The Marriages of James Wombwell

James Wombwell was born in 1823 in Stoke Newington, and was thus George Wombwell junior's younger brother by around a year. He married Sophia Trigg in 1842 in St. Leonard's Shoreditch. James was a porter and Sophia a servant. They were living in Islington in 1851, James now working as a 'milk' carrier, in other words, back in the dairy profession of the family. By the time Sophia died in 1854, in Caroline Street, Hackney, the couple had had six children:

i. George Zachariah Wombwell (1843–1936)
ii. Alfred Wombwell (1844–1884)
iii. Mary Ann Wombwell (1846–1853)
iv. Helen Sophia Wombwell (1848–????)
v. Fanny Wombwell (1850–1850)
vi. Elizabeth Wombwell (1853–1854)

James remarried in 1858 in Stepney, this time to Matilda Powell, a housekeeper. The marriage certificate records him as a labourer. There seems to be no record of what happened to Matilda at all.

Rose Hill Cemetary
Brookfields
Linn County
Missouri
From FindaGrave Website

In 1885 however, James married for a third time, to Martha Ann Ricketts (1848-1943), this time in Brookfield, Linn County, Missouri. James like other members of his family had also taken the decision to cross the Atlantic in search of a better life. With Martha, James had four more children late in life:



vii. Susan A. Wombwell (1882–1945)
viii.William Wombwell (1890–????)
ix. Charles Austin Wombwell Sr (1891–1947)
x. John Hogan Wombwell (1895–1964)

These ten children were again all third cousins x2 removed of Hetty Jane Owen.

James himself died in Brookfield in 1898.

Sophia Wombwell: The Sister of George Wombwell Junior

The Red Lion in 2017 from Church Street. To the left is Lordship Road. 

Sophia Wombwell was born in 1818 in Stoke Newington, and was hence just four years older than her brother, George Wombwell junior. She was still living there in 1851 in Lordship Lane, next door to the same John Webster to whom Maria West had bequested her livery stable accoutrements back in 1846 and who was the proprietor of the Red Lion public house on the corner of Church Street. Sophia was working as a charwoman. By 1851, she had moved to Hornsey and was working as a monthy nurse.This increasingly popular job of the period basically entailed looking after mothers and their new-born babies in the period just following birth. It was a profession that was to disappear with the onset of modern midwifery. This is to say that while monthly nurses may have had experience (largely their own), they basically had no qualifications or training in such care of any kind. 

Sophia had three children. Note that these three children all carried their mother's name, and there is no sign of a father in the 1841, 1851 or 1861 censuses. Sophia died in 1865. The three children, third cousins x2 removed of Hetty Jane Owen were:

i. Emily Wombwell (1839–1902). Emily married William Best, a labourer, and died in Hackney in 1902. They had no children.

ii. Matilda S Wombwell (1843–????) seemed to move round London, never married and died finally in Hackney in 1931.


iii. Robert Wombwell (1846–????)

Edward Edwin Wombwell

Edward Edwin Wombwell was the second son of Zacharias Wombwell, and accompanied his elder brother, William to the Old Bailey in 1826, there to be acquitted on charges of larceny. As with his brother, this ordeal seems to have had a calming effect. Edward moved to Buckinghamshire, and finally to Newport Pagnell, where he died in 1885. He restored and framed pictures, and painted his own pub signs and landscapes, of which one somewhat forlorn example still exists:

The North Bridge, Newport Pagnell. From:
http://www.mkheritage.org.uk/nphs/122-2/h

And there, foregrounded in the scene, Edward Edwin, the son after all of a Stoke Newington cowkeeper, chose to insert, somewhat to the detriment of the bridge, one large white cow. Widowed early, he took board and lodging for the rest of his life and seems to have stayed well away from the menageries and from the antics of his younger brother, George.

The Emigration of Thomas Westover Wombwell and William Wombwell

St. Mary's Old Church, Stoke Newington: Grave of William Wombwell in the foreground. The third gravestone is that of Richard Wombwell. It is possible that the brick grave behind it is that of Maria West. The inscription on the gravestone in between has entirely worn away.

