Davis Family Tree
by Lynda
Archard
©: September 2007
A Graphic tree.
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Family history followed by some of our memories Before I start I thought I would give you a quick run down of the Fathers before you get confused because of all the similar names.
Davis tree
Levy Davis (b1888) married Hannah Clark (b1889) Parents of: Freddie, Florrie, Tommy, Ernie, Alice, Esther, Johnny, Hannah, Milly, Leah, Eileen, Georgie, Charlie Parents of: Us - The cousins
Click for the revised layout of the Davis Tree
I have found the Clark family on the 1901 census using the information from my trip to Dorset. Either Polly was not at home on the day of the census or Polly is a nickname for Mary Ann. I couldn't find them before 1901. It looks as though they travelled around because only two of the children were born in the same town. I'll try to go back further soon.
Thanks to Aunty Hannah these are the plot numbers for our Grandparents graves at Nunhead Cemetery. (And 'no' it has not been grassed over, built on or destroyed - except by overgrown plants such as blackberry and ivy! Hannah was buried 27/02/1940 Grave No 40219 Levy was buried 10/01/1952 Grave No 42921 also on the card was 'Square 33' but it could be 88 or 83. Note how similar the numbers are even though they are quite a way from each other! These are pictures I took at Nunhead Cemetery:
The Chapel shell. And here is a link to The Friends of Nunhead Cemetry with opening times, information and a picture gallery.
Religious facts: Levy or Levi is a Jewish surname that corresponds with the sons of the Jewish group of Levittes. They were the ones who were not given a land to live on because it was said they carried God with them and therefore could live anywhere in the world without needing a static place to call home! Jewish names all have meanings that are often sentences. When the sentences are put together within a group or family starting with the eldest it tells a story of where they originated or what the purpose of their existence on Earth is supposed to be. That might not be true today because it has probably been forgotten since Biblical days with so many people coming out of the religion or changing names to prevent persecution. I am still looking into this to see what else I can find or if it is just a story on a web site. Jewish culture is the only religion I haven't studied that much and I have now found it the most fascinating to research (even though I can't pronounce some of the words in their culture) and it is unlike any other religion I have studied. I would love to know which Davis first changed to Christianity. I hope it was a recent relative so I can use Jewish laws to try and trace the ones before them back through Russia. If I can find Isaac or Judahs gravestone it will probably have their Jewish name written in Hebrew above the name Davis. Then we will know where he came from and which sect of Jewish culture they were. Does anyone know where he was buried?
What I know about our family By Lynda Archard Where did they originate - Family Stories The first Davis to come to England could have been Isaacs father before 1811 because this Isaac was born at Shadwell or Spitalfields. Judah, his son did travel to the US regularly where his wife Rosa gave birth to their daughter Blumer and another daughter, Martha, was born at sea, probably on their journey home. Aunty Alice remembers seeing her Grandad Isaac, who was Judahs son (Isaac and Rosettas Grandson) but at that time he couldn't speak or hear after having 3 strokes. She said he was a very big man with white hair. His Doctor was Dr. Larkin and they had to sell the shop in East Street to pay his fees. He was buried in a Jewish section of the cemetery, which she thinks could be Nunhead, and his wife was outside the Jewish section somewhere. She also remembers a family story that one of the wives probably Esther, Isaacs wife, was brought to the UK by the Davis' because she was a servant working and living in extremely poor conditions and so they escaped her destiny for a better life here and came from Poland. Because we know Judah was here before Isaac and Esther that could also apply to Rosa. Judah must have been rich to travel and become established in business. We don't know where that story came from because we don't know anything about Esther or Rosa other than Esther was a machinist and Rosa was a clothier. Isaacs Mother Rosa and her daughters were in the rag trade so they could have trained Esther or they might all have been self-taught. After searching more than 2,500 Rosas born in Whitechapel on the 1851 Census I have found only 5 single girls and 2 older married Rosas. Out of the single girls there is only one who was 17 years old born in 1834 - Rosa Carter - a 17-year-old servant working in 63 Church Street, Shoreditch for Nathalon Kennett 30, Elizabeth Kennett 30 and Hakep Frike 39. On the 1841 Census there is only one Rosa Carter born 1840 living in Sun Street, St Botolph Without Bishopsgate. Parents are: John Carter 27 Occupation Traveller and wife Mary 24. There is no sign of either Judah, Rosa or the Carter family on the 1861 census but we know that Rosas daughter, Bluma, was born in 1860 in the United States. If Rosa was orphaned or abandoned at an early age then it is more than possible that she