Dr James Gunson Lawn, OBE

Following on from my previous post about the Lawns in Dalton in Furness, is the story of James Gunson Lawn b 4 January 1868 , the only surviving son of John Webster and Eleanor née Gunson Lawn.

James Gunson Lawn was by all accounts a brilliant young man, but he had his share of sadness in his private life which is glossed over in biographies of his professional life. His first wife, Mary Searle, who he married in 1892, was a young school teacher and daughter of an Iron Miner. Together they had four children before Mary died aged about 35, not long after their youngest was born¹:

• Marjorie, b 1893, in Whitehall, Cumberland
• ‘Jack’ John Gunson b 1894, Wandsworth, Surrey
• ‘Laurie’ Laurence b 1898 in Kimberley, South Africa, and
• Brian Gunson b 1905 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

During this time (1899-1902) there was a lot of conflict in South Africa; and James was under siege from the Boers in Kimberley. In letters to his parents, now held by Bristol University he gives an account of conditions, including diet and weapons used. He sent his family to Stellenbosch to avoid the fighting during the Second Boer War.

James Gunson Lawn’s career has been documented in the Database of Southern African Science. The following is an excerpt from their website:

James G. Lawn, mining engineer, educationist and company director, was the son of John Webster Lawn, a mine manager, and his wife Eleanor. After completing his schooling he worked under his father in the iron ore mines of northern England for six years before entering the Royal School of Mines, London, in 1888. Here he distinguished himself by winning the Tyndall Prize for physics and a Royal scholarship (1889), the Murchison prize for geology (1890), the Mining prize of the Department of Science and Art, and the Dela Beche mining medal (1891). Upon completing his studies he became a mine surveyor at the mines of the Barrow Hematite Steel Company in Barrow-in-Furness, Lancashire, in 1891. The next year he was appointed lecturer in mining by the Cumberland county council, and in 1893 became lecturer in mine surveying at the Royal School of Mines. He was an associate member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London. In May 1896 Lawn came to South Africa as the country’s first professor of mining, to establish the Kimberley branch of the South African School of Mines. It opened in August that year, supervised by a local committee under Gardner F. Williams*, general manager of De Beers. At the age of 28 Lawn became its principal and sole teacher until John Orr* arrived the next year. The institution provided theoretical and practical training to students who had passed the two-year mining course at the South African College’s School of Mines in Cape Town. After a year’s training students proceeded to Johannesburg for their fourth and final year before graduating with a diploma in mining engineering. In July 1897 Lawn took his first five students to Johannesburg, where he was elected an honorary member of the South African Association of Engineers and Architects. In January the next year he addressed a special general meeting of the association in Johannesburg on “A South African School of Mines”, explaining the functioning of the institution and requesting support for the training programme in Johannesburg, which had not yet been developed. His address aroused much interest and was published in the association’s Proceedings (Vol. 4, pp. 112-134). Training at the Kimberley School of Mines was suspended late in 1899 owing to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), and after the war, in 1903, the training was transferred to the Transvaal Technical Institute in Johannesburg. Lawn resigned from his post in 1902 to join the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company (JCI) as an assistant consulting engineer from the beginning of 1903 to the end of 1906. He returned to Britain in 1907 when he was appointed head of the Mining Department at the Camborne School of Mines in Cornwall, but came back to South Africa in July 1909 as principal and professor of mining at the Johannesburg branch of the Transvaal University College. This institution became the South African School of Mines and Technology in 1910, and later developed into the University of the Witwatersrand. Meanwhile Lawn resigned his post in August 1910 to rejoin JCI as consulting engineer. In 1913 he was a member of the Miners’ Phthysis Prevention Committee and wrote its Interim report… (Cape Town, 1913). During World War I (1914-1918), in May 1915, he was released from his duties for service in the explosives department of the British Ministry of Munitions, for which he was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1920. Returning to JCI towards the end of 1919 he became its consulting engineer and joint managing director. From July 1924 to his retirement in February 1947 he represented the company in England as a director and consulting engineer, residing in Shamley Green, Surrey. He then returned to South Africa and settled at Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, where he took up plant collecting. Some 2000 specimens collected by him went to the Natal Herbarium. Lawn played an active role in scientific and educational matters during his career. Shortly after his first arrival in South Africa he published Mine accounts and mining book-keeping (London, 1897), a manual for students and mine managers. The seventh edition of this useful work appeared in 1911. He was an examiner in chemical technology, metallurgy, engineering, mine descriptions and economics of mining for the mining examinations of the University of the Cape of Good Hope at various times during 1897-1906, and served on the university’s council from 1897 to 1903. From 1900 to 1907 he was a member of the South African Philosophical Society. In 1902 he became a foundation member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science and served on its council from 1902 to 1905. In 1903 he became a member of the Geological Society of South Africa, serving as its president in 1923. From 1911 to 1949 he was a member of the Witwatersrand Council of Education. In 1912 he represented the mining industry on South Africa’s first National Advisory Council on Technical Education. When the University of the Witwatersrand was established in 1922 he served on its first council, and in 1933 the university awarded him an honorary Doctor of Science degree in Engineering for his contributions to mining and mining education. He was president of the (British) Institution of Mining and Metallurgy in 1930-1931, and an associate of the Royal School of Mines. Reference: Compiled by C. Plug, S2A3 biographical Database of Southern Africa Science;click here to see the page.

