Who Do You Think You Are - Alex Kingston 19th Sep

[Ann from Sussex]

Originally Posted by kiterunner

There was a series along those lines a few years ago - was it for the 90th anniversary of the end of WW1? I wonder whether they will have another one when it is the 100th anniversary of the start or end of the war.

I'm sure I watched one earlier this year on either Channel 4 or 5 in which celebrities traced their grandfathers' or fathers' war service. Maybe it was a repeat of the one you recall. You never know these days whether you are watching something new or donkey's years old.

[JBee]

Glimpsed that Rosa was the daughter of............. in the Will but doesn't say who her mother was.

Mind you if Louis was such a spendthrift of other people's money then no wonder she didn't leave him any properties.

[Shona]

Forget the earlier reference to the Louis/Lewis Braham leaving £63,000. It's the wrong Braham.

In 1881, Louis was living in his late mother's house at 8 Tichfield Terrace and he's at Regent Square in 1891. By 1901, he's living with one of his sons.

[Olde Crone]

A bit rich that she took the moral high ground because her son was divorced!!!!!!!

Let's face it, no one wakes up one morning and thinks "Oooh, I know what, I'll be a Madam". She obviously had the skills required and to say that she took to it because she had four dependent children is just a bit of whitewash. I might have believed that deperation if she had herself been a prostitute, but she continued this very lucrative trade for very many years after all her children were grown and gone, so she was doing it for money, not for necessity.

I wouldn't be particularly proud of her if she was in my tree.

OC

[kiterunner]

I wonder if we can find out whether her husband left her any money.

[Shona]

1817 and 1818 Lands Rax Records show Michael Braham at 25 New Bedford Court, occupation: glass cutter.

1818 and 1819 Poll Books have him at Bedford Court and a glass cutter. This suggests that he had property rights and money.

The Standard report of 22 December 1873 says that Elizabeth Braham was 'the widow of a china and stoneware merchant'.

[kiterunner]

I just remembered another thing that niggled about the will - they were trying to make out that Elizabeth was clever to think of a way of leaving money to her granddaughter without a husband being able to get his hands on it, but all that stuff about "free from the controul of her husband" etc was just standard wording for any will where anything was left to a woman.

[Olde Crone]

Exactly - and the Will would have been drawn up by a Solicitor anyway, not worded by Elizabeth.

OC

[BarnsleyHistorian]

Hi all

I was looking at Lewis/Louis's other children in the 1881 census.
Edith aged 18
Louis aged 13
Walter aged 11 (that's the one the elder Louis is living with later)

As he didn't marry Bessie until 1872 these children must have been born Champ.

I've found Louis the younger on FreeBMD (probably)
Births Mar 1868
Champ Louis Henry B Marylebone 1a 578

Also Walter
Births Jun 1870
Champ Walter Ernest B Marylebone 1a 576


So he divorces Adelaide but doesn't marry the mother of his children until 1872, odd?

[Olde Crone]

Are they definitely Louis' children then and not just Bessie's?

If they are his children with Bessie then maybe he didn't marry her because he wanted the dispensation to be able to marry her in church (why would that be important to either of them, though? I would have thought a Registry Office wedding would be better than nothing at all!)

OC