'Four nuns laid out in caskets' courtesy of the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY14607 |
The spectacle of four dead
nuns neatly laid out in their coffins rather grabs the attention. Or so I found
when I was scrolling through recent posts from The Victorian Book of the Dead a few months ago. Do you know it?
Chris Woodyard of Haunted Ohio issues a constant stream of Twitter and Facebook
posts featuring a miscellany of funeral and death related links culled from the
web; antique coffins, post mortem photos, newspaper clippings, objet d’art,
mourning clothes, hearses, and a myriad of other items calculated to whet the
morbid appetite. A faded sepia photograph from the George Eastman Museum showed
the four nuns in laundered habits and pristine wimples laid out in their
coffins in a orderly row on a trestle table with four wax candles in brass
holders burning at each corner and surrounded by living flowers in plant pots. As
the only story I know involving four dead nuns is the wreck of the ‘Deutschland’ I couldn’t help
thinking that the four sisters could well be Barbara Hultenschmidt, Norbeta
Reinkobe, Aurea Badziura and Brigitta Damhorst, who drowned aboard the
foundering ship, were buried in St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in
Leytonstone and commemorated in Gerard Manly Hopkins famous poem. Chris unfortunately
didn’t have any details of who the nuns were and neither did the George Eastman
Museum which simply records their exhibit as ‘Four nuns laid out in caskets’,
an albumen silver print of a photograph taken by H. Friedmann circa 1865. It says its provenance is British and that it
was purchased with funds from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, from the collection
of Walter A. Johnson. I had never heard of the photographer but there is an
inscription on the reverse of the photo: ‘H. Friedmann / PHOTOGRAPHER / 50 THE
GROVE / STRATFORD / & / at Leytonstone.’ This clinched it; the funeral service for the four nuns, conducted by
Cardinal Manning no less, took place in the St Francis of Assisi church at 160
The Grove, Stratford and this is where H. Friedmann must have taken his
photograph, probably just before the funeral service was held on 13 December
1875.
When
I searched for other photos of the four nuns in their coffins all I could find
was a small grainy black and white shot taken from the same angle as the
Eastman Museum photo but featuring a priest and two live nuns in addition to
the four dead ones. It looks as though H. Friedmann exposed at least two plates
that day. I was intrigued by H. Friedmann – who was this Stratford based
photographer? Web searches revealed relatively little – samples of his work
turn up from time to time on e-bay where they can be bought for £2 or £3. I
found a few standard studio portraits,
one of a couple (woman standing
behind seated man, of course), an old lady holding a book, a young man with
carefully slicked down and side parted hair and a young woman in pearl earrings
who appears to be dressed in mourning with a rather splendid ruffled crepe hat
with what could be a dyed ostrich feather twined around the front. The reverse
of one of these photos (‘The Negative is preserved and duplicates may be had at
any time’) tells us that Henry Friedmann of 126 The Grove, Stratford, London E
was an ‘Art Photographer’. It isn’t much of a photographic legacy to have left
but the picture of the nuns of the Deutschland is hitherto unknown as far as I
can tell. With a little more forensic digging around in newspaper archives and
in birth, marriage and death records and census returns a more rounded picture
emerged of this obscure Stratford photographer.
Henry
Friedmann was born, according to census returns, in Austria around 1836. At
that time the Austrian empire included parts of modern day Germany, Italy,
Serbia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland as well as Austria. I
could only find one, unfortunately indecipherable, reference to Henry’s
hometown which seems to say Whyan. No such place seems to exist (perhaps it is
meant to be Vienna?) and so his exact origins remain a mystery. His parents,
who named him Alexander Julius Henry Friedmann were Michael and Rebekah and
they probably brought their family to England sometime in the 1840’s. The
earliest record I can find of Henry in the UK is a baptism record dated
December 13 1859 from Christ Church, Spitalfields (the now demolished Watney
Street church rather than Hawksmoor’s masterpiece) when the 24 year old was
working as a hairdresser and living in Canon Street. It is an unusual age at
which to get baptised; perhaps the family was Jewish. The spelling of his
mother’s first name is and the area they were living in had a large Jewish
population. The reason for Henry’s conversion was his marriage; this took place
a couple of days later in the same church to 16 year old Emma Hoggett, who had
been born in St Werburgh’s in Derby but who was now living with her ironmonger
father William and mother Rosana in Old Gravel Lane in Wapping.
24 year old Henry Friedmann's baptism record |
The
newly married couple moved to St George Street, E1 after the wedding and had
their first child, a daughter named Emma after her mother, a year later. Their
second child, this time a boy named Julius after his father, was born in 1862.
