A lengthy non-technical post this week: On entering
genealogy, one of my earliest pieces of research was to find about my
grandmother’s grandmother. This enigmatic lady never married but was rumoured
to have had a liaison with a “rich French actor” resulting in my great-grandfather.
At that early stage of my genealogy, I was busy visiting all
my known relatives and recording everything they could remember about past
events and family relationships. I was writing everything down, even if vague
or contradictory, and dating each item for when I would need the material later.
While talking to my aunt, Beryl, and her daughter Julie, I
was told that the grandmother of my paternal grandmother worked at the Nottingham
Theatre Royal. This was a total surprise to me, and even to my father. Her name
was Mary Jesson and she worked as a costume maker. Julie used to listen to our
grandmother (Annie Elizabeth Jesson) recount stories of her own grandmother,
Mary Jesson, and luckily she still remembered much of it.
Between my cousin and my aunt, I was told that:
- Mary worked in the Nottingham
Theatre Royal as a costume maker.
- Mary never married but she had a
liaison with a “rich French actor” resulting in her only son, Frederick.
- Mary lived for a time in Jessamine
Cottages[1],
possibly in the early 1900s.
- Mary played a large part in raising
my grandmother because her daughter-in-law had a drink problem.
- Mary may have also worked in
Leicester or Hull for a while – This was rather vague as I couldn’t think
of much that connected these two English towns.
I was very sceptical because such stories can often grow
from some quite small rumour. My scepticism evaporated, though, when my aunt
pulled out a 20-volume book of Nottingham and showed Mary’s name in the credits
of several theatre playbills
[2].
The suggested dates of these playbills placed her at the Nottingham Theatre
Royal between 1882 and 1888. Unfortunately, this theatre has changed hands a
lot over time, and much invaluable material that could have formed a theatre
archive was lost or destroyed.
Mary was quite easy to find up until
1881. She was born on 30 Apr 1849 at York Place, Nottingham, to James Jesson, a
framework knitter, and Keziah Chandler[3].
In the 1851 census the family were living at 4 York Place
[4].
She was baptised on 8 Apr 1860 at Nottingham St. Mark
[5], but
her father had died earlier that same year aged only 36.
In the 1861 census, Keziah was a widow living at 3 York Place,
and Mary was a lace dresser
[6].
In the 1871 census, Mary was lodging at Beckett's Place,
Bridlesmith Gate, and was a lace clipper[7].
In the 1881 census, Mary was living at 1 Castle Court with her married
sister, Ann Humber. At that time she was a dress maker and was using the name
Polly (a derivative of
Mary)
[8].
Despite all my best attempts,
including all combinations of misspellings, age, occupation, etc., I cannot
locate Mary in the 1891 or 1901 census. To be missing from one census is not
uncommon but to be missing from two consecutive ones must be deliberate. I was
convinced she was living under an assumed name but I couldn’t even be sure she
was still in Nottingham at that time.
Looking towards her latter years,
in the 1911 census, Mary was living at 2 Princes Square, Moodey Street, with
her brother, Thomas, and granddaughter Mary Emma Jesson[9].
By then she was a lace hand. Mary died on 27 Jan 1926 at 8 Middle Av, Carlton
Road, with her occupation being recorded as a lace clipper[10].
She was buried on 1 Feb 1926 at Cavendish Road, Carlton, in the same grave as her
brother, Thomas.
This left over twenty years (1888 until 1911) unaccounted
for, and during which I had no idea where she was or what she did.
Her immediate family tree can be summarised as follows:
Switching to her son, he was born in 1872 and was given the
very interesting name of Frederick Thomas Major Horace Jesson. Frederick and
Thomas were common names, and Thomas was also the name of Mary’s brother, but
Major and Horace were strange additions in an unusually long name. I still believe
there’s a clue to the father in his name but I’m still trying to figure it out.
Frederick was born 26 Aug 1872 at
6
Malt Mill Lane, and his birth certificate confirmed that Mary was
unmarried but no father’s name was recorded
[11].
