small to accommodate both the congregation and the staff and 53 pupils of Sussex House!
Raphael was known as Reverend Cohen (“Reverend” was used instead of “Rabbi” in England during this period) for he acted as lay preacher at the synagogue. His students greatly admired him, making presentations to him in 1851 and 1856.
He was also active in bettering the lives of Jews throughout England. In 1850, he financially helped establish a Society for the Encouragement of Literature among the Jews of England, and was an annual subscriber to this society. He was also active politically and became the spokesman of the Jewish inhabitants of Dover, welcoming and entertained guests. He was instrumental in obtaining the necessary funds to build a new synagogue for the Jewish inhabitants of Dover, which was opened in 1863. In September 1864, he was formerly elected leader of the Dover Jewish community.
Raphael was not only involved in the Jewish affairs of the city. He was well-known in Dover and participated in various civic duties. One of his last acts was taking part in the dedication ceremony of a large mansion, originally known as Mount Ellis.
Raphael lived in Dover until his death in 1865, but was visiting his daughter Bertha and her husband in Liverpool at the time of his death, “for a change if air”. Members of the Dover Jewish community drew their blinds and closed their shutters as a mark of respect, whilst others travelled to Liverpool for the funeral. The community felt such a void in its leadership that many of its endeavours came to a standstill.
Sources - Jewish Chronicle 10 March 1848 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - Jewish Chronicle 8 December 1865 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - Roth, C, “The Rise of Provincial Jewry”.
Grave References
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Baroness Miriam de Menasce (1851-1890) by Saul Marks
Baroness Miriam de Menasce was born Miriam Gollin in Liverpool on 9 February 1851, the second of ten children of Bearman Gollin and Mary Marks. Bearman and Mary were both born in London but married in Liverpool in 1848, under the auspices of Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation. The Gollins were prominent in the local community: Bearman served as Junior Treasurer of LOHC in 1855-56 and Junior Warden 1862-63. Bearman gave 60 guineas to the fund for the building of Princes Road synagogue in the mid-1870s and Mary gave 2 guineas. Their sons donated in their memory an impressive set of silverware to adorn a Scroll of the Law at Princes Road, which is still displayed there today.
On 28 July 1869, aged 18, Miriam married Baron Joseph Levi de Menasce. The Menasce family was a Sephardi family of Moroccan descent based in Alexandria, Egypt, and one of the most powerful in the Egyptian Jewish community. They funded the establishment of schools, hospitals, synagogues and an art gallery and Joseph's father was created Baron by the Emperor Franz-Jozef of Austro-Hungary in 1875. Joseph worked in branches of his father's merchant banking business in London and Liverpool, which is how he came to meet Miriam.
They had one daughter, Céline de Menasce, in Liverpool in 1870. Joseph's business in Liverpool closed and the family moved to London, only to have to close that and return to Egypt. They settled in Cairo, where Joseph died of tuberculosis in 1877, at the tragically young age of 32. The de Menasce family ties were strong and Céline married her first cousin, Félix de Menasce, on 30 December 1889 in Alexandria.
Miriam had settled in Paris and expressed the wish that, despite all her travelling, she wanted to be buried in Liverpool when she died. Her wish was to be granted far sooner than her family would have thought, when she died on 30 October 1890, aged 39. Her body was returned to Liverpool and she was buried at Deane Road in an enormous domed structure in granite, with triple pillars at each of its four corners, adorned with Egyptian styles of carving. Today, the de Menasce tomb is the first object that catches the eye on entering the cemetery, despite the fact that it is not centrally located, nor is it in the first few rows of graves.
Bearman and Mary reserved plots next to Miriam and were buried there in 1895 and 1906 respectively. A sad epilogue to Miriam's life is another death at an early age: that of Céline on 20 July 1900, aged just 29.
Links http://members.aol.com/ECWilcock/Gollinweb/wc01/wc01_001.htm http://74.52.200.226/~sefarad/lm/016/page18.html http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/vines/5855/cattaui.htm http://www.egy.com/judaica/94-04-02.shtml
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Bearman Gollin (1818/19-1895) Mary Gollin (née Marks; 1830-1906)
Bearman Gollin was born 1818/9 in Spitalfields, a son of Rabbi Wolf Josephson Gollin of the Hambro Synagogue. When his father died in 1833, the fifteen year old Bearman was taken into the employ of the clothiers Messrs Moses Levy & Co, 2-3 Aldgate. He worked for this company for 37 years.
In about 1841, Bearman was sent to take over their Liverpool branch at 22-24 South Castle Street, which supplied slops (work clothing to seamen). Its previous manager Lyon (Judah) Marks died the following year. On 29 March 1848, Bearman married his predecessor’s youngest daughter, Mary Marks, who was only 18. She too was born in London and is buried with Bearman in Deane Road Cemetery.
Mary’s elderly mother Fanny also became part of the household. Many years earlier, in 1815, her younger brother Solomon Levey had been sent to Australia as a convict. His subsequent pardon and success there encouraged many of his Marks, Levy and later Gollin relatives to follow him to Australia. Bearman and Mary remained in Liverpool, taking responsibility for women, children and business matters left behind. In 1878, Australian success enabled his sons to set up an independent business with Bearman.
The synagogue always played an important part in Bearman Gollin’s life. From 1850, he served on the Board of Management of the Liverpool Hebrew Educational Institution. In 1851, he was among the subscribers to a book of two prize essays on the Post-Biblical History of the Jews. Like many Anglo-Jews, Bearman joined the Freemasons and received his certificate on 30 December 1854. He was on the Building Committee for the new Princes Road Synagogue which was opened 3 September 1874 and he served as a warden of the synagogue.
He died on 4 March 1895 at his home in Upper Parliament Street. At his funeral, Rev Friedeberg remarked that, in Bearman, the Jewish faith had a steadfast and conscientious worker, and that his genial and amiable manner made him liked by everyone. Mary survived him by another 11 years, cared for in her old age by a doctor in Southport.
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The Hime Family by Arnold Lewis
Humphrey Hime (1761-1845)
Music publisher, founder of Hime & Son Senior Warden 1822-23
Henry E Hime (1820-1881)
Humphrey's grandson
Links http://phonoarchive.org/grove/Entries/S13050.htm
Other Sources MJRC Yearbook 1987/8, pgs 35-36
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John Raphael Isaac (1809-1870) by James Dickie
John Raphael Isaac was the eldest son of Ralph and Sophia Isaac (m.1805). In 1839, he married Sarah Amelia Coleman (1813-1901), granddaughter of Rabbi Benjamin Yates (d.1798) and ancestor of Viscount Samuel. The marriage was solemnised at Seel Street Synagogue, where Isaac subsequently held the post of Junior Treasurer, 1841-43. His in-laws were engravers like himself and his wife’s uncle engraved over 30 bookplates.
Isaac designed the menu for Prince Albert’s reception at the Town Hall in 1846, and was appointed medallist to the Prince. His advertisement reads, under the royal coat of arms, “By special appointment to HRH Prince Albert,” and goes on to list his specialities as “Drawing Designs and Plans, Armorial Painting and Manuscript Illumination,” with each line in a different script to show his versatility as a calligrapher.
Isaac worked in various media but especially lithography. He was also an art dealer and ran a heraldic office, engraving seals and bookplates. Seven signed bookplates dated between 1840 and 1860 are recorded. His trade card supplies further particulars: “Publisher, Printseller, Carver, Gilder and Picture Frame Manufacturer.” His business was located at 37 Castle Street in 1839 but, from 1843-67, he operated from the Art-Union Rooms at 62 Castle Street. He held the office of Honorary Secretary for Liverpool of the Art-Union, London. He subsequently operated from other addresses. He opened a lithographic studio in 1850.
Isaac resided at several addresses, notably numbers 27 and 46 Bedford Street North, both now victims of university expansion. He did work for the Royal Steamship Co, and published lithographs of the laying of the North Atlantic Cable, which could be bought either tinted or hand-coloured. In 1850, he issued a lithograph of the new synagogue in Hope Place, as well as a panorama of Liverpool seen from a balloon. A scrapbook in the Liverpool Record Office contains designs for memorials both Jewish and Christian, equine subjects, gentlemen’s seats, and rural churches.