didn't know her real date of birth and later became a servant. Instead of the servant being brought here in Alices story it is more likely that the servant was taken to the US to escape poverty and brought back as Mrs Rosa Davis. This is a great love story isn't it. That could explain why they went to the US and why Rosa kept changing her age and year of birth until she died. The story passed down to Ronnie about Russian Gypsies could have been distorted over the years because the gypsy girl married a Jew. I am still unsure of the Russian link that aunty Florrie told me about. If that story is true then the Russian link would be back in the 1700s with the first Isaacs parents or before. We know that the Dutch link is through Esther and her family and the gypsy link is through Rosa wife of Judah. Rosas parents, John and Mary, sound more likely to be Irish. Hannah was born to an English father and Irish mother so Russian can only be in the Davis family. Ronnies Dad Freddie was four years old when Rosa died and Florrie was only two years old. Could Rosa, their Great-Grandmother have told them this story and it got muddled over the years? It seems Rosa who married Judah and is Isaacs mother and our parents Great-Grandmother is likely to be the servant behind the story that Alice knew of. All the stories have a grain of truth that are starting to fit with the facts. What do you think? Aunty Eileen said she remembers a rumour that we were related or connected to the Rothchild family. As our family tree goes back to Whitechapel where the Rothchilds came from it is likely they at least knew each other or lived in a Rothchild building, which were available to rent in Spitalfields. Did one of the Davis girls have an affair with a Rothchild? Aunty Florrie told me the first Davis came from Russia through Holland. She didn't know if they were Russian or if that was another country they travelled through. She did know that they were not called Davis until they left Russia, which fits with the history of how Jewish people ended up with English names. No one knows what their original name was or where they lived before or whilst in Russia. It is important we find Judah or even Isaacs headstone because the Jewish name is probably carved in Hebrew above the name 'Davis.' Nearly all the Jewish community in Whitechapel at the turn of 1800 came from Holland. Many graves in the East End including Whitechapel and West Ham, have been destroyed and/or covered in Graffiti on a regular basis through the past two-hundred years. In 2003 the West Ham Jewish section of a graveyard was vandalised for the 117th time! At the Cousins reunion Ronnie told me that he thought they were Russian Gypsies. I like this one because it could explain the psychic skills that run through some of us and I have it from both sides of my bit of the family. My Dad had always said his Dad (Levy) came from Poland but can't remember who told him that. I suspect it was Alice. It certainly was not Levy because his Grandad Isaac was born here (1857) and lived around the corner from him in East Street and Isaacs Dad Judah was born here (1834) and so was his Dad yet another Isaac (1811). It is more difficult when you are the baby of a family to remember information given to you as a child or to know how many changes there have been in the verbal relay! Perhaps that was a family story to ensure knowledge was passed on and Poland was another country they lived in on their travels to London. My Dad could have assumed the story was about his own Dad and not his Grandad because Isaac died before he was born. His Mum died when he was 7 and he was really brought up by Alice. The Davis' could have just travelled through Poland, then Holland before reaching England! Pat (Alices daughter) says she was always told our Grandad was a Polish Jew. It makes sense that it was probably Alice who re-told that story. Did your part of the family get a similar story to pass down? Please let me know. I love it when someone asks me what my family ethnic origin is! What should we say? We are English and, going back to our ancestors, with a bit of Russian, Polish, and or Dutch and possibly something else if they only travelled through Russia to get here. Oh and a bit of Irish! Then on my Mums side a bit of... and the list goes on! I hate the cold and cold countries such as Russia do not appeal to me in any way even to visit for an hour. I can sit in the sun all day everyday and easily travel abroad for winter if I could. Is this generic? Here are some thoughts for you. Gary couldn't tell where I was when I mingled in the crowded market on holiday in Malta. We all looked the same. I felt so comfortable out there. I also get fed up with people from Greece, Cyprus, Italy or sometimes Spain talking to me in their language expecting me to understand them. I don't know what they are saying. My Dad (Charlie) loved his holiday in Cyprus. Do we come from a Mediterrannean country? Some of us have already emigrated. Pat (Alice's daughter) lives in Spain and Mickey (Millie's son) lives in Italy. Ronnie and Hetty are in Canada, where some Jewish people came from to England in the early 1800s. Did they go back to our ancient roots? If so then who got the closest? If you have any other information please email me! I could list your thoughts on a new page of the website.