James married for the second time to Mary Beatrice Good around July – September 1908 in Bromley, Kent. Mary, born in 1874 in Stamford Hill, London, was the daughter of a Rope Manufacturer. In 1881, Mary, age seven is living with her father, siblings and an aunt, her father was widowed. By the time of the next census, Mary aged about 17, had left home. She is possibly the Mary Good recorded  en route to Natal in 1902, so perhaps met the Lawn family in South Africa.

Majorie, Jack, Brian and Laurie with possibly Mary née Good², James Gunson’s second wife c1911. Photograph taken in Cornwall. [HLR]

The daughter of James Gunson and Mary née Good,  Genifer Coniston Lawn was born 7 Sept 1912 in Johannesburg. Mary died a couple of weeks later on 24 September from complications following the birth. A note I have remarks “As her mother died when she was born she was sent back to England aged six weeks to live with an aunt until her father remarried six years later”

This next photograph appears to be taken several years after the one above, yet still does not include the youngest daughter Genifer. The photograph was taken in Dalton in Furness.[HLR]

James married his third wife, Grace Thomas in Nottingham in 1918. Grace, born in 14 Dec 1872, was 45, and there were no children of this marriage. They were living at 52 Temple Fortune Hill, Hendon, Barnett, London the following year.

52 Temple Fortune Hill – image by richendasc 

James, Grace and daughter Genifer lived in Surrey for some time; in the 1939 register they can be found at Long Acre, Shamley Green, Wonersh, Guildford, Surrey, with James Gunson Lawn listed as ‘Mining Engineer and Director of Companies’. A few years earlier a report in New Zealand newspaper showed his work was held in wide regard throughout the British Empire:

Professor J. G. Lawn, chairman of the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Co., Johannesburg, speaking at the annual meeting of the company, said: “The most notable event of the year, and, indeed, the most important event that has ever happened in the history of the gold industry of South Africa, was the increase in the price of gold which occurred towards the end of December last, owing to South Africa being forced to abandon the old gold standard.  Special reference was made to the Rand mines, but Professor Lawn’s remarks on them will be read no doubt with interest by those having confidence in mining development and possibilities in New Zealand.

18th December 1933, Evening Post.

 

The couple returned to South Africa in the late 1940s, and it was there that James Gunson Lawn died on 21 Oct 1952. Grace died three months after James Gunson in Eshowe, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, on 22 January 1953.

His book Mine accounts and mining book-keeping: A manual for the use of students, managers of metalliferous mines and collieries, and others interested in mining, first published in 1901 is still available as second-hand copies and digital versions on-line.

This image of James Gunson Lawn is in the National Portrait Gallery Collection and has been shared by richendasc on 08 Jun 2016 (Ancestry.com)

James Gunson’s children, like their father, were educated and well-travelled; they attended boarding school and university in England. Marjorie never married, Jack studied medicine and became a medical practitioner, as did Laurie and Brian.  Brian also had an interest in translating medieval manuscripts and was a published author: ‘Notes on a seventeenth century almanack originally belonging to Richard Corbett Esq of Elton Herefordshire’ published in Woolhope Club Transactions 1939 and ‘Auctores britannici medii aevi V’. 1979 ( edited) Oxford University Press were part of his legacy. When Ross and Helen Lawn visited the UK they visited Brian Lawn in 1992 and his daughter Shirley. When Brian died in 2001 his books and manuscripts were left to the Bodelian Library, Oxford. Genifer was working as a secretary prior to WWII, then enlisted and served as a WREN from 1941-1944.