The 1851 census records Thomas Westover Wombwell on Cornhill, Ipswich, aged sixteen, and a member of a travelling menagerie. Since George Wombwell junior was also in Ipswich at this time, it can be taken that Thomas had been given employment by his Uncle in the doomed Menagerie Number Three. Thus when George's business collapsed a few years later, so too did the menagerie career of Thomas Westover Wombwell.  Thomas married Susan Tanner (1842-1919) and they had six children, all of whom were born in the USA. These six children, all fourth cousins x1 removed of Hetty Jane Owen, were:

i) George Frederick Wombwell (1862–1872), born in New York, and died in Fairport, Monroe, New York.

ii) William Henry Wombwell (1865–1951), born in New York, and died in Rochester, Monroe, New York. He married Jennie and they had two children, Margaret (born 1893), and Thomas William (born 1896), both fifth cousins of Hetty Jane Owen. There are further descendants from this line, sixth cousins of Harold and Olwen Eldridge.

iii) Sophia Wombwell (1870–????)
iv) Anna Wombwell (1872–????)
v) Charles Wombwell (1873–????)
vi) Louis Wombwell (1877–1938????). He married Margaret Streber.

All these children were born in or around New York.

There is less to report of Thomas's younger brother, William. It is recorded however that he died in Caledonia County, Vermont, USA. The nineteenth century Wombwells were nothing if not nomadic. 

A Visit to the Old Bailey

The next appearance of the two eldest sons of Zacharias Wombwell is in 1826 in an involuntary visit to The Old Bailey on charges of larceny. Both seem to have been acquitted. A suitably chastened William Wombwell made his way back to Stoke Newington where he was to remain for the rest of his life. He inherited the family cow-keeping business and lived and died at 11 Meadow Street, later to become Lordship Terrace.

Gravestone of William Wombwell in old St Mary, Stoke Newington, also of his wife, Ann Taylor, and two of his children, including Ann Charters, and, presumably, Susanna Wombwell. Wiliam is next door but one to Richard Wombwell and Maria West. The intervening grave has worn away, but may well belong to another member of the Wombwell clan.

The British History website reports that Stoke Newington was one location where eighteenth century butchers chose their cattle en route to Smithfield. By the end of the century, around the time the Wombwells arrived, the pastures of Stoke Newington supported some 120 cows. In 1851, William Wombwell would have been one of four cowkeepers, a number that was to decline and eventually disappear as urbanisation took hold.

William married Ann Taylor (1803-1840) in 1832, and they had six children, all born in Stoke Newington. After Ann's death, William remarried to an Elizabeth. The six children of William and Ann were:

i. Mary Ann Wombwell (1832–1833)
ii. Anne Elizabeth Wombwell (1833–1855). She married William Charters in Bordesley, Warwickshire, in April 1854 and died just months later.
iii. Thomas Westover Wombwell (1835–1905)
iv. Susannah Wombwell (1837–1855). She died in Stoke Newington, as did her younger sister, Charlotte Amelia.
v. William Wombwell (1838–1914)
vi. Charlotte Amelia Wombwell (1840–1841)

The two brothers, Thomas and William, meanwhile took a close look at their prospects and concluded that there must be more to life than tending cows in Stoke Newington, and emigrated to the USA.

The Brothers and Sisters of George Wombwell Junior

Zachariah Wombwell and Mary Webb had a large family, and in keeping with the times, suffered the repeated trauma of losing their children in infancy. These children, including George junior himself were as follows: 

i. William Wombwell (1804-1854)
ii. Edward Edwin Wombwell (1806-1885)
iii. Susanna Wombwell (1808-1808)
iv. Susanna Wombwell (1809-1812)
v. Henry Wombwell (1811-1814)
vi. Joseph Wombwell (1816-1819)
vii. Sophia Wombwell (1818-1865)
viii. George Wombwell (1822-1909)
ix. James Wombwell (1826-????)
x.  Joseph Henry Wombwell (1827-????)

These children were all X3 removed second cousins of Hetty Jane Owen.

