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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: Donches on Tuesday 05 March 19 12:03 GMT (UK)
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Can anyone decipher this occupaion from the 1861 census? It looks like PENSTALE MAKER - I suppose it could have been an occupation, bit I haven't found it listed.
Don
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Would you like to give us the census reference so we can have a look ourselves please? We can then compare letters on the page.
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Census Ref:
Archive ref. RGO9
Piece no: 242
Page: 24
John Tomkinson age 60
Don
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He's a pianoforte maker in the 1871 census - armed with that knowledge, I think that's what it says in 1861.
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I think it might be pianoforte maker. See http://www.lieveverbeeck.eu/Pianoforte-makers_England_t.htm
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I'd agree, written Pinoforte Maker.
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Very many thanks for the helpful replies, The link to the Piano forte Maker web site has been especially interesting. It is says that Thomas Tomkison said that his father, who told the anecdote about Turner the painter was a silversmith. I have actually by coincidence just been looking at Humphrey Tomkison, who is listed as a goldsmith and jeweler in Westminster during the 18th century and think he was most probably Thomas's father. Unfortunately I can't find a record of the baptism of Thomas, who according to the 1851 census, was born in 1763 or 4. He's recorded as Tomkinson in the censuses but I can't find him using all the usual variations of the Tomkinson name. Tomkison is a miss-spelling of Tomkinson and Humphrey seemed to stick with it for some reason.
The first child recorded of Humphrey was Mary Tomkison, baptised in 1765 and Thomas could have been the first child of Humphrey whose grand father, I think, was Thomas.
If anybody can throw any light on Thomas's baptism, I'd be very grateful.
Don
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Yes, it is clear from a variety of other documentation that the piano maker Thomas Tomkison was indeed the son of Humphrey, the jeweller of Maiden Lane, and later Vestry Clerk of St Paul’s Covent Garden. Thomas was apprenticed (to the Cooks’s Company) in 1778, and his father’s name is there given as Humphrey. Thomas was not the first-born of the family, since there is a record of a Christopher Tomkison, son of Humphrey and Mary, baptised on 25 October 1761 at St Gregory by St Paul in the City, but this child died in 1763. I have searched this register and others in vain for the record of Thomas’ birth and Humphrey’s marriage or birth. Though Tomkison is of course a variant spelling of Tomkinson, Tomkison was the spelling adhered to by Humphrey and Thomas in all the documentation over which they had control, and in the nameboards of Thomas’ splendid pianos. Thomas’ piano making business was wound up in 1851, when he was nearly 90, and was not taken over by John Tomlinson or anyone else. Neither his wife nor his two daughters seen to have been involved in any way in the running of his business.
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Many thanks Dean.
I think that Humphrey Tomkison the jeweller, was probably the son of Humphrey Tomkinson and Martha, née Signepole, who was baptised in Shifnall, Shropshire, in 1729. Humphrey seems to have been the family name in a line of Tomkinsons descended from Humphrey Tomkinson, who was baptised in Gnosall, Staffordshire in 1593. Several notable Tomkinson families descended from the Gnosall Tomkinsons, including those of Dorfold Hall and Winnington Hall, in Cheshire.
I was particularly intrigued that Humphrey, the jeweller, claimed to have been instrumental in starting the young Turner on his career as an artist,
Don
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Thank you Donches. The jeweller Humphrey Tomkison would have had to be born by circa 1740 if he was established and having children in London by the early 1760s. I see there was also a Tomkison family in Brewood, Staffordshire, using the name Humphrey - maybe descended too from the Gnosall Humphrey of 1593? The first wife of jeweller Humphrey died in 1775 and was buried in Bunhill Fields so there must have been a nonconforming element in the family. Humphrey went on to marry another Mary, Mary Core, in 1780 and had several children by her. He is not on record with the Goldsmiths’ Company, so I presume he was a ‘toyman’ selling finished products rather than a manufacturing silversmith (no marks recorded either). The London Gazette documents his bankruptcy, sadly, in the 1780s.
Thomas, his son, became a keen collector of Turner and several fine watercolours are known to have passed through his hands, so there is no reason to doubt that they knew each other from early days in Maiden Lane. If you are interested and have access to JSOR, there is an article on Thomas Tomkison including various bits of information on Humphrey in the 2014 edition of the Galpin Society Journal.
