Emanuel Goodhart of Limehouse, sugar refiner

[Rol]

For some time I have had a thread running (see here -- esp. Reply 27 et seq.) on the Devon Lookup Requests board about one Cleopatra Cecilia Burgoyne (1844-1911).  Her second husband was called Augustus Joseph Enever,  who was a corn merchant in the City until the couple emigrated to the USA in 1885.

Recently attention in that thread has been directed towards a man called George Imson Goodhart,  because he was for a time Enever's business partner on the Corn Exchange.  He turns out to have quite an interesting family background of his own,  and as a result I have allowed myself to take the thread rather off-topic for a few posts to explore the Goodhart byway.  On reflection I have decided that it would make sense to post the key information that has so far come to light into a new thread on a more appropriate RootsChat board,  where anyone interested would be more likely to see what has been written on the subject to date and can conveniently pursue Goodhart matters further if they so wish.

The following initial material has been partly re-edited.


Rol

[Rol]

Before leaving the UK Augustus Enever had struck out in business on his own account with a partner.  Clear evidence of this appears in a notice of dissolution of partnership published in the London Gazette just a few months before he sailed for America,  which tells us that he had been occupying accommodation in the City at the New Corn Exchange in Mark Lane,  and used warehouse space across the Thames at 86-87 Bankside.  His partner was one George Imson Goodhart.  See the London Gazette,  1 July, 1884 (p.3024). 

The LMA database of London Marriages 1754-1921 (available via An***try.com) includes an image from Hampton PR recording George Goodhart's marriage.  This occurred on 26 Jan. 1886 and describes him as 33,  bachelor,  merchant,  the son of Charles Emanuel Goodhart,  Esquire.  The 1891 census has him living with his family at the Limes,  Bromley,  still a corn merchant,  born Beckenham,  Kent:  RG12/631 fo.75r&v, pp.23-24.  The GRO records his death in Q1 1902 aged 49 -- Kingston RD,  vol.2a,  p.300.  He may not have died in great prosperity,  because nothing seems to show up for him in the online index to the probate calendars.*  See also the information shown here:  http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/c/o/t/Rosemary-Cotton/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-1022.html

Googling suggests that the Goodharts had made a fortune refining West Indian sugar in Limehouse.  Professor William Rubinstein,  the economic historian who has specialised in using probate information to analyse patterns of wealth in the UK,  refers to the family in an article entitled Jewish top wealth-holders in Britain,1809-1909.  Towards the end he notes that

In a surprising number of cases it has not been possible to ascertain with certainty whether the person listed was definitely Jewish. In cases of doubt, one or two question marks have been placed before the name, one indicating probability and two considerable doubt. While it is likely that some in this last category were actually not Jewish, they have been noted here for completeness.

In the list appended to the main article he shows

?
1853/26
Emanuel Goodhart (1772-1853)
Sugar refiner in Limehouse
£100,000

In Note 3 within the main text he states that

In addition, the following wealth-holders had Jewish fathers or grandfathers, but non-Jewish mothers, and appear not to have had any connection with the Jewish community: ...
Charles Emanuel Goodhart (1818-1903), son [of] Emanuel Goodhart (d.1853)
£179,308

This website states that in 1820 Emanuel Goodhart (there spelt Goodheart) bought a portion of the old Langley estate at Beckenham from its owners the Burrells (who were by then Lords Gwydyr).  It seems that he built a new house there and

Under Emmanuel Goodheart the Langley properties were well maintained. Several pictures of the mansion and gardens from those times still exist in the local history section of the Bromley Central Library.
One interesting architectural feature of the Mansion is that the Star of David appears on all the cast iron rainwater hoppers. The Langley farmhouse had been demolished to make way for the Mansion but some of the original kitchen gardens were retained in beds around the house; the idea is said to have been that rainwater passing through the hoppers was then blessed on its way to the plants..
On the death of his father in 1853, Charles Emmanuel Goodheart inherited the Langley properties. In 1884 however CE Goodheart decided to sell the mansion and part of Langley Farm to JL Bucknall, a sale which was completed on 13th November 1884.