Ross Lawn with Brian Lawn on their visit to London in 1992 [HLR]

¹ Presumably Mary (née Searle) Lawn died sometime between 1906 and 1908 in South Africa; so far I have yet to identify a death or burial record; most South African records are not searchable on-line.

² These photographs are unnamed and undated, however the approximate age of the children is a guide to their date. Compared to the earlier photo (see previous post) of the John Webster Lawn family, the woman appears to have a different nose and eyebrows. Very little is known about James’ wives, except for marriage records, and the probate files for his second and third wife which also gives their dates of death.

 

Acknowledgement: Thanks to my cousin Peter Walker for providing the impetus for researching both James Gunson Lawn and his father John Webster Lawn (albiet several months from the original suggestion!) and special thanks for providing newspaper transcripts.

Familiar features – or just friendly faces?

Photographs of family  – we are fortunate to have them, but sometimes identifying them can be problematic as over time they get labelled, lost, re-labelled and mis-interpreted. I have already written about another photograph that was attributed to family member of the same name but a couple of generations apart.  Can we say with exactitude exactly who these people are? Some of these pictures in this post I have doubts about. The historian in me means I tend to use ‘may’ ‘might’  and ‘possibly’ when describing who the subjects may be.

Another privately published book written about the Lawns (Copper to Quartz, 1999) included a photograph of a Lawn family friend – included because there was a name ‘James Lawn’ written on the back (p52). This photograph came from the collection of a descendant of John Lawn living in Australia. Ironically, as soon as I saw the portrait I immediately identified it as the step-son of my third great grandmother Jane Preshaw, who also lived in the small community of Reefton, New Zealand∗. The photograph – a wedding portrait of Charles Makinson Preshaw and his wife Maria Eliza Coombe (née Kittelty), taken in 1909 – was written on the back ‘James Lawn’ because that is who it was to be sent to.   A lesson for amatuer genealogists (which I learnt from making a similar mistake in another family history) is to always research your images!

Friends – not family? Charlie Preshaw and Maria, Reefton 1909. Copper to Quartz incorrectly supposed that the gentleman, if not James Lawn was ‘George’ Preshaw. Photograph original from E. Torney.

Tempting though it is to see a resemblance, one must look for clues and balance with the documentary evidence to establish whether an image is possibly who it is supposed to be, and if it cannot be extablished with certainty, err on the side of caution.

James Lawn, my great great grandfather and his brothers John, George and Henry Lawn were the sons of James Lawn (1812 – 1884) and Jenifer Webster (1817- 1887). The brothers all came to New Zealand, although George returned to England. James senior and Jenifer married in 1836 in the mining township of Lanner, Cornwall. James (snr) was in turn the son of Timothy Lawn (c1780- 1835) and Grace Whitburn (1780-1852).

There are a couple of pictures supposedly of Grace and one of Timothy (and other family), which should be relatively straight forward to confirm – however, these images have passed to me through the hands of Helen Lawn who was given them by another family member, Ena Boyce. Ena was born Ena Gertrude Lawn, (1909-1977), the grandaughter of Henry Lawn. Ena gave several pictures to Helen and they remain in the Helen Lawn Research (HLR) archive which I digitised. They all appear to be reprints of earlier photographs, judging firstly by the death dates of the subjects, and also by the back-stamp of the photographer, which can be dated.

Photography was invented but not available to the general public mostly until after 1840, so this helps us date the images, which are actually later reprints onto the popular carte-de-visite, probably ordered by Henry Lawn before he left home. James was the first to leave home, to travel to Australian goldfields and then the New Zealand goldfields. He returned to Cornwall at least once, more than likely twice, and again came to New Zealand with his younger brothers and cousins. Henry was recorded at Gwennap in the 1861 census, and he married Harriet Richards in 1868. He then went to work in the mines in Dalton on Furness where his first son Charles was born.

