We Bristolians can claim the brave and doughty Diana Gould as one of our own as she was born Diana Prigg in Clifton on April 18 1926. She became famous when she confronted Mrs Thatcher in 1983 over the infamous sinking of the Belgrano outside the 200-mile exclusion zone round the Falklands. Mrs Gould, having studied the geography of the Antarctic at University where she took a double first, and maintained an interest in the Falkland Islands, was unsatisfied by the British government’s explanation of certain events. She wrote to the BBC with her views, not expecting to appear on TV, but once on screen refused to be overawed by Mrs Thatcher and persisted that the Argentine ship had been sailing away from the Falklands when the order was give to sink it, claiming that the sinking sabotaged any possibility of any peace plan succeeding. It is said that Mrs Thatcher was considerably rattled by the encounter which has been rated by Radio Times readers as the “ninth best interview of all time.”  Diana Gould’s book “On the Spot” about the Belgrano affair was published in 1984.    

Every cloud has one they say. Following the “demo” on 18th August my granddaughter and I went to the meeting at The Pilgrim. En route I met Heidi of Milbanke Close, with her children. She is one of the organisers and I thanked her and promised support to Protect Brislington’s Green Spaces.  At the pub we signed the petitions. Not that petitions do much good from my experience of working for a Member of Parliament.

The Pilgrim has Pillinger connections – the widowed Maria Pillinger (her husband was accidentally killed on Brislington Hill) was landlady there in the middle of the 19th century.

In the pub, I struck up a conversation with a kindred spirit, Jill Jacobs. Much to my surprise, after such a brief acquaintance, Jill thrust a sheaf of old photos into my hand and said she would trust them with me, until we should meet again.  I must have an honest face.

The photos were of the Burt family who lived in Brislington at the turn of the 20th century. I scanned the photos – see below. The family groups, Bob & Agnes Burt and their children were dated 1914 and 1905, making them ideal for census investigation.

In 1911, the family is listed as follows:

Robert Burt, head, married 36, bricklayer, born Bristol

Agnes Burt, wife, 37, born Wellington, Somerset, and their children:

Elsie, 14, scholar, born Taunton, Clifford, 13, scholar, born Taunton, Hilda, 11, scholar, born Taunton, Gladys, 10, scholar, born Bristol and Ivy, 8, born Bristol.

And here’s the surprise. They were living at Nelson’s Glory, Brislington. So what, you may say. Readers of The History of the Pillinger Family, Part 2, will know that Nelson’s Glory, in the 1820s was the abode of Henry Pillinger and his family! Synchronicity, or what?

So there we have Maria, the landlady of the Pilgrim and Henry at Nelson’s Glory, not to forget Julia from Bath in a previous post, I can’t help thinking that they’re all upstairs holding a Pillinger symposium to which they are trying to invite me. Not yet, I earnestly hope.

The following are the photographs of the Burt family:

In 1905: Mother : Agnes Burt. Father: Bob Burt

children from left to right Hilda, Ivy, Elsie, Gladys, Clifford.

In September, 1914:

Mother: Agnes Burt; Father Bob Burt and in between, Lena, the latest arrival.

adult children, from left to right: Hilda, Elsie, Cliff, Gladys, Ivy

Gladys Burt in 1922, with unnamed boy friend at Poplar House, School Road,  Brislington.

Bob Burt, 1935 at Poplar House.

Agnes Burt, with “Bob” – a grandson? and John Evans also at Poplar House

Agnes & the family dog, what a shame we don’t know its name.

Robert Burt married Agnes Thorne in 1897 at Wellington and by 1901 they were living at 34 Sandgate Road, Brislington. As a bricklayer, perhaps Bob had a hand in the building of these new houses. It must have been a recent move for as we have seen their children, aged 3, 2 & 1, Elsie, Clifford and Hilda, had all been born in Taunton.

In 1891 Robert, then about 14, was living at Road, Stoke St Mary, Taunton with his elder brother Albert (18) and widowed mother Sarah, aged 44. Though the two boys had been born in Bristol, Sarah’s birthplace was Old Cleeve in Somerset. Robert and Albert were the sons of Sarah’s marriage to Robert Burt and she had a previous son, William Tarr, born 1863.  Robert senior died in 1876, the same year that his son and namesake was born.  In 1881, Sarah, then 36, was living at 14 Kenilworth Terrace, St Philips, and working as a charwoman. Two of her sons were with her, William Tarr, aged 18, (a porter in a printing office who was born at Washford in Somerset) and young Robert, a scholar of five. Brother Albert, aged seven was staying at the time of the census with his paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Burt, aged 60, a widow, who was farming at Thurlbear in Somerset, assisted by her son, Andrew Burt.

