January 2006 – Edition 9

Some of you sharp-eyed Jerrems may have noticed spelling
anomalies in the stories. Although my spell checker
redlines the Aussie spellings, I leave them in for
flavor (or is it flavour).

Now you can see why I called him “Big Bill”! “Remember Big Bill?
In the first instalment of my story, in an earlier Newsletter, I
told you about the early Jerrems families in Willingham and
Gainsborough, and was in the process of telling you about Big
Bill, who was born in 1782. He was a prominent grocer and tea
merchant in Gainsborough in the early to mid-1800s. The above
quotation and comment picks up where I left off, when Big Bill
was getting on in years. Now read on.”

Eighteen stone is around 130 kilos. Big Bill must have eaten a
lot of his cream biscuits when he was a grocer.

A combination of the introduction of railways as an alternative
to river transport, and the loss of the customs house, would
have affected Gainsborough. However, Gainsborough had still kept
a considerable coasting trade and had built up a strong
engineering base (for instance the Brittannia Iron Works
employed 3000 men). (Gainsborough Market Place pictured.)

Thomas was Big Bill’s eldest son and probably took over
the grocery business. In the 1851 Census Thomas was described as
a grocer with one employee. Not a big business, but businesses
of this modest size were probably fairly typical in rural
England in those times.

The Jerrems clan had made quite an impact in Gainsborough. The
source of our information on Gainsborough states that

By 1851 the population of Gainsborough had reached over
8,000. All these people had to be housed, the manner of which
became a distinctive feature of (old) Gainsborough (town centre
pictured). The population boom initially had not caused
Gainsborough to sprawl. Instead, rows of cottages were built in
the “back gardens” of existing houses. These became known as
“Yards”. Barnaby’s Yard, Potter’s Yard, Jerrems Square and
Winn’s Yard are to name but a few of these many narrow and pokey
little homes that no longer exist. Barnaby’s Yard on Church
Street is all that remains to be seen of old Gainsborough’s
yards.

Jerrems Square was located behind Bridge Street, a lane
from that street giving access to the Square. The 1851 Census
also refers to a Jerrems Yard adjacent to the Square, a Jerrems
Street, a Jerrems Row and a Jerrems Terrace. Surely with the
number of Jerrems people in Gainsborough there should have been
a “Jerrems Warren” also!

None of these “Jerrems” places now exist. Jerrems Square, in
particular, was turned into a car park. An ignominious end. The
ubiquitous car wins again!

When you look back, it is not surprising that a lot of Jerrems
people lived in Gainsborough by the mid 1800s. The first William
had 4 children, Bill had 6 children, and Big Bill had 8
surviving.

At one stage Thomas and Elizabeth lived in a house at 36 Silver
Street rejoicing in the name of Mandarin House.

Thomas and Elizabeth and their family migrated to
Australia. The reason for migration is not known, and is
somewhat puzzling if Thomas had an established business, but it
was not undertaken lightly. Perhaps it was because he had such a
large family and thought Australia would provide more
opportunities for them. Thomas and his son of the same name went
to Melbourne in 1853, leaving Elizabeth and the remaining
children in Gainsborough. The 2 Thomases went to Tasmania at one
stage to have a look around and then finally sent for the
family, most of whom sailed to Melbourne in 1859. Thomas Sr.
became a merchant in Melbourne. But that is another story.

The 1900 Census shows that no people named Jerrems still lived
in Gainsborough. in 1900. They had moved to other towns. There
could of course still be people in Gainsborough tracing back to
the Jerrems families through maternal lines.

So there you have it, my reconstruction of the 140 years that we
know the Jerrems ancestors spent in England.

In Gainsborough, England some of the family were merchants and
grocers in the early to mid 1800s. In those days they could have
had a lot of lifting of heavy bags of flour, sugar etc. In the
1800’s a number of Jerrems people in the US were farmers, in the
days when farm work was extremely physically demanding. No doubt
all these people were strong.

But the title should in all likelihood go to James H Jerrems
Jr, born in 1837, who in the 1870 US Census was described as
being a blacksmith in a town called Valley, near Lawn Ridge,
in County Stark, Illinois (pictured in the header).
Blacksmiths were renown for their strength so I think he should
be declared the winner. The male line of this family has died
out. (old Illinois blacksmith image pictured)

The most popular woman’s name in the Jerrems family today
is Susan. There are 2 who were born Susan Jerrems
(but have married) and there are 3 who have married into the
Jerrems family, making a total of five. Oddly, there were none
in any previous generations.

In December, Didier Begat (husband of Susan nee Jerrems)
graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana with an MS degree in HRD ( Human Resource Development)
with 11 A’s and one B (GPA of 3.92) He did not choose the thesis
route and took a few extra classes instead.

He plans to celebrate with a 14-day trip to Agadez in Northern
Niger (The Air mountains and the Tenere desert) from 12/31st to
01-14 to discover the Touaregs way of living (nomads). More on
this story in a future edition.

Susan, who is continuing her long career as a linguist, stayed
behind in Baton Rouge. She is an Adjunct Professor at LSU
teaching English-as-a-Second-Language.

Didier retired from a French-based chemical company just two
years ago. His future plans are to continue his education in
golf, where he needs a lot of improvement.

This photograph was taken in 1905 and shows most of the Jerrems
family living in Sydney at the time, except for one “ring in”.
It was probably taken at the Greenwich (Sydney) house of Charles
and Susannah Jerrems.

The family consisted of parents Charles and Susannah and
their children Charles Jr, Edwin, Isabel, Alf and Richmond, the
first two children being absent from the photo.

The people are (L to R) standing Isabel Jerrems (born 1876)
and her brother Alf Jerrems (born 1878), seated Alfred Sassall,
Richmond Jerrems (born 1886), and his mother Susannah Jerrems
(born about 1850) and father Charles Jerrems (born 1847) seated
in the far right.

The photo appears to have been taken at the side of the house
because the people are standing or sitting precariously in a
rose garden, presumably to enable the photographer to fit them
in the picture. Isabel looks as though she is about to fall
sideways. The photographer must have been a very persuasive
person because I am sure that I would not stand in the middle of
a rose bed for a photograph.

The two elder statesmen sitting on the far left and right have
the best seats in the house but seem to have lost interest in
proceedings because they are both gazing to our right of the
picture. Perhaps they did not hear the photographer say “watch
the birdy” or its 1905 equivalent. Or perhaps they were having
what is euphemistically now called “a senior moment”.
Susannah is gazing to our left. Alf Jerrems (Ray and
Doug’s grandfather) looks quite nonchalant, in keeping with
his placid nature. Susannah looks as though she is restraining
young Richmond from “doing a bunk”. Only Alfred Sassall
actually looks pleased to be there, most of the others look
either quite glum or preoccupied with avoiding the rose thorns.

All people are wearing their austere “Sunday best” clothes, the
only exception being Alfred Sassall’s fez (or something similar
to a fez). His fez and moustache make him look as though he had
just got off the boat after a stint with the British army at
Poonah in India. In actual fact (less romantically) he was a
butcher at Lithgow on the western edge of the Blue Mountains and
had probably spent much of the previous day in a steam train
negotiating the famous Zig Zag Railway.

The reason for Alfred’s jovial expression may have been that Alf
Jerrems had just asked for his approval to marry his eldest
daughter Esther. Alfred had obviously agreed because Alf
and Esther were married the following year. Alfred’s happy
expression in the photo may show that he had been thinking
“Thank goodness, one down, only five more daughters to go”.

Charles was born in Gainsborough, England in 1847 to
Thomas and Elizabeth. He and his 3 brothers William George,
Robert Cane and Arthur Reginald are the forbears of all the
Jerrems families in Australia and most of the Jerrems families
in the US. Although at first glance he looks quite old he was
only 58. He lived another 22 years. Alfred Sassall, also born in
England, was probably about 10 years younger than him. A high
protein diet and fresh mountain air obviously agreed with
Alfred, he is the only person who looks well fed.

Regarding their clothing, Isabel’s hat cries out for
mention. Isabel was a schoolteacher, a vocation not normally
associated with such a large hat. I bet she never wore it to
school.

Later JJ articles will trace these people’s lives in detail.

Do any readers have other old photos suitable for publication?

Thanks to all who contributed to the Christmas Greetings issue
(willingly and unwillingly) and for the kind comments
afterwards. We might do it again this year.

Ray and I already have the February, March and April issues
almost ready. We can’t help ourselves.

We hope you enjoy these journeys to the past and look forward to
the surprizes ahead!