Please remember that if you check the following information against the 1901 census this is what Aunty Alice remembers in the order of age and some might have changed their names or possibly be known by nicknames to family or not living at home when the census was taken. Missing names might have died young or moved away and would not have been known to our more immediate family.
Parents: Isaac and Hester lived first in 71 Tower Street then moved to a shop in 58 East Street, Walworth, London.
Levy Davis' Brothers and Sisters:
Uda (Judah) married to Florrie, no children, lived at Blackwood Street, East Lane.
Jack married to Rose, lived at East Street with 5 children.
Lou - had 2 daughters, lived at Weston Supermare.
Manny (Emmanuel)
Harry had 2 sons.
Dave married to Edie (pronounced E-D) with 5 children.
Leah lived on the Isle of Wight
Abie or Abe (Abraham) married to Alice children: Ronnie, Stanley (the professional boxer).
No E on the end of Clark confirmed by birth certificates.
Hannah was born in a vicarage in County Cork Ireland. Her Mother is Bridget Clark (nee Bridget O'Rourke).
Hannah Clarks brothers and sisters:
Tom married to Alice Children: Alice, Tom, Sam, Billy and Albert. Also married Lydia Holden and lived in King & Queen St., off East Lane. Also married to Emmy.
Frank was killed cleaning windows.
Albert
Polly Clark (possibly Mary Ann on the census) married Charlie Bromfield with children: Mary (unmarried, no children), Billy (son Peter), Harry, Tom, George and Freddie.
Check it here
Other Facts:
Levy was always known as Freddie. His eldest child, our Uncle Freddie, is also Levy known as Freddie and his son seems to be the only Freddie whose real name is actually Freddie but known as Freddie Boy!
There is 26 years between the oldest Of Levy and Hannahs children (Freddie) and the Youngest who is my Dad (Charlie) born in November 1932. At the time my Dad was born they lived at King and Queen Street just off East Street before moving to 49 Arrol House some time before 1940. Hannah died whilst living at Arrol House and my Dad remembers there were horses in the service and that he was about 8 years old.
Surname meanings
Surname: Davis
This distinguished surname, with no less than twenty Coats of Arms, and several notable entries in the "Dictionary of National Biography", is a patronymic form of the male given name David, itself coming from the Hebrew "Dodaveha" meaning "Beloved of Jehovah". This name was borne by the greatest of the early kings of Israel, which led to its popularity first among the Jews, and later among Christians throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. In Britain, the popularity of the personal name was increased due to the ame of St. David, 6th Century Bishop of Menevia, who became patron saint of Wales, and also as a result of its having been borne by two kings of Scotland: David 1, who reigned from 1124 to 1153, and David 11 (1329 - 1371). One David clericus, recorded in Documents relating to the Danelaw, Lincolnshire, dated 1150, is one of the earliest recorded bearers of the personal name in England. The patronymic first emerges in the early 14th Century (see below), and in 1402, a Richard Davys was entered in the Register of the Freemen of the City of York. Richard Barrett Davis (1782 - 1852) was animal painter to William 1V, and Sir John Francis Davis, chief superintendent of British trade in China, was made K.C.B. in 1854. The Coat of Arms most associated with the name is a silver shield with a chevron pean, in base a black lion rampant, a chief indented of the last, and a canton ermines. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Dauisse, which was dated 1327, in the "Subsidy Rolls of Cambridgeshire", during the reign of King Edward 111, known as "The Father of the Navy", 1327 - 1377. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
Surname: Clark
This long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is from a medieval occupational name for a scribe or secretary, or for a member of a minor religious order. The word "clerc", from the Olde English pre 7th Century "cler(e)c", priest, originally denoted a member of a religious order only, but since the clergy of minor orders were allowed to marry and so found families, the surname could become established. It should also be noted that during the Middle Ages virtually the only people who were able to read and write were members of religious orders and it was therefore natural that the term "clark" or "clerk" would come to be used of any literate man, particularly the professional secretary and the scholar. One Richerius Clericus, Hampshire, appears in the Domesday Book of 1086. The surname was first recorded in the early 12th Century (see below), and other early recordings include: Reginald Clerc, noted in the Curia Regis Rolls of Rutland (1205), and John le Clerk, registered in the "Transcripts of Charters relating to the Gilbertine Houses", Lincolnshire (1272). In the modern idiom the surname can be found as Clark, Clarke, Clerk and Clerke. Richard Clarke was noted as a passenger on the "Mayflower" bound for the New World in 1620. Lawrence Clark, together with his wife, Margaret, and son, Thomas, were famine emigrants who sailed from Liverpool aboard the "Shenandoah", bound for New York in March 1846. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Willelm le Clerec, which was dated 1100, in "The Old English Byname Register of Somerset", during the reign of King Henry 1, known as "The Lion of Justice", 1100 - 1135. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.