* ADDED (10 Jan. 2011)  But N.B. that this may well be a premature conclusion,  because at the time of writing the annual calendars for certain years were (and today remain) missing from Anc***ry.com's probate database.  One of these gaps relates to the years 1899-1903 inclusive.

[Rol]

George (son of Charles Emanuel Goodhart) had a brother called Frederick,  who emigrated to the USA -- and there married the heiress of the McCormick farm machinery fortune.  The pair later built themselves a substantial house near Washington DC,  which they christened "Langley Park",  and in the US National Register of Historic Places appears the following account of the Goodhart family (some English portions of which seem to invite further enquiry):

In 1921, Frederick and Henrietta McCormick-Goodhart came to the Washington area. Frederick Goodhart (1854-1924) was the son of Charles Emanuel Goodhart of Langley Park in Beckenham, Kent, England. Frederick Goodhart had first come to the United States in 1883 regarding a Utah mine in which his father had an interest. Spending some time in Chicago during this trip, he met and became engaged to Henrietta McCormick (1857-1932), niece and daughter, respectively, of Cyrus and Leander McCormick of McCormick Reaper fame. They were married in November 1883 and went to England to live at the groom’s ancestral home, Langley Park. Their two sons, Leander and Frederick Hamilton McCormick-Goodhart, were born in England in 1884 and 1887. Frederick McCormick-Goodhart practiced law in England, then entered politics, running unsuccessfully for a Conservative seat in the House of Commons in 1900 and 1905. ... Their two sons were educated at Eton and Oxford.2 The family spent most of their time in England, with occasional trips to the United States to spend time with Henrietta’s family. In 1899, at the request of Henrietta’s father, Frederick, through a “Royal Licence”, added McCormick to his surname, and the family name officially became McCormick-Goodhart.3 In 1913, the Elizabethan house at Langley Park in Kent was destroyed by fire, and in 1920 Frederick and Henrietta McCormick-Goodhart decided to settle in the United States. ...
[NOTES:]
1  McCormick-Goodhart, Henrietta, Hands Across the Sea, privately printed, 1921; McCormick, Leander J., Family Record and Biography, Chicago, 1896; telephone interview with Leander McCormick-Goodhart, September 2007
2  McCormick-Goodhart, Henrietta, op.cit.
3  McCormick-Goodhart, Henrietta, op.cit., p. 56.

(PDF available via National Park Service website -- Google's html version here -- then enter Charles Emanuel Goodhart into browser's Page Search field)

I see that the entire text of Hands Across the Sea has been uploaded into An***try.com's Stories, Memories and Histories section,  so I shall be having a browse . . .

[Rol]

Well now,  here are some brief extracts selected from the above-mentioned Hands Across the Sea,  by Henrietta McCormick-Goodhart (1921).

pp.36-37 [images 2_36a and (continuation of text) 2_37b]

The Goodharts are descended from an ancient family of Hesse-Cassel. Emanuel Goodhart, son of John Henry, came to England in 1755 and married Charlotte Imson, whose parents came from Hanover with George I. There are now in the possession of their descendants a large silver inkstand, a table with an engraved silver top, a diamond cluster ring, and other gifts, presented to Miss Imson's mother by George II and Queen Caroline.

Emanuel was one of the founders of the Phoenix Assurance Company and of the Pelican Life Office, both of London, in 1782. His son Emanuel, born in 1772, was Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Kent.

The family seat, Langley Park, near Beckenham, Kent, is an ancient deer park and is mentioned in Domesday Book. The house was originally a fine Elizabethan mansion flanked by two towers facing an avenue of chestnut trees over a mile long. ...

There was formerly another residence on the property, "Langley Farm," and there still exists a smaller house with massive columns, "Langley Lodge," in which my husband was born. ...

Emanuel married the daughter of the Reverend Peter Thomas Burford, and had a number of children, of whom the youngest, Charles Emanuel, my husband's father, inherited the property.

