Welcome to the May 2003 edition of our family newsletter.

In this edition of the newsletter we look at:

• Elizabeth Cowan's "Scottish" children
• Updates
• Christ's Hospital, Horsham - and more of Frank's work
• and more

I hope you enjoy learning more about your extended family and please get back to me with your views on the frequency of publication of the newsletter.

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback to the question of frequency of newsletters. You will note that I have produced one this month, albeit a shorter one than has been the practice in the past.

Contributions to the Newsletter are most welcome. If you find something that you would like to share please send it to me so that it can be included or post it on the family web site. My email address is lwuth@hups.net

Lorraine Wuth

Editor

Updates

Death details for William Alfred Brangwin.
When and where died: 26 October 1860; 3 Hatfield Place, Southwark, Sry
Age: 31 years
Occupation: Butcher, Master
Cause of death: Delirium Tremens
Informant: Esther HOULTON, present at the death, 13 Baches Terrace, Hoxton
Registered: 26 October 1860

[Comment from Margaret] Poor William - he only married on 29 July and died in October! Or was it poor Jane? Had she married a drunkard? I never knew you could die from Delirium Tremens. I always thought it was just an effect of alcoholism. Was married life so bad he drank himself to death in a few short months? So many questions and I'll never know the answers!

William Alfred was the son of William Brangwin and Elizabeth Newell. See the March 2001 newsletter for more on this part of the family.

Richard Brangwin and Maria Saunders had nine children born between 1866 and 1884. This part of the family was featured in the August 2001 newsletter.

A number of these children died young. Here is an update on the dates, places and cause of death for a number of their children.

Richard Saunders Brangwin, their second child, was born in 1869 and died on May 28, 1880 at the London Fever Hospital, Islington. He was 11 years old. Cause of death was scarlatina maligna.

George Brangwin, their fifth child, was born in 1877 and died on June 26, 1880 at the London Fever Hospital, Islington. He was 3 years old. Cause of death was scarlatina asthenia.

John Brangwin, their sixth child and twin of Levi, was born in 1879 and died on September 28, 1879 at 3 Monteith Road, Bow. He was 6 months old. Cause of death was tuberculosis.

George Brangwin, number 2, their nineth child, was born in January 1884 and died on January 4, 1884 at 454 Old Ford Road, Bow. He was 30 hours old. Cause of death was debility from birth.

Frank Curtis Brangwin, their fourth child, was born in 1873. He died on January 26, 1909 at Mill Street, Wantage, BRK, aged 36. Cause of death was lobar pneumonia; heart failure.

Levi Brangwin, twin of John, was born in 1879. He lived to the ripe old age of 80, dying on November 23, 1959 at Peppard Chest Hospital, Rotherfield Peppard, OXF. Cause of death was pulmonary tuberculosis.

Maria Saunders, died on December 19, 1920 at 73a Devons Road, Bow, aged 78. Cause of death was bronchitis; myocardial degeneration.

Some of the medical terms may be unfamiliar. Here are some definitions to assist.

In the 1901 census I found Richard and Maria's daughter, Susannah Maria, and her husband Edward William Lawley living at 4 Anglesea Street, Bethnal Green in London. Susannah and Edward had married on January 27, 1892 at Eaton Bray in Bedfordshire. Also present in the household were three children: Alice (8), Albert (6) and Rose (1). I have managed to find the births for each of these children in the birth index. Alice turned out to be Maria Alice. Her birth was registered in the first quarter of 1893. Albert was Albert Edward and his birth was registered in the first quarter of 1895. Rose turned out to be Matilda Rose. Her birth was registered in the second quarter of 1899. So it looks as if Richard and Maria ended up with some descendants after all. It was looking a bit grim for a while: nine children and not one surviving grandchild. Susannah fixed that!

Of course, there could be other descendants as Richard and Maria's eighth child, Albert John, has gone missing in action. I wonder if the naming of Albert Edward Lawley is significant. Does this indicate that Susannah's little brother had recently died? One day we will find out what happened to Albert John, who incidentally appears as just John in the 1881 census. If anyone comes across a stray Albert or John or Albert John Brangwin please let us know. We would love to be able to work out what happened to him.