We lose sight of the family from the 1861 census until September 1867 when a
story in the Essex Standard abruptly shines a revealing light into the state of
Henry’s marriage and his family life. The newspaper headline reads ‘Melancholy
Suicide’ and the story is of an inquest held in Chigwell into the death of
Elizabeth Moore, a young woman who had been a servant in Henry’s household in
Victoria Park and then had moved into lodgings in Chigwell. Mrs Darby, Elizabeth’s
landlady, told the coroner that Elizabeth lived with Henry as his wife. Henry,
who gives his profession as photographer, told the inquest that on Saturday 8th
September he had been out with Elizabeth to High Beech in Epping Forest. When
they came home he instructed his mistress to get some tea and insisted on her
drinking some with him. Reluctantly she did but she refused to eat. He told her
he would return on Sunday morning and bring some meat with him but she said
that she would never do anything for him again. He asked if she were going to
leave him to which she answered “You will see.” Henry told the inquest that he
was separated from his wife but despite this quite possibly returned home to
Victoria Park that night when he left Elizabeth in Chigwell. According to Mrs
Darby, Elizabeth seemed unwell and low spirited. At a quarter to eleven
Elizabeth said goodnight to her landlady and went upstairs to bed. A few
minutes later Mrs Darby heard an unusual noise and ran upstairs to find
Elizabeth “undressed, in bed and insensible.” There was a small glass bottle
near the bed. By the time medical help was summoned Elizabeth was dead. Mr
Thomas Lewis, a surgeon was summoned from Loughton; he performed an autopsy on
Elizabeth and found a fluid smelling like prussic acid in her stomach. The
glass bottle by her bedside, he said, contained cyanide of potassium, “three
grains of which in a solid state would produce death.” Elizabeth had left a
note for Henry which was read out in court:
Dear Henery,—
forgive me if this should give you pane— but I do not think it will after what
you said this evening— you are verry unhappy, i now hope i ham going you will
be happy with those that you love, you will see my mother and tell her from me
about her unhappy girl ; praps a tear she may shed but you will not think it.
But i forgive you. kiss the dear children for me and ask emer to forgive me the
rong I have done her, and i hope you will make amends for all. Dear henery my
eyes are blinded with tears that i can say no more now, but pray for me. From
your unhappy but true, E.
The
jury, after as is customary on these occasions “some deliberation” returned a
verdict of ‘Death from taking cyanide of potassium, while in a state of
temporary derangement.’ With astonishing alacrity poor Elizabeth was buried the
next day, Monday 11th September, in the churchyard of St John the Baptist in
Buckhurst Hill. Shockingly, and this isn’t mentioned in the newspaper,
according to the death register she was only 15 years old.
The Grove, Stratford where Henry had his photography business |
Any
separation from Emma was shortlived; the couple had a daughter, Agnes, in March
1867 and another son Henry in 1870. At the time of the 1871 census the family
were living in Leytonstone in Beaulah Terrace in Walthamstow. They had two more
sons, Arthur in 1872 and Albert in 1874. The family probably moved to
Stratford, to 126 The Grove, above Henry’s photographic studio shortly afterwards. They were almost
certainly there in 1875 when Henry took his pictures of the four dead nuns in
St Francis’ Church. By the 1881 census the family had moved to 106 The Grove
but Henry was still working as a photographer despite competition from at least
two other businesses within walking distance of his premises. Over the course
of the next decade Henry abandoned his career and his wife. In the 1891 census
he was living at 2 Second Avenue, Manor Park with his 19 year old son Arthur
and a servant, a young woman called Elizabeth Silverlock. Emma and the rest of
the family were gone and Henry was now listed as a publican. A newspaper story
of the same year says Henry was the landlord of the Earl of Essex at the corner
of High Street North and Romford Road. In
a hint of things to come The Chelmsford Chronicle reported that Henry has been
summoned for assaulting William Mayson. Henry told the court that Mayson had
used bad language in the pub (shocking) “and had been a great annoyance.” He produced
two witnesses to corroborate his story and the bench dismissed the case.
In
March the following year Henry was again in court, this time at the Stratford
Police Court for disorderly conduct, using obscene language and causing a crowd
to assemble. When asked how he plead he told the court “I think I had better
plead guilty, so as not to go into the matter.” According to an account of the
incident in the Illustrated Police News of Saturday 12 March, Henry had got
into an argument with a Mrs Bennett who seems to have been the license holder
of the Earl of Essex (though the address of the pub is given as Greenhill Grove
where the only licensed premises is the William The Conqueror...) The argument
may have started over Mrs Bennett’s refusal to serve him food or because he
wanted to dismiss one of the staff and she was not agreeable. By ten past five
Sargent Slatting from Forest Gate Police station arrived at the pub to find
Henry “behaving in a very disorderly manner and making use of filthy language.”