In 1871, young William Tarr, aged seven, was a boarder at a house at St Decumans, Highbridge, belonging to a Sarah Sully, aged 68. Among other boarders was a John Burt, a freestone sawyer, born Montacute, but without further research I cannot say whether John Burt and Robert Burt senior were related or if this was simply coincidence.  Meanwhile, Robert, senior, 21, was living on his father’s farm, Netherclay, Thurlbear with six brothers and sisters. His father, Worthy Burt, born about 1823 married Mary Ann Williams at Taunton in 1847. Her father, Robert Williams, an “Ag lab” born 1789 was living with the family in 1871.  I have yet to establish with any certainty the whereabouts of Sarah Burt, formerly Tarr in 1871.  

In order to find more about Agnes Thorne, I would need her marriage certificate to discover her father’s name. So far, census searches have proved inconclusive.

I received the following from Bob Lawrence:

As promised, here is some information about the BALLIN family of the Bristol area. I have no personal connection to them - this research started because one of them married a Sargent from Winchelsea in Sussex, and my Sargent ancestors also come from that area. I have not listed all the Ballins I have found, nor all the details, but these can be found on RootsWeb World Connect at http://wc.rootsweb.com.

I have come across a number of other Ballins in the area, but have not been able to link them in with this family. There seem to be a lot of cousin marriages, which makes me think that Isaac Samuel Ballin and his wife Maria Ballin were cousins. Isaac Samuel seems to have been a practicing Jew, and his daughter Ada, who was a well-know author and is listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National biography, also published a Hebrew grammar and won a Hebrew Scholarship at university. Samuel Ballin I, on the other hand, was married and is buried in an Anglican church, and his children were baptised as Church of England. It is perhaps the unusual surname, the choice of first names, and the occupations followed that means one assumes they were Jews.

There is no obvious connection between the Ballins and the Joseph Cohen who committed suicide in the Bridewell, but he was also a Jew who married a Christian. I wonder how common that was, and how it was considered in the Jewish community. Judith Samuel's book on the Jews in Bristol makes great use of the synagogue records, and so concentrates on practicing Jews.

Here are the details:

Isaac Samuel BALLIN

Isaac Samuel Ballin was born in 1811 at Wells, Somerset, England. He was in partnership with Frederick Maggs as a fur manufacturer in 1832 at 26 High Street, Bristol, but this partnership was dissolved in the same year. Between 1833 and 1845, he was a fur manufacturer, wholesale and retail, at 45 Wine Street, Bristol. He married Susanna Ballin, daughter of Samuel Ballin and Elizabeth Whittern, and possibly his cousin, on 25 Sep 1833 at the New Synagogue, Bristol.

From 1836 to 1858, he traded as a fur manufacturer and importer at Wine Street, but also operated at Redcliff Street and Park Street at different times in addition. He is also recorded as a straw bonnet maker and wholesale straw plat dealer. At times, he shared premises with I. Cohen. His wife Susanna died in 1849, and in 1858 Isaac sold his Bristol business to Messrs Lodge & co and he moved with his family to London. He married Annie Moss in 1860 and died on 1st December 1897 in London, having been a furrier and straw hat dealer in Woburn Place and Tavistock Square. His daughter Ada, born 1862, was a well-known author and journalist on health and childcare.

Samuel BALLIN I

Samuel Ballin I was born in 1776, place of birth unknown. He married Elizabeth Whittern, daughter of William Whittern and Elizabeth Shellard on 22 Nov 1813 at St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, Somerset, England. They had previously had six children who had been born at Wotton under Edge, but baptised at Hawkesbury, the birthplace of Elizabeth Whittern. Samuel worked as a silversmith at Bradley Street, Wotton under Edge, although his marriage record describes him as an ironmonger. He was declared bankrupt on 27 Feb 1826. He died in 1830 and was buried at St Mary's, Wotton under Edge.