However, his baptism record gave the father's name as "James Jesson"
(i.e. Mary's own father who died in 1860), in a desire to fill the column
[12]. Frederick’s
marriage certificate gave his father's name as "Frederick Jesson
(deceased)" (i.e. apparently his own name) and his father's occupation as
"actor"
[13]. The
"actor" reference substantiated the family story to some extent. It was
interesting that he knew this actor was deceased so they must have followed his
name in the papers. Finally, Mary was not a witness at her only son's wedding
in 1894. This could have been due to some falling out but was more likely due
to her living too far away from Nottingham.
I was actually stuck at this point for quite some time.
Then, one weekend, I was visiting my parents in Nottingham
when I had an epiphany. I remembered that Frederick
was in the army in the 1891 census. If I could get access to his service record
then Mary might be listed as next-of-kin together with an address. Very
spookily,
findmypast had just made
their Chelsea Pensioner Service Records available the week before – I swear I
didn’t know this since the pressures of work hadn’t allowed me to research for
a few months. Anyway, on that Saturday morning I pulled out my laptop and found
his service record. Sure enough, Mary was listed as next-of-kin but the address
was ‘c/o Prince of Wales Theatre, Greenwich’, in London. A reasonable guess was
that she left Nottingham after Frederick was old enough to join the army.
Fig 1 - Morton's Theatre, Greenwich
[14]
The Prince of Wales Theatre in Greenwich was more commonly
known as Morton’s Theatre since it was managed for a while by a William Morton.
An Internet search on the man suggested that he not only ran this theatre but
also the Hull Theatre Royal and several other entertainment venues in Hull.
This was getting exciting now as my aunt had previously mentioned Hull. I managed to find
an old copy of his autobiography entitled I
Remember (A feat of Memory) and began learning all about his accidental
entry into theatre-land.
Newspaper archives turned out to be my biggest resource, and
I regularly used the British Newspaper Archive, the Gale database of 19th
Century British Newspapers, The Times Digital Archive, and the London Gazette.
In particular, two specialist papers covering the theatre and other
entertainments: The Stage (a
subscription-only archive) and The Era,
were a revelation since I found many more references to Mary Jesson than I had
expected.
I found multiple references placing her at the Theatre
Royal, Nottingham, between Dec 1881 and Jan 1887
[15].
There was a rather confusing one dated Dec 1882 that placed her at the Glasgow
Grand
[16],
but according to my timeline Mary should have been in Nottingham. A bit of library
research revealed that the Nottingham Theatre Royal was run by a Thomas W.
Charles (1843–1895) during 1877–1890 and he had also acquired the Glasgow Grand
Theatre in 1881. The Grand Theatre, at the corner of Stewart Street and
Cowcaddens Street, in Cowcaddens, opened in Sep 1881 with a capacity of 2030.
It had previously been the Prince of Wales Theatre but was completely
refurbished for its change of name. It sounded like Mary had been sent up there
to help get a production of Robinson Crusoe off the ground.
I also found multiple newspaper references placing her in
Greenwich between Feb 1891 and Dec 1896
[17],
and a non-newspaper reference for Christmas 1893
[18].
One of the newspaper sources also placed her in Bromley, Kent, in Feb 1891
[19]
but the explanation was simple. As well as the Greenwich Theatre Royal, Morton
also owned the Grand Hall at Bromley.
The next reference to her was at the Hull Theatre Royal in
Jan 1897
[20].
This gave a pretty good estimate of when she moved from Greenwich to Hull (i.e.
between the Dec and the Jan), presumably because Morton wanted to concentrate
on Hull to avoid the competition in Greenwich.
The very last newspaper reference I found to Mary was in Oct
1897 and had her working with a touring company
[21].
My research could have finished here but I was still curious. Why a touring
company? What happened between 1897 and 1911 when she was back in Nottingham? I
decided to research the man who organised the touring company, and again
started trawling all the newspapers for references.
