DESCENDANTS OF JOHN CHRISTIAN WOHLMANN
AND RELATED FAMILIES – DE CROISETTES, DANIEL, ANDREWS, MARRIOTT, CLARKE
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Birth registration: Mar 1871 Daniel Edwin Hackney 1b 482. The Ancestral file on the online
IGI is hopelessly wrong on almost all detail. Edwin (known as Ted in Australia) was born at
the home of his mother's sister, at 38 Rushmore Road, Lower Clapton and baptised at Mansfield
Woodhouse, where his mother was born. His father's brother, William Herman Daniel, was married to Edwin's aunt Elizabeth Clarke Daniel. Twins, William and Elizabeth, were born in this house on 28th January to Elizabeth, but she died 12 days before Edwin was born. It could be that Eliza, his mother, had gone to London to help out with the twins after her sister died. Edwin's father, also Edwin, whose particulars say he was living at Mansfield Woodhouse, Notts, registered the birth on 2nd March 1871 in Hackney. He claimed to be Master of the Mansfield Workhouse, although there is no evidence whatsoever that he was ever appointed after coming second at interview. At Edwin's baptism in Mansfield Woodhouse his father again is described as Workhouse Master at Mansfield. (Perhaps he worked in the master's office as a clerk while the position of Master was not in fact filled.) At the 1881 census Edwin junior was not at home living at 'Elly Clough House', Royton, Lancs. Fam History Library Film: 1341979 RG11. 4095/4, page 1. He was, instead, a young boarder at High Road Drapers' College, Tottenham, Middlesex, presumably because his father was out of work and the family were receiving help from the Drapers' Company. The family house in Royton still stands and has been combined with neigbouring cottages to form the Greyhound pub. The age-range of boys was from 8 to 15, presided over by the headmaster and his household, William H Richmond, described as 'Clerk in Holy Orders, Schoolmaster'. Among the staff were a male Assistant Schoolmaster of 28, a Matron of School, Elizabeth R Denner, aged 39, an Oxford Student, G E Richmond, two cooks, three housemaids, a nurse and a kitchenmaid. There were 23 pupils, most aged about 11. A minute book for the management of the school (Ref. MB S/2) shows that at a meeting on 13th January 1880 it was resolved that Edwin Daniel should be admitted to the school. This then was a year after his grandmother Fanny died. The minutes describe Edwin as 'born 15th February 1871 son of Edwin Daniel of Elly Clough House Royton Nr Oldham Lancashire Book Keeper a Freeman of the Company'. At a meeting in January 1884 it was recorded that Edwin was shortly to turn 13 and that therefore his 'friends' should be advised to withdraw him by Easter. The Drapers' College was founded by the Drapers' Company in 1861 but closed in 1884. It was situated at Bruce Grove, Tottenham and was intended to benefit the sons of members of the Company. Boys between the ages of 8 and 15 (one wonders why Edwin was to be removed early) were educated, boarded and dressed at the expense of the Company. The site also contained two rows of almhouses, where Edwin's grandmother Fanny lived for a time before her death, although why is not clear as her husband was alive and well, and describing himself as a 'gentlemean' (see witness evidence from family marriage records). On closure of Drapers' College, the site was occupied by Tottenham High School for Girls. Edwin can be found in the 1891 census for 13 Leybourne Road, Leyton, Essex, at home with his parent and siblings. He is '21' and a 'Pupil Teacher', training to teach, as is his sister Mary (May). His mother teaches and his father is Secretary to a Building Society. Meanwhile, Laverna, his future wife, is 33, living with her brother Ernest Goode (31), a United Methodist Free Church Minister, at 3 Ivy Terrace, Tyne Estate, Ilford. Their place of birth is given as Hinckley, Leicestershire. Edwin's marriage registration was: March quarter, Amersham, vol. 3a, p. 646. Eight months later Laverna and he appeared in the Isle of Wight to begin their terms of appointment at Godshill primary school. At the 1901 census Edwin was back at his parents' home in Walthamstow with his young son Edwin and his sister Ethel. He was defined as a teacher. It is now known that he was normally teaching on the Isle of Wight alongside his wife Laverna (née Goode) and living at School House in Ventnor. Their son Cyril was in Godshill with his mother at the time of the census. The Godshill school log book mentions his father's illness in February and that Mr Daniel was away. He was granted £15 to go to South Kensington for a training course in wood carving. It took three months. He might even have lived with William, his brother, and Annie Amelia in their flat over the shop in Acton. Edwin returned to the Isle of Wight, going on helping at the school and doing his