Besides topographical work, he was a ship portraitist, producing prints of Liverpool shipping. As well as lithographing his own work, Isaac lithographed that of other artists, such as Samuel Walters, Liverpool’s most famous marine artist. The five prints after Walters include the Royal Charter (1856), published from 62 Castle Street. Another print is of a captured slaver, the Ashburton, in addition to lithographic portraits of tea clippers on the Liverpool register Crest of the Wave (1853), Spray of the Ocean (1854). Both ships were owned by Brice, Friend & Co, by whom he was commissioned to portray vessels in their fleet, but by far his best known work in this genre is his lithograph of the famous emigrant ship, the Lightning, which was plagiarised for a music cover (score by the Victorian music-hall artiste, Charles d’Albert). The ship was captained by “Bully” Forbes, whose tomb is in Toxteth Park Cemetery. Isaac also did commercial work for the Holt Shipping Line and the White-Star (Packet) Line (Liverpool-Melbourne). These commissions from major shipping companies explain how Isaac’s son Percy became a naval architect and shipbuilder.
Links http://www.atlantic-cable.com/Books/1857Isaac/index.htm http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=S http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=25&letter=Y
Other Sources Wolf, L (1901) "History and Genealogy of the Jewish Families of Yates and Samuel of Liverpool", London. No ISBN.
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The Jackson Family by Saul Marks
David Jacobs Jackson (1780-1854)
David Jackson was born David Jacobs in Totnes, Devon, in August 1780, one of 11 children of Isaac Jacobs (c.1736-1809) and Betsy Levy (1759-1836). He and two of his brothers married three sisters of the surname Ralph and all settled in Liverpool under the name of Jackson. It is not known where these marriages took place or when or why the brothers came to Liverpool. However, David's eldest daughter was born here in 1810 and, by 1825, he was established in Castle Street as a draper.
David was first elected as a warden of the Liverpool Hebrew Congregation (then worshipping in Seel Street) in 1834, when he took up the position of Senior Treasurer from his younger brother, Abraham. Around the same time, he was elected to the committee which was in charge of purchasing and establishing the cemetery on Deane Street (later Deane Road), of which Abraham was the treasurer. David served on this committee until it disbanded in 1837. By this time, he had been elected as Senior Warden, a position which he held during the term 1837-38 and again in 1845-46. He and his wife, Katherine (c.1780-1855), lived in Canning Street, in the heart of Georgian Liverpool, amongst the most well-respected members of society.
By the early 1850s, David had retired, and his will of 1853 described him as a "gentleman". In the final few years of his life, he lived in Southport, on the advice of his doctors. He died in June 1854, a very wealthy and well-respected man.
David was not just an important man in his own right, but he and Katherine founded a family of such repute that, even today, their name is still known in the congregation, particularly amongst those who serve as wardens. Below are the most well-known members of David's family.
Henrietta Jackson (1810-1890)
Henrietta was David's eldest child, and she married her cousin James Braham in Liverpool in 1854. They had no children but James became one of the wealthiest men in Liverpool and his bequests are still distributed today. In the mid-1870s, following the death of her sister Eliza (below), Henrietta funded the remainder required to set up the Eliza Jackson Home, which ran from 1877-1958. The fund set up in her name, the Henrietta Braham Endowment Fund, was used to help in the running of the home. Henrietta also presented the pulpit of the congregation's new synagogue on Princes Road in 1874, which had been donated by her husband James before his death. When Henrietta died in 1890, her husband's bequests to the congregation and to the girls of the Hebrew school came into operation.
George Isaac Jackson (1812-1877)
George Isaac Jackson was David's second child and eldest son and he married Caroline Moss in Basingstoke, Hampshire, in 1845. Like his father, he was a draper and, like his father, he was deeply involved in the running of the congregation, serving as Junior Treasurer in 1849-50, Senior Treasurer 1850-51 and Junior Warden 1855-56. It is not known why he was never elected as Senior Warden, although he served again as Senior Treasurer in 1858-59.
Sadly, George and Caroline lost three children in infancy, all of whom are buried at Deane Road, along with a son, David George Jackson (1853-79), who died aged 25 and their daughter, Sara Karo (1849-1919), who was one of the last burials in the cemetery.
Their only child known to have borne children was Alfred Moss Jackson (1848-1931), who was arguably the congregation's most well-known Senior Warden. Alfred served as Senior Warden in 1884-85 and then took on the position again, in his 60s, from 1915-19, in an era where every Senior Warden served a four-year term. Alfred's second tenure is believed to have been one in which he steered the congregation successfully through a political crisis. He also held a number of positions on the Board of the Hebrew Schools and served as president of almost every organisation in which he had an interest. Sadly, Alfred and his wife Rebecca had occasion to bury two children at Deane Road, although they and another of their sons are buried at its successor, Broad Green Cemetery.
Henry David Jackson (1814-1882)
Henry David Jackson was David's third child, and he also served as a warden of the congregation, soon after his father. He rose through the ranks, serving a year consecutively in each position: Junior Treasurer 1859-60, Senior Treasurer 1860-61, Junior Warden 1861-62 and Senior Warden 1862-63. In appears that, after this, he moved to London, where he married Lucy Gough in 1867. Although Lucy was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and they lived in London, both are buried at Deane Road.
Eliza Jackson (1820-1872)
Eliza Jackson never married and died in London in 1872, although she was buried at Deane Road in the same tomb as her sister and brother-in-law, Henrietta and James Braham. She bequeathed a substantial sum for the establishment of a home for Jewish women in Liverpool. Henrietta subsequently added to the bequest, purchased the site and endowed the home, which opened on 21 May 1877 at 30-32 North Hill Street, Mossley Hill. It was stipulated that residents must be either spinsters or widows, without children and of the Jewish faith. Residence at the home would be free, and residents would receive a maximum of 10s per week allowance from the Henrietta Braham Endowment Fund (which totalled £7,000 at that time). Eliza's brother George (above) was present at the opening ceremony, and his son Alfred.
Abraham Jackson (1785-1839)
Abraham Jackson was David's younger brother, who perhaps started the family tradition of being involved in synagogue administration and politics. He served as Treasurer of the Seel Street congregation from 1815-16 and Warden from 1821-22, in the days when there were only two Honorary Officers, rather than four. When the administration was extended in the early 1830s, Abraham served as Senior Treasurer 1833-34 (immediately preceding David's tenure of the same office) and Senior Warden 1835-36. He was appointed treasurer of the committee which oversaw the purchase of Deane Road from 1833-37, during which time he was responsible for collecting all the pledges from congregants in order to fund the development of the site. The final entry in the minute book of the cemetery committee was the expression of great sadness at Abraham's passing in 1839, aged only 54, and the resolution to write to his widow, Betsy, with the committee's condolences. He was buried in the cemetery he had helped organise only a few years earlier, and Betsy was also buried at Deane Road in 1860.
In all, there are 22 members of the Jacobs/Jackson family buried at Deane Road. David and Abraham's eldest brother, the aforementioned John Jacobs Jackson (1775-1848) is one, along with his daughter, Jane Jacobs (c.1811-61), who had married her uncle, Lewis Jacobs (1791-1840), David and John's youngest brother. Lewis and Jane's second son, Charles Jacob Jacobs was buried at Deane Road in 1862.
Links http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/levytotnes.htm http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/westcountrywills.htm http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/plymouthtombsindexeng.htm http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/susser/plymouthinscriptions.htm
Other Sources
- "Will of David Jacobs Jackson, Gentleman of Liverpool, Lancashire", National Archives ref PROB 11/2194. - Jewish Chronicle, 25 May 1877, page 10 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - Jewish Chronicle, 27 November 1931, page 14 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com).