Lawn researcher Andrew Saunders writes: “Henry (1845) arrived in Melbourne from Plymouth on 18 August, 1870 in the vessel  “Hampshire”, and relocated to NZ in January, 1871 in the “Omeo”.  On 14 July, 1873 his wife, Harriet E, and son, Charles H, arrived in Wellington, NZ in the vessel “Halcione” –their name shown as “Laun”. Harriet had been living with her brother in Cornwall in the 1871 English census: William Richards and his wife Rosina were also on the Halcione. Henry and Harriet lived at Blackspoint 1873, then Capelston before finally settling at Te Aroha in the North Island. The reprints of family photographs brought to New Zealand were therefore probably made sometime between 1867 and 1873.

The first image is of Timothy Lawn. Timothy was baptised in Gwennap in May 1780 (he may have been born before this) and was buried in November 1835.  This is before civil registration, (July 1837) so all verifying documentation relies on parish records, or legal documents such wills or court records.

Is this “Timothy” Lawn or “William”?

Helen Lawn wrote the details on the back. You can see that someone originally labelled this ‘William’ in pencil. William Lawn was Timothy’s father, and died in 1811 so this cannot possibly be William Lawn. HLR

The next image is supposed to be Timothy’s wife,  Grace Lawn née Whitburn (1780-1852). Unfortunately the large cloak swathing the woman in this and the next image obscures the most accurate dating device, her clothing: necklines, sleeves and waist-lines are quite useful to pin-point dates within a couple of years. The coal-scuttle bonnet with its tight frill inside the brim worn here is an old-fashioned style which was out of fashion in the big cities, but still favoured by women in Cornwall in the mid-19th Century. Certainly, in both images there are similar styles evident: bonnet, leather gloves, cloak, as well as the subject’s piercing blue eyes. But are they the same person?

“Grace Lawn” nee Whitburn taken after 1840 (original may have been a Daguerrotype). If this is Grace (who was born in 1780) she would have been aged around 60 years in 1840; this image looks to be of a younger woman.  HLR

Rear of the early image of Grace, showing the backstamp dates after 1867, and Helen’s notes in ballpoint pen. Note the question mark – this photograph may not be who it seems.

“Grace Lawn” nee Whitburn 1780 – 1852.  This image is more likely to be accurately labeled, although like the one above it has been reprinted as a carte-de-visite and dates from after 1867. The plinth looks to be  similar – but not exactly the same as in the previous photograph. HLR

Identical backstamp shows these two images were almost certainly printed at the same time.

So if these two women are not the same, who might they be? Grace and Timothy had a daughter, also Grace, born in 1805, who married Benjamin Smith in 1828 so they may be mother and daughter – this does not explain why the younger version was reprinted and came to New Zealand in the 1870s.

The next image is supposed of James Lawn (senior) (1812-1884) – but even this is possibly not correct – note the pencil underneath Helen’s ballpoint, and compare to later images.

‘James Lawn’ 1812-1884. HLR

Note ‘Timothy’ written in pencil underneath ‘James Lawn’ HLR

Now we look at James’ wife, Jenifer Ann (1817-1877) (Baptised and in 1881 census as “Jenifer” but married and in all other census as “Jane”). Here we can date her photograph from her dress to about 1869-1870, although older women did not always wear up-to-date fashion.

‘Jennifer Ann Webster’. HLR

But then, let us compare this ‘James’ and ‘Jennifer’ with another photograph, this time from the collection of Peter Lawn in Reefton, son of the late Bob and Lawn and great-grandson of John Lawn (1840 – 1905). This is supposed to be a marriage portrait, but as the couple married in 1836, predating photography, it was taken later. This photograph is interesting for a couple of reasons: the long exposure time of the early photographs can be seen because James moved his hand and gave himself extra fingers! He also seems to be wearing an oddly fitting jacket, with the sleeves too long. Both seem to be wearing their ‘Sunday best’, if not new clothes. Although it is documented that photographers sometimes had a wardrobe of clothing for sitters to wear in the studio, there can be no knowing if this was the case in this isnstance.

