The Hetty Jane Owen Timeline

1066: The Norman Conquest.

The Norman French were effectively the descendants of the Vikings - or ‘Norsemen’ who had settled in Northern France. In 1066, they invaded England and overthrew the Anglo-Saxons. Over the succeeding years, a number of Norman barons and bounty-hunters made their way to Ireland in search of further riches and rewards. The Hadzor family seem to have been amongst their number.  

1284: Wales incorporated into England after the Welsh are defeated in their second war of independence.

1301: Edward I declares his son to be Prince of Wales.

1306: First record of the Hadzor family in Ireland.

1366: Statutes of Kilkenny represent an early attempt to Anglicise the Irish.

As the centuries went by, the ruling powers - themselves undergoing the cultural and linguistic  transition that would result in a definitively English identity - engaged in numerous incursions to bring the more remote parts of the British Isles under their control and remould their Celtic character. It did not go unnoticed that families like the Hadzors far from bringing about a sea-change in values were actually absorbing the cultures and values of the original native communities.

1415: Owain Glyndŵr vanishes after his unsuccessful campaign for Welsh independence.

1494: Poynings' Law decrees that the Irish parliament cannot pass any laws without the prior approval of the English parliament.

Matters were complicated further by the rejection by Henry VIII of papal authority, and the reduction of Catholics to second-class citizenship.

1536: Act of Union between England and Wales under which Wales is to be governed by English law.

1541: Henry VIII declares himself King of Ireland, and subsequently Head of the Irish Church.

1603: Union of the Crowns. James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England.

1609: The plantation of Ulster by Scottish Presbyterian settlers begins on a large scale.

1610: Captain Richard West is High Sheriff for Down.

Scottish Presbyterian families were encouraged to settle in Ireland and granted Irish lands, as were English settlers who often came as part of military forces intended to pacify the troublesome island. The West family were amongst their number.

1641: The old Anglo-Norman families of Ireland launch a failed rebellion against the English. Ballyduggan Bawn, the home of Richard West is destroyed.

1644: Death of Captain Richard West in County Down, Ireland. Probably Hetty’s x8 great-grandfather.

1649: Execution of Charles I.

Trouble continued to plague Ireland. A number of members of the Hadzor family took to arms to defend their Irish and Catholic heritage, not usually with positive results, and bringing them into direct conflict with families like the Wests.

1660: Birth in Clavering, Essex of Richard Wombwell, Hetty’s x6 great-grandfather.

1662: Birth in Clavering, Essex of Mary Brown, Hetty’s x6 great-grandmother.

Meanwhile in far-away Essex, a simple farming family expanded in and around the Clavering area, generation succeeding generation without any apparent ripples disturbing their tranquil, rural life.

1668: Birth of Dr. Seneca Hadzor, Hetty’s x4 great-grandfather.

1686: Birth in Clavering, Essex of John Wombwell, Hetty’s x5 great-grandfather.

1688: The Catholic King James II is overthrown and William of Orange takes the throne.

1690: Hadzors fight on the losing (Catholic) side in the Battle of the Boyne.

Birth in Essex of Elizabeth Twyne, Hetty’s x5 great-grandmother.

As the wars in Ireland came to an apparent close, and the English Protestant regime was finally stabilized under the firm hand of the Dutchman, William of Orange, remnants of the old Irish Norman families submitted and became Protestants, marrying into Scottish and English families. Two of the Hadzors became surgeons in the British military, serving overseas in some of the major campaigns of their age. One of their daughters was to marry into the very West family that their ancestors had previously confronted on the battlefield.

1702: Seneca Hadzor and Ruth Bankes, Hetty’s x4 great grandparents marry in Lisburn, County Antrim.

1704: Seneca Hadzor is  a churchwarden in Downpatrick Church (of Ireland).

1707: Acts of Union between English and Scottish Parliaments.

1711: Seneca Hadzor is assigned to Spain as lieutenant and surgeon in the regiment of Nicholas Price.

1712: Birth in Clavering, Essex of John Wombwell, Hetty’s x4 great-grandfather, and of Mary Hare, her x4 great-grandmother.

1714: Death in Essex of Elizabeth Twyne, Hetty’s x5 great-grandmother.

1723: Death in Clavering, Essex of Richard Wombwell, Hetty’s x6 great-grandfather.

1731: Birth in Downpatrick of Elizabeth Hadzor, Hetty’s x3 great-grandmother, and around the same time of Godfey West in Clogher, Downpatrick – Hetty’s x3 great- grandfather.