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Ellis Montefiore Joseph (1802-1880) by Saul Marks
Ellis Montefiore Joseph was born in Liverpool in 1802, the son of Joseph Joseph (1762-1812) and Rebecca Montefiore (1773-1859), who had married at Canonbury House, near London, in 1799. Rebecca was the aunt of Sir Moses Montefiore (1784-1885), while Joseph was son of Simon Joseph (1722-1808), the head of the entire Liverpool Jewish community in the late 18th century. Therefore, Ellis was from the elite of Anglo-Jewry.
Ellis was apprenticed to cotton broker WL Wolstenholme before starting his own venture in 1833. His brother Maurice joined him in 1846 and the firm became "Joseph Bros". Ellis was known for his concern that his cotton-spinning preserves would be used by rival brokers, and used to personally escort clients from outside Liverpool from his offices to their departing train in order to protect his interests. An amusing poem in the "Lays of Cotton Broking" reads:
"And one shrewd man we all know well - But names we shall never mention - Gave them his arm to the carriage-door, And paid them a deal of attention.
Some say he tipped the guard a bob, Or a drop of something neat, If a broker came, to go by train, To say there wasn't a seat."
Ellis lived with Maurice and their other surviving brother, Joseph, in the Dingle district of Liverpool. Curiously, all three brothers died in quick succession and are buried in adjacent plots. Their mother possesses one of the most impressive tombs at Deane Road.
Sources Ellison, T (1905), "Gleanings and Reminiscences", Young & Sons, Liverpool, pgs 256-258.
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David Lewis (1823-1885) by Saul Marks
David Lewis was born David Levy in London, the son of Wolfe Levy, a Jewish merchant. David had at least one brother, who emigrated to Australia in the 1840s. In 1839, he moved to Liverpool to work for Benjamin Hyam & Co, a firm of tailors and outfitters. Within 18 months, he was appointed manager of the Liverpool branch and, in 1842, he was placed in charge of opening new branches in Scotland and Ireland and supervising existing branches.
Lewis started his own business at 44 Ranelagh Street, Liverpool, in 1846, selling men's and boys’ clothing. Most of the clothes were made in his own workshop, as was common at the time, and he also designed new clothes, particularly knickerbocker suits. His customers were mainly working class, and had not been able to afford tailoring until that point.
On 6 September 1856, he
married Bertha Cohen, daughter of Rev
Raphael Isaac Cohen, of
Dover. Lewis established strong ethics at the outset, which would be the foundation of his businesses: he refused to haggle; he would fix a low price and stick to it; he did not give credit; he was always willing to exchange unsatisfactory goods; he never borrowed money; and he always fed his profits back into the business. In 1859, he opened new premises on Bold Street – a more fashionable area –he started selling London and Paris women's fashions in 1864. While his new ventures were taking off spectacularly, Lewis was extending the original Ranelagh Street premises, eventually buying and merging five adjacent properties and adding a clock tower (now a Liverpool landmark). He continued to add departments, including women's shoes (1874) and tobacco (1879).
One major success was the
enormous Birmingham branch of Lewis’s, which opened in 1885
on Corporation Street, which focussed on female customers.
Links http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/49320 (subscription required) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=359&letter=L http://www.jgsgb.org.uk/download/LibraryList.doc (available via Google)
Other Sources - Briggs, A & Lewes, B (1956), "Friends of the People: the Centenary History of Lewis's", Batsford, London. No ISBN. - Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain library holdings 655 COH Fog1 & 655 COH Fog2.
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Dr Sigismund Lewis (c.1820-1899) by Arnold Lewis and Saul Marks
Sigismund Lewis obtained his medical degree in Berlin in 1846 and practiced in Hamburg before settling in Liverpool during the 1850s. During the following 40 or so years this erudite and kindly doctor acted as a one-man health service to the Liverpool Jewish community and was appointed honorary medical officer to virtually all of the community’s welfare institutions.
Although Sigismund involved himself with, and held office, in several Jewish organizations including the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation and Hovevai Zion, it was his work in helping the poverty-stricken sick for which he is most remembered. He was especially committed to the healthcare of the pupils and teachers of the Hebrew Schools. There, he performed regular medical inspections, performed mass vaccinations and arranged the provision of supplementary food, clothing and medicines to the needy pupils which he often paid for himself.
The Liverpool Jewish community’s archives contain an interesting medical report which Sigismund wrote to the executive of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation (LOHC) on 16 October 1874. It graphically describes the problems he had encountered during the previous year.
Sigismund begins his report by remarking that the sanitary conditions of the Jewish poor had deteriorated during the past year compared with that of the year before and also in comparison with that of the general population of Liverpool. He also records that fact that the death rate in Liverpool was the second-highest out of 21 of the largest cities in the UK. However, on a more positive note he reports that all cases of scarletina (which had become an increasingly fatal disease) under his care had recovered.
Sigismund goes on to state that: “In contagious diseases amongst the poor the medical man finds himself hampered by extraneous circumstances which are inseperable from poverty. There is want of space, deficiency of nutrition and dearth of bed and body linen.”
He then instances a family where two small children were dangerously ill. The older child had scarletina with dropsy and the younger one was suffering from pneumonia. The whole family inhabited a single room measuring 11ft x 11ft (at a rental of 3/6 per week). The beds and a few other items of furniture left a space of only 3ft wide to move around in. Sigismund makes the telling remark that: “My endeavours to induce patients suffering from severe diseases to avail themselves of our hospitals have only partly met with success. Our Poor will rather submit to the drawbacks of their homes than go amongst strangers in deed and habit.”
Sigismund was Honorary Medical Officer to the Jewish schools in Liverpool for 43 years and Medical Officer to Cunard and various other steamship companies for 40 years, during which time he became known for his kindness towards those in his care. He also served as Honorary Medical Officer to the Jewish Board of Guardians and the Ladies' Benevolent Society for many years, and Honorary Secretary for Liverpool for the Palestine Exploration Fund.
In 1881, the Liverpool Jewish community presented him with an address and a purse of gold, in recognition of his work for the community. In 1896, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the award of his medical degree, he received an address in Latin from his Alma Mater.
A few years before his death, he moved to Southampton, where he lived with his daughter until his death in July 1899. His grandson was the eccentric philanthropist and cricket-lover, Sir Julien Cahn.
Sources Jewish Chronicle, 14 July 1899, page 16 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). http://www.thepeerage.com/p19811.htm#i198106 http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/fairfieldbooks/Home/julien_cahn.htm
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Issacher R Marks (1836-1859) by Tricia Adam
Issacher was the second of the ten children of Aaron Marks (born Lublin, Poland) and his wife Louisa Aaron, who was descended from of one of the Joseph families of Plymouth, a Jewish family who had been in England since the mid 18th century.Issacher was born in Falmouth about 1836 but, around 1839, the family moved to London. Aaron was a trimmings manufacturer and, in 1851, 15-year-old Issacher and his elder brother were working for the family business.
By 1855, Issacher was in Australia and, on 6th June, at the age of 20, married Sarah Lawrence in the Melbourne synagogue. He was described as a merchant of Ballarat. Sarah was 24, a spinster and dressmaker of Melbourne, born in London.
In 1857, a daughter, Hannah Tristman Marks, was born, followed in 1858 by a son, Solomon Joseph Tristman Marks. Both were registered in Ballarat, a town founded only in 1851 when alluvial gold was discovered in the neighbourhood. It became the main gold-mining centre of Victoria.
In 1859, the Marks decided to return to England to help Issacher’s father. They travelled on the Royal Charter, a steam clipper and the fastest ship on the route between Liverpool and Australia, usually making the trip in under 60 days. The ship left Victoria on the 24th August carrying over 400 passengers and gold valued at £320,000.
On the 24th October, the ship left Cork for Liverpool. On the 25th, a gale developed with winds of hurricane force. The ship tried to shelter in Moelfre Bay, Anglesey, but, around dawn on the 26th October, it was driven onto rocks only 50 yards from the shore and broke in half.
