Graveyard Tales- John Whitebread

Graveyard Tales- John Whitebread.

 I was born in Cornwall and lived there until 1962. My earliest memories are of living in a chalet on Hayle Towans in the early 1950s. We moved into our brand new council house on Trevithick Estate in 1954 and I attended Penpol Primary School, taking and passing my 11 plus exam. I spent two terms at Humphrey Davy Grammar School in Penzance before my family moved to London. 

 I now live in Northamptonshire and journey back a couple of times a year with my wife Sue to look at the sea, eat some pasties and refresh my Cornish accent. 

I’ve been researching my family history and with it, the history of Hayle and of the Harvey family. 

 My great great grandmother was a Prussian and worked in Nicholas Harvey’s household as a nurse/governess. Nicholas Harvey died in 1861 and in 1863 Anna Fredericke Wilhelmina Henrietta Vollmer married James Henry Hayes in St Erth church. I’m descended from their daughter Henrietta known as Hettie, who married Charles Clemo in 1895. 

 Fredericke was not the only Prussian in Hayle. Those familiar with the Harvey story will know that Nicholas Harvey spent a lot of time in Holland and the Ruhr. He married twice- first of all to Clementina Jacobi in 1830. She died childless in 1847. He later married another Prussian- Juliana Leug in 1848 and she bore him two daughters who died as infants in 1852 and are buried in the family grave in St Erth, followed by a further four sons and a daughter. It was these children that Fredericke was employed to look after, both at the home in Millpond Avenue and at their London home in Notting Hill.

 I was walking through Phillack churchyard whilst on holiday recently and came across the grave of John Whitebread. According to Edmund Vale’s 1966 book “The Harveys of Hayle” he was “a singularly deft craftsman whom Nicholas has brought with him from Germany and had apparently taken the precaution of anglicising his name on arrival.” We are not told when he came over, or even why he did so, as his skill lay in casting small toys and ornaments, which hardly fit in with Harveys manufacturing heavy cast iron implements, pumps and steam engines.

 The grave marker at Phillack simply records this- “In loving memory of John Whitebread, born 1804, died 1864. Also Blanche his wife, born 1825 died 1884.” Beneath that, almost hidden by the grass is also written “and their daughter Sophia Jacobi born 1844, died 1864.”

 It was the name Jacobi that caught my eye. Nicholas Harvey’s first wife was a Jacobi. John Whitebread and Nicholas Harvey were virtually the same age. Was Whitebread Nicholas Harvey’s brother in law?

 In my research I have discovered that the custom in West Cornwall at that time was to name one’s children as follows: The first son was named after the father's father; The second son after the mother's father; The third son after the father; The fourth son after the father's eldest brother. Then-The first daughter after the mother's mother, The second daughter after the father's mother. The third daughter after the mother. The fourth daughter after the mother's eldest sister.

 At the same time it became customary to include a descendant’s family name among the child’s names. So Nicholas Harvey’s second son by his wife Juliana was named William Leug Harvey when he was born in 1858. Likewise my great grandmother’s names are Elizabeth (after her grandmother) Henrietta (after her mother) Trevaskis (after her grandmother’s maiden name) Hayes. No wonder they called her Hettie. 

What do we know about John Whitebread from the parish records? Well, in 1841 we find that he is aged 40, single, an iron founder and living in a house with two female servants, Sophia and Elizabeth Chinn both aged 25. (Were they twins?). The census recorder merely notes that he is “foreign” 

 At the same time we find that Blanche Coombs is living nearby, the eldest daughter of John Coombs, an accountant and his wife Susan. She is said to be 17. The house would be crowded as they have seven children from 17 down to 1 years old, and also a lodger, a Jane Whitty, aged 20 and a tailor. 

 A search of the marriage records reveals that a John Vicebroadt, full bachelor, occupation-brass founder, resident in Phillack parish, father John Vicebroadt, occupation smelter, on 18-Jan married Blanch Coombs age19, spinster, occupation dressmaker resident in St Erth. Father Thomas Coombs, a waiter. The Banns were read and the witnesses were John Coombs and Samuel Trevaskis. Was her father a waiter or an accountant? It’s probably down to mis-reading the handwriting. 

A little over six months later Sophia Whitbread was baptised at Phillack Church, on July 31st 1842. John’s occupation is given as brassfounder. The choice of church for the ceremony was probably done to stop tongues wagging. 

When their second daughter Maria Susan was baptised in 1844 the ceremony was carried out at St Erth. At the time of the 1851 Census John was 51, a brass and iron founder. Blanch was 29 and they had four children namely Sophia aged 8, Maria aged 6, Clemantine aged 3 and John William aged 1. 

 By the 1861 Census the family had grown to nine children, all living at home. John was 60, described as a brassfounder. Sophia Jacoba was 18 with no occupation while her sister Marie was 16 and a dressmaker. The third daughter’s name was written down as Clemedeen, which may have been down to a mishearing of John’s German accent. There were seven daughters and two sons, the youngest son being Nicholas.

 Was he named after Nicholas Harvey? 

1864 saw two funerals. The Phillack register shows that “WEISBRAD Johann age 66 from Hayle was buried on 9-Jan 1864. (He was) commonly called John Whitebread”. There was also a burial at St Erth on 14th May 1864 of Sophia Jacobie Whitebread of Foundry Hill, in the parish of St Erth. She was 22. 

 By the time of the census of 1881 Blanch Whitbread was 54, living in Foundry Square with her 34 year old daughter Maria, a dressmaker and her son Nicholas, aged 23 and a moulder in the brass foundry. He was still carrying on his father’s trade. 

Blanch died in 1884 aged 60 and was buried in Phillack on November 19th. 

Was Johann Weisbrad/Vicebroadt/Whitebread related to Nicholas Harvey through his first marriage? 

Is it just coincide that his daughters took the names Sophia Jacobi, and Clementine (the names of Harvey’s first wife)? And was it coincidence that his youngest son was named Nicholas? 

Alas, we’ll never know. Unless of course, you know differently.

As a postscript I was reading through the Phillack registry of burials and came across this entry

WHITEBREAD     Nicholas Michael     56     Foundry Square St Erth     17-Dec     1912