Christ's Hospital, Horsham
by Margaret A. Brangwyn

The famous "bluecoat" school, Christ's Hospital was founded by King Edward VI in Newgate Street in the City of London in 1552, for the benefit of children born in the City. Originally it was a foundling hospital set up to relieve poverty, taking in children of all ages. Those too young to be educated were "put out to nurse" in the country in Essex or Hertfordshire, though some remained with their own parents, who were paid a weekly allowance. From around 1690 the girls were educated separately at a school in Ware, Herts, only moving to the Horsham site in 1985.

Nowadays Christ's Hospital is a co-educational boarding school, with around 850 pupils. As a Charitable Foundation preference is given to educating children who are in need (financial or otherwise) and 40% of parents of today's pupils pay no fees at all.

At the beginning of the 20th Century the school, whose pupils still wear their distinctive Tudor uniforms - hence "bluecoat school," moved out of London to Horsham, in Sussex. The Edwardian buildings which comprise the school were designed in Tudor and Gothic style by Sir Aston Webb.

The school has an outstanding reputation for music. The school band takes part in the Lord Mayor's Show in London every November - the annual procession through the streets of the City of London to welcome the new Lord Mayor of London.

The school Museum and some of the buildings are open to the public by appointment, so we made an appointment and drove down to Sussex last week to see one of the many impressive school buildings - the Chapel [the building to the left in the aerial photo with the long grey roof], which contains 16 paintings by Sir Frank Brangwyn. Not as large as those in The Brangwyn Hall, Swansea, fourteen of these paintings measure 14' by 8', with the other two being slightly smaller, to fit at the end of the walls. Painted between 1913 and 1923, the paintings depict various scenes of Christian history. The paintings were executed in tempera, where the pigment is mixed with egg yolk. This results in the very bright colours so typical of many of Brangwyn's pictures. The surface of pictures painted in tempera appears very flat, unlike the texture of oil paintings.

The pictures are high up on the Chapel walls and so are difficult to photograph, but we climbed the stairs to the gallery to get a closer look. I was entranced by the figures in the paintings and delighted to recognise some familiar faces from other Brangwyn pictures. One of the paintings is available as a Christmas card (see www.checom.com) and I was excited to see the boy in the cap on the left of the picture. He is featured in a Brangwyn drawing to be found in the Tate Gallery, entitled "Youthful ambition." I also spotted Brangwyn's dog in the corner of the painting, looking as if he'd just wandered in to see what was going on.

A book about the panels - "The Decorative Paintings in Christ's Hospital Chapel, MCMXIII-MCMXXIII" - was published privately in 1925. Written by W. R. Macklin and H. A. Rigby, it contains copies of some of the preparatory sketches for the panels.

There is a chapter devoted to the Christ's Hospital Chapel panels in "The Decorative Art of Frank Brangwyn" by Herbert Furst, published in 1924. This contains colour reproductions of six of the panels and many others in black and white.

One of the panels is also featured in "The Oil and Mural Paintings of Sir Frank Brangwyn, RA, by Vincent Galloway.

For more on Christ's Hospital visit www.christs-hospital.org.uk.

The "Scottish" children of Elizabeth Cowan

A recap.

In the April 2001 newsletter the first mention was made of Elizabeth Cowan. At that stage all the information available pointed to her husband being a William Brangwin. More research identified her husband as John Brangwin, son of John Brangwin and Jane Fenner, born in Wargrave, BRK in 1822.

In the April 2002 newsletter you will find an article on Elizabeth Cowan. It corrects the previous errors and adds quite a bit to what we knew.

When John Brangwin died on May 7, 1866, Elizabeth was left with three young children under the age of four: Alfred John born July 22, 1862, Thomas born April 17, 1864 and William Cowan born November 7, 1865. At some stage these children were taken to Scotland, where Elizabeth had many relatives, and the boys appear to have been brought up by three different families.

Over the past month or so Margaret has been in contact with one of Elizabeth's descendants in Scotland (more later) and he provided the following information:

As my father spent his last years with my sister, she had any certificates that Dad had kept. Amongst these was the marriage certificate of William Cowan Brangwin to Maggie Moncrieff. On this are some jottings by my mother as follows - "Alfred Brangwin was born in Mile End, London". Perhaps that should have read either "died" or perhaps it should have read "William Cowan Brangwin". "3 Brangwin children of William & Maggie (probably means Alfred [sic] & Elizabeth)

• one - brought up as a "Bell"
• one - went to sea thought to have gone to Australia
• one - brought up by the Peebles family"

As you can see word of mouth is not the most reliable means of communication. However it does fit reasonably well with your information. One possible explanation of the Elizabeth Cowan story is that on the death of her first husband Alfred Brangwin she brought the 3 boys north left them with 3 different families and returned south. It leads to some interesting questions. Doesn't it!!