The baptismal record of their eldest son, William Wombwell, is useful since it shows the family were already resident in Stoke Newington in 1804:

George Wombwell Junior Timeline

Since this story of George Wombwell junior seems to have take numerous side-turnings and digressions including up the Yangtze River, the Duaro Valley and to Bedford, Virginia, here is a timeline that illustrates some of the main events in his long life:

14 Dec 1822	George is born in Stoke Newington, probably in Lordship Road, the son of Zachariah Wombwell and Mary Webb
19 Mar 1823	He is baptized in Stoke Newington
1832	He is adopted by his Uncle, George Wombwell, founder of Wombwell’s menagerie and heads off on the road.
1833	His father, Zachariah Wombwell, dies in Stoke Newington
1847	At the height of his career, he is a member of the party that meets Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and Prince Edward at Windsor Castle
1849	His mother, Mary Webb, dies in Stoke Newington
7th Oct 1850	He marries Fanny Eliza Kienlen at the New Gravel Pit Meeting House, Paradise Fields, Hackney
1850	His Uncle George dies and leaves one part of his menagerie to George, namely Menagerie Number Three
30 Mar 1851	George is recorded as a Wild Beast Merchant of Wombwell’s Menagerie resident at 79 Corn Hill, Ipswich
1851	His daughter Ann Fanny Wombwell is born in Hackney, London. George’s servant, Thomas Burrows, is crushed by an elephant but survives the experience.
1855	A run of disasters leads to the decimation of George’s Menagerie stock
28 Apr 1855	George’s Menagerie Number Three is auctioned off for a pittance at Nova Scotia Gardens.
2 May 1855	The other Wombwells write to the Times disassociating their own Menageries from any involvement with George’s
18 June 1855	Bankrupted, George is removed from his caravan next to Cremorne Gardens to Whitecross Prison
30 July 1855	George appears in court. He may have been bailed out by members of the Wombwell family, and then worked for them as a hired hand.
26 Oct 1858	Jamrach’s famous Bengal Tiger escapes and wanders off down the Ratcliff Road. George may have been involved in its subsequent purchase.
7 April 1861	He is resident with his wife and daughter at 1 Grove Cottage, Poplar All Saints, and recorded as a photographer and artist.
6 Aug 1863	Death of his first wife, Fanny Eliza Kienlen in Hackney.
1866	Mrs Wombwell commissions George to bring an elephant back from Paris for her. After various disasters, George succeeds in bringing the elephant back to London, where it immediately dies.
22 Feb 1869	George marries Elizabeth Adella Cresey in Yarmouth, Norfolk. Born in 1849, Elizabeth is twenty-seven years younger than George.
1870	Their daughter, Amelia Gertrude Wombwell is born in South Shields, Durham.
2 Apr 1871	George is resident in Stockton, Durham, now a musician. His daughter Ann Fanny Wombwell is now living in Hampstead, London, with Mrs Wombwell, the partner of his Uncle George.
3 Apr 1881	George is living at 132 Provost Street, Shoreditch, Hoxton Town. George is still a musician, and his wife is working as a dressmaker.
11 Apr 1881	His first daughter, Ann Fanny Wombwell marries Herbert Sowerby in Shanghai, China. They are members of the China Inland Mission but shortly after join the American run Protestant Episcopal Mission.
Feb 1882	Ann Fanny Wombwell and Herbert Sowerby head up the Yangtze River to Wuhan and begin their work there.
5 Apr 1891	They are living at 107 Provost Street. His daughter Amelia has now become a shirtmaker.
1894	The marriage is recorded of Amelia Gertrude Wombwell and Jacob Valentine in the civil registration records. Jacob is a member of the Sephardic Jewish community and it is possible they went through a religious ceremony a few years earlier, since their first daughter seems to have been born in 1892. Ann Fanny Wombwell and Herbert Sowerby complete their missionary service in China and possibly return to England to discover that whilst they have been making conversions, George has been leaking them.
4 Jan 1897	The Daily Mail publishes a full-length profile of his life and sets up a subscription fund for him.
5 Mar 1897	The Daily Mail reports that its Subscription Fund has raised three pounds and fifteen shillings.
1897	His second wife, Elizabeth Adella Cresey dies in the Infirmary
Prob 1890s	George is visiting his Bradley relatives probably to get help in writing down memories for sale for publication. The full story of Peto the elephant is thus preserved.
1900	The entire family of Herbert Sowerby and Ann Fanny Wombwell are now settled in Virginia, USA, all to become naturalized American citizens.
31 Mar 1901	George, now a musician and widower, is living at 22 Ottoway Road, Hackney
3 Mar 1909	George’s obituary appears in the newspapers, reporting his death in Tottenham, Edmonton
1923	His first daughter, Ann Fanny Wombwell dies in Bedford, Virginia, USA
1958	His second daughter, Amelia Gertrude Wombwell dies in Shoreditch, London.