1735: Birth in Essex of Elizabeth Negus, Hetty’s x3 great-grandmother.

1736: Birth in Newport, Essex of Richard Wombwell, Hetty’s x3 great-grandfather.

1737: Death in Clavering, Essex of Mary Brown, Hetty’s x6 great-grandmother.

1741: Death in Clavering, Essex of John Wombwell, Hetty’s x5 great-grandfather

1746: Death of Dr. Seneca Hadzor, Hetty’s x4 great-grandfather.

The English defeat Bonnie Prince Charlie at the Battle of Culloden. John Hadzor, Dr. Seneca Hadzor’s brother, or half-brother, is a regimental surgeon in the English army. End of the Jacobite Rising.

1751: Birth of Elizabeth Potter, daughter of John Potter and Maria Hadzor.

1752: Death of Mary Hare, Hetty’s x4 great-grandmother.

1757: Birth of Richard Wombwell, Hetty’s x2 great-grandfather in Arkesden, Essex.

1759: Marriage of Hetty’s x3 great-grandparents, Elizabeth Hadzor and Godfrey West in Downpatrick.

1763: Death of Seneca Hadzor’s daughter, Maria Hadzor, who was married to John Potter, and whose business and smuggling activities lead to substantial land purchases in County Down.

Godfrey West, Hetty’s x3 great-grandfather becomes a member of the Downpatrick Grand Lodge of Freemasons.

1765: Birth of Hetty’s x2 great-grandmother, Maria West, in Downpatrick.

In these extended family circles and volatile times, there were always opportunities for sharp operators. In County Down, a husband of a Hadzor daughter made a small fortune out of his smuggling business and invested much of it in substantial landholdings in County Down. The Irish continued however to hold fast to their identity and engaged in further failed rebellions, which were put down ruthlessly by the English authorities. Many of the Irish left for good, including Maria West, the product of a Hadzor-West marriage. She arrived in London towards the end of the eighteenth century, there to meet and marry a minor member of the Essex Wombwell family, who had decided to seek his own fortune in the big city.  The marriage of Maria West to Richard Wombwell brought them into the orbit of families of mariners like the Robinsons of Shadwell, and with those who ran ancillary businesses in the Docklands area, such as Thomas Bradley, the baker, and his Bristol-born wife, Elizabeth Hounsell.

1777: Birth in Essex of George Wombwell, founder of Wombwell’s menagerie and cousin of Hetty’s x2 great-grandfather, Richard Wombwell.

1784: Death in Essex of John Wombwell, Hetty’s x4 great-grandfather.

1790: John Potter is a member of the Downpatrick Whig Club.

Charles Robinson, Hetty’s great-grandfather, is born in Shadwell, London.

1791: Birth of Thomas Bradley, great-grandfather of Hetty.

1793: Birth in Bristol of Elizabeth Hounsell, great-grandmother of Hetty.

1798: Maria West and Richard Wombwell have an illegitimate child in London.

The United Irishman rebellion breaks out.

1800: The Act of Union unites Ireland with Great Britain as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1801: Maria West and Richard Wombwell have a second illegitimate child, Sophia Wombwell.

1802: Maria West and Richard Wombwell, Hetty’s x2 great-grandparents marry in St. Pancras, London.

The West India Docks are opened.

Although the English had finally welded, willingly or unwillingly, the four nations into the political structure known as the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, their attempts to suppress the cultures of the Welsh, Irish and Scottish had met with only partial success. In North Wales, farming families like the Owens were eager converts to the growing Welsh Presbyterian movement as they began their descent from the hills to the towns to take up trades such as printing and bookbinding.

1802: David Owen, Hetty’s great-grandfather is born in Eglwys-Fach, Denbighshire, Wales.

Anne Williams, Hetty’s great-grandmother is born in Eglwys-Fach, Denbighshire, Wales.

1803: Execution of Thomas Russell in Downpatrick for his part in the United Irishman rebellion.

1804: Birth of Hetty’s great-grandmother, Harriett Wombwell in St. George East, London.

1805: Establishment of Wombwell’s menagerie.

Nelson triumphs at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Birth in Merionethshire of John Jones, Hetty’s great-grandfather.

1806: Birth in Merionethshire of Gwen Davies, Hetty’s great-grandmother.

1807: Abolishment of the slave trade.

Likely death of Charles Robinson, father of Charles Robinson and Hetty’s x2 great-grandfather.

1809: Charles Robinson, Hetty’s great-grandfather, marries Mary Weston. Not long after, his merchant ship is captured by Napoleon and he is imprisoned in France.

