CHAPTER XII THE FOURTH GENERATION AT HOME AND ABROAD

DAUGHTERS.

The eldest daughter of Abraham and Eliza Joseph was Rose, named for her father's paternal grandmother. She was probably born in Penzance. Her husband to be appears in the 1841 census as lodging in Union Street, Plymouth, at the house of Rose Lyon, with her three small children, Juliah, Maria and Solomon. Leon Solomon was a Silversmith, later moved to Dawlish and ultimately to Grosvenor Square, London, having amassed a comfortable fortune. He was an immigrant from Poland originally named Vorwath, his brother Maurice Salaman also emigrated and settled in Dublin. (vide Pedigree J.17D Leon Solomon.)

The second daughter, Sarah, was born in 1836 and married Raphael Harris, Minister of St. Petersburg Place Synagogue for many years. The family tree is shown with the Jacobs of Bristol pedigree (W.1) as his mother was a Miss Jacobs. The third daughter, Hannah, married David Nathan of Dover, no doubt related to Benjamin Nathan of that town. They lived in South Africa for some years and had no children. During the Boer War when she was comforting the troops, the family story goes, she met some Josephs in the New Zealand contingent. These, she found out, were the grandsons (probably) of her brother Hyman Joseph. The fourth and last daughter of this marriage, Eliza, born 1850, as her mother died in childbed, married Eleazer, son of Abraham Emdon (W.12). Hers is the only part of the family still living in Plymouth.

	Sarah Harris née Joseph	Rev. Raphael Harris
Rose Solomon née Joseph	Elizah Emdon née Joseph	Alderman Eleazar Emdon	Henry Joseph

The only child of Abraham's second marriage to Rosa Joseph was Floretta. On the death of her father in 1868 she and her mother lived in Brighton in a succession of boarding houses, After her mother's death, Floretta, still unmarried helped to support herself by selling advertisements in "The Gentlewoman". She never married.

Actually the Harris and Solomon Josephs families both in the end had to help support Hannah Nathan and Rosa and Floretta Joseph.

SONS

Of the five sons of Abraham and Eliza Joseph, two died before they grew up. Moses and David aged 8 and 3 respectively at the time of the 1841 Census do not appear again in any extant records.

The eldest son, Hyman, born circa 1830 in Penzance emigrated to New Zealand, where all trace of him has been lost except for the incident during the Boer War mentioned just previously. The family tradition is that he did something his father did not approve of - probably not too extravagantly.

The second son, Henry Joseph (1832-88) also emigrated to Australia ? in 1853. He proceeded to Ballarat, then the centre of the Australian gold rush. Whether he started off as a prospector is not clear but at any rate he followed the occupation of a gold assayer both at Bendigo and Ballarat. During one of his periodic visits to Melbourne he met his future wife, Rebecca Lyons, while both were riding on a street conveyance. Her father, Samuel Lyons, was an auctioneer. It is thought that they were married about 1867 and moved to Gympie in Queensland. The following letter from Mr. Vivian H. Tozer (8) Solicitor in Gympie tells the rest of his story.

"My father, the late Sir Horace Tozer K. C. M. G., came to Gympie as a Solicitor in 1867 and we lived on Lady Mary Terrace about 100 yards from Mr. Henry Joseph and his family and the two families became very friendly.

Mr. Henry Joseph and Mrs. Rebecca Joseph had three children, (1) Joseph Ernest Joseph (Ernie) born about 1868, (2) Abraham Edgar Joseph (Ebb) born 17th May 1870, (3) Albert Edward Joseph (Bertie) (1873 - 1947). Ebb was a personal mate of mine and we corresponded up to the date of his death. When my mother died Mrs. Joseph acted like a foster mother to us children. Mrs. Joseph died at Gympie before her husband who also died here about 1886.