Surviving witnesses gave harrowing accounts of the Marks:
“…a Jewish couple, with two children, were clinging to the rail. Mr & Mrs Marks had made their money at the gold fields. As another wave rocked the hull and burst over the deck, one of the children was torn away and Mrs Marks was swept into a corner of the wrecked stern and trapped there. A sailor rescued the child, while Mr Marks, frantic with grief, rushed towards his wife, pulling and tearing at her clothes in trying to get a grip and so wrench her free.”
Another witness “…did not see what happened to Mrs Marks and one child, but he was a witness of the fate of the husband and the other child. He saw Marks swim away desperately from the side of the ship. On his back sat a terrified child, clinging chokingly to its father’s neck, its hands tight around his throat. A wave, the great, foaming crest rearing high above them, struck the struggling pair. In the bubbling water behind it, only the father could be seen, looking around with desperate eyes. After the next wave had passed, he too was gone.”
Only about 40 people were saved. The Rector of Llaneugred and Llanallgo, the Reverend Stephen Roose Hughes and his brother, the Reverend Hugh Hughes, buried many of the victims in St Gallgos churchyard, “the former going to meticulous lengths to record everything he could about each body, including the contents of their pockets”.
The body of Issacher Marks was finally buried in Deane Road Cemetery on 16th November with a note in the burial registers, “Wrecked in Royal Charter”.
A list, written soon after the accident, of the bodies laid out in the church, includes “Mrs Marks, the Jewess who had been trapped on deck.” However the announcement by Issacher’s family in the “Jewish Chronicle”, dated 2nd December, contradicts this, stating. “Hopes are still entertained that the bodies of his wife and children may yet be found.”
On the 30th December, Charles Dickens visited Anglesey and later wrote of the response of the Jewish community to the work by Reverend Hughes to look after the bodies. Included was the following letter from the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation’s secretary:
“Reverend Sir.
The wardens of this congregation have learned with great pleasure that, in addition to those indefatigable exertions, at the scene of the late disaster to the Royal Charter, which have received universal recognition, you have very benevolently employed your valuable efforts to assist such members of our faith as have sought the bodies of lost friends to give them burial in our consecrated grounds, with the observances and rites prescribed by the ordinances of our religion.
The wardens desire me to take the earliest available opportunity to offer to you, on behalf of our community, the expression of their warm acknowledgments and grateful thanks, and their sincere wishes for your continued welfare and prosperity.”
Links http://www.ahoy.tk-jk.net/macslog/TheGoldenShipwreck.SteamC.html http://www.royalcharterchurch.org.uk/wreck.html http://simplyaustralia.net/issue11/Dickens-THE-SHIPWRECK.html
Other Sources - Jewish Chronicle, 2 December 1859, page 1 (available via JC archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - McKee, A (1977), “The Golden Wreck”, New English Library, London. ISBN 0-450-03471-2.
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Charles Mozley (1797-1881) by Joe Wolfman
There has been a number of Jewish Lord Mayors in Liverpool. The first, in 1899, was Louis S Cohen, nephew and heir of David Lewis, the great shop-keeper. The title of Lord Mayor, however, has existed in Liverpool only from 1893. Before then, the First Citizen was Mayor - and only one Jew has borne that title. He was Charles Mozley, who was chosen for office on 9 November 1863.
Sarah Joseph married in 1785 Morris Lewin Mozley, and they had five children, one of whom died at the age of fifteen. The others were Amelia, born 1786, Lewin, born 1793, Elias Joseph, born 1795 and Charles, born 1797. Amelia married in 1811 Israel Barned, born in Portsmouth, but resident for some years in Liverpool. Lewin married his cousin, Fanny Joseph, in 1829 and Elias Joseph married a cousin-in-law, Rebecca Tobias, in 1830. All these marriages took place in Liverpool.
Charles made a grander match. In 1835, he married Emma Brandon, in the Great Synagogue, London, Chief Rabbi Hirschel officiating. He was nearly twice the age of his bride. The Brandon family had come from the West Indies to settle in London. It was wealthier than the Mozley family or, at any rate, had been when Emma was born in 1815.
After his marriage, Charles played a large part in the Liverpool Jewish community's affairs. He was Junior Warden in Seel Street Synagogue in 1845-46 and Senior Warden in 1852-53 and 1853-54. He revived the Jewish Mendicity Society in 1853, but this lasted only a few years. Above all, he was involved in the Liverpool Hebrew Educational Institute and Endowed Schools, although he took no part in establishing the original school in 1841. He delivered a key-note speech when the foundation stone of the new building in Hope Place was laid in 1852, in the presence of the Chief Rabbi, Nathan Adler. He was President of the Board of Management of the Schools from 1854-66.
In a reply to the Seel Street Synagogue's congratulations when elected Mayor, he apologised for not being as devout in his religious practices as he might have been. No doubt this was true, but probably he was no worse than most of the other wealthy "machers" (VIPs) in the community.
Charles' father was interested in the right of Jews to enter Parliament. This right was opposed by the Tories (with exceptions) and supported by the main body of Liberals. Charles was an active Liberal and appeared in 1825 at an Anti-Corn Law meeting with leading Liverpool Liberals. His speech was largely a statistical look at other countries which did not have duties on corn.
By an Act of 1845, Jews were allowed to become Town Councillors, although in fact a few Jews before than date had served on town councils, the law being ignored. In 1857, 1860 and 1863, Charles was elected to the Council for Rodney Ward. In 1860, he was made a magistrate.
In November 1862, he was proposed as Mayor, but was not elected. The next November, the man who had proposed him, Robertson Gladstone, brother of the famous statesman, again put forward his name. Gladstone called attention to Mozley's "high position as a banker", his "high character, socially, morally and commercially", his history and the "history of Mr Mozley's family in regard to various matters in which the community of Liverpool are deeply interested".
The question of religion, said Gladstone, had been raised many times in the past when a Dissenter was proposed as Mayor. Mr Mozley belonged to "a very small sect", and his election could not harm Christianity. He "supported the Throne and admired most of the institutions of the country". Mr J Picton, after whom one of the libraries in William Brown Street is named, seconded and, out of 57 votes cast, there was a majority of 5 for Mozley. He "took the oath to the Jewish form". In his reply of thanks, he asked for the help of "that Supreme Power to whom alike we bend the knee" - surely not an apt metaphor for a Jew.
There was, however, a sensation elsewhere. St George's Church, which stood where the Queen Victoria Memorial in Derby Square now stands, was the Corporation Church. Its minister was the newly arrived and eccentric James Kelly, who preached against the election of a Jewish Mayor. Mr Mozley would not be welcome in his church.
Mozley's year was marked by a few outstanding events in which he played a personal part. His greatest success was the way he celebrated Shakespeare's tercentenary. There was a fancy dress ball at St George's Hall - a social event for the upper reaches of society - and all the theatres and places of amusement were thrown open free for the benefit of the working class.
Politically, his year of office was as humdrum as that of other mayors. There was disappointment for those who believed that his Jewishness somehow had a magical quality that would bring innovation and betterment in society, or a provide a sparkle and talent for leadership. He failed to use his influence to tackle the terrible conditions that existed in the city. Charles Mozley and his family had reached the zenith. What followed in the next two years brought them tumbling to the depths.
The Barned & Co bank, which Charles and his nephews owned, failed in April 1866, with liabilities of £3.5m. The obvious reason for its failure was the collapse of cotton prices with the ending of the American Civil War, but the blame cannot be thrown on this alone. My own guess is that Charles Mozley, now 68 years old, left the management of the bank to 35 year-old Lewin B Mozley. Frederick B Mozley was 26 years old and had become a director only recently. Be that as it may, Charles Mozley, as Chairman, bore the responsibility. The investigation into the bank's collapse revealed that nearly all Charles's private fortune had been mortgaged for an advance of £100,000 to meet a "defalcation" by a member of the family, shortly before the bank went public in June 1865.