He was Ernest Richard Jones, a scenic artist born in Wolverhampton in 1862. He was the resident artist at the Grand
Theatre, Wolverhampton, until 1897. In May-Jun
of 1897 he was advertising for a theatre to lease "close to
Oxford". I can only imagine that he’d come into some money somehow. In Oct
1897, he was preparing to go on tour as the Ernest Jones Sardanapalus Company
with a very grand production based on Lord Byron's play of the same name. By
the Nov they were scheduled to play the Theatre Royal Preston on 6 Dec, and the
Princes Theatre Manchester on 13 Dec — which they did — and then Birmingham at Christmas.
Nottingham, Newcastle, and Liverpool were also booked. However, by 1 Jan 1898,
production had halted. By 24 Jan, the tour was cancelled and Her Majesty's
Theatre Dundee was advertising for a replacement. From the London Gazette, I
found that by 27 May, Ernest was in debt. By 15 Oct, Ernest was bankrupt and the
scenery and costumes were being auctioned off. This may have ended Mary's
career in the theatre as she must have given up her resident position with
William Morton.
It would be easy to assume that the play was a flop.
However, it featured a famous actor of the time called Norman V. Norman. I
found an interview with him where he declared his title role in the Sardanapalus
play to be “…the finest thing I have ever taken part in, both from an artistic
as well as a spectacular effect...”.
[22]
So why did Mary take this risky plunge with an unproven
touring company? A possible answer lies in an article from Dec 1897
[23]
which suggested that the play was a special favourite of T. W Charles; Mary’s
previous boss from the Theatre Royal in Nottingham who had died just two years
before.
Lord Byron’s dramatic works are
not frequently played upon the stage, though "Marius Faliero,” "Manfred,”
and "Sardanapalus” all present attractions likely to be fully appreciated
by cultivated audiences. Sardanapalus” was a special favourite with the late
Thomas W. Charles, and more than once during the period when he was managing
director of the Prince’s Theatre he contemplated an elaborate revival of the
play. For one week only the performance of this play is announced. ‘The company
retained to represent it is pioneered by Mr. Ernest R. Jones. Mr. Norman V.
Norman will appear in the title role, Mr. H. Moxon as Salimenes, and Miss Alice
Arden as Myrrha. A full chorus and corps de ballet have been engaged to render
the performance additionally effective.
Some time later, a friend mentioned that she had noticed a
headline in an old Nottingham paper about a “rich French actor” dying in 1876.
I was intrigued since very few actors were rich at that time. The actor in
question was Frédérick Lemaître (28 Jul 1800 – 26 Jan 1876), born Antoine Louis
Prosper Lemaître, and arguably one of the most famous French actors of the
time. I knew this was going to be a long-shot but I just had to follow it
through.
Fig 2 - Frédérick Lemaître, c1880
[24]
This date fitted with the known fact that the actor I was
after was deceased by 1894. In fact, there were two relevant newspaper articles
[25]:
one in 1870 reporting that a Parisian paper had complained about Lemaître’s
salary increasing from £40 to £600 per month, and one in 1876 announcing his
death. Mary would certainly have been aware of these, and her son’s conception was
in late 1871 – in between the two events. Further coincidences included the
fact that Lemaître went under the stage name of Frederick, which Mary chose as
her son’s forename, and maître usually translates as “master” but can also be a
synonym of “major” in French.
I studied an old biography of Frédérick Lemaître in order to
learn about French Theatre. Unfortunately, I couldn’t place Lemaître anywhere
in England at the time of Frederick Jesson’s conception. In fact, France had
been involved in the Franco-Prussian war between Jul 1870 and May 1871. Prussian
and German armies had defeated French armies in a series of battles fought
across northern France. Although Napoleon III surrendered in Sep 1870, there
was a long siege of Paris that didn’t end until 28 Jan 1871. The terms of the
peace treaty caused a further uprising, and a siege of Paris known as the Paris
Commune, during Mar 1871 to May 1871. The last barricades were in theatre-land
but when the Communards were overrun, there were thousands of summary
executions.