Samuel BALLIN II

Samuel Ballin II was born in 1809 at Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the son of Samuel Ballin I and Elizabeth Whittern, and was baptized on 8 Oct 1809 at St Mary's, Hawkesbury. In 1830, he and his sister Susanna were straw hat makers in Wotton under Edge, but by 1832 he had moved to 2 Old Market Street, Bristol, where he was in the same business with his sister Ann. He married Maria Sargent, daughter of William Sargent and Susannah Whittern, on 1 Dec 1834 at Winchelsea, Sussex. Maria was his cousin, and her father William Sargent was a miller and later Mayor of Winchelsea. In 1836, he was a fur manufacturer at 2 Redcliff Street, Bristol but by 1841 was living at 6, Corridor, Bath, described as a fur manufacturer. He remained there and at 16 Union Street, Bath, until his death on 21 May 1879.

Ann BALLIN

Ann Ballin was born in 1808 at Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Samuel Ballin I and Elizabeth Whittern and was baptized on 11 Dec 1808 at St Mary's, Hawkesbury. She was the daughter of Samuel Ballin and Elizabeth Whittern. From 1832, she was in business with her brother Samuel as a straw hat maker in 2 Old Market Street, Bristol. She married Arnold Beeston, son of John Howton Beeston and Alicia on 9 Jun 1835 at Horfield, Bristol, but Arnold died in 1836, and Ann returned to her previous business, moving to 13 Peter Street, Bristol. She married James Thomas in 1842, but was a widow again by 1851.

Elizabeth BALLIN

Elizabeth Ballin was born in 1800 at Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, the daughter of Samuel Ballin I and Elizabeth Whittern and was baptized on 23 Mar 1800 at St Mary's, Hawkesbury. She married John Box on 13 Sep 1821 at St Mary's, Wotton under Edge and their first two children - Henry Oborne Box and Mary Box were born at Wotton under Edge. Subsequent children were born at Dursley, where John was in business as a watchmaker. Elizabeth died at Dursley in 1887. Their son Edward married his cousin Susanna Sargent Ballin, daughter of Samuel Ballin II and Maria Sargent, and Edward's sister Frances Anne Box married Robert Ashton Lister, the well-known Dursley industrialist.

Joseph COHEN

Suicide in the Bridewell. On Wednesday night, Joseph Cohen, a prisoner in the Bridewell, charged upon remand with having a quantity of cloth in his possession, supposed to have been stolen, hung himself in his cell. An inquest was held upon the body on Thursday before the Coroner, J.B.Grindon Esq., and from the evidence adduced it appeared that the deceased had formerly been of the Hebrew persuasion; but having married a Christian, he had not for some years attended upon the religious worship of that people. His business lay a good deal among public-houses, and he was, to some extent, addicted to habits of intemperance; but he was described by his father-in-law and mother-in-law (his wife having been dead some years) as kind and considerate to them, and careful of, and affectionate to, his daughter, a girl of about 15 years old. He was last seen alive at half-past six o'clock, when, in compliance with the rules of the Bridewell, his supper was left with him, and he was locked up for the night. After his cell door was closed, the turnkey on duty in the passage heard him moving about as if walking up and down, but after a time the sounds ceased, and it is supposed that he must then have hanged himself, for on his cell-door being opened at about nine o'clock he was found suspended from one of the bars of his cell-window by a silk handkerchief. His feet were about five inches from the ground, and the handkerchief was so loosely tied that upon the officer lifting the body, he was enabled to remove it without difficulty. Medical assistance was promptly obtained, but the unfortunate man was "beyond the skill of surgery", and had evidently been for some time dead, as his body had begun to stiffen. His supper was untouched. The jury having attentively considered the testimony adduced, returned a verdict that the deceased - who had appeared both frightened and grieved by his detention in prison - "Hanged himself while in a state of temporary insanity."

Bristol Mercury, 22nd March 1851

Joseph Cohen married Sarah Totterdown at St Peters on 30th September 1833. Their daughter Elizabeth Mary Cohen was baptised at SS Philip & Jacob on 7th December 1834.

1841 Census

Waterloo Place, SS Philip & Jacob, Bristol

Joseph Cohen, 27, Tailor

Sarah Cohen, 24, Tailoress

Bob Lawrence