Charles was educated at Harrow and Oxford ... He married in 1846 Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Captain Jacob Settle, R. N., whose ancestors for over four hundred years lived at Northcote near Settle in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The old house is still standing with the coat-of-arms of the family and the original date upon it. Elizabeth's mother, Maria Catarina di Stella, was the daughter of a Genoese nobleman, whose parents fled for their lives in an English frigate to Gibraltar from Genoa to escape from the insurrection which took place there in 1796. Elizabeth's eldest brother, an officer in the army, together with his wife and several children, were massacred and thrown down the well at Cawnpore during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

p.38 [image 2_38a]

Charles and Elizabeth had five sons and four daughters, of whom my husband, Frederick, was the fourth son.

p.40 [image 2_40a]

Frederick Emanuel Goodhart was born at Langley Park, January 5, 1854.

As readers will probably have concluded for themselves by now,  even if only a portion of the foregoing information cited from Hands Across the Sea is accurate (and it is true that the author's credibility is hardly boosted by her delicate omission of all mention of the sugar-refining trade),  the surmise made by William Rubinstein about the ethnic origin of the Goodhart family does look pretty dubious: c.f. my Reply 2 above.  It remains possible that they were Christian converts and had baptised their children to secure legal emancipation and wider economic opportunities;  but if that were so,  their hypothesised conversion would probably have antedated their arrival in the UK.  Certificates attached to a deed scheduled by Essex RO record the baptism at St Anne's,  Limehouse,  Middlesex,  of the Emanuel Goodhart who was born in 1772 (bapt. 3* May that year) and of his elder brother Jacob (bapt. 18 Nov. 1770) -- both being entered in the register as sons of Emanuel Goodhart, "sugar baker or refiner",  by Charlotte his wife. (See D/DB T208/57,  a deed of 1831 concerning a trust interest in some property that was once vested in "Jacob Goodhart of Great Ilford Esq." -- by then described as "deceased".)

My short investigations have turned up little to substantiate Professor Rubinstein's theory.  Others may be able to find more decisive information than I have -- if so,  they may like to know that there is a wealth of references to the family to be found in the excellent Sugar Refiners and Sugar Bakers Database,  including a mention of Emanuel Goodhart snr.'s denization and naturalisation papers of 1784 (yes,  he did indeed come from Hesse-Cassel -- from Borcken,  in fact).
 

Rol



 * 3 May 1772,  not 4 May as originally posted -- nor 31 May as proposed in the message immediately below this one.  See also Reply 5.  (Corrected 1 Dec. 2010.)

[Rol]

On 30 November 2010, at 16:28:32, JasperMzee wrote (in BURGOYNE Family of Plymouth on the Devon Lookup Requests board):

Chasing up the Goodhart discussion - Emanuel Goodhart was baptised at Saint Anne, Limehouse on 31st May 1772

(Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, USA, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 (from Church of England Parish Registers, 1538-1812. London Metropolitan Archives and Guildhall Library Manuscripts, London), SAINT ANNE, LIMEHOUSE, Composite register: baptisms Jul 1747 - Sep 1783, burials Oct 1783 - Mar 1786, 1747 Jul-1786 Mar, P93/ANN/002, image 79).

One assumes that this means that they did not pursue the Jewish faith!

[Rol]

Hi JasperMzee


I think in substance we are both saying the same thing (you more pithily!):

Chasing up the Goodhart discussion - Emanuel Goodhart was baptised at Saint Anne, Limehouse on 31st May 1772

... One assumes that this means that they did not pursue the Jewish faith!