Ernie went to the town of Mackay, North Queensland and entered the office of Messrs. S. B. Wright, Solicitors, and although he, to the best of my knowledge, never qualified as a solicitor, he became a prominent citizen and was one time Chairman of the Mackay Harbour Board. I last saw him in 1930 where he was a commission agent. He died later, and although he married he left no family. (9)

Ebb became a school teacher in the Queensland Education Department, later he became a journalist and went to the Croydon Gold Field, North Queensland, where he was attached to the Croydon Miner, afterwards he returned to Gympie and became Editor of the Gympie Miner. He married a Miss Nellie Vasey of Gympie and subsequently went to live in Brisbane where he became Secretary of the Queensland County Press. A position he held till his death, which was occasioned by falling in front of a moving train off a railway platform. His widow is still living in Brisbane. They had three children (10), the eldest a boy is an electrician in Brisbane, the second, a girl, is a nurse and married a merchant at Townsville. The third, a boy, is a member of the firm of Kellet & Joseph, Solicitors, of Gladstone, Queensland. I can, if you desire, put you in touch with any of them.

Bertie, on his father's death, went to Tamworth where he lived with his uncle, a newspaper proprietor and succeeded him as Chairman of the N. S. Wales County Press Association. He married and died recently leaving no children." (11)

Actually, Albert Joseph did go to live with his uncle and his family, Solomon Joseph, the fourth and youngest surviving son of Abraham Joseph, where he was brought up as one of the family. Bertie attend Tamworth, N. S. W. primary and grammar schools and passed the examination of the Survey Branch of the Lands Department at the age of 16 and remained in the Department for nineteen years. While his uncle lived until 1900 he would help him by reporting for him sporting and other events. When the Tamworth Observer was offered for sale in 1908 he bought it and in 1910 acquired his uncle's old paper the Tamworth News. These were both bi-weekly papers but at the end of 1910 he was publishing a daily, the Tamworth Daily Observer. Much later he became President of the Country Press of N. S. W., later still he was instrumental in forming the local northern dailies into a group called the Northern Daily Leader of which he was managing director at his death (28/9/1947). (12)

Solomon Joseph, son of Abraham Joseph II	Solomon Joseph	Caroline Joseph née Cohen
	Solomon Joseph's birth certificate

Solomon Joseph was born in Plymouth as the circumcision register (13) shows "Sunday, 15th June 183l 8th Sivan (Day after Shevuoth) Solomon (my son) son of Abraham."

His father wanted him to become a rabbi, being such a devout man himself, and so imbued with the orthodoxy of Judaism. Whether it was because he would not be so persuaded or because he fell in love with some girl within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity or because he did not get along with his stepmother, he was to all intents and purposes exiled by his father in 1859 at the age of twenty-four with £300 in his pocket.

On the 15th June 1859 he starts on his sorrowful journey from Plymouth to his new world. From that day until the day before he disembarked at Melbourne 5th September 1859 he kept a diary. (14) Therein is one entry which gives some grounds for believing that his departure might have been occasioned by an unfortunate love affair or he writes "Slept very uncomfortably. Dreamt of my Darling Alice and awoke shedding floods of tears. Darling Angel! what would I give to see her…"

Who Alice was is not known; if she was a relation she could have been his step-mother's niece Alice Altman.

What he did during the next seven or eight years in Australia is not known, perhaps he joined his brother in the Victorian gold fields, where he may have met his future employer Julius Vogel. (15) He might have worked in Sydney for somewhere he and Caroline Cohen met. Her father was Abraham Cohen, (16) who had in 1832 in conjunction with Mr. George Robert Nicholls, a well known Sydney Solicitor, founded "The Australian" newspaper and conducted it for about ten years thereafter.

Caroline Cohen was almost ten years younger than Solomon Joseph and sprang from a family that had established itself both in Sydney and Melbourne high in the circles of the Jewish Congregation. Her lover on the other hand was, if cultured and from good stock - not always acceptable qualifications in a bustling frontier type of society - was certainly impecunious. The connection was not only frowned upon by her family but forbidden. Caroline, however, had met her fate and was truly in love. As Victorian novelists have portrayed, at her parents' decision, she went into a decline so much so that the family doctor feared for her life (of course, there is always the possibility he was a sentimental old fool who favoured young love). In any event the wedding was permitted and they were married in Sydney on 10th April 1867.