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Many thanks again Dean - interessting comments. The anecdote about Turner and his father mentions a set of silver chargers engraved with a coat of arms, which I assume Humphrey had engraved. I had hoped to find a record of his apprenticeship which would have named his father, but I can't find one.
I'm attaching a descendants register for Humphrey which I've put together, if you are inerested. It does of course contain the inevitable guesses.
Don
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Thanks for sharing the comprehensive Register. Your link with Humphrey the jeweller and Vestry Clerk seems very credible.
It would of course be nice to find a record of his marriage and apprenticeship (if any). There is an extant letter of Dr Samuel Johnson to him, which might add to our impression that he was a tradesman of some standing.
I can only add that the will of Mary Tomkison (formerly Mary Core), proved 15 August 1811, bequeaths ‘unto Mr Thomas Tomkison Son of my late Husband five Guineas for a Ring’, which is further evidence of Thomas being the son of Humphrey: in addition to the Cooks’ Company Apprentice binding of 1778 (the spelling there is Tompkinson, which meant I was a long time tracking it down).
I have quite a lot of further details on the Dollings and the descendants of Thomas’ daughters Mary Dolling Tomkison and Emily Boughey Pinto Tomkison, should you require them.
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Dean - Many thanks again for the additional information. The letter from Dr Johnson is fascinating. It would be interesting to know the contents, There is the record of a Faculty Office Marriage Licence of a Humphr'y Tomkison to Eliz'th Watford 12 Oct 1751, but no location is given. It's 10 years before the birth of Humphrey's first son, and the children are listed with Mary as mother. Was Humphrey married 3 times?
There was actually another Tomkinson familyof pianoforte makers in London in the 19th century, who didn't have any near connection with the Tomkisons. Guessing from their family names they probably came from another line in Cheshire.
I would be interested in details of any of Humphrey's offspring. His children by Mary Core have rather more flowery(?) names. Have you any connection to the families? I've been delving into all Tomkinsons (my family) for many years now and have come to the conclusion that they are all descended from one family in Staffordshire, who took the name in the 14th century, The first written record is of a John Tmkynson, a member of a gang of housebreakers!
Don
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The 12 October 1751 marriage licence allegation is for a Humphrey Tomkison of the parish of Beckenham, Kent, aged 24 (according to my note which I think was taken in the Society of Genealogists). For the reasons you give I didn’t think it likely at the time that this was Humphrey the jeweller, but I have not gone as far as trawling the Beckenham records to see where there is any other incidence of the family there. I dare say that the name Humphrey would imply some collection with the line in your Register. And perhaps a third marriage is not to be totally ruled out.
The Dr Johnson letter is sadly not that illuminating in its content. It is dated 1 October 1783, addressed to ‘Mr Tomkison in Southampton Street, Covent Garden’ (so we know it is our Humphrey), and must be a response to an enquiry about a character reference for a Mr Lowe: ‘Sir, I have known Mr Lowe very familiarly a great while. I consider him as a man of very clear and vigorous understanding, and conceive his principles to be such, that whatever you transact with him, you have nothing to expect of him unbecoming a gentleman. I am, Sir, your humble servant, Sam Johnson.
I will look to see what I have on Humphrey’s children. I’m not connected in any way to these families; my interest in the Tomkisons arose from curiosity about Thomas’ meteoric rise to the status of Prince of Wales’ piano maker. There are also references to other London-based Tomkisons and Tomkissons in the 18thC for whom I could not see any connection to Humphrey the jeweller: would you be interested in these?
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Don - of the children born to jeweller Humphrey and his first wife Mary, Mary (baptised 23 December 1785) was married on 20 March 1792 at St Andrew’s Holborn, to John Palmer, an Inspector of Franks at the General Post Office. Martha (baptised 12 February 1767) married Joseph Johnson at St George’s Hanover Square on 20 March 1796. Harriet (baptised 2 March 1774) married Robert Mann at St George’s Bloomsbury on 14 October 1800. Another daughter, presumably Anne or Elizabeth, became a Mrs Allen (‘daughter of my late husband’ in the second Mary Tomkison’s will).
It does not look as if the two Humphreys or George survived into adulthood as I can find no record nor are they mentioned in the second Mary Tomkison’s will. The same seems to be true for the three sons of the second marriage: we know that Henry Frederick and Alfred Stuart died young, and Octavius Lambert Simpson is not mentioned in the second Mary Tomkison’s will either. The daughter Eleanor Milliora married James Clelan at St Mary Lambeth on 17 July 1802.