It is worth noting that the the Alfred, Thomas and William appear to have thought that their Brangwin father was "Alfred". This is repeated in a number of later documents and should not be a surprise. None of them would have had a memory of their father and they were separated from their southern relatives quite early in life. It would have been reasonable for them to have looked at the name of the eldest son and assumed that he was named after their father. Alfred appears to have been oblivious of having a second given name, John. It is likely that family members knew that the first son had been named after his father. If they had been aware of the child's full name, Alfred John, then they might have wondered if the father was a John. Without this knowledge it is not surprising that the Scottish based children went through life believing that their father was Alfred Brangwin.

The 1881 census for Scotland had an entry for William Cowan Brangwin who was living with the family of Peter Peebles at Inveresk, Edinburgh. He ws 15 and place of birth was given as England. His relation to the head of the household was given as "boarder". So, this was the son brought up by the Peebles family. One down, two to go.

Thomas had been traced through various other records. He had married Margaret Jones on September 18, 1889 in the parish church, St Paul, Chatham, Kent. Then he married Mary Ann Woods on August 10, 1898 at the Southampton Register Office. Details provided with the first marriage had Thomas a 26 year old bachelor. His occupation was sailor and his father was given as Alfred Brangwin, deceased. The witness were William George Wood and Sarah Ann Wood. Were these actually Woods and in anyway related to Mary Ann, his second wife?

At the time of the second marriage, Thomas as 34, a bachelor [umm] and a mariner. Once again his father was given as Alfred, deceased. Mary Ann was a 28 year old spinster. Her father was given as Eli, a farm bailiff.

Thomas and Mary Ann appear to have relocated to the US following their marriage. It is possible that Thomas was already domiciled in the US by the time of his second marriage even though he gave a Southampton address as his abode. Three children are know to have been born to Thomas and Mary Ann:

1. Galdys M born October 30, 1901 in San Francisco. Gladys appears in a ships manifesto in 1916 and the 1920 US census. What happened to her is unknown.
2. Doris M was born on Movember 25, 1904 in San Francisco. She died on March 25, 1993 in Alameda Co, CA. [Source: California death index]
3. Norman T was born on December 21, 1906 in England. He died on March 2, 1971 in Alameda Co, CA according to the California death index. He appears in the 1920 US census with his parents, Thomas and Mary Ann.

Well, that accounts for Elizabeth's son who went to sea. Two down and one to go.

The first son, Alfred John, was the only one who could have been "brought up as a Bell". There was a clue. Without realising the significance of her find, Margaret fouond a Cowan living with a Bell in the 1881 census. I went back to the 1881 census and had a closer look at the data. Living in Barney Mains, Haddington, Scotland, was an Alfred Bell, aged 17, born in England. He was listed as a nephew to the head of the household, James Bell. Jame's wife was Isabella and she had been born in Whitekirk, Haddington. Also in the household was Ellen Cowan, widow, born in Whitekirk, Haddington and she was listed as a sister-in-law to James. Things were looking up. Could this be the missing Alfred?

Fortunately for researchers living outside of Scotland, quite a few Scottish records are now available online. There are fees, of couse, but compared to not having access to the records, travelling to Scotland or hiring a researcher the fees are quite modest.

It turned out that Alfred was not a common name in Scotland. So I was fairly sure that this Alfred Bell was probably Elizabeth's missing son.

James Bell married Isabella Cowan at Haddington on January 7, 1844. It is unclear how Isabella relates to Elizabeth. She may be a sister of Elizabeth's father or an older sister. Given that Alfred is listed as a nephew in the Bell household, it is highly likely that Elizabeth and Isabella Cowan were closely related.

A search for Alfred Bell on the 1891 census came up with him, a wife Christina and two children: Margaret Swinton and Alfred J B. Alfred's place of birth was given as England, London. A bit more specific than the previous one which just said England.

Next target was the marriage of Alfred and Christina. This took place August 19, 1887. Alfred gave his parents as John and Elizabeth ms Cowan. Both parents were listed as deceased and their surnames are given as Bell. This may have been an assumption on the part of the registrar, given that Alfred had presented as Bell. So, it would appear that perhaps Alfred knew that his second name was that of Elizabeth's husband. Incidentally, one of the witnesses was a William Peebles.