After a few months, Charles Mozley and the family, which included the children of his two brothers, left Liverpool. The reign of the Joseph/Mozley family, who had dominated Liverpool Jewry for 90 years, ended. Charles settled in London, where he died on 25 May 1881. His estate was valued in his will at £800. His brother Lewin and his brother-in-law Israel Barned, both of whom died in the 1850s, left estates each valued at £200,000. His widow, Emma, returned to Liverpool on the death of her husband. She was the last Mozley to live here and she died in January 1886. Her estate was valued at nearly £12,000.
Charles Mozley, therefore, did not die in poverty. Only the wealthy lived in Portman Square, London, where he resided. But we must believe, surely, that he lived out his days an unhappy man, exiled from the city of his birth and his dynastic kingdom.
Links http://www.eraoftheclipperships.com/page56.html http://www.liverpool.gov.uk/Town_Hall/lord_mayor/Lords_Mayor_list_-_1207_to_date/index.asp http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41374
Other Sources Wolfman, J (1993/4) "Liverpool's Jewish Mayor" in "Merseyside Jewish Representative Council Year Book 1993-94", pages 60-67.
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Harris Newrick (c.1846-1893) by Sherry Landa Harris Newrick (also Neurick/Neurich/Neurach) was born around 1846 in “Russia” and died on 17 July 1893 at Liverpool Royal Infirmary. His Hebrew name was Zvi. He arrived in the UK between 1872 and 1874 and he worked as a cotton porter, hawker and tailor. Harris was married to Gertrude and it is assumed they married in Poland, Russia or Germany before 1869. They had six children that I know of: Abraham (born about 1869 in “Poland”), Haim Jacob (born about 1872 in what is now Torun, Poland), Emma (born about 1874), Henry (born about 1876), Reuben (born about 1878) and Rachel (born November/December 1880). The latter four children were all born in Liverpool. Harris & family appear on the 1881 census-indexed as Kenrick, living at 9 Hawke Street. By 1893, the family were at 10 Minshull Street. Harris had 11 grandchildren that I know of. Who Harris’ parents were and his wife’s maiden name remain a mystery. It is also unknown as to whether Newrick (sic) was the family’s original surname or a name they assumed when they arrived in England. Grave References
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Rev Michael Solomon Oppenheim (c.1791-1855) by Pat Coppel
Michael Solomon Oppenheim was the son of Joseph Oppenheim and Esther Joseph. He was born c.1791 and died 5 February 1855. He was Reader at the Seel St Synagogue between 1819 and 1855.
His first wife was Esther Nathan. Of his second wife, Hannah, I know nothing. Michael and Hannah had two children, Rosetta Oppenheim, born in 1834 (she married Moss Joseph) and Joseph Ezekiel Oppenheim, born in 1835.
Michael’s third wife, Martha Israel (c.1792-1862), was the daughter of Isaiah Israel and Jane Cashmore. Martha’s brother, Cashmore Israel, was a well known convict sent out to Australia in 1819, having been prosecuted by his father for stealing from the family home and sentenced to death. Isaiah then put in a plea for mercy and the sentence was commuted to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land for life. He eventually received a pardon in 1841. Strangely, after all that, Cashmore still named his first born after his father.
I believe Michael was very likely a second or third cousin of Simeon Oppenheim (1798-1874), Secretary of the Great Synagogue in London. Simeon’s father (also a Michael) and grandfather Moses were glass manufacturers and merchants. I suspect Moses was a brother or son of Meir Oppenheim of whom Cecil Roth wrote this in “The Rise of Provincial Jewry”:
“I am informed by Mr. M. Frumkin that one of the last patents granted in France under the ancien regime was to a certain Meyer Oppenheim(er) 'de Bermingham,' in 1789, for an improved method of glass manufacture. This is clearly the Mayer Oppenheim otherwise Opnaim, late of Birmingham, glassmaker, who failed in 1777: he had taken out a patent in London in 1755 for the manufacture of red glass, and in or before 1760 set up the first known Birmingham glass-furnace.”
I think the original Meir Oppenheim of Birmingham was Michael Solomon Oppenheim’s grandfather or great-grandfather. Unfortunately, I cannot yet confirm that link, otherwise it would be possible to connect two Oppenheims who played significant roles in two major Jewish synagogues at around the same time.
Sources - Roth, C (1950) "The Rise of Provincial Jewry: the Early Histories of the Jewish Communities in the English Countryside, 1740-1840", Jewish Monthly, London. No ISBN. - Correspondence with Joe Wolfman.
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Theresa Otterbourg (née Cohen; 1828-1909) Bertha Lewis (née Cohen; 1832-1896)
Theresa and Bertha were the daughters of Rev Raphael Isaac Cohen (né Freundlich). Both were born in Hamburg and came to England with their parents between 1832 (Bertha’s birth) and 1836 (their mother’s death). The girls were then sent to Hamburg for several years, presumably to be brought up by relatives or friends, returning to England a few years later.
Bertha Lewis (née Cohen; 1832-1896)
Bertha was well educated and spoke fluent English, German, French and Italian, She was the first of Raphael Cohen’s daughters to marry.
Her marriage to David Lewis of Liverpool took place on 6 September 1854 at Sussex House (the Jewish boarding school and part-time synagogue in Dover founded by her father), the ceremony being performed by her father. David and Bertha did not have any children but were very generous. Bertha made a practice of giving alms to a number of pensioners every Friday, and she and David contributed money to the Seel Street and Princes Road synagogues of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation.
Bertha was a chauvinist in her Judaism and proud of it. In a quiet, unassuming way, she did a great deal to counteract or combat anti-Semitism. Her obituary in the Jewish Chronicle states: “She had friends everywhere – in France and Germany as in England. During the last few years, she resided at Devonshire Lodge, Landbroke Terrace, and at her home one was almost sure of meeting somebody interesting – a painter or a sculptor or a professor.”
She continued to live in Devonshire House until 1890 when she moved to the south of France to be near her sister, Theresa, who had become her closest companion. In 1896, she moved to Boulogne-sur-Mer, where she died, just a few weeks before an appointment to lay the foundation stone of the new David Lewis Northern Hospital in Liverpool.
Zadoc Kahn said of Bertha “Her intelligence was very keen, her knowledge remarkable... but it was especially by her qualities of heart, by the most delicate kindliness, the most exquisite tact, that she pleased everyone by first sight.”
Theresa Otterbourg (née Cohen; 1828-1909)
Before she was married, Theresa directed a very successful girls’ school at Marine House in Dover. Her obituary states that, “her influence over her pupils was deservedly great and invariably beneficial.” Many of her students were to hold prominent places in English society.
The Jewish Chronicle tells of Theresa’s troubled love-life:
“The clever, enterprising schoolmistress had her own romance... She was secretly engaged to Harry Isaac. Those were the days of the great American Civil War; and the chief supporters in Europe of the Confederate cause were the army contractors’ firm of Campbell and Isaac, Jermyn Street. One of the Isaac brothers was afterwards MP for Nottingham. Harry was the son of the elder brother, Major Samuel Isaac... Harry was a fine, dashing, out-spoken young man, whose sister Phoebe, afterwards Madame Bernard Levy, with either a pupil or visitor of Miss Theresa Cohen. When Harry went out to Nassau, West Indies, to take part in the direction of the blockade-runners employed in his father’s and uncle’s fleet, an attachment which had long existed between the two young people was crystallised into a definite understanding, and his death, from yellow fever, was mourned nowhere more sincerely than in Dover.”
Theresa later met Dr Solomon Jonas Otterbourg of Paris and they were married on 6 November 1871. Solomon became a general practitioner in Paris and soon had a European reputation. He was always recommended as a physician to the Germans in Baedeker’s early guides, and his patients included Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) and Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864). He was a physician to various royalty during the Franco-Prussian War of 1866-67, the Siege of Paris and the Commune. After the war, Solomon was the “court physician” of rois en exile.
Madame Otterbourg was known as “a great lady of the fashions.” While she lived in Paris she was also the guiding spirit of the Ecole Bischoffsheim, where so many Jewish teachers were trained before they emigrated to Palestine.
