Jonathan Alexander Nunn of London

Jonathan Alexander Nunn was the eldest child of Joshua Nunn and Mary Alexander. They had married in 1798, and Jonathan was born the following year. His brother James arrived the year after. The family were Baptists, which means there’s no infant baptisms recorded for the children.^[1]Jonathan’s obituary, 1843, Google Books: The Gospel Herald, or the Poor Christian’s Magazine, vols 11-12, pages 216-219

The family moved to London, where Joshua worked as an oilman and tallow chandler. They attended John Keeble’s Baptist chapel on Blandford Street in Marylebone. In 1819, a friend – the anonymous author of Jonathan’s obituary in The Gospel Herald – started to talk to Jonathan about his faith.^[2]The Gospel Herald was edited by Samuel Collins, the pastor of Grundisburgh chapel. I had wondered if he had initiated the conversation with Jonathan, but later in the obituary, the writer names Mr … Continue reading As his father was suffering from a long-term illness at the time, I wonder if that’s what prompted the conversation.

Joshua died at the end of 1819, and was buried at St Marylebone on 1 January 1820. Jonathan was only just 20 years old at the time and the oldest in the family. It’s possible that Jonathan was working in his father’s shop until his death, but didn’t carry the business on. Jonathan was “a most steady and exemplary youth,” and after his father’s death “he was placed out, as clerk and writer, in a very respectable establishment, in Berkeley Square, which situation he filled, with great satisfaction to his employers for many years.”^[3]Jonathan’s obituary He lived with his widowed mother and appears to have helped support the family.

Nunn and Company

On 11 March 1823, he married Eliza Victoria Card at St Marylebone church. The witnesses were Dinah (?) Herbert^[4]The signature is hard to read. and James Nunn – presumably Jonathan’s brother. Eliza had set up in business at 257 Regent’s Circus, Oxford Street, making and selling hats, and Jonathan carried on the business with her until his death.^[5]Jonathan’s obituary. She was born in Gosport, Hampshire, in about 1802,^[6]This is information from censuses: 1851 onwards and was the daughter of William Card, a miller who was originally from Romsey in Hampshire, and his wife Sarah Pitt O’Bryan from Wilton in Wiltshire.^[7]Eliza Victoria’s second marriage, to William Lawrence, gives us her father’s name as William Card and his occupation as miller. William Card married Sarah Pitt O’Bryan in Wilton in … Continue reading

It’s worth commenting on the fact that the obituary says he worked in the establishment at Berkeley Square for “many years”, but it looks like it was only three years, if he began working there once his father had died. Of course, the obituary was written over 20 years after these events, and “many years” could signify that at this period, young men who weren’t apprenticed flitted from job to job. Although the obituary uses the term “placed out”, which is used with apprenticeships, that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Jonathan would’ve had to take on paid employment, which wouldn’t be the case with an apprenticeship. It might be possible that he was indeed “placed out” on an apprenticeship, which would’ve happened when he was about 14 or 15, and that would’ve been during his father’s lifetime. If that’s the case, it seems that the obituary writer had got the order of events a little confused.

The business of Nunn and Company at 257 Regent’s Circus did very well, even receiving a royal appointment.^[8]The premises appears on John Tallis’ London Street Views (1838-1840) as Nunn and Co. Leghorn, Tuscan, Chip, and Straw Hat Manufacturers, by Appointment to Her Majesty. They placed adverts in newspapers, for example:

The Nobility and Gentry are most respectfully informed that NUNN and Co. 357 Regent Circus, Oxford Street, have now ready for Inspection an extensive SHOW ROOM STOCK of FINE FLORENCE LEGHORN HATS, just imported (some of which are curiously fine), French Chip, Italian Plat, White Leghorn, Dunstable, Split Straw, fine Pearl, and Silk Hats and Bonnets, with every novel and fashionable article, made and trimmed in the most approved Parisian style, and N. and Co. flatter themselves, that by selling goods of the finest fabric, and best manufacture, for small profits, and sparing neither trouble nor expense to obtain any new and elegant article, to be honoured with the commands of those Ladies who may do them the favour of inspecting their present elegant and extensive assortment.

Morning Herald, London, 18 May 1826

Eliza placed adverts looking for girls to apprentice:

WANTED, at the nearest end of the Town, in the MILLINERY, LEGHORN, and STRAW BUSINESS, – AN APPRENTICE: she will be treated as one of the family. Apply (if by letter, post paid) to Mrs Nunn, 257, Regent Circus, Oxford Street, London.