They first lived at Dunedin, New Zealand, where Solomon Joseph was employed by the firm of Julius Vogel & Co. Julius Vogel was a year older but had married in the same year, he had come to New Zealand from the Victorian gold fields at the time of the Otago gold rush and had founded the Otago Daily Times in which he was busily agitating for provincial automony of the South Island. From there he went on to become Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1874 (happily recorded in the Australian Israelite by Solomon Joseph at the time) and Sir Julius Vogel K. C. M. G. Solomon Joseph, however, parted from him and returned to Melbourne, where his first child was born on 30th April 1868.

It is not easy to reconstruct the life of the family in Melbourne, from an old photograph of a building it would appear that he went into business as S. Joseph Co., successors to Joseph Kohn & Co., General Merchants and Importers of fancy goods; agents for Anderson & Sons, tanners, curriers and leather dressers, manufacturers of boots, shoes, saddlery, etc. All this deciphered from inscriptions on the windows of the building, also warehousemen and importers of glass, china and earthenware: stationery, toys, perfumery, cutlery, musical instruments, perambulators, wax vestas, chemists sundries, field glasses, etc. A most impressive and catholic collection, too catholic perhaps for the business did not prosper. From June 1871 until May 1875 he was founder and editor of the weekly communal paper The Australian Israelite. (17) Here, though receiving the general encomiums of many, as its columns show and especially of the then Chief Rabbi, Dr. Herman Adler (18) he ran foul of the Melbourne magnate Moritz Michaelis in a congregational dispute. At the time the fracas must have been impressive as a ringing editorial titled "Arrogance" and the subsequent correspondence shows. The letter from the Chief Rabbi says "I take this opportunity of expressing to you my sincere appreciation of the zeal and ability, with which you guide your argosy through the troubled waters of synagogal politics in Victoria. I read the Australian Israelite regularly and wish you every success spiritually and financially." This was written in February 1875, probably by the time the letter arrived the Australian Israelite had foundered in the same troubled waters for it is noted that on 15th October 1875 Solomon and Caroline's sixth child was born in Sydney.

Now it may be that while in Sydney he went into the business just described or he may have travelled from the Australian Mutual Provident Society. To date these enterprises is impossible from the information available, but from his family register it is clear that until June 1881 his children were born in Sydney. In 1882 with the help of his brother-in-law, Nathan Cohen, he acquired the tenuous control of the Tamworth News, a bi-weekly country paper founded in 1872. He was to run this paper at Tamworth until he died on 24th April 1900 - ten days after his thirty-third wedding anniversary and just before his sixty-sixth birthday.

Another photograph (in which is inscribed on the back "The brick place is the remains of our office") shows what have been the result of an explosion, there is no evidence of fire and it could not be a hurricane for other buildings in the background are untouched. It is placed in Tamworth because in the foreground are a number of children carefully posed - nine of them which might be the eight surviving children and the nephew Albert Joseph. The nephew came to live with them in Tamworth in 1888 and the accident must have occurred judging by the size and age of the children around that time. In fact Solomon Joseph was never really free from troubles of one sort or another as the following memo to his son dated 18th March 1900 shows "As you remarked in yours dated December '99, we two do not often write to one another still I think mentally we are in constant correspondence and we understand one the other. So far as you are concerned you are seldom from my thoughts. I feel too that you think of me nearly as much and as often as I do of you. I know too that you are not strong and that often gives me great concern more than I care to speak of much to your mother.

If you in England have had a terrible winter, we here have had a very trying summer, even so still. It is particularly trying day after day, week after week, month after month without any probability of change, cooped up here, the thermometer registering 100 or more. How the mater and the girls stand it for eight months continuously without a change I hardly know, I suppose it is needs must. I hope another month will see us through the worst of this very long summer. I have felt it very much and as I grow older I feel I have less strength to bear it.

Sid, does it ever occur to you that I am getting an old man, sixty six next June. They have been long and weary years of constant struggle, and still a struggle. What of happiness it has pleased the Almighty to vouchsafe to us has been, Thank God, through our children. Please for more of such happiness may be in store for us.