[26] Interestingly,
Lemaître tried to take advantage of a law allowing a rebate on his rent during
the siege, and he had to prove that he was no longer “very rich”, as alleged by
his landlord. The next references to Lemaître are from Mar 1872 so the timeline
is incomplete.
Future Work
A lot of documented evidence here, but a lot of conjecture
too. I have thought about DNA testing but, even if I could locate a descendant
of Lemaître, there is no direct patrilineal or matrilineal line since Mary’s
only child was a son, and so I would be relying on autosomal testing. At best,
it might suggest a French connection.
There is a chance that a descendant of William Morton
retained some old paperwork that might make reference to Mary, or donated potential
evidence to a theatre archive, but I haven’t explored this.
One particular avenue I’m currently exploring is to find my
grandmother’s older sister, Mary Emma Jesson (b. 1895
at 39 Newcastle St), in the 1901 census. Mary Emma would have been about six in
1901 but she is missing in that census. It struck me that she may have been
staying with her grandmother, Mary, who is also missing, just as the family
recollections would later say of my grandmother. The fact that Mary Emma is
living with Mary in the 1911 census lends weight to this idea. If I could find
one of them in 1901 then I might find both of them.
Greenwich Theatres
I am using abbreviated inline newspaper citations in this
section because of the sheer number and their occasional tabulated nature.
There were two theatres in Greenwich, SE London, at that
time: one on Croom's Hill, close to Stockwell St, and one on nearby London St
(now High Rd). The
Croom's
Hilll theatre was originally a music hall, created in 1855 as part of the
Rose and Crown pub next door. At the time of writing, the Wikipedia article,
linked above, contains unsourced dates for its name changes which are
demonstrably wrong. A brief check in the newspaper archives yields the
following names and date ranges:
Crowder’s Music Hall and Theatre of Varieties
|
South London Chronicle,
12 Feb 1874, p.4
|
South London
Chronicle, 17 Mar 1874, p.4
|
Crowder’s Music Hall
|
The Era, 12 Apr
1874, p.4
|
The Era, 19 Jan
1879, p.4
|
Royal Borough Theatre of Varieties
|
The Era, 2 May
1880, p.4
|
(only one instance found)
|
Crowder's Music Hall and Temple of Varieties
|
The Era, 11 Jul
1880, p.10
|
The Era, 30 Sep
1882, p.12
|
Crowder’s Music Hall
|
Lloyds Weekly
Newspaper, 8 Jul 1883, p.12
|
The Era, 22 Aug
1885, p.15 [Renovation necessary]
|
Parthenon Theatre of Varieties (or just Parthenon)
|
The Era, 17 Oct 1885,
p.12, col.4
|
The Era, 9 Dec
1899, p.16, col.5
|
Although that theatre is now called ‘The Greenwich Theatre’,
it never had this name when the London Street theatre existed, and so the other
theatre was known informally as the ‘Greenwich Theatre’.
This other theatre was on the SE side of London Street at
no. 75.
Fig 3 - London St, Greenwich, c1905
[27]
Using Kelly’s Directory
[28]
to picture left-to-right from the Royal Hill to South St junctions, the
Bath House is
first. Although the directory does not give it a number, the 1891 census has it
as no. 69, and the 1901 census as nos. 67-69. The theatre is at no. 75 and can
be seen behind the tram in the image. The name on the roof puts the date in the
range 1902–1910. The 1901 census has the theatre office at no. 73. The Portland
public house is at no. 77 but only the facade can be seen in this image.
Further to the right, just out of the picture, was a Wesleyan Chapel, just
before South St.
The Greenwich ‘Theatre Royal’, as it was originally known, was
acquired by William Morton (1838–1938) in May 1884 from Sefton Parry
(1832–1887)
[29], and
opened on August 18 under the name of The New Prince of Wales Theatre (
The Morning Post, 21 Jul 1884, p.2).