Do you remember Granny Morbin
Granny Morbin lived with Levy, Hannah and the family at King and Queen Street (now demolished) and moved with them to Arrol House. My Dad remembers her wearing long Victorian clothes with loads of underskirts. She was the one who caught him and Georgie coming home late after the family were asleep because she had to let them in when my Dad was home from the Navy. She also gave them a shiny new coin every Sunday after they returned from their 6 years living in Devon as evacuees when my Dad was aged 12 and Georgie was 14.
Aunty Alices Pat remembers her clearly as being a small round lady and a proper 'Granny type.' This is also how my Dad described her too. Pat remembers... "I used to love to sit in her room in the evenings because she had a rocking chair which I used to sit in with her shawl wrapped round my shoulders. She used to give me cocoa and bread and jam. She had a daughter."
I must be the only person in the family who would never consider covering my pie and mash in green slime and what you call a pie I call dog food!
Everyone keeps telling me it is fantastic. I trained as a chef and would not consider eating it. In fact Manzes and Goddard pies seem to be the most popular and pie and mash is an East End of London thing. The Goddard shop in Greenwich closed last summer but you can link to Manzes at London Bridge and order frozen meals to be delivered anywhere in the UK and Ireland from this page: History of Pie and Mash. If you enjoy it or don't want to know what is in it or you don't want to be put off then do not visit this website!
The original pies were eel and cheap mince and the 'secret' ingredient in the liquor is the water that the eels were boiled in - yuk yuk yuk!
For those who don't live in London here are some recipes from the Internet:
Recipe for pie, mash and liquor
A message board for pie, mash and liquor
Phaedrus detective for lost recipes - pie, mash and liquor plus more
Good food
I do however love boiled rice with my roast dinner. Most of my friends like it but they think I am weird for cooking it. I remember back in the 70's asking my Dad why I am the only one of my friends who knows how to cook it and he didn't know and said it was something his family always cooked, mainly Alice. My Mum tried to cook it for him when I was about 14 and the first attempt was like having rice pudding on our dinner because she bought short grain rice that is used for sweet puddings. I then used Uncle Bens and followed the directions and found my own way to do it, which I have done since then. Then I found out how the Davis family cooked it while visiting Aunty Alice and she was cooking some for my Dad in the oven.
Alice told me you put peeled potatoes in a shallow roasting tin and fill with water so half of each potato is under water. Coat the tops with oil and sprinkle rice into the water around the potatoes. 30 minutes later you should have fluffy rice and potatoes that are half boiled and half roasted. It is healthier than a usual roast dinner because it uses less fat and was a cheap way to feed a large family.
Eat with meat and vegetables of your choice and cover with bisto gravy. (Not the instant lazy one!)
Every time I talk to my Dad he remembers a little bit more. Please look for up-dates every few days until I have recorded everything over the next few months - possibly years!
Possible links to other Davis'
The first possible link is to Abraham Davis born in 1801 and lived in Whitechapel who later moved to East Street. I found him because his son, another Isaac, was mentioned on a 'Jack the Ripper' website and an address is given. If I find there is not a link this interesting article will disappear forever!
East Street and other London websites
Links to ancestry websites
Links to Victorian London websites
The links are now in age order:
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© Lynda Archard
These are the cleared graves and represent about 20% of them.