It would relieve me of great, very great, anxiety if it were within your means comfortably to take over the business, leaving me to look after it. It is alright as a business if it were not so heavily encumbered. £1200 to the A. J. S. Bank at 8 or 9 per cent! Then £500 to Corner on the other property also 8 per cent. In round numbers the liabilities are £2000, the interest upon which say at 8 per cent leaves me in a constant struggle, working for nothing, Nathan Cohen, John Denning and Alfred Borden are securities to the Bank and they of course hold a mortgage over the plant etc. for £1200. This incumbrance I inherited when I bought the business and it has been like a millstone round my neck ever since.

The £500 owing to Corner on the property was also an inheritance. Old Mr. Corner is now dead and his sons are calling in the mortgage so any way that amount will have to be found otherwise they threaten to realise upon it. Now if you can find £2000 and become the possessor of the whole affair it can be made a great thing for now and I can still keep going as long as health permits. By the time this reaches you circumstances may enable you to do it comfortably. If so the whole affair would be paid in your name as security, the running of the business in my name. Think it over. In the meantime I'll write you soon.

Now I have unburdened myself. I will say Good Night and God Bless you

Your affectionate

Father

This has been rather an effort for me and I am very tired."

By the time this reached Sidney Joseph, his father was dead and relieved of his troubles and anxieties, which indeed were aggravated by the attitude of some of the relatives of his wife - especially her brother Nathan Cohen - an attitude assumed by the relatively commercially successful to the cultured commercial failures: Success being measured by £. s. d without too much care as to the means of attaining it rather than by the earnest pursuit of Truth and Uprightness.

His life, happily, was not all unrelieved gloom. His marriage was a success in terms of happiness and his children gave him great satisfaction though it was always of some grief to them both that they had allowed their daughter, Hannah, to be adopted by Elias and Hannah Samuel, his wife's childless sister to be brought up in London.

Professionally, too, he had his moments, two of perhaps many others being preserved for us. A letter from the celebrated George Augustus Sala in 1885 thanking him most sincerely for his kind and generous notices "in last Friday's issue of your valuable journal" and again when Sir George Dibbs, then Prime Minister, came to Tamworth to make an important political speech and then personally went round to the Tamworth News offices the next morning to express his pleasure at reading so able an account of the speech reported in the newspaper - as good a report as he had ever had. Incidentally the reporter on this occasion was the sixteen year old Sidney.

Solomon Joseph's "Family Register" after recording some details of his own and his wife's parents and the date of his marriage sets out the birth of his children as follows :

Horace Belmore Joseph born at Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, on Thursday 30 April 1868 (Dob ben Solomon)

Abraham Sidney Joseph born at Victoria Parade, East Melbourne, on Monday 17 May 1869 (Abraham ben Solomon)

Eliza Joseph born at no. 6 Granite Terrace, Fitzroy Melbourne, on Wednesday 5 October 1870 (Sierlah bas Solomon)

Hannah Joseph born at Malvern House, Grey St, St. Kelda Victoria on Sunday 7 July 1872 (Geler bas Solomon)

Ida Sophia Joseph born at Endsleigh Cottage Prahram on Sunday 17 April 1874 died on Monday 18 January 1875

George Hart Joseph born at 4 Wrenville Terrace, Moncur St Woollahra, N. S. W. on Friday 15 October 1875 (Gershen ben Solomon)

Enid Ruth Joseph born at 4 Wrenville Terrace, Woollahra on Thursday 20 September 1877

Ralph Hubert Joseph born at "Farleigh" Woollahra on Saturday 31 May 1879 died on Wednesday 1 January 1880

Esther Joseph born at 10 Warrane Terrace, Moncur St. Woollahra on June 20th 1881.

After his death his widow and her three daughters, Eliza, Enid and Esther came to England. Caroline Joseph died in 1921 at the home of her two elder daughters, 12 Hyde Park Place, London.