James and Jenifer Lawn, c1840-1850. Original held by Peter Lawn

Here are the two James together: The ‘younger’ James, on the right has drooping eyelids, which the ‘older’ James on the left, does not and the younger James mouth seems to be wider – or perhaps it is just the lighting in the studio? Other features to compare/contrast in identifying portraits are: length of top lip, distance between irises, length and breadth of nose, size and shape of ears (obscured here), eyebrows, hairline, jawline. The nose and ears actually continue to grow over time, so must be considered carefully. These two are similar enough to be related, but maybe not enough to be the same person.

Another image, a family group, which was taken before 1879 is of James and Jenifer, and their two youngest children: Arthur (1857-1879) and Sarah Ann (1862-1951).  Did James grow a long beard between 1879 and the photograph above left taken before his death in April 1884?

Lawn Family, before April 1879. HLR.

Looking, and the more you look the more you see. I always remember meeting a Lawn cousin for the first time – looking across a room and seeing a familiar face although we had never met, and that jolt of knowing long before I made my way around the room and read the name-tag. We search photographs for those same familiar traits and feel triumphant when we identify something we can call ‘ours’ – ‘family’.

But always be aware of what you want to see. It is a human trait to seek familiar recognition in the patterns around us, so much so that we see ‘human’ features in clouds and cracks in the pavement, even cast in stone!

And dont always believe what is written on the back of photographs, particularly in ballpoint pen!

∗There is a connection to the Lawn family of the people in this photograph in the convoluted nature of small West Coast communities where everyone knew, was related to, or married everyone else:

• the grandson of Jane Preshaw, my great grandfather Henry David Evans married Eva Lillian Lawn in 1907, and
• her brother Herbert Lawn married Maria’s niece, Alice Kittelty in 1915.
• Maria Eliza Coombe, née Kittelty’s first husband Joseph Knight Coombe was the brother of Mary Elizabeth Coombe, who married John Lawn in Australia in 1873.

Lawn Cousins

The families of James Lawn and Thomas Lawn are almost as bewildering as the Hart and Nathan families and their repeated names. James’s father was also named James, as was his father before him making three James Lawn in different generations. Our James was often called ‘Jack’—at least when he was older—perhaps a reference to the moniker ‘Cousin Jack’ as Cornishmen were often called. James, John and Henry Lawn were double cousins to Thomas and Edmund Lawn.

After the adventures on the Otago goldfields and his return to Cornwall, James soon returned to Australia with his brother George and their cousin, Thomas Lawn. Thomas and James were double cousins: their respective fathers James and John Lawn had married sisters Jenifer (Jane) and Ann Webster.

The cousins left Liverpool on 2 January 1863, on board the record-breaking iron-hulled ss Great Britain, a great marvel of the age, another of Brunel’s successful designs. They arrived 90 days later in April 1863 in Melbourne, and went to join James’ brother John working in the Copper mines at Moonta, on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Many Cornish miners (including Webster cousins) had congregated there in the three towns of Moonta, Kadina and Wallaroo which gained the epithet of The Copper Triangle or ‘Little Cornwall’. In 1927 the Sun reporter summed up James movements in the following years:

Six months of England were enough for James and he returned to Australia and then came again to New Zealand in 1863. Two years later he went to the West coast, in the Hokitika gold rush, and spent a number of years there, and at Reefton, working in the quartz mines.

Thomas Lawn 1842-1902

Thomas Lawn was born on the 27 March 1842 in Penance , and baptised on the 14 April in Gwennap. He appears on the 1851 census in Penance with his family, including his baby brother Edmund who also eventually to make his home in Blacks Point, New Zealand.

Thomas was taller than his cousin and had light brown curly hair – later it was snowy white. When he came to Australia with his older cousin James they were not to know that eventually they would cross the Tasman and find ‘The best looking girls on the Coast’ in Greymouth: the Hart sisters, and eventually marry them, settle down and raise large families.

Sarah Hart and Thomas Lawn, 1876

Thomas Lawn, like his cousin James, became a quartz mine manager in Reefton. Like his wife Sarah Thomas was a singer and often contributed to entertainment in social gatherings. Thomas built the family home on the Terrace in Reefton not long after their marriage. The combined Lawn families were photographed on the verandah in 1901 when Thomas and Sarah’s son Albert was married to Harriet Noble.