It has just struck me that the name ‘Simpson’ may perhaps come from Barker Simpson, to whom Thomas was apprenticed in 1778. He was prominent in the Cook’s Company and was presumably a friend of Humphrey’s, since no binding fee was paid for the apprenticeship.
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Dean - Many thanks again for the additional information. I think the marriage allegation for a Humphrey Tomkison to Elizabeth Watford in 1751, must be our jeweller, as Beckenham is in London and I don't think any other Humphrey Tomkison was around at the time. I'm not too sure what a marriage allegation implied, other than it was used to get married without banns. Is it possible the marriage was called off? I haven't found a burial for an Elizabeth Tomkison. The age of 24 given for the Humphrey would give a birth date close to the baptism in Shifnall in 1729, although not exact. Humphrey seemed to be unlucky with his male children except Thomas. Looking at the children by his second wife only Eleanor Milliora seems to have lasted long. I was side-tracked in following the story of her son Henry, who became a clergyman and married into a family connected to well-heeled clergymen. However he doesn't seem to have produced any offspring and died quite young.
Presumably Barker Simpson was a piano maker? Was the Cooks' Company a general company, other than its name would imply?
Don
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Well, it’s possible to imagine a scenario in which our Humphrey wants to get married quickly, perhaps because one set of parents do not approve, and though Beckenham was then in Kent, it isn’t inconveniently far from London. If we find that neither Humphrey nor Elizabeth Watford appear to belong to established families in Beckenham, that would help the hypothesis - though not explaining what happened to Elizabeth. As you say, there may be no record of the marriage actually having taken place.
I didn’t know about Eleanor’s son marrying into well-connected clergy. Curiously, Thomas did the same; Mary Dolling was the daughter of the Vicar of Aldenham and Clerk of Vine Street, Westminster, and sister of the Rector of Magheralin in Co. Down who left a landed estate there.
Barker Simpson was certainly a cook and not a piano maker. In 1767 he had a plate stolen from him; ‘I keep a cook’s shop in Salisbury-court’ (Old Bailey Proceedings). In 1789 he was Master of the Eating House in Salisbury Square, and he became Warden of the Cook’s Company a couple of times. He was born in 1729 so would have been of an age with Humphrey, and my sense is that they were friends, with Barker willing to give Thomas a leg up in the City. Barker’s marriage in 1753 is in a Mayfair nonconformist record and could this have been another connection, with the first Mary Tomkison being buried in Bunhill Fields? I am sure that Thomas was only nominally apprenticed a cook and must have had his real training elsewhere.
The Guild system was on the verge of breaking up by this time, and I remember seeing that the Longman of the Longman & Broderip instrument dynasty was apprenticed a Spectacle Maker.
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PS I notice, rereading your excellent Register, that poor Octavius Tomkison was buried in Chertsey, Surrey. There may have been some Core connection with those parts to explain why he was there, but just for the record, Barker Simpson was born in Chertsey.
Where you have question marks for the witnesses at Thomas’ wedding to Mary Dolling, I read ‘Arthur Boughey William Dolling’, who was Mary’s brother.
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Dean -Many thanks again for your comments and additional information, You have access to an abundance of information, may I ask how you're able to access it?
Don
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That’s kind of you. The Thomas Tomkison stuff has been built up over many years: combination of internet (the handiest resource of all), Ancestry/Find my Past/Family Search (I live close to the National Archives which gives me access, plus wills etc there), newspaper collections at British Library, Fire Insurance Records at London Metropolitan Archives, Livery Company records at Guildhall Library.
But I have to say it is a great plus to link up with someone with a similar interest and bounce off ideas. I’m sure we have got further with Humphrey Tomkison and his connections.
It has also spurred me into looking at Luke Core, who was a tailor and lived like Humphry in Maiden Lane. There was an earlier 18th C Tomkison family (not using the name Humphrey as far as I know) who was a tailor in the City - I wonder if there could be any connection there?
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Dean - Being close to the National Archives must be great. Now less than a decade from a card from the Queen (I should hope), and not mobile, at the moment I'm limited to FindMyPast - and any other free resources, but still getting a lot of entertainment from delving into family and local history through the marvellous facility of the web, particularly RootsChat.
