Some interesting Ancestors

(Concerns a Master & Mistress Chimney Sweep, a celebrated Campanologist and how Abrahams became Cartwright) Connections to my Tree shown in bold.


I shall begin with Charles Reeves born 1809 in Bristol he served a Chimney Sweeper apprenticeship and became a Journeyman Sweep. He moved to Worcester where he met and married Sarah, a Worcester girl in 1832 with whom he had 5 children. She died giving birth to a son Harvey (who will feature shortly). Charles next married Jane who brought up his children and when she died in 1863 he married Eliza. By 1871 Charles was a Master Chimney Sweeper employing two Journeymen of his own. His adverts of the time show a ‘By Royal Appointment’ Badge for his services to the Dowager Queen Adelaide (widow of William IV and interestingly the capital city of South Australia was named after her) who at the time lived at Witley Court in Worcestershire. But I think of equal interest is the fact that when Charles died his last wife –now Eliza Reeves – took over as Mistress Chimney Sweeper and continued the employment of the Journeymen.
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Now I move to Charles’ son Harvey Reeves who became quite famous in a quite different way. Born in Worcester he married Mary Ann Witts (a Great x 2 maternal grand Aunt). His trade was as a Compositor and Printer and later Journalist. However it was his interest in Bells, Campanology (Bell ringing) and becoming Editor of ‘Bell News’ that he achieved his claim to fame. Mary died in 1892 and Harvey re-married Maud Pope and relocated to Walthamstow. Before leaving Worcester he donated a set of 33 bells to All Saint Church, Worcester which are in use today to train would be campanologists. Harvey died in 1911 and the Bell News carried on for another four years with its final edition in 1915. The 150th Anniversary of his birth was celebrated in Worcester and I have newspaper cuttings highlighting his life and dedication to campanology.

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The link to the Abrahams came about when Harvey & Mary Reeves’ daughter Ethel (1st cousin x 3 removed) married Wallace Percival Abrahams in 1899 in Walthamstow. He was later to spell his first name as Wallis but it was his surname change to Cartwright that was the more unusual.

To find how this came about we must go back to Wallace’s father with the truly wonderful (Jewish) name of Solomon Phineas Abrahams who was born in London in 1842. He married Eliza Cartwright (in a Baptist church in Shoreditch, London) thus (apparently) spurning his Jewish religion. Around 1903 Solomon & Eliza emigrated from England to Canada. A year or so later Wallace and Ethel with son George chose to join them. Solomon upon registration in Canada –likely because of the Protestant wedding and perhaps because of anti-Jewish reactions of the time) - changed his surname to match his wife’s maiden name of Cartwright. He chose to be known as George Cartwright. Wallace did likewise and chose to be styled Wallis Cartwright.

Wallis Cartwright fought in WW1 as a Canadian Soldier and surviving the war returned to Canada. His father remained in Canada but for a reason not fully known his wife Eliza (now Cartwright by marriage as well as by birth) returned to Walthamstow where she died in 1925 one year before her husband George in Canada.

In all George & Eliza Cartwright (Abrahams) had 10 children all born as Abrahams and most seem to have retained that surname. We know Wallis remained as Cartwright (in Canada) whilst two of his younger brothers in England appear to have adopted the surname by incorporating with Abrahams, not so much as a hyphenated name, but part of their full name. There also appears to have been a mixture of Jewish marriages along with Protestant ones but I am still researching on that front.

 

Might Eliza have been on a 'retirement' trip home to visit family in England when she died? Some of my ancestors who emigrated to New Zealand made a return round trip to the UK when they got into their 60s or 70s, presumably to visit relatives; most of those trips were made quite early in the 20th century (the trip presumably got much more pleasant than the original one once the Suez Canal was opened and steam took over from sail).

 

Yes a valid point for the trip but why did she not return? Lots of reasons of course. At first I thought her son Wallis (fighting as a Canadian soldier in WW1) might have been wounded as her trip was 1916 perhaps she went over to nurse him back to recovery. Mind you there was a big family back home and other sons who may also have served in the British army and (who knows ) even KIA. (Have undertaken no research on this). Anyway Wallis returned to Canada where he had a family as well as his father and Eliza settled in Walthamstow where she died in 1925. Her probate shows she left £100 or so to her two eldest spinster daughters in the UK. A year later in Canada George left £400 to the same two daughters. I have put out some search feelers with other researchers in Ancestry (quite a few as it happens) to see if anyone can throw light on the matter as her return and seeming separation from her husband has 'niggled' me for some time.

 

Events have unfolded somewhat as I now learn that it was in fact Wallace Abrahams with wife Ethel & son George (Jnr) who emigrated in 1903. They were the one who apparently changed their names to Cartwright and I found them in the 1911 Canadian Census in Nova Scotia. In the 1921 Census (yes Canada has released its 1921 Census) father George is living with Wallis & Ethel and by now 3 children) and it records that George (also styled Cartwright) became an immigrant in 1908. By this token I would expect to find George probably with wife Eliza in the 1911 Canadian Census but so far have been unsuccessful in finding either. I know Eliza was back in England in 1916 but must now ask did she actually emigrate with her husband? The plot thickens!

 

I have now concluded my research on the Canadian contingent and found no less that 5 Abrahams brothers emigrated to Canada and ALL became Cartwrights. It began with Wallace (aka Wallis) in 1903 but his 4 brothers (Ulick {sic},Edgar, Bruce & Herbert) all joined him in 1908 as did their father (now) George Cartwright . Ulick and Edgar married in Montreal as did Bruce who then migrated to California, USA. Herbert who like Wallis fought in WW1 in the Canadian Expeditionary Force, was the only one to stay in the UK after the war. So final conjecture on Eliza perhaps (say) Herbert was wounded and she returned home to help nurse him back to health. He married in 1917 in Norfolk and after that I think Eliza -still with a sizeable family base remaining in England - decided to remain herself. That will do for now at any rate.