13 November 1901, Reefton.

Back L to R standing on verandah: Mr and Mrs Noble, Mary ‘Polly’ Lawn (b 1879 – daughter of Edmund & Sarah), Eva Scoltock, Benjamin Hart, Thomas Lawn, Dinah and Charles Hansen, Jack Noble, Victor Lawn. At Right, in front of Jack and Victor: Norman Lawn, Liz (née Noble) and Bill Patterson and Rev. York.

Front: James and Rachel Lawn, Ida Hart, Emily Lawn (b 1882, Polly’s sister), Sarah Lawn with Ida, Albert and Harriet. In front of Liz and Bill Patterson: Emma Noble, Esther Lawn, Ernest Lawn, Tom and Jack Noble.

Image: HLR NB some of the names on the back of this copy in HLR are incorrectly attributed and have been corrected here.

The house still stands today.

A grandchild marries

The extended Hart and Lawn families gathered together in Reefton for an exciting occasion; the first of Dinah’s grandchildren, Albert Lawn, 23, second son of Sarah and Thomas was to marry 23 year old Harriet Noble. The wedding took place in late spring, on 13 November 1901. Harriet had been born in South Canterbury to Joseph and Sarah Noble. The dashingly handsome Albert had become a successful hairdresser and tobacconist in Reefton.

            With everyone dressed in their Sunday best, Thomas and Sarah Lawn’s family, along with James and Rachel Lawn, Dinah and Charles Hansen, Benjamin and Ida Hart, and Harriet’s family assembled on the verandah of Thomas and Sarah’s house on the Terrace, Reefton for a family portrait: the men in suits with flowers at the lapel, the women with hats trimmed with feathers and flowers, some looking like birds about to take flight. The boys wear knickerbockers, Eton suits and sailor hats, the little girls swamped in white pinafores and bonnets. Sarah bends forward to keep her youngest daughter Ida still for the photograph. Everyone else waits patiently, squinting a bit in the sun.

            It was to be the last family group photograph that included Thomas Lawn. Less than a year later he was to die in Reefton on 14 June 1902 aged 60. He and Sarah had been married for 25 years. Thomas had suffered from pulmonary phthisis for three years. Commonly known as miner’s phthisis, this was lungs diseased from years of breathing in quartz dust. Thomas’s life ended with a fatal hemorrhage. Mercifully his death was quick, unlike others who lingered days after the initial sudden loss of blood, but nevertheless traumatic for those close to him who witnessed his final collapse.

            Thomas was buried on 14 June at the Reefton Suburban Cemetery at Burkes Creek on Buller Road. Oddly, his headstone faces away from the central pathway. It consists of a cross and roses, although it lies broken; probably damaged after an earthquake. Thomas had made his will in Greymouth in May 1889, simply leaving everything in his estate to his wife Sarah.

excerpt p 286 To Live a Long & Prosperous Life

Thomas Lawn death certificate filed with probate

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Thomas Lawn and Sarah Hart, James Lawn and Rachel Hart children and their families share a combination of the Lawn and Webster, Hart and Nathan strengths and passions. From the combination of Cornish and Jewish genes come a long line of tenacious and hardworking folk. Extraordinary achievers: miners, internationally renowned geologists, doctors, teachers, singers and musicians, writers and academics, including brain surgeons, reserve bank economists, nuclear physicists, university lecturers – and one or two published authors. Chutzpah and the gift of the gab. What an inheritance.

Mordecai’s mark

In my last post I wrote about the personal meaning stone has for me. Of course as a genealogist, stone also represents the earliest record I have found for my Nathan line. A headstone in the Canterbury (Kent) Jewish Cemetery records the passing of Mordecai Nathan (c1746-1841), and also of his wife Frances. This is where the title for this blog originates: written in stone. Mordecai ‘Mark’ Nathan was the paternal grandfather of Dinah Nathan, and was living with her family at 20 Snargate Street, Dover, when he died. He was also one of the many members of this family to ‘Live Long’

The headstone image appears on Cemetery Scribes which has provided translations of the Hebrew and therefore identifies with more certainty Jewish individuals and their family connections. This website also links to a sister site Synagogue Scribes which allows other Hebrew records to be correlated.