Humphrey had a cousin Charles, who was born in Brewood, in 1732, the son of Humphrey's uncle, John. Could he have been the tailor, I wonder? Can you find his apprenticeship?
I notice that the letter from Dr. Johnson to Humphrey, was near his bankruptcy in 1780's. I wonder if there was a connection? Is there any record of a discharge from bankruptcy?
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The tailor I was thinking of is John Tomkison who was in St George’s Bloomsbury. His will is dated 27 November 1746 and in it he leaves everything to his wife Elizabeth, except a shilling for his eldest son Thomas who is then an apprentice. There is an apprentice record for this Thomas, on 13 April 1738, to Andrew Johnson of St Paul’s, Covent Garden: the master’s profession is not specified but he must be Andrew Thomson, a woollen draper of St Paul’s Covent Garden, who left a will on 4 September 1747. In 1744 Thomas Tomkison of St George’s Bloomsbury applies for a marriage licence to marry Elizabeth Jacques of the same parish. This must be Thomas son of John the tailor. I cannot find an apprenticeship record for John. I am not sure how this family fits in with Humphry’s but at the least they are likely to have known one another.
Humphrey’s commission of bankruptcy was issued in April 1784 and his premises and their contents were advertised for sale later that year. A final dividend may not have been issued until 1787, and from that date Humphrey is paying rates for a property in Bedford Ground or the Piazza, Covent Garden (not sure if this is the same address).
Would it be useful if I sent you a PDF of the Galpin Society article, which you could print off or look at online?
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Dean - I'd asssumed the C. Tomkinson was probably Charles. The John Tomkison must have been born 1700 or thereabouts. Humphrey had a brother John, but born 1726. I'll try a bit more digging. I would like to have a PDF of the Galpin Society, thanks.
I've been loooking at the two daughters of Thomas the pianoforte maker, who had interesting marriages. They both married soldiers. Emily married Captain Charles Frederick George Napier, who became the first Chief Constable of Glamorganshire. His history and his family are in the History Notebook of the South Wales Museum.
Mary Dolling married Gaspard Adolphe Fauche, who had been a Lieutenant in the Regiment de Meuron. I hadn't heard of the regiment before, and found it was a Swiss regiment of mercenaries, originally serving the Dutch East India Company, but then serving with the British Army. Fauche had been in Canada in the 1812 war against the US. The regiment had fought in the Peninsular War and at Waterloo. I wonder if Fauche took part? I don't know if Fauche was Swiss or French. They had a daughter in Harfleur in1829. Fauche died in Brighton in 1857.
Nothing to do with all this really but the brother of my best man became a Chief Constable, after serving in the SOE in France.
Don
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Mary Tomkison and Gaspard Adolphe Fauche were an interesting couple. She had a beautiful singing voice and while not being a career musician, played the piano to professional standard. Two of her songs were published and are in the British Library. She was a friend of Frances Trollope (authoress and mother of the novelist Anthony Trollope), in whose letters a number of references to Mary Fauche can be found, seeming to show that sadly the marriage was not a very happy one.
Gaspard Fauche, born in Hamburg in 1797 (according to the website of the Societé Genevoise de Généalogie), was the son of Pierre Fauche and Josephine Schwichelt and grandson of Samuel Abraham Fauche,
who founded a dynasty of printers and publishers in the Swiss city of Neuchātel. After serving with the de Meuron regiment in North America, Lieutenant Gaspard Fauche wrote an account of a mission accompanying the Earl of Selkirk to settle the Red River colony in Canada in 1816. He subsequently became a salaried official of the British Foreign Office, serving in consular appointments in Charleston, Santa Martha (now Colombia), and Ostend, where he and Mary were during the 1830s. He retired from the Foreign Office in 1841.
Do you have a suitable email address that you would be happy for me to send the PDF of the Galpin Society article to?
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Do you have a suitable email address that you would be happy for me to send the PDF of the Galpin Society article to?
You can now use the personal message option to exchange email addresses. Members have to make several posts before they can use pm. Publication of personal email addresses is not allowed on RootsChat open forum as everything posted on it can be found by internet search.
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The following is what I know of the descendants of the two daughters of the piano maker Thomas Tomkison left descendants.