This was his first venture into theatre management so it was initially rented
and the licence transferred the following year. The “New” prefix was also
dropped the following year and it was then known as the Prince of Wales Theatre
until about 1889 (
The Era, 23 Mar
1889, p.14, col.3).
It was generally called Morton’s Theatre, thereafter,
although there was a period where it was Morton’s Model Theatre. The use of the
word ‘model’ can be found as early as 1888 when the theatre is described as
“This model theatre” (The Era, 14 Jan
1888, p.12, col.3), and “…being managed on model principles” (The Era, 4 Aug 1888, p.10, col.2). The
earliest reference in a name, using both Prince of Wales Theatre and Model
Theatre, was in 1889 (The Era, 19 Mar
1889, p.14, col.2), but its usage as a sole name was between 1895 (The Hull Daily Mail, 26 Feb 1895, p.1) and
1897 (The Era, 3 Sep 1898, p.16).
Following the resurrection of the Broadway Theatre in
Deptford in Dec 1897, Morton’s Theatre was running at a loss due to the
increased competition so he wanted to sell up
[30].
Morton was already the manager of the Theatre Royal in Hull since 4 Mar 1895 (until
4 Mar 1909) and it must have been difficult to manage both locations.
William Morton sold the theatre to Arthur Carlton in 1900 (
The Era, 7 Apr 1900, p.16, dated 6 Apr).
In the March, there was a farewell benefit where a performance of "Royal
Divorce" had been selected by Morton to commemorate the last week of his
16-year tenure (
The Era, 24 Mar
1900, p.14, col.4), and Arthur Carlton asked permission, at the end of the
show, to retain the name of Morton's Theatre. Carlton did not find the
continuance easy, though. In the following October, he was presented with a
list of 41 suggestions for improvement to the theatre to meet modern standards
(
The Era, 27 Oct 1900, p.9, col. 3).
In 1902, Carlton's application for a licence to sell intoxicating liquor in the
now-named Carlton Theatre was refused as the previous proprietor had conducted
it as a temperance house (
The Worcestershire
Chronicle, 5 Nov 1902, p.2, col.3).
[2] Richard Iliffe & Wilfred Baguely, Victorian Nottingham – A Story in Pictures (1971; reprint, Nottingham Historical Film Unit, 1977), vol. 7, pp.93-98.
[3] England, birth certificate for Mary
Jesson, born
30 Apr 1849;
citing 15/643/288, registered Nottingham
1849/Jun [Q2]; General Register
Office (GRO), Southport.
[4] "1851 England, Wales & Scotland Census", database, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.org.uk : accessed 10 Feb 2014), household of James Jesson (age 27); citing HO 107/2132, folio 254, page 6; The National Archives of the UK (TNA).
[5] Nottinghamshire
Family History Society (NottsFHS), Parish Register Baptism Transcriptions, CD-ROM, database (Nottingham, 1 Jan 2013), database
version 6.0, entry for Mary Jesson, 8 Apr 1860.
[6] "1861 England, Wales & Scotland Census", database, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.org.uk : accessed 10 Feb 2014), household of Kezier [Keziah] Jesson (age 34); citing RG 9/2458, folio 93, page 25; TNA.
[7] "1871 England, Wales & Scotland Census", database, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.org.uk : accessed 10 Feb 2014), household of Mary Pearson (age 34); citing RG 10/3523, folio 19, page 7; TNA.
[8] "1881 England, Wales & Scotland Census", database, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.org.uk : accessed 10 Feb 2014), household of Thomas Humber (age 29); citing RG 11/3357, folio 73, page 2; TNA.
[9] "1911 Census for England and Wales”, database, FindMyPast (www.findmypast.org.uk : accessed 7 Feb 2014), household of Thomas Jesson (age 64); citing RG 14/20581, RD430, SD3, ED41, SN114; TNA.