1813: Hetty’s great-grandparents Thomas Bradley and Elizabeth Hounsell marry in Stepney, London.

1814: Charles Robinson is released and returns to England to discover his wife has given birth to ‘three black children’ in his absence.

Power struggles dominated the European scene, with the British and a varying set of allies contesting the will and ingenuity of Napoleon and pondering how to respond to the unusual set of values that had emerged from the French revolution and from America. In this changing world, and as the British Empire expanded, and the country became a global trading nation, all kinds of unexpected adventures were to be had. Wombwell’s Menagerie flourished and grew; after experiencing imprisonment in France, Charles Robinson married the daughter of Maria West and Richard Wombwell, if not entirely legally. Fortune favoured the couple in that they inherited through the Wests some rather profitable rentals from lands back in Ireland.  

1816: Death of Elizabeth Hadzor, Hetty’s x3 great-grandmother.

1822: Birth of George Wombwell junior in Stoke Newington.

1824: Charles Robinson and Harriett Wombwell, Hetty’s great-grandparents get married in London. The minor detail of the first wife of Charles still being alive is overlooked in the process.

1825: Hetty’s grandfather, Henry Smale Bradley, is born in Poplar, London.

1826: David Owen, Hetty’s grandfather is born in Llanwrst, Wales.

1828: Jane Jones, Hetty’s grandmother is born in Llanwrst, Wales.

Maria Robinson, Hetty’s grandmother, is born in Tower Hamlets, London.

1829: The Catholic Emancipation Act allows Catholics to sit in Parliament.

1833: Death in Bristol of Elizabeth Carson (nee Potter). She leaves her Irish lands to her cousin, Maria West.

Death in Stoke Newington, London, of Richard Wombwell, Hetty’s x2 great-grandfather.

The Victorian era started in 1837 with the ascent of Queen Victoria to the throne. With the Industrial Revolution in full flow, imperial expansion the objective of all the great powers, prosperity for the enterprising beckoned, and it was in optimistic mode that Henry Bradley married the daughter of Charles Robinson and Harriett Wombwell at a time when the fame of the Wombwell menagerie was reaching its peak. Not that London life was so easy, with outbreaks of disease certainly not helped by poor sanitation and growing pollution in the expanding city.

1845: The great Irish famine breaks out.

1846: Death of Maria West, Hetty’s x2 great-grandmother, in Stoke Newington, London.

1847: The Wombwell menagerie is hosted at Windsor Castle by Queen Victoria.

1848: Second major cholera outbreak in London.

Revolutions in Europe and Chartist demonstrations in London.

1849: Hetty’s grandparents, Henry Bradley and Maria Robinson marry in London.

Ellen Blight and William Wombwell, both relatives of Hetty, are killed in separate menagerie incidents by a tiger and elephant, respectively

1850: Death of George Wombwell, the founder of Wombwell’s menagerie.

1851: Susanna West, daughter of Godfrey West and Elizabeth Hadzor dies in Downpatrick. She is Hetty’s last connection to Ireland.

Thomas Bradley, Hetty’s great-grandfather dies in Bethnal Green madhouse.

David Owen, Hetty’s grandfather is working as a printer in Bala, Wales.

1853: Marriage in Wales of David Owen and Jane Jones, Hetty’s Welsh grandparents.

1855: George Wombwell junior is taken to a debtors’ prison in London after the bankruptcy of his menagerie.

1857: Death in London of David Owen, Hetty’s Welsh great-grandfather.

1858: Edward Owen, Hetty’s father, is born in St. Asaph, Denbigh, Wales.

Like many Welsh, the Owen family eventually made their way to London to pursue their printing vocation, there to run into the Bradley family, and witness Edward Samuel Owen, the Welshman, marry Maria Rosetta Bradley, an English girl with an Irish great-grandmother and relatives who with varying degrees of success had made their living out of the Wombwell Travelling Menagerie.

1860: Birth of Maria Rosetta Bradley, Hetty’s mother, in Bow, London.

1863: Death of Harriett Wombwell’s sister, Sophia Wombwell, the Aunt Sophia who makes several appearance in Henry Bradley’s letters.

1864: Harriett Wombwell and Charles Robinson, Hetty’s great grandparents ‘remarry’.

1865: The Robinson-Neale court-case in London ends in a victory of sorts for Harriett Wombwell.

1866: George Wombwell junior goes to Paris to collect Peto the elephant.

1868: Hetty’s great-grandfather, Charles Robinson, dies in Mile End Old Town, London.