Alfred Bell's marriage register entry

So Alfred, born in England, was the son of Elizabeth Cowan and her husband John someone or other.

Alfred Bell's son, aged 2 in 1891 was called Alfred J B Bell. What did the B stand for? The birth registration was a gem. He was Alfred John Bra_win Bell.

By the time the 1901 census was taken there were five children: Maggie (13), Alfred (12), Isabella (9), William (3) and Thomas (1). Alfred was back to being born in England.

Christina died on 13 March 1912, aged 45.

What happened to Alfred and his children is currently unknown. Hopefully we can make contact with them one of these days.

Elizabeth's third son, William Cowan Brangwin, went to the Peebles family. He married Maggie Moncrieff on March 31, 1899 at 51 Houldsworth Street, Glasgow, Maggie's usual residence. Maggie was the daughter of James Moncrieff and Mary Nisbet and she was a 36 year old spinster. William gave his father's details as: Alfred Brangwin, soldier, deceased and his mother as Elizabeth Brangwin maiden surname Cowan (deceased). William was 33, a bachelor and his occupation was railway surface man.

William and Maggie had two children: William Peebles (who was known as Bill) and James Peebles (more on them later).

At the time of the 1901 census the family was living at Mucklets, Inveresk.

Maggie died on May 21, 1931, aged 69, at the Joppa Salt Works, Portobello, Edinburgh. William died on July 17, 1946 at the Eastern General Hospital, Leith. his usual residence was given as Ulster terrace, Edinburgh, which was most likely that of his son, James, whose residence at the time was 11 Ulster Terrace, Edinburgh. William was 80.

William and Maggie's first child, William Peebles Brangwin, was born on January 21, 1900. Bill, as he was known, died on June 6, 1933 of acute bronchisis and pulmenary congestion at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh. He was 33, a grocer's assistant and single. His usual residence was the Joppa Salt Works, Joppa, Edinburgh. The informant was his brother James.

Photo of James Peebles Brangwin taken at his 90th birthday party

James Peebles Brangwin was the second son of William Cowan Brangwin and Maggie Moncrieff. He was born on October 7, 1904 in Musklets. In 1931 he married Anne Herriot Runciman. They had two children: June Moncrieff and Frank. [Frank is now a member of our family web site]. James died on May 8, 1998.

There is obviously more work to be done tracking down descendants of John Brangwin and Elizabeth Cowan, however we have made considerable progress since the last time we touched on this part of the family.

Just to complete the picture on Elizabeth's children, here is an update on her daughter Mary Ann who was born on February 28, 1873. Mary Ann was registered with the name Brangwin although no father was listed on her birth registration. Mary Ann was adopted by John Colgate who, in 1881 was living at Goss Hill, Sutton at Home, Kent. Mary Ann married Samuel Ernest Cattermole on February 28, 1892 at All Hallows and India Dockes, Bromley, City of London. At the time of the 1901 census Mary and Samuel were living 72 Chain Walk, Aston Manor, Warwickshire, where Samuael was working as the superintendant of an Assurance Company. They also had two children: Horace Ernest B who had been born in 1896 and Rosamond Esther M born in 1898. Beyond 1901 I have no information at this time.

Letters written by Frank

As can be seen from the transcript of these two letters written by Frank Brangwyn, penmanship was not his forte, however they provide an interesting look into the man himself. The transcripts of these letters were provided by Margaret. David and Margaret met Diana de Vere Cole, ex-wife of Tristan, is the son of Augustus John, to whom the first of these letters was written, when they visitied Frank Brangwyn's house in Ditchling where Diana and her family had lived since the death of Frank. Diana's father was a friend of Frank and a fellow artist. Diana, too, is an artist and also lectures on Frank Brangwyn.

For the record, the letter to Augustus John came from The National Library of Wales (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru) and the one to Vincent Galloway came from the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.

The sketch referred to by Frank still hangs in Temple Lodge.

The books is ”Brangwyn’s Pilgrimage” by William de Belleroche, published in 1948. The Sketch of Frank Brangwyn by Augustus John is reproduced as the frontispiece. It can be clearly seen that John spelt Franks’s name “Brangwn”.

I hope you have found this edition of the Brangwin Family Newsletter of interest.

I would like to thank the people who have contributed to this newsletter: Frank for the picture of his father, James, and Margaret, yet again, who keeps finding things of interest.

That's it for this month.

If you have anything you would like to contribute to the newsletter it would be most welcome.

Until then next time

Lorraine