Salisbury and Winchester Journal, 19 November 1827

Their children

And while Jonathan and Eliza were busy running their business, they had nine children: five boys and four girls. No record of their births appears to exist, so their years of birth are approximate, apart from the youngest who appear in the GRO records which began in 1837:

• Herbert Jonathan, about 1824
• Edgar Pitt, about 1827
• Walter Curtis, about 1829
• Eleanor Maria, about 1830
• Emily Eliza Isabella, about 1832
• Eliza Victoria, about 1834
• Julia Constance, about 1836
• Jonathan Alexander, 1838
• James William, 1840, died 1843

Ealing

Joanthan suffered badly from asthma, so the family moved to Haven Green in Ealing, while the business continued on Regent’s Circus.^[9]Jonathan’s obituary On the night of the 1841 census, Jonathan was living with his wife and five of their children, with a visitor:

• Jonathan Nunn 40 hat maker, not b Middlesex
• Eliza 40, not b Middlesex
• Jonathan 3, b Middlesex
• Eleanor 11, b Middlesex
• Emily 9, b Middlesex
• Eliza 7, b Middlesex
• Julia 5, b Middlesex
• Elizabeth Horton, 65 not b Middlesex
• Four servants

Only a couple of months before the census was taken in June 1841, Jonathan wrote his will.^[10]Prerogative Court of Canterbury will of Jonathan Alexander Nunn of Regent Circus, Oxford Street, and Haven Cottage, Ealing, straw hat manufacturer, written 14th March 1841, proved 16th March 1842. He left everything to his wife:

…believing as I do that she will do all that is necessary and proper in educating and maintaining my children and placing them out in the world in the best way her means will allow and that she will in every respect act the part of a parent and friend to them and will make no improper use whatever of the absolute control I have hereby invested her with.

He made his wife his executor, along with his friends George Smith of Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, dyer, and Robert Turner of Blandford Street, Portman Square, plumber.^[11]Robert Turner may have been a friend through the chapel that the family had once attended on the street that he lived on. A Ruth Turner was a witness to the marriage of Jonathan’s son Herbert … Continue reading The will was witnessed by William Martyn of 38 Davies Street, Berkeley Square, who in the 1845 Post Office directory is at that address, and at 7 Thayer Street, Manchester Square too, as the firm Hitchcock and Martyn. He was a solicitor, and appears on the 1841 and 1851 census at the address on Thayer Street. It could be that Jonathan’s early employment had been with Hitchcock and Martyn, or perhaps Martyn was just the solicitor that the family used. The other witness was Elizabeth Horton of 8 Smith Street, Manchester Square. Elizabeth was presumably the same woman who was at Jonathan’s home on the night of the census. She was the widow of John Horton, a carpenter of South Street, Manchester Square.^[12]I did look into Elizabeth’s story, in case she was related to the Nunns. It’s possible that she was another friend from the Baptist chapel as she lived in Marylebone. Her husband’s … Continue reading

Jonathan’s asthma worsened, and during his illness, he was often visited by “his intimate friend, Mr Smith.”^[13]Jonathan’s obituary. This could well be George Smith, who Jonathan had made one of his executors.^[14]When George wrote his will in June 1847, he describes himself as being of 98 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, and also Ealing. He also mentions his freehold vault at Kensal Green cemetery, where … Continue reading Just over a month after Jonathan’s death, his eldest son would marry George’s daughter Constant Harriet Smith. The couple were both minors, aged only about 18, and I do wonder if the marriage was organised swiftly in the aftermath of Jonathan’s death. The marriage didn’t last: Herbert went off to South Africa, leaving Constant and their two children behind him, and bigamously married a Zulu lady. There are many people alive in South Africa today who count Herbert among their ancestors.

As Jonathan’s health worsened, on 19th February, a letter arrived at the Nunns’ home of Haven Cottage in Ealing. It brought sad news from Ipswich: Jonathan’s mother, Mary, had passed away on 17th February 1842. Only ten hours after receiving the letter, at two o’clock in the morning, Jonathan Alexander Nunn passed away. He was buried at Kensal Green on 1st March 1842, and his funeral was attended “by his widow, children, relations, and many friends.” His “intimate friend” Mr Collins, the pastor of Grundisburgh and editor of The Gospel Herald , which published Jonathan’s obituary, gave the address at the cemetery, “assisted by Mr Robinson of Brentford.”^[15]Jonathan’s obituary.