Mordecai and Frances Nathan headstone, Canterbury Jewish Cemetery, Kent. Image: Tina Machido

The stone is inscribed firstly in Hebrew and then in English:

NATHAN Mordecai [Mordecai b Nathan] b. 1746 d. 28 Apr 1841 Dover

Mordecai NATHAN of Dover who died 28 Ma[y]? AM 5601 aged 95 years

The Canterbury Jewish Cemetery has a number of Nathans buried close together there: it was at the time, the closest Hebrew burial ground to Dover.

Mordecai’s life was also written in ink: he (along with his wife and son Barnett and his family) is mentioned in a couple of small newspaper articles, just two weeks before he died. This valuable snippet of information which details the family and where they lived was first located and published in the Lawns of Lanner booklet by HLR. I located this image (on very scratchy microfilm) in the Dover Chronicle 17 May 1841,  with the help of Dover library. This appears on page 69 of To Live a Long & Prosperous Life along with other close family events of 1841.

The reporter got the ages wrong (later corrected); Mordecai was 96 and Frances was 104. Dinah Nathan, baby of the family, was a little girl of six years.

Mordecai’s death entry is in the civil records in Dover in 1841, just before the first UK census. Mordecai’s grandson and Dinah’s brother Nathaniel Nathan registered the death.

Another valuable source of information is The Jews of Dover and Their Records (1996) by Martyn C.Webster. I was given a copy of Webster’s work by Jim Smith, a researcher from California, who is descended from the Reuben family of Dover. We initially thought we might be connected, until I found we are not linked to the Reuben name as was first thought.

Webster’s book listed Dover burials in the Canterbury Cemetery, these came from a list of headstone transcriptions and another source: A record book of births deaths and marriages of Jews in Canterbury Dover, Deal and Ramsgate 1831-1870.  This last source is in the Hartley Institute, University of Southampton and probably holds further records on our extended family, if I ever get a chance to get there I will certainly be looking for more. Synagogue Scribes reference this resource for many of their entries.

From Webster’s notes we see that Mordecai (died mg [morning] 4 o’clock) and is buried in plot M2. Other Nathans are in plots M1, M3, M4 M7 and M8. Plots M5 and 6 are also likely to have Nathan family members – perhaps children who did not have headstones.

Although these records are brief, they allow us to anchor the beginning of the family tree in time and place. We know from his patronym that Mordecai’s father was named Nathan (Mordecai ben Nathan  – ben means ‘son of’) but other than that we know little more of his line because of the nature of Jewish genealogy, as Family Tree DNA have succinctly put it:

­

What are the challenges of Jewish genealogy?
Jewish genealogy includes many challenges that mean more frequent and problematic road blocks for the Jewish genealogist than for the non-Jewish genealogist. The following are some of these challenges:

Surnames that pass from father to son were not adopted until the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Unrelated paternal lines have adopted the same surnames.
Related paternal lines have adopted different surnames.
Surnames have been adapted to the country where descendants live today.
In many cases, traditional paper trail records are lacking.
The Jewish population is endogamous (intermarrying).

From this point, recorded in ink and stone 175 years ago, the rest of the story unwinds.

Indebted

My research and writing have been based upon work of other family members who have been researching for far longer than I have. Not long after I became interested in Lawn family history I attended a workshop at Ferrymead Heritage Park in my then role as a Museum Educator at South Canterbury Museum. Looking across the room I saw another attendee who looked vaguely familiar, a man with a friendly smile, who, when I sidled around the room to glance at his name tag I saw he was a LAWN – Peter Lawn of Blacks Point Museum. Peter and I got talking and quickly established our family connections; he was the son of Bob and Betty Lawn of Reefton, descendants of John Lawn (1840-1905), brother to my James Lawn (1837-1928), making us third cousins once removed.

Peter alerted me to the fact that there was a book and family tree, compiled by Helen and the late Ross Lawn (descendant of Thomas Lawn and Sarah Hart) for a family reunion in the 1980s – a reunion that somehow my immediate family missed. Peter kindly sent me a copy of the tree and the booklet that explained a little of the history of the Lawn family. The tree I received had been revised in 1989 after the reunion (when more information had come forward). It was remarkable: beautiful calligraphy on seven A1 pages, it covered the many Lawns who were descended from the original Cornish family beginning with William Lawn (b Gwennap 1777). The six sheets of the tree covered: