|
Jerrems Journal – September 2016 Edition 138
NICOLL THE TAILOR’S CHILDREN-
SEVENTH ARTICLE |
Introduction by Ray Jerrems
I have written so many articles about Nicoll the Tailor that I have almost forgotten what he looked like. So, to remind myself, I have included my favourite photo of Nicoll, with two of his grandchildren, Donald and Annie. Donald was the grandfather of our editor Donald, and Annie was the grandmother of two of our readers, Mark and Vincent Healy. Exciting news! We have recently discovered a completely new line of Nicoll the Tailor descendants coming down from his son Donald, giving new impetus to research of Nicoll. Contributions by a “new” descendant (Calvin Crouch) and recent research by one of our readers (Leila) has filled in many of the gaps. Tracing down the numerous articles I have written about Nicoll and his forbears, we have finally reached the point when we can talk about Nicoll the Tailor’s children, as a prelude to talking about the new line. We have a number of readers who are descendants of Nicoll the Tailor, through Mary Nicoll who married William George Jerrems, so this article is particularly relevant to them. It is very likely that these readers have distant cousins living in Australia tracing back to Nicoll the Tailor. Nicoll the Tailor and his family arrived in Melbourne in or prior to 1856, when he is shown in the Victorian 1856 Census as living in Collingwood, Melbourne with the occupation of tailor. Readers could be forgiven for thinking that Melbourne was the only city in Australia because that is where many of our forbears first settled! |
|
| Nicoll the Tailor’s children
Briefly, Nicoll the Tailor’s ten children were: Details of the children Details of the children, except for Emma who was previously described in my “Nicoll the Tailor Fourth Article” published in the Journal of September 2014, are set out below.
Alexander Here is a photo of a panel of the Nicoll Family Monument in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. The panel records the death of Alexander and his brother Wallace. Alexander was born in 1841 near Norwich, north east of London. He migrated to Melbourne with his parents and siblings. He was clearly the black sheep of the family. I have found a reference in a May 1865 Melbourne “Argus” newspaper to an Alexander Nicoll being fined 6 shillings in the City Court on the charge of drunkenness. One of the JPs on the bench was the Mayor, which brings to mind an advertisement by Nicoll of August 1863 (two years earlier): “FANCY DRESS BALL.-Stanley and Nicholl, tailors to His Worship the Mayor, are prepared to make fancy DRESSES for the above occasion. 62 Collins-Street east”. Readers could safely assume that Nicoll the Tailor was embarrassed by this peccadillo of his 24 year old eldest son. Obviously the 30 year old Alexander (Jnr) was a naughty boy who had not seen the error of his ways because in 1871 the Melbourne “Argus” reported that he had been charged at the City Court with forging the name of his employer (his younger brother Wallace) to a cheque for £5 10s. Wallace did not wish to press charges against his hapless brother, who had been drinking for some weeks before he uttered the cheque. However Wallace said he would send him out of the colony, which did not eventuate. Ominously, the Bench considered that the case was one for a jury, and committed the prisoner for trial, allowing bail. Obviously Alexander was still proving to be a bother, because eight months later in January 1872 he was charged with trespassing on the premises of his brother. Alexander’s relations with his family were clearly at a low ebb. Alexander died in 1877, as recorded on the Nicoll Family Monument in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn (see above photo). The Memorial also describes him as having been the husband of Lizzie White, who I have not been able to trace any further. |
|
Wallace Here is a photo of a Trade Card, typical of many cards distributed by the “Nicoll the Tailor” stores in New York, where Wallace worked for a while (see later). It shows polo players. Wallace (b1844 in England) migrated to Australia with the family.
