Shoah Memorial Cemetery, Paris. Jacques FERMO 1942

[JenB]

Still can't find her in 1881,

Is this her, with sister Alice, transcribed as Renshaw?

RG 11/ 31/ 127/ 39
26 Norland Square (several others in the household)

Alice M Kershaw, boarder, unm, 15, scholar, London
Agnes F. do, do, do, 12, do, do

Norland Square was the original home of Notting Hill High School, which Agnes attended (reply #5)
https://www.nhehs.gdst.net/about/historygdst/

[Keith Sherwood]

JenB,
Yes, that absolutely has to be them.  What an amazing spot on your behalf.  Please take a bow!
Very many thanks,
Keith
Will have a good read of that link you have so kindly supplied too...
...Have had a look now and my first thought is that - how amazing to see that these young women in those days had to be chaperoned if they attended lectures when going on to study at university.  I wonder who got chosen as chaperones.
The more I read about those negative attitudes towards bright young women trying to study in those days, the more I become drawn in to Agnes Florence's world...

[willyam]

Keith,

Duke's Avenue in Muswell Hill does not seem to be in the 1901 census - which may be either that the part of the census that covered it has been lost or that it did not exist as a residential street until after the census.

However, online newspaper reports do refer to the large amount of house-building that was taking place in Muswell Hill ("transforming it from a hamlet") during the years leading up to the 1911 census - wherein Duke's Avenue does then appear.

Curiously, or perhaps not, in the 1939 Register both 14 & 16 Duke's Avenue are recorded as vacant properties. Which, personally, I find a bit odd - having just looked at them on Google Street View, as they are both substantial & quite desirable residences (as an estate agent might say).

Willyam

[Keith Sherwood]

Willyam,
Thanks for all this extra sleuthing.  The family legend (which hasn't been standing up to scrutiny very well so far in the face of all this new evidence) suggested that Agnes Florence went into teaching, so I do not know how affordable Dukes Avenue would have been for someone on her salary.
I suppose it is a bit of a surprise, as a spinster still, she was not living in the comfortable family home in Charterhouse Square.  But perhaps she was determined to be independent.  I think there's an old brown suitcase up in the loft that belonged to her sister  -  perhaps I should have a rummage around in that to look for more clues..
Keith

[Keith Sherwood]

...some tiny shreds of further evidence, as I brush the dust off my hands and clothes.
Certificates from her school days at Notting Hill from the University of Cambridge board when aged fifteen and seventeen. Then a certificate of matriculation in 1888 from the University of London.  Finally a certificate of distinction from the London Society for the Extension of University Teaching from the Toynbee Centre, Lent Term 1897.  The course of instruction was in The Tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles Part One.
Would this have meant that she could have lectured at University?  Were women allowed to then?
I've also come across two scrappy pieces of paper in my gt-grandma Alice's handwriting. On the first she is compiling a list of people, it appears, to whom she is wishing warm greetings (in French), talking about Noel 1929, and the New Year of 1930.  One of the four people listed is a "Chere Mme Fermo".  Could this be her sister Agnes Florence's mother in law, or at least a woman in the family Agnes F. married into?
And then there is a letter written on March 16th (unfortunately no year date, but I reckon it's from a similar date) from an address 16 Boulevard Clovis, Brussels, in which she says: "Jacques has decided to accept the directorship of the show in Paris (Place St Sulpice) with Vougues (possibly the first letter of this name could be an N, and there's a grave accent across the last three letters), but does not seem very enthusiastic about it. Still it will occupy his thoughts if only it is not another drain on his pocket"

Fascinating fleeting glimpses, if indeed Alice is describing her brother in law and the reason why he ended up in Paris with all those tragic consequences eventually...
Keith
Have since googled, and there's a Jean Nougues, composer of opera, 1875-1932.  Maybe Jacques (Fermo?) was a backer of his latest show.  Highly hypothetical, given the flimsy evidence I'm serving up, but the thought is exciting nevertheless!