As readers will probably have concluded for themselves by now, ... the surmise made by William Rubinstein about the ethnic origin of the Goodhart family does look pretty dubious ...  It remains possible that they were Christian converts and had baptised their children to secure legal emancipation and wider economic opportunities;  but if that were so,  their hypothesised conversion would probably have antedated their arrival in the UK.  Certificates attached to a deed scheduled by Essex RO record the baptism at St Anne's,  Limehouse,  Middlesex,  of the Emanuel Goodhart who was born in 1772 (bapt. 4 May that year) and of his elder brother Jacob (bapt. 18 Nov. 1770) -- both being entered in the register as sons of Emanuel Goodhart, "sugar baker or refiner",  by Charlotte his wife. [So] ... My short investigations have turned up little to substantiate Rubinstein's theory.

That said,  there seems to be a mismatch of a few days in Emanuel jnr's date of baptism.  On re-checking Essex RO's deed schedule,  I see that I mis-transcribed the date shown there  -- I wrote 4 May when I should have put 3 May.  My apologies for the error.

I think we both slipped up a bit on this one though:  the LMA image of the original that you cite definitely matches the cert. attached to the deed -- i.e.,  he was bapt. 3 May 1772,  not 31 May.


Rol

[JasperMzee]

Hi Rol

An oops is in order - a typo on my part with regard to the 31st May - I agree with the 3rd but read the day of his death - 31st!! Sorry about that.

Back to the observations on the Jewish faith - the reference you made to the Langley estate makes good reading - but there is a throwaway line in it that that fascinates me:

"One interesting architectural feature of the Mansion is that the Star of David appears on all the cast iron rainwater hoppers" - I wonder whether they were from the time of  Lord Gwydyr or the Goodharts!

A little background - my Mum is the 4th great grand-daughter of Johann Heinrich Guthardt so I am very interested in the family. Oddly enough, few members of the family appear on the web "in the genealogical sense anyway" but do you know otherwise?

For many years I have used a family tree created by H.C.N. (Nicholas) Goodhart and remain impressed at his accuracy - what would I have done without the internet?

Last enquiry - have you a specific Goodhart interest?

JasperMzee

[Rol]

Hi Jasper,


I am sorry to be responding as tardily as this to your post of 1 December;  I have been trying to do too many things at once (again)!

More on the Star of David rainwater hoppers in a moment.  First,  the interesting info you provided as "a little background" to your connection with the Goodharts.  You mention work done on the family by Nicholas Goodhart (HCNG) -- presumably the man who was a senior officer in the Fleet Air Arm (now RN retd.) -- and you add "what would I have done without the internet?".  That suggests that his research may be accessible online(?).  If so,  I would be fascinated to see it,  and would appreciate a steer as to where one can find it.

You refer to Johann Heinrich Guthardt (whom I take to be identical with the man anglicised in Hands Across the Sea as John Henry Goodhart).  Is it thought that he remained in Germany,  or did he join his sons in England?  It would be interesting to learn whether any more is known about his dates and career,  and whether some of  his earlier ancestry has been proven.  Presumably you or HCNG have seen the denization papers,  and they were accurate in describing the family as natives of Borcken in Hesse-Cassel (or,  in modern non-frenchified/anglicised terms,  Borken in Hessen-Kassel).

I note here in passing this link to a page on a German genealogical website about the Reuffurth family (unless newly placed online,  perhaps familiar to you and/or HCNG);  it mentions one Johann He(i)nrich Guthardt of Borken,  cooper,  formerly a soldier in the Cassel Lifeguard Regiment of Foot -- ?b. (or perhaps just "living") 1739 and m. 1765 an Anna Maria Krafft;  he is shown as the son of another man of the same names (also a cooper),  by Anna Barbara Cronenberger his wife.  Rather oddly,  the father is listed as having a brother with identical names but different dates,  who was a brewer and town burgess.  The two brothers (if they were indeed brothers) are in turn shown as children of a Nikolaus Guthardt, ?b. 1674.  Not sure whether or how there could be any connection with the London sugar people;  but some interesting coincidences of place and name.  The sourcing is unclear.