[10] England, death certificate for Mary
Jesson, died
27 Jan 1926; citing 7b/392/496, registered Nottingham 1926/Mar [Q1]; GRO.
[11] England, birth certificate for Frederick
Thomas Major Horace Jesson, born 26 Aug 1872; citing 7b/281/245, registered Nottingham 1872/Dec [Q4]; GRO.
[12] NottsFHS, Parish Register Baptism Transcriptions, CD-ROM, database, entry for Frederick Jesson, 6 Dec 1860.
[13] England, marriage certificate for Frederick Jesson and Rebecca Watts, married 25 Feb 1894; citing 7b/348/28, registered Nottingham 1894/Mar [Q1]; GRO.
[14] Image displayed by
kind permission of Vivyan Ellacott of the Over
The Footlights encyclopaedia of London theatres (http://www.overthefootlights.co.uk/London_Theatres.html
: accessed
14 Feb 2014). Report of specimen in London Daily News (Monday 9 Sep 1889): p.2, col.2. The “ornamenting” of Morton’s playbills with a map of his theatre
exits was criticised in The Graphic (Saturday 14 Sep 1889): p.20 (BNA index) or p.335
(page corner), col.2, since they believed no one would consult it in the event
of a real fire.
[15] "Theatre Royal, Nottingham", Nottingham Evening Post (Wednesday 28 Dec 1881): p.1, col.6. "Boxing Day
Amusements, Theatre Royal", Nottinghamshire
Guardian (Friday 30 Dec 1881): p.3, cols.3-4. "Amusements. 'Cinderella' at the Theatre
Royal", Nottinghamshire Guardian
(Friday 29 Dec 1882): p.2, cols.4-5.
"Nottingham. Theatre Royal", The Era (Saturday 13 Jan 1883): p.12,
col.4. "Nottingham.
Theatre Royal", The Era
(Saturday 29 Dec 1883): p.11, col.2.
"Nottingham", The Era (Saturday 2 Jan 1886): p. 18, cols.2-3. "Nottingham",
The Era (Saturday 1 Jan 1887): p.18,
col.4. "Nottingham
- Royal", The Stage (14 Jan
1887): p.3.
[16] "Glasgow - Grand", The
Stage (29 Dec 1882): p.3.
[17] "Morton's Theatre Greenwich", The
Era (Saturday
21 Feb 1891): p.9, col.5. "Morton's, Greenwich", The Era (Saturday 31 Dec 1892): p.10, cols.1-2. "Morton's Theatre, Greenwich", The Era
(Saturday 19 Jan 1895): p.9, col.3. "’The Forty Thieves’ at Greenwich”, The
Era (Saturday 26 Dec 1896): p.12, col.1.
[19] "’The Babes’ at Bromley", The Era (Saturday 21 Feb 1891):
p.11, col.4.
[20] "Amusements in Hull", The Era (Saturday 2 Jan 1897): p.25, col.1.
[21] "Sardanapalus", The Era (Saturday 23 Oct 1897): p.2, col.3.
[22] "Theatrical
Celebrities", The
Bury and Norwich Post (Tuesday 27 Dec 1898): p.6, col.1.
[23] “The Theatres", Manchester Evening News (Saturday 11 Dec 1897): p.4, col.5.
[25] Nottinghamshire Guardian
(Friday 12 Aug 1870): p. 2. Nottinghamshire Guardian (Friday 28 Jan 1876): p.8.
[26] Robert Baldick, The Life and Times of Frédérick Lemaître (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1959), pp.234-237.
[28] Kelly's London Suburban
Directory, 1896. [Part 4. Southern: Localities], p.211 (image 232 of 487), online PDF, University
of Leicester, compiler, Historical
Directories (http://www.historicaldirectories.org/hd/index.asp
: accessed 11 Feb 2014), entry for London Street EAST SIDE.
[29] William Morton, I Remember (A Feat of Memory) (Hull:
Goddard, Walker, & Brown Ltd., 1934), pp.65-66, 95.
[30] Morton, I Remember, p.71.