NOTES to CHAPTER XII - THE FOURTH GENERATION AT HOME AND ABROAD

 

1. Maurice m. Esther d. Joseph Cohen of Dublin. 1. Frederick, 2. Rose, 3. Selim m. - (i) Lolly m Captain W. Godfrey R.N. m (ii) Esther. 4. Hannah. 5. Joseph m. Anne d. Saul Samuel (2) (i) Louis m. Alice Samuel (a) Joanna (b) Rosemary (ii) Winifred m. Levin Phillips of Dublin (a) Albert (b) Nancy (c) Clive, 6. Asher, 7. Eliza, 8. Rebecca, 9. Julia, 10. Rachel. Joseph Cohen (1779-1869) married Rebecca Lazarus (1798-1844) of Birmingham. 1. Abigail m. Benjamin s, Raphael Isaac (Franklin, 62), 2. Esther b. 1820 m. Maurice Salaman, 3. Jacob b. 1823, . Eveline (1832-58) m. Joseph Isaacs of Dublin and Newport (1) Ella m. Henry Cohen of London and Kimberly. 5. Julia d. 1881 .

2. Saul Samuel m. Louisa d. Lewis Laarus (Franklin 68ff). His brother, Elias m. Hannah d. Abraham Cohen of Sydney (A1).

3. Franklin 117.

4. There is a son of the first marriage. His second marriage was to Wallis Warfield, who divorced him to marry the Duke of Windsor. His third wife died. His fourth wife Averil had been divorced by Brigadier Hugh Leveson-Gower.

5. Chapter XI. note 49.

6. See Chapter IV, note 60.

7. In December 1949 on a broadcast from the BBC there was mentioned during the reading of an unpublished diary of John James Bond concerning the voyage of the "Lady Flora" from Gravesend (April 17th 1853) to Melbourne (arrived there August 14th 1853) "April 20th We awoke to hear the seas roaring. Mr. Joseph, who has eight in his cabin, all ill, came to ours begging to be allowed to say his prayers there as it was not possible in his own".

8. Written to Mr. Bertram Emdon in 1948.

9. This was not so - Joseph Ernest had three sons. 1. Henry, 2. Ernest m. Miss Mackay (i) Tita, (ii) Betty, 3. Albert. Incidentally the Henry Josephs had one more son born in November 1872 but died one month later.

10. Actually there were four. 1. George, 2. Dorothy, m. Mr. Coates, 3. Eric. . Cyril.

11. Here again the letter writer was mistaken, there were four children 1. Harold, Sqdn. Ldr. RAAF m. Miss Blackman (i) Geoffrey (ii) Sandra, 2. Molly m. E.D. Shaw (i) David, (ii) Nayda. 3. Vaa m. Kenneth Moeser (i) Graham. 4. Beryl m. Robert Kennedy, issue.

12. A detailed obituary appears in the Northern Daily Leader 30/9/1947.

13. See also reproduction of Birth Certificate.

14. See Appendix.

15. See J.E. XII. 449 also Franklin 76.

16. See next Chapter for the Australian connections of this family.

17. It is hoped to prepare an index of the names etc. appearing in its columns for the Aust. J. H. S.

18. Letter in the possession of the writer.

PART II APPENDIX 7 "THE JOSEPH DOCUMENTS"

These six documents have been the basis of two claims on the Judith Levy intestate fortune - both unsuccessful. Fortunately they were considered to have some merit since they were preserved in the Joseph family. The claims or attempts to claim were made some sixty years apart. The first in the period 1838-41 following the deaths of the surviving members of the Franks family, some of the heirs-at-law and next of kin of Judith Levy, who had survived her childless issue. Apparently, the children of her two sisters who married Isaac and Aaron Franks, and their descendants in the line of Napthali Jacob Franks were successful in establishing their claim for their portion of the intestacy (ss Document V). However, the portion due to the descendants and issue of the third sister married to Michael Adolphus seems to have not been satisfied as on 20th November 1896 an Advertisement appeared in the Times asking for particulars of Benjamin Levy's descendants through Mrs. Moses Adolphus, mother of Michael Adolphus and others and stating that certain portions of Benjamin Levy's estate (he was Judith's father-in-law and uncle) were not yet distributed.

The first attempt, which these documents were gathered to support, was made by Brinah Joseph. Brinah Joseph was the daughter of Abraham Joseph (1731-94) of Plymouth and Rosa Abraham. Rosa Abraham, it is claimed with some definition, was the granddaughter of Michael Moses, whose wife was first cousin of Moses Hart, father of Judith Levy, Frances and Bilah Franks and Rachel Adolphus. The connection at law seems solid but as can be seen from the genealogical trees, set out in Chapters 7 and 8, the interposition of much closer relatives made Mrs. Brinah Joseph's claim very tenuous.