After Solomon’s death in 1881, Theresa left Paris to be with her sister Bertha. Both were indefatigable travellers. After Bertha’s death in 1896, Theresa had few blood relations left in the world, but “was never without a host of friends attached to her through the fascination of her personality and the brightness of her intellect.”
When she was almost eighty years old she insisted on visiting Constantinople (now Istanbul), Turkey, to investigate the quality of education that Jewish girls were receiving there, and almost single-handedly established a new girls’ school there. In England, Theresa became a member of the Council of the Anglo-Jewish Association and regularly attended their meetings.
Theresa died in London in 1909. In her will, she charges her executors with paying for the maintenance of her father’s grave and that of David and Bertha Lewis, as required.
Sources - Cook, ALM (1960), “The David Lewis Story 1823-1885”, pg 12. - Jewish Chronicle (available via JC archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - Jewish Chronicle, 5 November 1909 (available via JC archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com).
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Rev Prof Jacob Prag (1816-1881) by Rabbi Zvi Solomons and Saul Marks
Born in 1816 in Gdansk, Rabbi Prag was the first Rabbi to serve in the newly-built Princes Road Synagogue of the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, having been appointed in 1855 to succeed the late Rev Michael Solomon Oppenheim. Rev Prag received Semicha (certificate of rabbinic status) at Libau and occupied his first pulpit at the age of 18. He was later minister at Mainenwerden and then at Shoenek (now called Skarszewy, a few miles SW of Gdansk), from whence he was called to the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, where he served until his death. Rabbi Prag also served as a mohel (circumcision surgeon) and the first chazan (cantor) of the community.
Shortly after settling in Liverpool he was elected Hebrew Master of the Congregational School, also filling the Chair in Hebrew at Queen's College. He resigned the latter appointment in order to devote himself to his increasing pastoral duties as his synagogue was growing very quickly. His sermons were known for their earnest tone and graceful use of English, despite it not being his first language.
Rabbi Prag was known in religious circles to be one of the very finest Talmud scholars in the country, and he contributed anonymously to several works of Hebrew literature. He was also a friend to the poor and a keen freemason, serving as Chaplain of the Lodge of Israel from the date of its foundation.
Professor Prag taught many Christian clergymen, and was a member of the Liverpool Literary and Philosophical Society, serving on its council. He was a scholar of antiquities, and translated the inscription on the Moabite Stone, which contains one of the earliest historical references to Ancient Israel.
In April 1881, just 8 months before his death, the congregation presented Rabbi Prag with an ornamental silver inkstand to commemorate his 25 years of service. The inkstand is currently on display at the Museum of Liverpool Life. That summer, his health began to fail, and he was taken seriously ill on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement, 3 October that year). Although he made a few subsequent appearances, he never fully recovered, and moved to Brighton for a short time, to clear his lungs. He soon moved in with his daughter in London, where he died on 27 December. His funeral, on 1 January 1882, was, unusually, preceded by a special synagogue service.
Links http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=491&letter=P&search=prag http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/exhibitions/faith/inkstand.asp
Other Sources - Hudaly, D (1974) "Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation 1780-1974", Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, Liverpool. No ISBN. - Jewish Chronicle, 30 December 1881, page 10 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com).
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Jonas Reis (1819/20-1877)
Jonas Reis was a highly respected Liverpool banker and bullion merchant. He was born c.1820 in Alsace Lorraine, then part of Germany. His father, Maurice Reis (1784-1855), a judge, and his mother Emilie Picard (1784-1860) came from Paris. Little is known of his early life or when he settled in Liverpool. Certainly, by 1848, he must have been resident for some time for, on 13 August 1848, he married Marian Samuel at the Pilgrim Street Synagogue. She was living on Great Orford Street and Jonas was living on Mount Vernon Road. Records show that he was a partner in the banking firm of Adam Spielmann & Co.
His wife, Marian Samuel, was born in Liverpool on 20 July 1825. She was the daughter of Moses Samuel (1795-1860), a watchmaker and Hebrew scholar, and Harriet Israel (1793-1843), also both now buried at Deane Road Cemetery. The bride's cousins Saul Samuel (1806-1881) and Edwin Louis Samuel (1825-1877) were witnesses at the wedding. Edwin Louis Samuel was the father of Viscount Herbert Samuel, the first British ruler of Palestine after the First World War.
By 1851, Reis was working as a banker at Stanley Buildings, 12 Bath Street. His home was at 15 Chatsworth Street, West Derby. It was there that his 5 children were born. Charles Lionel (1849), Harriet (1851), Theresa (1853), Arthur Montagu (1857) and Alphonse Louis (1860).
The family attended the Seel Street and later the Princes Road Synagogues, and it was while the congregation worshipped at the former that Reis served on its Sub-Committee. He held the post of Junior Treasurer in 1864-65, Senior Treasurer 1865-67 and Junior Warden 1867-69.
In 1869, a notice in The Times records that Jonas Reis, bullion merchant, was declared bankrupt. The effect of this on the family is unknown, but by the time of the 1871 census they had moved from West Derby to 24 Newbie Terrace, Belmont Road, Everton. It could well be that other members of the family came to their aid. Jonas Reis's sister-in-law, Harriet Samuel, founded the well known chain of jewellery shops trading as H Samuel.
Reis died unexpectedly on 25 March 1877 at the London and North Western Hotel, Lime Street. He was 56 years old. An inquest was held and his death certificate records that he "poisoned himself with laudanum – temporary mental derangement". It is unclear if he committed suicide. His tombstone declares that he was "in the midst of health and happiness", but his probate indicates that he left under £500.
His wife subsequently remarried and moved to London where she died in 1900 and is buried at the Jewish cemetery at Willesden. Soon after his death his children also moved away from Liverpool and established successful retail jewellery businesses, notably in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In her will, his wife made a large bequest in memory of Jonas Reis such that a donation be paid out each year on the anniversary of his death to four poor married men selected by the Princes Road Synagogue.
Links http://www.manfamily.org/reis_gen_one.htm http://manfamily.org/jonas%20reis%20grave.htm
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Joseph Leopold Rosenheim (1835-1889)
Joseph Leopold Rosenheim was born on 25 February 1835 in Heidingsfeld, Bavaria, home to the many Jews who were excluded from the neighbouring Bishopric city of Würzburg. It is said that Joseph wanted to be a doctor but was prevented by anti-Semitic laws. The family believed he had instead worked as a bookseller in Prague.
Joseph was a younger son of a wine merchant and cigar manufacturer and it was to expand this business selling the then fashionable wine from Franconia that he came to London in 1857 when he was 22. Though Joseph was the first of his family to arrive in the UK, he was soon followed by his more businesslike younger brother Hermann. Together they founded L. Rosenheim and Sons, Wine Merchants. Joseph was naturalised on 1 Jan 1863 and the following year he married Johanna Heim, daughter of Felix Heim a notable banker in Würzburg.
Joseph moved to Liverpool in 1872 or 1873. The family story is that he was dispatched there to expand the wine business in the north of England. Another cousin who lived in Britain moved to Bordeaux. However, once in Liverpool, Joseph became a founder of Lehman, Neugass, Rosenheim & Sons, Cotton Brokers, a change of direction probably spurred by the Rosenheim connection to Lehmann Brothers who had built their fortune trading cotton in Alabama.
The Rosenheims were comfortably off. The 1881 census shows the family at 1 Croxteth Road. They had 4 British servants and a German nurse. Their ten children regularly exchanged visits with their German relatives in Würzburg and Frankfurt, and some married children of wealthy Liverpool congregants. Many of his Rosenheim cousins pursued successful professional careers in Britain. But Joseph seems to have remained an outsider. His family appear to have been Reform Jews in Germany and Hermann was associated with the West London Reform Synagogue in London. In Liverpool there was no alternative to the orthodox synagogues in which Joseph was ill at ease. He died of cancer on 19 January 1889 in his early fifties and the cotton business was continued by Johanna and her sons after her husband died.