Henry was forcibly removed from the premises but tried immediately to re-enter
shouting and using bad language and causing a crowd of curious onlookers to
gather. Eventually losing patience Sargent Slatting arrested him and took him
into custody. Henry told the magistrates that he was part owner of the pub and
had papers to prove it. The magistrate told Henry he didn’t care and turned
instead to Inspector Hunt, Sargent Slaterry’s superior, who told him that he
had very many complaints of Henry’s conduct towards Mrs Bennett, to whom he was
a considerable nuisance. Mrs Bennett was called and she confirmed that “she had
to complain very much of the prisoner's conduct and his annoyance. He was
constantly casting aspersions on her character and making utterly false
statements.” Henry told the magistrate
that he had no choice but to throw himself on the mercy of the court, that he
wished to considered as part master of the house and responsible to the brewers
and distillers. The magistrates fine him 40 shillings plus costs and bound him
over to keep the peace.
In
1894 when Henry featured in another newspaper story, this time in the Coventry
Evening Telegraph of 23 February, he seemed to have given up on
the Earl of Essex and was landlord of the Priory Tavern in Bromley-by-bow;
CAUGHT RED -HANDED.
At the Thames Police Court Thomas McCarthy was committed for trial on the
charge of stealing a watch and part of a gold chain, value £30, the property of
Henry Friedman, of the "Priory" Tavern, Bromley. When the prosecutor
was closing his house the defendant came up and snatched at his watch chain,
getting the watch and part of the chain. He was caught after having put the
watch on a window sill.
In
May 1896 in was Arthur, Henry’s son, who was making headlines, in the South
Wales Echo. Surely this exploit made Henry feel uncomfortable in recalling the
death of 15 year old Elizabeth Moore almost 30 years earlier.
AN
ILL-TIMED ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE -No Train Due for Twenty Minutes. Arthur Edward Friedmann (27), a clerk, of
second-avenue, Manor Park, was charged yesterday at the Stratford Police Court
on remand of attempting to commit suicide. The evidence last week was that at
11 40 am on April 28th, the prisoner was at St. James's-s tree t Station,
Walthamstow, with a Young lady, and suddenly he jumped on the line, lay down,
and put his head on the metal rails of the down line. Clark, the foreman porter, ran out to the
prisoner, who, when lifted up, said, “Leave me alone I'm all right." At
the station he said it was all through his girl. He was sober, but had been
drinking. The young woman referred to, a Miss Emily Poplar, was now called on
subpoena, and said that she was with the prisoner. She said he did not say what
he intended doing, but she saw him get down and put his head on the metals. They
had had as a little disagreement. —Mr E. R. Cook (chairman): You had a lovers’ quarrel,
and he left you and did that? The witness Replied in the affirmative, and added
that she knew that the prisoner was subject to fits, and a quantity of liquor
made him excited. Mr O. C. Sharman, who appeared for the prisoner, said that no
train was due for 20 minutes, and therefore in law there was no attempt to
commit felony. The prisoner's friends were present, and would undertake to take
charge of the prisoner, who had signed the pledge. The Bench told the prisoner
that he had acted very foolishly, And after a further caution as to the future
discharged him.
In
1895 Henry’s estranged wife Emma died in Poplar. At the time of the 1891 census
she had been living in Wales, at 20 High Street, Chepstow in Monmouthshire with
her older brother Charles who was a butcher, and his wife and their 6 children.
Her widowed sister Monica was also living them. Henry was close by when she
died. A story in the Chelmsford Chronicle of 10 December 1897 places him as the
landlord of the Castle, a now demolished pub at 156 Leyton Road in Stratford;
At West Ham Monday
James Godfrey, 38, labourer, of Bromley was charged with assaulting Henry
Friedmann, landlord of the Castle
public-house, Leyton road, Stratford,
and also with assaulting Constable Rogers, 540 K, and with damaging a stone
barrel of gin, valued £4 10s.—At about six o'clock on Sunday evening the
prisoner entered the Castle, and created a considerable disturbance. He was
sent to gaol for three months' hard labour.
According
to the 1901 census Arthur had moved on but his youngest son Albert had moved in
with him. It was still the obviously trusted Arthur who became Henry’s executor
when he died on October 28 1904. His estate was valued at £3310 0s 6d.
Disappointingly I have not been able to find out where he is buried. On
September 14 1915, just over a year after the start of the Great War reliable
Arthur changed his name by deed poll from the far too Teutonic sounding
Friedmann to the much more acceptably English sounding Freeman. He left his
roots completely behind when he moved south of the river to 25 Thurleigh Road,
SW12, close to Clapham South tube. On the 3rd of June 1925 the 49 year old
Brewery Clerk with the three storey terraced villa in suburban Wandsworth was
granted the freedom of the City of London after declaring that he was not an
Alien and was above the age of 21. Even so the clerk who completed the register
felt it incumbent on him to note that in the deed poll Henry had been described
as a Naturalised Englishman. Despite the lingering reservations about Arthur’s
right to declare himself an alien the newly minted Mr Freeman was made a
Freeman of the City. Henry would have been proud.
You put some work into that, only nuns graves I have seen are near convents, maybe these four were buried at one
ReplyDeleteHi Bill, they were indeed buried in the one grave, in St Patricks catholic cemetery in Leytonstone (where there are many other nun's graves as well, as it happens).
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