Nothing then seems to have come of this first claim, yet some sixty years later, Brinah Joseph's daughter, Rosa, widow of Brinah Joseph's nephew Abraham Joseph, son of her brother, Joseph Joseph, once again in response to the Times advertisement made another and fruitless attempt to this fortune in Chancery.

Thanks to these, however, the documents have been preserved and they do shed some light, though narrow in scope, on the pedigrees.

Letter of transmittal from Sampson Joseph Altman (1) to his sister Gertrude Joseph, date unknown, covering Documents 1 and 11.

"Dear Gertrude,

The last paragraph in the enclosed document is a copy from a statement made by Fanny Samuels and given to our Mother, Brinah Joseph, who sent a copy to me whilst I was then in London. Read it carefully as it proves our clear descent from family of Madam Levi and Simons. (2) Show the document to the lawyer and point out to him Fanny Samuels statement as I consider it valuable".

1. Son of Nathan and Brinah Joseph.

2. Judith Levy and Margoles Simon respectively.

Document I

This statement was received by Sampson Joseph Altman from his mother Brinah Joseph. "1. Our grandfather's name was Solomon Abraham in Hebrew (1) Shlomo Zalman ben rev Avraham HaCohen

2. Our grandmother's name was Judith Abraham in Hebrew (2) Gitla bat Michael

3. Was married in London about the year tav qof say about one hundred years since: in the Duke's Place Synagogue of which he and her parents were members in good standing and her parents lived in Cree Church Lane, (4) Leadenhall Street, in a house then standing on the left side going down from Leadenhall Street on which spot are now built stores.

4. Was married by the then Chief Rabbi called […] (5) whose picture now hangs in the Vestry Room in the Duke's place Synagogue and who was a brother to Moshe ben ?

5. Our grandmother in conversation related the great charities Moscha Bressler namely Moses Hart, done in relieving the poor and that her mother was related to the family of Moses Hart, and that she was also related to Madam Levi and Madam Simons who were daughters to Moses Hart. (6)

6. Our grandmother had two sisters, named Sally and Bilah, lived and died in Plymouth. Sally died unmarried and Bilah was married to one Moses Samuel (7) who is also dead; these two sisters were allowed an annuity from Madam Levy until the day of their death.

7. Our grandfather and mother had a son known by the name of Abraham Solomon Cohen, who Madam Levi and Madam Simons apprenticed to a watchmaker in London and who out of regard to his parents maintained and clothed him during his apprenticeship, and showed many times afterwards their friendship for him. (8)

8. If the Wills of Moses Hart and Madame Levi and Madame Simons were examined it may be probable that the relationship to our grandparents may be therein reinstated (sic) and probable some legacy left them and their families. (9)

9. If the old records of Duke's Place Synagogue could be examined no doubt the marriage of our grandparents could be verified - our grandmothers' father was known by the name of Michael London (10)

10. Our grandparents are both dead and left children; namely one son and four daughters who are also dead, but all left children.

11. The annuities allowed by Madame Levi to Sarah and Bilah were paid for both or for Bilah only, by one Mr. Henry (11) who was Madame Levi's Secretary and Steward every half year to Messrs. Webber and Company in London on account of Abraham Joseph (12) to be paid them.

12. Our grandmother's maiden name before marriage was, I believe, Judith Michael probably the registry books in the Duke's Place Synagogue may give her name in English and in Hebrew."

Document II

This is the statement of Fanny Samuels, (13) believed to be in Brinah Joseph's own handwriting: in June 1838

"Fanny, daughter of Shawyer (14) (sic) Plymouth, her maiden name was Samuels, give me the following information of the relationship that my grandmother was to Madam Levi. 'My grandmother, Judith Abrahams, was first cousin to a person called Moses Hart and Moses Hart was Madam Levi's father.' (15)

Document III

A letter from Mozeley Alman of Bristol sent on January 26th 1838 to Nathan Joseph (16) of 1 Alice Place, Alice Street, Goodman's Fields London.