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Moses Samuel (1764/5-1839) by Arnold Lewis
Moses Samuel – not to be confused with the unrelated watchmaker/scholar Moses Samuel (1795-1860) – was a wealthy man, a noted philanthropist and founder of the Liverpool Hebrew Philanthropic Society in 1811. This Society was the first Jewish charity of its kind established in the provinces and provided stipends of between two and four shillings a week to needy widows, orphans, the aged and the infirm during the winter months. The annual fund raising dinner of the Society eventually developed via a special synagogue service known as “Philanthropic Sunday” into today’s annual Civic Service operated under the auspices of the Merseyside Jewish Representative Council.
Moses Samuel was born in Germany and according to B.L.Benas’ “Records of the Jews in Liverpool” he married “a woman of Lancashire descent and Christian birth who was of remarkably fine presence”. Mary Rachel Samuel together with her husband Moses devoted themselves to works of kindness and charity. The Samuels did not have children.
Moses was often known as “Rother Moses” because of his red hair and also to distinguish him from his younger namesake. He became a member of Liverpool’s prestigious Athenaeum and bequeathed to it a curious miniature Sepher Torah (parchment scroll of the Pentateuch) plus an illustrated scroll of the Book of Esther.
A portrait in oils of Moses Samuel hangs in the Shifrin House offices of Merseyside Jewish Community Care which administers the Liverpool Hebrew Philanthropic Society charity.
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Moses Samuel (1795-1860) by Saul Marks
Moses Samuel was a
watchmaker and Hebrew scholar, born in London in
1795. His father, Emanuel (Menachem) Samuel
(c.1755-c.1800), had emigrated from Kempen, in the province
of Posen, Poland, and settled in London c.1775. His father having died, Moses and his
mother, Hannah (Hinde; 1752-1822), moved to
Liverpool in 1805, where his elder brothers had already
settled. He had very little formal education but was
an outstanding linguist and is said to have mastered
twelve languages, including Chinese! He
established a business as a watchmaker and
silversmith in Liverpool, and married Harriet Israel
(1793-1843) in 1821. They had two daughters and
three sons; the sons married three daughters of
Schreiner Wolfe of Great Yarmouth, who was the first mayor
of Kimberley in the northern Cape Colony, South
Africa.
Links http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39469 (subscription required) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=180&letter=S http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=S http://www.manfamily.org/PDFs/MosesSamuel.pdf http://www.manfamily.org/Samuel_Family.htm http://www.hsamuel.co.uk/webstore/static/about/history.do http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~macculloch/p133.htm#i7116
Other Sources - D'Arcy Hart, RJ (1958, ed), "The Samuel Family of Liverpool and London from 1755 Onwards", Routledge & Kegan Paul. No ISBN. - Wolf, L (1901) "History and Genealogy of the Jewish Families of Yates and Samuel of Liverpool", London. No ISBN.
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Abraham Saqui (c.1824-1893)
Abraham Saqui was the first choirmaster at Liverpool's Princes Road Synagogue and, to this day, the synagogue's repertoire is substantially based on his compositions. A typical Shabbat will see four or five of his pieces performed.
He was born in London in or around the year 1824 and he married there, at 45 Ludgate Hill, under the auspices of the Bevis Marks Sephardi synagogue on 27 May 1855. His bride was Julia Samuel, a widow, of 103 Duke Street, Liverpool.
In 1878, the London publisher Boosey, Patey and Co published Saqui's "Songs of Israel," a book of mainly own compositions set for a non-mixed choir because, as he put it, "females do not take part in the choral service of orthodox congregations". This was at a time when quite a few synagogues throughout Britain did have mixed choirs and, in fact, all the settings in the United Synagogue's "Blue Book" of music are set for mixed choir. Nowadays, Princes Road is the only Orthodox synagogue in Britain, to still maintain a mixed voice choir.
We know from the preface to “Songs of Israel” that he was choirmaster at the Old Hebrew Congregation from around 1858, which means that he was choirmaster for 16 or so years at the previous synagogue in Seel Street. He mentions the Chief Cantor of Paris, Samuel Naumbourg and reprints some of his pieces, suggesting he was strongly influenced by him. It would appear that the name Saqui is actually French, rather than Spanish or Portuguese. The Saqui book is a great legacy and there are very few copies left – I am aware of just four – some were burnt in a fire at Princes Road in 1979. The two copies in the shul's possession are starting to break up.
He was well enough known in Anglo-Jewry to have his beautiful setting of Ma Tovu included in the "Blue Book" – the United Synagogue Handbook of Synagogue Music, published in 1899.
Saqui's musical style is very lyrical and majestic and he was obviously very fond of Mozart – compare the last section of his famous Yigdal with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto and you'll see that Saqui found that the words fit perfectly! His Lashem Ha'aretz is the only one I know of that is written in the minor key and is suitable for use on the festival days when Yizkor is said.
When Saqui died suddenly in 1893, he was given an extensive obituary in the Liverpool Mercury, extracts from which read as follows:
“Born in London, 69 years ago, Mr Saqui came to Liverpool at an early period of his life. He settled down as a Professor of Music and it now more than forty years since he received his first appointment as trainer and leader of the Old Hebrew Congregation, which then worshipped in the synagogue in Seel St and afterwards removed to the present building in Princes Road.
His abilities as a musician and teacher have been widely recognised outside the Jewish community, and he had probably more pupils among Christians than among members of his own faith.
In his own particular department, the training of the choir, he took the highest rank in Hebrew circles in this country and under his guidance, the choir in Princes Road, was reputed to be one of finest of any synagogues in England.
His services, with those of his choir, were often in request at the consecration of new synagogues all over the kingdom.
In May of this year, when the Chief Rabbi made a pastoral visit to the Princes Road Synagogue, he sent for Mr Saqui at the conclusion of the service and complimented him upon the exquisite and devotional manner in which the choir had rendered the musical portion of the service, adding that for impressiveness, no synagogue choir, in or out of London, could equal it. Some years ago, Mr Saqui was offered the position of Choirmaster to the West London Congregation of British Jews, the richest and one of the most influential synagogues in the country, but so much attracted was he to his associations in Liverpool, he refused the offer, advantageous as it would have been.
He composed and published a number of Hebrew melodies under the title of “Songs of Israel” and during his long professorial career, many singers who have risen to eminence owe much of their success to the training received from him.
Mr Saqui was a widower and leaves no family. His wife died about 30 years ago and since then his sister who survived him, has kept house for him.”
The title Professor of Music may have been self-endowed – possibly using the term “professor” as in the French usage, for a teacher.
Links http://www.chazzanut.com/articles/saqui-1.html http://www.chazzanut.com/articles/saqui-2.html
Other Sources - Hudaly, D (1974) "Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation 1780-1974", Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, Liverpool. No ISBN. - United Synagogue (1933) "The Voice of Prayer and Praise: a Handbook of Synagogue Music" (Second Edition). No ISBN.
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Dr Joshua Van Oven (1766-1838) by Saul Marks
Joshua van
Oven was a
surgeon and educationist,
who was born and lived the majority of his life in
London. He was the son of physician Abraham van Oven
(d.1778) whose roots were in Spain, according to
family tradition. Abraham had settled in London in
1759, shortly after qualifying at Leiden in Holland.
Both Abraham and his son were Hebrew scholars and
private medical practitioners, and both served as
honorary medical officers to the poor of the Great
Synagogue in London. Joshua was an intellectual,
hard-working and self-confident young man, who
studied under Sir William Blizard, and qualified as
licentiate of the Company of Surgeons in 1784.
Van Oven conducted a large
practice, first from his home in Bury Street and, later, at
14 Fenchurch Buildings, Fenchurch Street, and 12 Devonshire
Square, Bishopsgate. He was in partnership with his son
Barnard for many years. Inspired by his father, Van Oven
took a strong interest in Jewish studies and Hebrew language
and literature at a time of Jewish new learning on
continental Europe. He corresponded with colleagues in
Hebrew, wrote some Hebrew and English verse, and was a
leading figure in efforts to promote Hebrew literature in
Britain.