[willyam]

Keith,

In the context of Agnes being able to afford to live at (and perhaps own) no. 14, it may be that you are not aware of her father's Will - please forgive me if you are.

There are various newspaper items (replicated in regional newspapers) that, in September 1898, reported as follows:

"The Will (with two codicils) of Mr James Kershaw, for many years connected with the firm of Messrs. Dent, Allcroft & Co., of Charterhouse  Square, who died on May 7, was proved on Aug. 19 by Edward Thomas Jones and George Christopher MacRae, the Executors, the value of the estate amounting to £20,427. The testator gives legacies to his trustees, and the residue of his property, upon trust for his two daughters, Alice Mary Gurner and Agnes Florence Kershaw, in equal proportions"

The Probate Index for 1898 also records that Mr Jones was a Chartered Accountant, Mr MacRae was a Warehouseman (although this probably meant that he owned them rather than that he just worked in a warehouse) and that the Will was "Resworn January 1899 £21,307 8s 3d".

Using a simple inflation calculator, the 2019 equivalent of £21,307 is £2,718,337!

A copy of the Will should, hopefully, provide more detail as to exactly how much of the residuary Estate devolved to Alice and Agnes. Additionally it might reveal whether or not James arranged for his assets to be retained so as to provide steady streams of income for his daughters or if they were to be liquidated to provide for equal capital sums to be paid directly to them (or to be used to purchase lifetime annuities for each of them).

Willyam

[Keith Sherwood]

Thanks so much for all this, Willyam,
I've had a hunt for James Kershaw, the father's will, but I'm not a very organised person I have to say, and I cannot lay hands on it at the moment.
But I have spoken to my 93 year old mother and she seems to think or remember that when the will was first written he left a third  of his estate to his married daughter Alice, presumably inferring that her husband Walter Gurner was providing more financial support for her; and two thirds of the estate to Agnes Florence.
Whether by codicil or by whatever means he later made it a half and half legacy to his two daughters.  Whisper it not, but some of this had to do with the fact that his son in law Walter had become a bit of a gambler and may have been squandering the family assets.  Alice and Walter were married in 1886.
Must have another search for that transcript of that will to clarify yet more family rumours.
Keith

[Keith Sherwood]

...aforesaid will searched for and discovered, more dust disturbed...
So, James Kershaw had his first will drawn up in July 1886, but by October that year he had already tacked on Codicil 1 to remove his son in law Walter as one of the executors and replace him with George Macrae.  Presumably as Alice and Walter had only married in May, I think, that year, it hadn't taken the Kershaw family long to realise/suspect what Walter's capabilities might have been.
Then, in the second codicil of 1893, the words, "...my younger daughter has now finished her college career and has a profession (that of teaching) to support her in case of need."  He therefore wills that after the death of his wife his property is apportioned half and half between the two daughters, rather than a third and two thirds.
So you are quite right, Willyam, in surmising that Agnes Florence could probably afford to live in Muswell Hill in 1902...
Keith

[Keith Sherwood]

Hi again, Everyone,
Someone has drawn my attention today to the existence online of the Holloway College registers.  At number 6 on the first page of this ledger - the first ever, though it supposedly opened in 1886? - dated 4th October 1887, is the entry for Agnes Florence Kershaw, aged 18. And further details across the double page of her parents' address, father's occupation, and her academic accomplishments.
And there, presumably subsequently added in a different hand, "Madame Fermo", and remarkably in red ink: "Died 1931".
So there it is, extraordinary how certain tiny pieces of evidence come to light suddenly to shine on those so-called ancestral brick walls.
Must totally readjust the parameters of research now to look for a final resting place, much later on than what the perceived family aural/oral history, that has suggested a much earlier demise.
Just thought I'd update the picture for those who have generously contributed to this thread or have merely followed it...
Keith