"The mother of Judith Moses or Abrahams was cousin (17) to Moses Hart who was Madam Judith Levy's Father. Judith Moses was mother to Rosey Joseph. Madam Levy's sister married Aaron Franks and another sister married Isaac Franks. Jacob Franks married Aaron Franks' daughter. Naphtali Franks married Isaac Franks' daughter.

Moses Hart

Daughter Daughter Daughter Daughter Son

Frances dec'd Judith Levy Rachel,dec'd Bllah, dec'd Hyam

Married Isaac Died a widow married Married dec'd

Franks intestate Adolphus Aaron Franks

Document IV

Statement (19) of William Burnett, a Chelsea pensioner, who went to live with Jacob Franks in 1797 for five and half years. "In 1801 Mr. Moses Franks, brother to Mr. Jacob Franks, was Judge Advocate in the Bermuda Islands. Madam Levi left all her property to her sister Mrs. Franks, which was between 2 or 3 hundred £1000 (sic), who had no children. (20) Mr. J. Franks died in 1814 and then his brother Aaron Franks had but one daughter, whom he disinherited and the money thrown into Chancery."

Document V

Statement of Mrs. Abrahams, (21) living at the Lentens Corner of Lilly Street, London as inscribed in Brinah Joseph's own handwriting May 11th 1838.

"Mr. Modcha Defrees, (22) who is 86 years old lives in Angel Court, Stoney Lane and when young used to practice as a petty attorney. This same man Defrees is supposed to hold will and papers belonging to Moses Franks or Napthali Franks.

There are houses in St. Mary Axe and also a great number of houses in Harrow Alley, Petticoat Lane fair, this Modcha Defrees says he is heir to, but has a first cousin (23) who has taken the property in Harrow Alley in his own hands, and is laying out a great deal of money on these houses, but says he will give them up to the right owner if he is repaid the expenses on them that he is laying out and has laid out. He also calls himself the landlord of all the property. There is a young man now living at Mrs Edward Goldsmith's (24) formerly known by the name of Edward Moses, and this young man has three months longer of an apprenticeship to serve, who says when his time he shall come forward when his time is out, in order that everyone shall have their rights."

Document VI

A letter written on the 19th of December 1841 by one Bloomah Davis (25) of Whitechapel to Mrs Nathan Joseph of 15 Queen Street, Plymouth. The Davis family subsequently emigrated to U. S. A.

"Dear Cousin:

Yours dated the 16th came safe to hand and am surprised to find you writing for our late grandmother's maiden name that your son has not written to let you know that our Aunt Hetty has the Marriage Certificate of our late Grandmother in her possession, which I made Sampson and Simeon (26) acquainted with it five weeks since I have read it but the old lady (27) will not let it out of her hands. I am sorry to inform you that she is confined to her bed very ill, they are as usual very close, the family at the West End are very hard to work, but we lay dormant. Your so took the trouble to go to Doctors Commons and read a will, which was said to be Madam Symons, which states she had two husbands but since then we have learnt that it was the wrong will that he had seen. Dear Cousin, it is owing to the death of one of the Franks, who died nine months since and was buried in Westminster Abbey that has occasioned all this stirrage but I trust in God, My Dear Cousin, that all will end well. You wish to how our late Grandmother's name. It was Judith Moses and her father's name was Michael Moses.

I have nothing more particular to say but hope this will meet you and your family well, I remain your affectionate Cousin.

Bloomah Davis

P. S. Esther, Isaac (29) and the Dear Children join with me in love to yourself and family and likewise to Cousin Joseph (30) and wife family. Dear Cousin, send an answer as soon as possible with all news.

Notes to Documents I, II, III, IV. V and VI

 

1. Salman son of Rabbi Abraham Ha-Cohen.

2. Gitla daughter of Michael.

3. About 1740 A.D.

4. Michael Moses is shown as a ratepayer, paying £6. 2. 0 in this locality in 1725. Guildhall Mss 1189/1.

5. Rabbi Phaibesh ben Hirz otherwise Aaron Hart.

6. This is a mistake Judith Levy was a daughter but Margoles Simon was a sister of Moses Hart.

7. Fanny Samuels of Document II might have been a granddaughter if the language of Document II was in her oratio recta. But it is thought that it has been transposed by Brinah Joseph and so Fanny might have been a daughter.