Van Oven was instrumental in the establishment of the
private Jewish boarding-school for Jewish boys in Highgate
in 1799, of which the headmaster was his friend, the
Hebraist Hyman Hurwitz. Van Oven was later one of the
founders, and then president, of the Jews' Free School in
London in 1817, at which he encouraged the improvement of
teaching methods and the extension of training in manual
skills.
Periodically, he gave sermons in English at the Great
Synagogue, and contributed to the nationwide movement for
sermons in the vernacular. He frequently addressed the
pupils at the Jews' Free School on Jewish life and faith,
and strongly believed in the training of cantors from within
congregations, in styles more suited to English
congregations. His works for young people include his
English translation from the Hebrew of
Elements of Faith by SJ Cohen (1815) and his
Manual of Judaism (1835).
He almost developed a scheme for addressing the numerous
unskilled, unemployed Jews of London, who were highlighted
in a 1795 report. Van Oven and the report’s author, Patrick
Colquhoun, proposed a scheme not dissimilar to those used in
retirement homes today, but the financing, which was to have
come from taxation within the Jewish community, was a victim
of divisions within the community and opposition from the
parishes. However, the opening of the Jews' Hospital in Mile
End (1807) was acknowledged to have been based on Van Oven's
proposals. Joshua and Barnard were also involved for many
years in the campaign for Jewish civic and political
emancipation, and Barnard was a major pamphleteer for the
movement.
Links http://www.xs4all.nl/~oven/genealogie/index768.html http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/71597 (subscription required) http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=18&letter=V http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=17&letter=V http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=16&letter=V
Other Sources - Jewish Chronicle, 13 January 1905, page 12 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com).
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The Yates/Samuel Family by Saul Marks
The Yates/Samuel family was one of the two wealthiest and most influential in the Liverpool Jewish community from the late 18th century, throughout the 19th century and even into the 20th century. It was also probably the largest.
Ralph Samuel (1738-1809) and Samuel Yates (1757-1825) founded two huge families beginning in the 1770s and they were to become inextricably connected when three of Ralph Samuel’s sons married three of Samuel Yates’ daughters! Furthermore, Samuel Yates’ brother, Rabbi Benjamin Yates (c.1752-98) also settled with his family in Liverpool, so the Yates and Samuel dynasty became interwoven not only with itself but also with several other notable families, such as Nathan, Hess and Keyser. The Yates/Samuel family was the subject of a detailed book by Lucien Wolf in 1901.
There are over 40 members of the dynasty buried at Deane Road, of which these are a few of the more prominent:
Ellis Samuel Yates (1805-1849)
Born Ellis Samuel, the eldest son of silversmith and watchmaker Lewis Samuel (1783-1854) and Kate Yates (1785-1858), he changed his surname to Yates before marrying his first cousin, Kate Samuel (1803-80) in 1833. They lived their entire married life at numbers 18 and 34 Huskisson Street, in the smart area of late-Georgian housing that was home to Liverpool’s most successful businessmen.
Ellis ran his own watch manufacturing business from premises in Lord Street and was also heavily involved in the running of Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation. He served as Senior Treasurer in 1838-39 and Senior Warden 1840-41 and again 1848-49.
Ellis died at 34 Huskisson Street in June 1849 at the early age of 45.
George Samuel Yates (1834-1887)
George was Ellis and Kate’s eldest child but did not follow his father and grandfather into the watch-making business. Instead, he sold leaf tobacco and achieved a similar degree of success, building up a thriving business. He was also a leading member of the Liverpool Literary & Philosophical Society.
In 1864, he married Hannah Keyser (1840-1936), daughter of an extremely wealthy London family, and they set up home first in Falkner Square – at the top of Huskisson Street – then in an enormous house on Princes Road itself, just a few yards from where the new synagogue building was completed in 1874.
George had already served as Junior Treasurer 1861-62, Senior Treasurer 1862-63 and Senior Warden 1865-66 when the congregation worshipped at Seel Street. He served a second term as Senior Warden 1882-84 at Princes Road. In 1882, he travelled to the United States to raise funds for the victims of Jewish persecution in Russia and returned to great acclaim.
Sadly, George’s life was plagued by ill-health (possibly peritonitis or undiagnosed chronic appendicitis) and he died aged 53 in 1887. The Jewish Chronicle, in its affectionate obituary, described him as “a man of the highest refinement and of exceptional intelligence and culture”.
George’s estate was worth over £14,000 (today worth over £800,000) and his will provided, amongst other bequests, £1,000 per annum for his widow Hannah. Today, this would be a bequest of nearly £60,000 per year!
Despite such wealth, George has a very simple tombstone with a minimal inscription. This trend was continued on the tombstones of his daughter Marian (1873-1931) and wife Hannah, both buried at Deane Road’s successor, Broad Green Cemetery.
Ralph Henry Samuel (1809-1886)
Ralph was Kate Samuel’s brother, so Ellis Samuel Yates’ brother-in-law and first cousin. He was one of the most eminent people in the whole of Liverpool society, having established himself as a merchant, with strong business connections in Brazil. He and his wife (his first cousin, Rosa Samuel) lived in Brazil for much of the 1830s and 1840s and had their children there. Sadly, Rosa died just days after giving birth to their ninth child.
When Ralph and the family returned to Liverpool in the 1850s, they settled in the largest house on Liverpool’s then-equivalent of Millionaire’s Row: Canning Street. At the family’s height, in the early 1860s, seven servants were employed to run the household, including a butler, cook, ladies’ maids, housemaids and a groom.
In his communal work, Ralph was, at various times, President of the Hebrew Schools and President of the Philanthropic Society, as well as having founded the Boys’ Clothing Fund, which provided winter clothes for pauper boys in the city.
He was also the chairman of the Building Committee that worked tirelessly in the early 1870s to organise the building of the new synagogue on Princes Road. This was a committee of 17 men, of whom five were members of the Yates/Samuel family, including Ralph’s nephew, George Samuel Yates (above). Ralph donated £900 of his own money to the building fund – an equivalent of over £40,000 today. In his capacity as chairman, he was asked to lay the foundation stone of the new building on 23 December 1872, and the congregation presented him with a solid silver commemorative trowel to mark the occasion. This trowel remains in the congregation’s possession today.
As well as his pioneering work on the Building Committee, Ralph had previously served the congregation as Senior Treasurer 1854-55 and Senior Warden 1859-61 and 1864-65. He had earlier been instrumental in the formation of the congregation’s choir, at a time when very few synagogues had choirs. This choir went on to gain a national reputation for excellence.
In the final few years of his life, Ralph’s health declined and he spent winters in Torquay. He died at the Langham Hotel in London, having been taken ill on a visit to the south of England.
Links http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=205&letter=S http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=25&letter=Y
Other Sources - Census returns. - Jewish Chronicle, 29 October 1886, page 7 (available via JC Archive (subscription required) at http://www.thejc.com). - ibid, 1 July 1887, page 12. - Kamm, ED, unpublished family history. - Wolf, L (1901) "History and Genealogy of the Jewish Families of Yates and Samuel of Liverpool", London. No ISBN.
Grave References
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To donate to the restoration project via PayPal, click here. This will take you to the Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation donations page, through which you can donate to the Project. Please specify that your donation is for Deane Road Cemetery only.
To donate by post, please make cheques or postal orders (in Pounds Sterling only) payable to LOHC Deane Road A/C and send them to: The Secretary, Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation, Synagogue Chambers, Princes Road, Liverpool, L8 1TG.
We would be grateful if UK taxpayers wishing to donate to the cemetery would fill in this Gift Aid form, in order that the congregation can claim a further 28% of your donation from the Inland Revenue, at no extra cost to yourself. Simply print out the form, fill it in and either post it to the address above or scan it and e-mail it to us at the e-mail address below. |
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Any enquiries should be directed to the webmaster at info@deaneroadcemetery.com. This page was last updated 28 May 2009 04:22. |