1871: Death of Hetty’s great-grandmother, Harriett Wombwell in Bow, London.

1872: Menagerie Number One is sold in Edinburgh.

1879: Hetty’s grandmother, Maria Robinson dies in Hackney, London.

1880: Hetty’s grandfather, Henry Smale Bradley, dies in Poplar, London.

The Great Fog of London.

As the older generation departed from the scene, ties with the past were cut. The Irish lands were sold, and the new generation sought to professionalise themselves, and leave their Docklands ties in the past. Respectability beckoned, though some members of the Wombwell family still pursued their nomadic lifestyle with their exotic animals, and one other took up missionary work in China.

1881: The family lands in County Down are auctioned off in Belfast.

George Wombwell junior’s daughter, Ann Fanny Wombwell marries Herbert Sowerby in Shanghai, China.

1882: Death in Hackney, London of Elizabeth Hounsell, great-grandmother of Hetty.

Marriage of Hetty’s parents, Edward Samuel Owen and Maria Rosetta Bradley.

1883: Birth of Hetty Jane Owen in London.

With the birth of Hetty Jane Owen, the various permutations have come together, from Ireland, from Wales, from Bristol, from the city itself, and no doubt from elsewhere. Above all else, this is now a family of Londoners,  a product of migration into the great melting pot of the city.

1887: Hetty’s father, Edward Samuel Owen dies in Edmonton, London.

Birth of Hetty’s brother, Edward Samuel Owen, in Islington.

1888: Jack the Ripper commences his gruesome career in the East End of London.

1889: Edward Henry Bostock, a Wombwell relative,  takes over the Wombwell menagerie.

1892: Hetty Jane Owen’s grandfather, David Owen, dies in Hackney, London.

1894: George Wombwell junior’s daughter and her husband conclude their Chinese mission and depart for the USA.

George Wombwell junior’s second daughter marries Jacob Valentine of a Sephardic Jewish family.

1897: The Daily Mail interview an indigent George Wombwell junior.

1898: Hetty’s mother, Maria Rosetta Bradley remarries – to John J.Hislop.

1890: Charles Albert Eldridge, Hetty’s husband is born in London.

1900: Death of Hetty’s Welsh grandmother, Jane Jones, in South Hornsey, London.

1905: The Aliens Act looks to stem immigration to the United Kingdom.

Familiar discourse emerged, as the Empire struggled to maintain its obligations and compete with other expansionary powers. Resources and wealth were poured back into imperial projects, and military engagements. The discontent of the poor made fertile ground for anti-immigrant movements, and patriotic posturing. The 1905 revolution in Russia signalled however that new types of identity based on class were catching hold.  

1909: Death of George Wombwell junior in London.

1911: Charles Albert Eldridge is lodging with the Bradley-Owen-Hislop family.

In 1914, the European scramble for more colonies, and greater shares still of the world’s resources imploded. The confidence and optimism and sense of destiny of the late Victorian era collapsed as the Great Powers contrived to sacrifice the lives of their younger generations in a futile and ongoing bloodbath that was t continue for four years.

1914: The Great War breaks out.

1916: The Easter Rising in Ireland.

1915: Charles Albert Eldridge and Hetty Jane Own marry in Blean near Whitstable.

Marriage of Edward Owen – Hetty’s brother – and Louisa Place.

1916: Birth of Olwen Eldridge, Hetty’s daughter in London.

1920: Birth of Harold Wilfred Eldridge in London.

1921: The establishment of Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.

1931: The Bostock and Wombwell menagerie is liquidated.

The family set to work to rebuild their lives through hard work and education, only to find themselves engaged in a second conflict, fought at a much higher level of intensity with indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations. The East End of London as known by the family disappeared beneath the ashes. The Empire on which the sun was never supposed to set, did precisely that. The painstaking rebuilding of Europe led to a new commonwealth of nations itself to fracture as the new century beckoned. The family re-emerged and eventually relocated as the old trades diminished, a product more of the aspiring professional class than of any regional identity or community as such.   

1940: The London Blitz commences.

1945: Death of Hetty’s mother, Maria Rosetta Maria Bradley in Edmonton, London

1953: Death of Hetty-Jane Owen in London.

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

1960: Death of Hetty’s brother, Edward Samuel Owen in London.

1968: Death of Charles Albert Eldridge.

Memories of Wales, of Ireland, of menageries, of missionaries and mariners faded away, became stories only, their remaining traces folded away into a file, there to lie in darkness, proof-positive that history is as much about what is forgotten as what is remembered.