8. This indicates that "our grandparents" family were left in very reduced circumstances. It also indicates a close relationship with the Hart family otherwise these charities would have been less personal.

9. Died in 1756, 1803 and 1788 respectively. The only will mentioning any of them is that of Judith Levy's aunt, Judith Hart, "to Mrs Gilly Abrahams at Plymouth and to her son and to her sister Samuel five pounds each" Somerset House Ducarel 191. Discussed supra.

10. Michael London.

11. David Waag her first cousin who died in 1809 was always considered Judith Levy's man of affairs. This is however probably Solomon Henry (Shelomo ben Hirsch Bloch) a former employee of Moses Hart see Roth II p. 167m

12. The father of Brinah Joseph and husband of Rosa, Judith Michael's daughter. Navy Agent and Ship's Chandler in Plymouth.

13. See previous Document note 7.

14. Probably anglicisation of Sofer meaning Scribe, or perhaps Shochet, communal butcher,

15. Compare this relationship to that given in Document III, which is considered more correct. If Fanny Samuels was the daughter of Moses and Bilah Samuels, Judith Abrahams would be her aunt so that it would seem Brinah Joseph has transposed Fanny Samuel's statement.

16. Husband of Brinah Joseph. They actually lived in Plymouth.

17. This gives us Judith's father's surname as Moses (Her husband was Abraham).

18. For who was Mozely (Moses) Alman. see chapters 7 p [] and 11 p.

19. This is an extremely hazy statement of an old servant made probably in 1838 many years afterwards. Moses and Jacob Franks were the sons of David Franks and this Jacob Franks married Priscilla daughter of Aaron Franks. Actually it would appear that he is talking of their uncles Naphtali who married Phila daughter of Isaac Franks and Moses the other daughter of Aaron Franks. This last had but one daughter, who married out of her religion and may therefore have been disinherited, though this was a common enough occurrence in this family. The two nephews had no children, but Naphtali had a son Jacob and two daughters.

20. Actually Judith Levy died intestate surviving all her sisters. It is thought the Mrs. Franks referred to here is Mrs. Jacob David Franks, as both Judith Levy's sisters, who married Franks, had children.

21. This could be and may be Elizabeth Moses, daughter of Henry Moses of Dover and Zipporah daughter of Myer Polack, and wife of Levi Abrahams (1752-1847) Levi Abraham was the son of Abraham Loeur and Alice Alexander. Elizabeth Moses Abraham's brother Edward Moses married in 1804 Rose Joachim, daughter of Elias and Esther Joachim. Esther Joachim was the daughter of Aaron Goldsmid and Kaetje de Vriss and first cousin of Lionel Prager Goldsmid whose wife Eliza was granddaughter of Colonel David Salesby Franks. What is more the children of these first Cousins married Henry Edward son of Rose and Edward married Jessie daughter of Lionel and Eliza. (see supra Chap. VII. 82).

22. Defrees also written as De Fries, De Vriess or Devriss. Modcha or Mordicai De Fries was the son of Abraham ben Baruch Defries and Rachel Franks. (see Chapter []p. [])

23. First cousin could only be Jacob Henry Franks. (see Chapter 8 p. [])

24. See note 21 above.

25. This is presumably a niece of Rosey Joseph nee Abraham and first cousin of Brinah Joseph.

26. Sons of Nathan and Brinah Joseph. Sampson assumed name of Altman (born 1804) married Hannah Lyons of Plymouth and had issue. Simeon Joseph according to his niece Rosa Lawrence became a parson.

27. The old lady, Aunt Hetty must have been a daughter of Judith Abraham nee Michael or Moses, but beyond this tantalising glimpse we know nothing more.

28. Jacob Henry or John Franks died in 1840 son of the "great Jew' Naphtali Franks F. R. S., also perhaps Jacob David Franks husband of Priscilla Aaron Franks, but no trace of any such burial is in the Abbey records.

29. Esther Elkin née Joseph d. 1823 [but see note 14 to chapter IX]

30. Brinah's brother Joseph Joseph of Plymouth.

[Revision note: many  of the  original note numbers are missing]