George Wombwell Junior Makes His Final Appearance

The last census record for George Wombwell junior  is in 1901, in Hackney:

He died, as we know, in Edmonton, in 1909. Hence his second daughter and family were very much in the area as he entered the final years of his life, apparently either powerless or unwilling to do anything about his ongoing state of penury. It was thus  left to the Bostock family, who had taken over the menagerie by this time to provide George with a small additional stipend to keep the wolf away.

It could be of course that there had been a rupture between George and Amelia Gertrude as a consequence of her inter-faith marriage, but with a large family of their own, and just a tailoring business to support themselves, it is doubtful whether they had too much to offer George junior beyond tolerating his tales of the glory days of the Wombwell menagerie, and his half-century long run of bad luck.

As for George himself, he had if nothing else lived a full and eventful life. Born in 1822 in the reign of George IV, his adult life spanned the entire reign of Queen Victoria, along with the extraordinary imperial and economic expansion that accompanied it. It was a time of opportunity, speculation and entrepreneurship, but also an era that was unforgiving of failure, as George junior was to experience to his cost.   

The Children of Jacob Valentine and Amelia Gertrude Wombwell

1901 census for central Hackney. By now the Valentines had moved outside the heartlands of the Jewish community to Clifden Road. The 1911 census records the family in Winchester Road, Edmonton, Middlesex. Jacob was not present on the day of the census, and Amelia Gertrude is listed as a tailoress. 

Amelia Gertrude Wombwell and Jacob Valentine had six children, namely:

i. Gertrude Adela Valentine, born 1892 in Islington, London. She married George James Evered in Poplar in 1915. They had three children: Gertrude Frances, George and Benjamin.

ii. Benjamin George Valentine, born 1894 in Hoxton, London.

iii. Leah Valentine, born 1898 in Clapton, London, died 1988 in Hitchin, Hertfordshire. They had at least one child, Lawrence Edward Maund.

iv. Esther Rosina (or Roseno) Valentine, born 1900, Hackney, London.

v. Joan Frances Valentine, born 1903 in Tottenham, London.

vi. John Herbert Valentine, born 1905 in Tottenham, London, died 1977 in Shoreditch. He married Doris Mary Hall in 1942 in Bethnal Green. They had a son, John Henry Valentine.

These children are all x1 removed fourth cousins of Hetty Jane Owen, their children her fifth cousins, and they are an entirely unexpected family link to the Sephardic Jewish community of the Iberian peninsula and quite possibly to Lamego in the heart of the Douro valley in Portugal (see: http://www.ianhandricks.com/136/valentine-part-1/)

Jacob Valentine died in 1926, but Amelia Gertrude Wombwell lived on until 1958 when she passed away in Shoreditch, by which time the Wombwell menagerie in its entirety had itself faded into history, a curiosity merely of a bygone age.

The Migration Cycle

1871 census for Christchurch, Spitalfields. Benjamin Valentine is at the bottom of this page. Jacob Valentine, then aged ten appears on the following page. The return provides a snapshot of the Jewish community and their professions.

As time went on, the Jewish community began to make their way up the economic ladder, spreading out into areas such as Golders Green, and forming new vibrant communities that contributed at all levels of society, just as Oliver Cromwell had been advised all those years before by Menasseh ben Israel. From the outset of the Tsarist inspired pogroms to the dispersal of the East London communities, in other words from arrival to integration, hence took around three to four generations. It is an instructive case.

As the Jews moved out of Spitalfields, they were replaced by a new generation of immigrants, this time from Bangladesh, and the area has become ‘Banglatown’. All the same old arguments and rhetoric were then dusted off and tossed back into the mainstream political debate with wearisome repetition. 

But if the case of the Jewish community provides any lessons, it is that assimilating large migrant communities probably takes not very much less than a century, and even then does not actually require any extinguishing of prior historical and cultural identity. Multiculturalism is a much maligned term but the Jewish community remain an exemplar of how individuals and groups can mediate between different identities in precisely the way that multilinguals switch between languages. 

So when Jacob Valentine married Amelia Gertrude Wombwell, whatever scandalised reactions they may or may not have provoked in their own family circles, what was happening was an entirely natural evolution, in which a member of the Sephardi community as part of this process of assimilation took a further step down the road and married into a local English family. This might be seen as an instance of how cultural enrichment.  For Jacob and Amelia and their families, life was however most likely far too full of challenges and obstacles for them to reflect on such abstract matters.