A. Mary Dolling Tomkison and her husband Gaspard Adolphe Fauche (married 25 April 1825 at Old Church, St Pancras), had two daughters:
A I. Marie Josephine (born Harfleur, Normandy, 1830). She married Christophe Guillaume Theodore Schuster on 2 October 1845 at the British Embassy Chapel, Paris. His father was a Lutheran theologian from Hanover.
There is some evidence (from Frances Trollope’s correspondence) that this marriage was also not very happy. In 1851 Marie Josephine was staying with her mother at 26 York Buildings, Marylebone, and described as a Professor of Pianoforte. In 1861 she was living in 26 Upper Seymour Street, Paddington. At neither time was there any evidence of Mr Schuster. Marie Josephine died in March 1908 in Wandsworth.
A Ia. Marie Josephine and Christophe Guillaume Theodore Schuster had a daughter Isabella, born 1847 in Paris. She married William Linnell on 26 November 1866 at St Michael’s Chester Square. William, an artist, was the son of the more famous artist John Linnell, and they lived in Reigate until Isabella’s death in 1869 at the age of 23. The couple had had three daughters, Katherine (born 1867), Emilie (born 1868) and Isabelle (born 1869). In 1901 William Linnell was living in St Luke’s Parish, Chelsea.£
A Ib. Blanche Emily Leopoldina (born 1831). She married Richard Bunce on 12 September 1848 at the Chapel of the British Embassy, Paris. He was the son of Captain James Bunce, RN (1757-1759), trained as a surgeon. They emigrated to Australia in 1851 and settled in Ballarat, Victoria, a gold mining town, where he practiced as a surgeon. Blanche died on 18 November 1878 and Richard on 29 March 1885. Richard’s brother James had emigrated to Adelaide in 1839, and for several years the firm of Bunce and Thomson (in which Richard was a partner) had an import/export business with Australia, with offices in Temple Bar.
A I b i. Richard and Blanche Bunce had children Mary Ellen (b 1849), Alice Blanche (b 1851), Catherine Emily Charlotte (b 1853) and Henry Richard (b 1857). Of these only Alice Blanche seems to have left descendants. She married Foster Fyans at St George’s Queenscliff, Victoria, on 31 0ctober 1872.
A I b ii. Alice Blanche and Foster Fyans had children Mabel Fyans (b 1871 Geelong, d 17 March 1942 at Torquay), and Harold Richard Napier Fyans (b 1873, d 19 July 1952 Kyneton Victoria), a veterinary surgeon.
B. Emily Boughey Pinto Tomkison married Charles George Frederick Napier on 7 December 1831 at Old Church St Pancras. He was the son of Major Charles Frederick Napier, born in Ceylon in 1805. He was promoted Captain in the Rifle Brigade in 1834 and appointed first Chief Constable of Glamorgan in 1841. Emily died on 1 November 1855, and her husband in January 1867. They had two children:
B I. James Dundas, born 1833, Lt Royal Marine Light Infantry, died 1863 unmarried
B II. Emily Paulina, born 1835. Married William Howe, labourer and ex-soldier, son of John Howe, on 22 April 1863 at Newcastle, Bridgend, Glamorganshire. In 1881 they were living at 25 North Street, Lower Newcastle. William was a butcher and Emily a teacher of music. There is no record of any children. Emily died in 1890 aged 55.
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Dean - Many thanks again.
Just a small point- Tha LDS Family History site has the birth of Marie at Honfleur, the daughter of Gaspard and Marie Fauche, as Marie Agnes, 24 December 1829.
Don
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Useful, thanks. Do you have anything similar for Blanche Emily Leopoldina b 1831?
The cumbersome Christian names seem to be somewhat selectively represented in the sources.
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Quite a lot of other Fauches on Family History but nothing else related to Gaspard as far as I can see,
Don
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I have sent the information I have gleaned from our discussions on Humphrey Tomkison and his son Thomas, the pianoforte maker, and his offsprings, to the Tate to add to their information regarding JMW Turner. I'm very grateful for all the information I have received, particularly the abundance from Dean.
Don
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Don and Dean - I am so grateful to have discovered all this. I descend from the Tomkisons and Fauches through Isabelle (not Isabella) Schuster, the mother of my grandmother Emilie Linnell. Can you tell me what is the connection between the Tomkisons and Turner? Are you and I cousins? There is much information on the Fauches in the Public Library of Neuchatel, and their publication Aspects du Livre Neuchatelois 1986. I live in London. Much hoping to hear from you, Elizabeth.