Now,  those Stars of David.  Initially they did strike me -- as apparently you too -- as potentially relevant evidence about the hypothesised Jewish descent of the Goodharts.  But for that potential relevance even to exist we would need to be confident that the Goodharts were the people who actually erected the rainwater hoppers and (presumably) selected the design.  On closer examination of the evidence accessible via the internet,  I very much doubt that they were.  It looks as though the house concerned was Langley Court,  not the much older Langley Park.  Langley Court was built in the mid-1880s by the Bucknall family on the site of Langley Farm,  a house that they had bought from the Goodharts in 1884 and which they had promptly demolished to make way for a successor.

So far as I can tell from online sources,  the Goodharts probably closed up Langley Park soon after Charles Emanuel's death in 1903,  and then sold it to developers in 1908;  so they were out of the picture by the time the big house burned in 1913.

I have set out fuller details about the evidence in the next pair of messages.  See what you think.  Per this Familytreemaker pedigree about the Bucknall family,  they too seem to have no obviously Jewish ancestry -- so those Stars of David (assuming that they were in fact there at all) may simply have been a chance decorative feature designed in by the architect.  One also needs to bear in mind that the "double triangle" only really achieved general recognition as a uniquely Jewish symbol early in the 20th century.


Rol

[Rol]

There is a useful summary of the history of the Langley Farm plot of land on the Beckenham History Website.  The Langley Park Residents' Association's site clearly states that Langley Farm was the property sold by the Goodharts to the Bucknall family in 1884 -- and the Bucknalls demolished the old farmhouse 1884-86 and replaced it with a larger house which they named Langley Court. 

Higher up on the same page the Residents' site refers to this house as "the current Mansion House" and says that

The original Langley Mansion, the main house of the estate from Tudor times, was destroyed by fire in 1913, and the Club House of the Langley Park Golf Club was built on the site [?in its stead] ...

On another of its pages the site makes the order of events rather clearer:

Up until 1908, Park Langley was a landed estate.  700 acres were then sold by the Goodhart family for development by G & H Taylor whose guiding principle was to 'offer something beautiful, using good artists, materials and workmen'.  The project specified spacious laid out detached houses, long curving roads, red brick pavements and much landscaping, using new ornamental trees while maintaining existing mature trees.  A golf course was built centred on the old mansion which burnt down in 1913.

It adds that the replacement clubhouse of 1913 was itself succeeded on the site by a school -- Langley Girl's school.

A local history website entitled "Ideal Homes" (about the origins of the SE London suburbs) endorses this version,  stating that the development of the "Park Langley garden city" by the firm H & G Taylor was well underway by 1910,  that the golf course was an integral part of the project,  and that the original house at Langley Park was already in use as a clubhouse at the time it burned down in 1913 (so requiring replacement as described above).  This account of events is supported by the current version of the Wikipedia article about Park Langley -- which cites a 1997 book by Deborah S. Ryan,  and adds that by 1914 the project had passed into the control of a company called the London and Kent Estate Ltd.  (The latter,  for the record,  is not a trading style known elsewhere to Google -- nor to the London Gazette index between 1900 and 1975.)

All of which strongly suggests that the Goodharts had sold out before the fire.  That said,  in Hands Across the Sea Henrietta McCormick-Goodhart's evidence on the point is rather ambiguous.  On p.95 she wrote:

In January, 1913, the old family Mansion in Langley Park, Kent, was burnt to the ground. The fire was thought to have been caused by a defective flue. Fortunately the contents of the house had been removed on the death of my father-in-law, but the beautiful Adams [sic] ceiling, inlaid with a number of valuable paintings, and a very fine Italian mantelpiece and wainscoting of marble were destroyed.
We were at the time ... in France ...

At the least that indicates that the family had ceased to live in the house themselves for nearly a decade before its destruction (given that her father-in-law Charles Emanuel Goodhart had died on 22 July 1903);  but the phrasing she uses is entirely silent on the question of whether any other people (e.g. the developers and/or their golf course) were by that date in occupation -- and also avoids touching on the Goodhart family's continuing ownership of the place (or the likely lack of any such connection by 1913).

And now back to the Bucknalls and their newly-built Langley Court,  plus conclusions -- see next post.