clerking and overseeing the poor, and doing one morning a week at Appeldurcombe College, a monastic private college, teaching woodwork. There is a photograph of the workshops there held at the Isle of Wight record office, but no sign of Edwin in the picture, just the boys. The carved bookcase in the family, said to come down from William, might well have been Edwin's course project, a gift for his brother when he returned home, and perhaps in compensation for board and lodging while he was doing his course. The 1906 Kelly's street directory shows Edwin at School House Godshill working now as 'clerk to the Parish Council and assistant overseer'. In 1907 he was there as 'Assistant Overseer and Assessor of Income Tax', living at School House. In 1910 he was still there and decined as in 1906. By 1915, he no longer appeared in Kelly's at Godshill, and Laverna was alone. We now know he left for Australia and was there in 1912. The 1907 Kelly's directory for Godshill refers to him as Assistant overseer and Assessor of Income Tax, living at school house. The 1910 Kelly's (as in 1906) for Godshill shows Edwin as 'Clerk to PC and assistant overseer' (the latter of the poor, a kind of social worker). By the time of the 1915 Kelly's, there was no sign of Edwin in Godshill. The last references to him in his wife's school log book are: 1912 Feb 19th Mr Daniel is absent through sickness so I have taken the gardening lessons myself. March 8th ... The lessons in gardening are suspended owing to Mr Daniel being absent from the village. 27th March Notice has been received that Mr. Holbrook has been appointed gardening instructor in place of Mr Daniel & that the boys are to receive one lesson of two hours duration instead of two lessons of one hour. The day is to be "Monday or Thursday, preferably Monday." In answer to this a reply has been sent to the Education Office giving Monday afternoon from 1.30 to 3.30. I have altered the timetable as follows:- Monday Object lesson as usual, boys to take notes as on Tuesday from 9.30 to 9.45 & a few minutes before the Composition lesson on Wednesday. Drill will be taken for lower division as usual & Upper Division on Wednesday from 1.30 to 3 o/c. During the gardening lesson, Upper Division girls will take needlework, knitting and mending. Grammer [sic] is changed from Tuesday to Thursday and Upper Division will take copy books and silent reading on Friday instead of Wednesday. April 1st Have rearranged the classes for the ensuing year. *** Edwin had been away from England for six or so years in 1918 by the time his son Cyril was married. He was referred to as Secretary BSB (according to his daughter this should have been the British and Foreign Bible Society, ie BFBS.) After emigrating to Australia, according to Fred Daniel's letter to England of 1935, Edwin was living 'up in the hills Boronia or Bayswater and running a small guesthouse, going into City alternate days, with business yet to come.' Fred's wife Alice Minnie spent a holiday with Edwin and Christina, and said it was 'pretty' and 'quiet'. Fred's comment was that it was a great holiday resort with huge potential for tourism with its 'Lakes, Rivers and Mountains.' The British and Foreign Bible Society's records were transferred to Cambridge University for custody. As at March 2004 an enquiry has been placed to discover Edwin's work history with the Society. Their records can be studied there although some material is available online. The relevant website address is: http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/38/292.htm The British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) was one of the many voluntary societies that grew up in the wake of the Evangelical Revival of the 18th century. It was founded on 7th March 1804, with a non-denominational constitution and a declared aim "to encourage a wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures" at home and abroad. It succeeded in gaining wide support from the Church of England and the Free Churches, mainly, but not exclusively, from the Evangelical wing of each denomination. The Society set out to publish, or to help others to publish, editions of the Bible in any language for which there was a readership. In 1965 it reckoned its total issues over 160 years as some 723,000,000 volumes in 829 languages. The Society was publisher and distributor only: translators were sometimes given financial assistance but were not on the permanent staff, and the printing was done by commercial firms. Since Bibles were often sold at less than cost price, the Society depended on donations from its supporters as well as income from sales. The maintenance of a large supporting constituency was therefore a necessary part of the Society's activity. The Society always relied on individual supporters to distribute its Bibles, and consignments were taken by