Afterwards

The year after Jonathan’s death, his youngest child, James William, died. It’s odd that the little boy wasn’t at home with his family when the 1841 census was taken; that night he was in Ipswich, in the home of Benjamin Chaplin, a milk dealer, and his wife Mary Ann, along with James’ first cousin Naomi Nunn (one of the daughter’s of Jonathan’s brother William). The Chaplins were Baptists, which explains how the Nunns knew them, but they weren’t related.^[16]At least, if they were the Chaplins weren’t close relatives. Mary Ann’s maiden name was Miller. It’s not clear if the children were only visiting them or if they lived there long-time. However, by the time poor little James passed away, he was living in Middlesex.

Tragedy struck again, only two years after Jonathan’s death, when Sutherland House, then the family home in Ealing, “near Ealing House”, caught fire, causing a great deal of damage.^[17]The Sun, 9 March 1844

Eliza continued the business that she had set up herself, just before her marriage to Jonathan. By 1845, the business was known as “Mrs Nunn and Sons”, and had moved to 316 Regent Street “exactly opposite the Polytechnic Institute”.^[18]Advert, Morning Herald, 4 April 1845 Eliza was at great pains to inform the public that she was running her business from no. 316, and shouldn’t be confused by any other business, perhaps referring to Martin Nunn who ran a “juvenile depot”, selling chidren’s clothing at no.259 Regent Circus next door to the old shop.^[19]Martin Nunn, on the 1851 census, was at 259 Regent Street, a laceman employing 5 staff. He was 41 and had been born in London, as had the rest of his family, comprising of: wife Mary, 40, and … Continue reading She also pointed out that she was selling her hats to Queen Victoria and the princesses: “The sole inventors of the SLIP STITCHED TUSCAN HAT, so highly approved of by her Majesty.”^[20]Morning Herald, 23 March 1848. It’s quite remarkable to think of all the photographs of Queen Victoria and her daughters wearing hats, and that some of their headgear had been supplied by the Nunns!

On 7 July 1846, Eliza married William Lawrence at All Souls’ church, Regent’s Street. He was a widowed grocer from Ealing, eleven years her junior. The witnesses were Eliza’s daughter Eleanor Maria Nunn, and Eliza’s son Herbert and his wife Constant. Another witness was L. Lawrence, presumably one of the groom’s children.

On the 1851 census, William and Eliza were living at Woodbine Cottage in Ealing with Eliza’s children Edgar, Emily and Eliza. Then in 1861, Edgar was at Woodbine Cottage with his wife Sarah and their children, while William and Eliza were living nearby on Guys Lane. They had quite a houseful, with Eliza’s unmarried daughter Eleanor living with them, along with Eliza’s widowed daughter Emily and her son Marmaduke Wyville who had been born in Calcutta, and Eliza’s daughter Julia with her husband William Brade and their two children Harper and Mary.

William died before the next census was taken, when we find Eliza at Alexander Terrace, Haven Green, in Ealing. Her household was smaller now, consisting only of herself, Emily and Marmaduke.

Eliza had moved to Warwick Cottage, Ealing, by 11 May 1874, when she wrote her will. She mentioned an indenture dated the day before her second marriage, settling properties in Ealing on her children, which her late husband had arranged. She owned Nos. 1 and 2 Woodbine Cottages, and Romsey Cottage, Warwick Cottage also known as Havant Cottage (another place in Hampshire), a shop and premises on Warwick Road, and Mead House. Of her many children, she names Walter Curtis Nunn, who was to have some of the property secured on him or his children for 30 years. She also names Eleanor Maria, wife of John Shepherd Mathews, Eliza Victoria Brade (Julia and Eliza had married Brade brothers), and her son Herbert Jonathan Nunn. Her executors were her son-in-law John Shepherd Mathews, a “good friend” James Griffin, a house agent of the Broadway, Ealing, along with two other Ealing residents, Henry Wilkins, a surgeon, and Benjamin Hales, a chemist.

She died at Haven Green, Ealing, on 11 April 1878.

By Helen Barrell

First published 14th March 2024