In memory of the help Angela Shire provided
In memory of the help Angela Shire provided in my work on the Jewish “Hort” family, by Fred Barends, The Netherlands
Angela Shire
The first time I had contact with Angela Shire, was at least 25 years ago, when she was researching her husband’s family which has a connection to my family (Salomons Cohen Kampen) in the 18th century.
I could help her a little then. Which can not be compared with the many, many times she helped me afterwards in looking for traces of my family and traces of the Hort family. Angela was a person who helped by thinking along with you, by suggesting possibilities, by bringing facts to the surface.
She helped where ever she could, in a professional way. That should be remembered and honoured.
Salomons-Kampen and Hort-Kampen
Branches of the Salomons (Cohen Kampen) family lived in London, where they were initially members of Hambro-synagogue. The Kampen “clan name” was brought into our family by David Joseph Reinbach. He came from Halberstadt, and lived in the small Dutch Hanzestad of Kampen having landed in Amsterdam around 1685. He used to sign as David Kampen. His only long surviving child Gitle was married to Barend Salomons and from then on this line of the Salomons family also uses the name of Kampen.
In London I traced some of the sons and daughters of Barend Salomons and I also found the will of an unknown person “Abraham Hort otherwise Kampen” (Prob 11/1135/279; 1785). I presumed he was an unknown child of one of Barend’s sons, so I gathered all facts I could find about the Jewish Hort family. “Presuming” is a bad habit for genealogists, and also in this case the presumption appeared wrong: after finding burial registrations and a tomb-stone it became clear that the Hort family were not Cohanim. Why this Abraham Hort uses the clan name “Kampen” is unknown: was there a non family connection with my family (both families were Hambro members)? Maybe Abraham came from Poland via Kampen (not likely and not found)? Or was he a member of the Reinbach family?
In this research I got in touch with Julie Elliott in Australia, who was also gathering information about the Hort’s. We decided to produce a Hort genealogy, which we finished in January 2019.
The Hort family
Their known history starts with Naphtali “from Breslewiz in the country of Peilim” (Breslau in Polen/Poland?), his son Abraham Hort comes to London. Abraham’s granddaughter Rachel Hort Kempe married to a man who changed his last name to become the first Waley. His grandson Abraham Hort married in 1813 Ann/Genendel Joachim (Hanover). They have 11 grown up children, of which 2 (Henry/Nahum and Jane, probably twins born in 1814) remained in England. The rest of the family left around 1842 for Wellington, New Zealand. The elder on their own and the younger children with their parents. Alexander Hort kept a letter of instruction from Great Synagogue in London with him, sanctioning him to form a Jewish community in Wellington. This he does successfully.
There are 3 sons: Samuel, Alfred Waley and Abraham jr. Samuel (born 1816) married circa 1838 Emily Hart from Montreal. They lived in Montreal for some years in the shield of the rich Hart family, but because of a financial problem they had to leave Montreal for San Francisco, in those years (1845?) a spot on the map with about 1,000 inhabitants. But they do manage and do rehabilitate. They had two twin daughters. Alfred (born 1817) married to Dora Hart from Montreal (sister of …). He was in shipping business together with his brother Abraham. From about 1844 he was a resident of San Francisco (Hort Bros.), but it is clear that mostly this couple lived on the south sea isles Tahiti and Samoa. Dora writes at least 5 books, mostly about these isles. They return to London (1871) and later leave for Nice, were they die in 1897 and 1898. Abraham junior (born 1819) married 1860 in Sydney,Australia to Rachel, daughter of Samuel Emanuel. He or they also mostly live at Samoa. The premises of Hort Bros. on Samoa are destructed by fire in 1860 and Abraham jr. dies 1862 in Ovalau,Fiji. This couple did not have children. But ….
But, of Abraham senior sons Alfred and Abraham jr. (who arrived in Wellington shortly before Abraham sr., wife and daughters) there are rumours that they had early relations with non-Jewish women. Although at their official marriages to Jewish women no children are mentioned, in 1877 a man with the name Alfred Henry Waley Hort (born Parramatta, Sydney 1849) marries and he states he is the son of Abraham Hort and Rachel Murdoch (this man is a for-father of my co-author Julie Ellliot).
Of the daughters of Abraham Hort senior the two youngest unmarried ones returned with their parents to London in 1859: Caroline, born 1823, married 1863 Montague Alex and Sarah, born 1825, seems be have stayed unmarried. The other 6 stayed in New Zealand and Australia. Ann, born 1815, married to Salomon Mocatta (Adelaide). Jessy, born 1820, married to Nathaniel William Levin (Wellington&London). Margaret, born 1821, married to Sir Frances Dillon Bell (Shag Valley Station, New Zealand). And Julia twin sister of Sarah, born 1825, married in 1849 (the first marriage in the Hobart Tasmania Synagogue in Australia) to the Reverand (Chazan) Morris Cohen, later Minister of the Jewish congregation of Sacramento, California.
Conclusion
Although one can never tell, we believe we located all individuals of the Hort family. One could expect some as yet unfound descendants named Hort from Henry/Nahum Hort (born London 1814). And of course Abraham jr. (and his brother Alfred?) could have had more children Hort than we know of.
Altogether an interesting family. Those who are interested in the complete genealogy may request a copy via SynagogueScribes contact us page. Some libraries in Australia and New Zealand also hold the complete genealogy.
I am sorry, just recovered youe commend, regards fred barends
Small world! My impoverished ancestor, Benjamin Levy, and his brother Solomon Levy, apprenticed in cabinetmaking at the Jews Hospital. In 1839 they left England for New Zealand employed by the younger Abraham Hort. They arrived in 1840, the elder Abraham Hort arrived in 1843 and Benjamin and his more recently arrived wife, Esther Solomon, provided a son in 1843 (first Bris in Wellington!), a child who died (first Jewish burial) and other events the elder Hort wrote back to the Jewish Chronicle about as he tried to show that the Wellington congregation was just like “an old, established congregation. Hard sell, he admitted, nobody would close shop for holidays, etc. So I’ve also researched the Hort-Waley connection, with an eye to Jewish philanthropy in supporting poor young Jews via the Jews Hospital, assistance to emigrate, etc. When Benjamin died 14 years after leaving England the Waley family were among those who contributed funds to get his wife and 7 children back to LOndon (per the Jewish Chronicle). My own Angela coincidence is that we met once, when I came to LOndon to obtain circumcision records of Esther Solomon’s family (her father was a mohel from 1789-1838), the records are now searchable here, thanks to Synagogue Scribes). Over lunch with her husband, we discovered Benjamin’s father John Levy, was the brother of her ancestor, Joseph Levy. So we shared a common ancestor in their father, Yechiel Michael Levy! Back to the Horts: I researched every reference to the Hort family’s early years in NZ and incoprorated it into the History of the Jews in New Zealand wiki, if anyone is interested.