clergymen, travellers, merchants, solders and sailors "for sale or gratuitous distribution". Missionaries all over the world looked to the Society to publish their translations, and received generous discounts when purchasing Bibles for distribution. In the United Kingdom supporters soon organised themselves into local "Auxiliary Bible Societies", which provided a large part of the Society's income, and were also a channel for home distribution. In 1825-6 a controversy about the publication of the Apocrypha cause the secession of most of the Auxiliaries in Scotland. These continued to function independently, and in 1861 joined together to form the National Bible Society of Scotland (now the Scottish Bible Society). In Ireland the Hibernian Bible Society was independent from its formation in 1806, though it always maintained close links with the Society in London. From 1804 onwards Bible Societies were formed in many parts of the world in imitation of the BFBS, and often with its active encouragement and financial assistance. In the British Dominions such societies were usually constituted as "Auxiliaries"; in other countries they were independent. The largest of these was the American Bible Society, founded in 1816, which not only tackled the enormous task of supplying the United States with Bibles, but from the first had a strong missionary interest. The European Bible Societies broke their links with the BFBS when it decided not to publish the Apocrypha in 1826. As a consequence, the Society continued its operations in Europe by employing its own "Foreign Agents". In the early years the BFBS employed Agents who travelled extensively, founding Bible Societies and making arrangements for Bible production and distribution. From about 1830 a pattern of territorial "Agencies" began to emerge, with the establishment of permanent depots and the employment of travelling salesman, called "colporteurs". At its centenary in 1904 the Society employed 30 Foreign Agents, whose territories often covered several countries, each with his staff of sub-agents, depot-keepers and colporteurs. Approximately 1,000 staff were emplyed in the overseas Agencies; in the British Dominions there were about 2,000 affiliated Bible Societies, and there were a further 5,000 local Auxiliaries in England and Wales. The Agency system was still the norm for BFBS operations in 1940, but several factors were beginning to undermine it. One was the expansion of the work of other Bible Societies, notably the American, Netherlands and Scottish, thus causing unnecessary overlapping and friction. Attempts to avoid competition were made by the establishment of Joint Agencies from 1932, administered by one Society but supported financially by two or more. Another major trend was the growth of nationalism, leading to demands for autonomous national Bible Societies instead of direction from abroad. In 1946 the United Bible Societies organisation was founded to co-ordinate Bible Society work around the world. The post-war years saw a steady increase in the powers of the United Bible Societies, and in consequence the BFBS gradually relinquished its overseas responsibilities, and came to see itself as one national Bible Society among many. Published histories of the BFBS include George Browne, The history of the British and Foreign Bible Society, from its institution in 1804, to the close of its Jubilee in 1854, 2 vols (London: British & Foreign Bible Society, 1859). William Canton, A history of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 5 vols (London: John Murray, 1904-1910). John Owen, The history of the origin and first ten years of the British and Foreign Bible Society, 3 vols (London: 1816-20). James Moulton Roe, A history of the British and Foreign Bible Society 1905-1954 (London: British & Foreign Bible Society, 1965). Custodial history: The archives remained at the Society's London headquarters until 1985. In 1850 eleven volumes of early commitee minutes were stolen from the muniment room, and during the late 19th and early 20th centuries periodic efforts were made to weed out redundant material accumulating in the basement. The most serious loss is that of all the incoming correspondence 1857-1900, which perhaps occurred around the time of the Second World War. Immediate source of acquisition: The library and archives were transferred to Cambridge University Library on permanent loan in 1984-5. The archives at Cambridge University include files for individual staff, begun when a person joined the Society, giving dates of birth, details of education, family and previous employment; also containing correspondence about pay and allowances, changes of job, retirement and death, where known. Some registers date from 1911, but the system was only introduced on a comprehensive basis in 1922. Arranged alphabetically. NB confidential. |