He probably worked for his father as a tailor and took over the business when his father left Australia and in due course opened his “Nicoll the Tailor” stores in the United States. In late 1869 the name of the business was changed to SG Nicolls and Co, and later to Nicoll Bros, all at 78-80 Swanston Street in the Melbourne CBD. In June 1870 a notice appeared in the Melbourne “Argus” announcing rather grandiosely the dissolution of “the partnership of SG Nicolls and Co, the renowned Prince of Tailors”, adding that “Nicolls employ upwards of 100 working hands”, and that “the Nicolls vast establishment is to undergo alteration”. Setting aside the hyperbole, it is clear that Wallace had taken over a large business from his father. It is probable that the short life (less than a year) of “S.G.Nicolls and Co.” was due to the establishment of “Nicoll Bros”. A branch store was opened in Fitzroy, an inner suburb of Melbourne. Wallace is made bankrupt Wallace was made bankrupt in 1873, following in his father’s footsteps. Bankruptcy did not seem to be a big deal amongst businessmen in those days, possibly because there were a lot of minor recessions in the mid to late 1800s, culminating in the record breaking 1892-5 depression. For instance William Jerrems, the son of “Big Bill”, was also bankrupted, as was my great grandfather Charles Jerrems. In an 1875 Melbourne Directory Wallace is shown as living in Simpson Street, East Melbourne, a quite convenient 3km (two miles) from his business address in Swanston Street. In a very surprising development Wallace is also shown in Goulding´s Manual of New York and General Statistical Guide, 1875 as living in New York at a Nicoll the Tailor store. He must have moved to New York in 1875 and been appointed by his father to manage a “Nicoll the Tailor” store. Wallace is recorded on the Nicoll Family Memorial in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn as having died in 1882. The Memorial is inscribed “Died and was buried at sea on his voyage to Australia Nov. 20th 1882”, making him the only distant relation I have located who died at sea. Perhaps he died from typhoid or cholera on a voyage back to Australia from the United States. Without refrigeration it was necessary for the bodies to be tipped overboard as soon as possible, with a brief ceremony. There is no reference to a marriage by Wallace on the memorial, unlike his brother Alexander. The last reference to the Nicoll family’s tailoring businesses in Melbourne was when an auction was held in 1885 “By Order of the Executors” of “The Large and Valuable Stock of Messrs Nicoll Bros, Drapers and Clothiers of Fitzroy”. |
|
|
|
Mary
Briefly, Mary was born in 1846 in St Luke’s (London). She married William George Jerrems in Melbourne in 1867, and lived in Sydney until 1875, when the Jerrems family sailed direct to San Francisco. William and Mary are the great grandparents of many of our American readers. Mary died in 1928 in Santa Monica, California. Hellen and Annie I have grouped these together because they had parallel careers. Hellen, known as “Nellie”, was born in 1853 in St James, London and Annie was born in Australia in 1860. They returned to England and apparently stayed there. They were shown in the 1891 UK Census as spinsters, living with their father in Hampstead. With their sister Fanny they were executors of their father’s will. At this stage I have no further information about them.
|
|
Letitia
Letitia was born in 1848 at Birkenhead (near Liverpool) on the west coast of England.
Our first record of Letitia (no doubt known as “Letty”) in Australia is in an “Argus” marriage notice of May 1874, describing Letitia’s marriage to Abraham Marshall. The couple had six children
(a) Helen Isabella “Ellen” Marshall 1877-
(b) Alexander Wallace Marshall 1879-1955
(c) Alfred Donald Nicoll Marshall 1880-1914
(d) Annie Letitia Nicoll Marshall 1883-
(e) Letitia Emma Marshall 1887-1950
(f) Violet Valentine Marshall 1890- Moving forward, the 1903 Census shows Letitia and her husband Abraham Marshall (carpenter) living at 20 Taylor St Moonee Ponds, a north-western suburb of Melbourne. The daughters followed the tailoring theme of their grandfather. Ellen and Letitia were dressmakers, and Violet described herself as a tailoress. Their two brothers followed different paths. In 1903 Alexander was a letter carrier (like a postman), and in 1919 he is shown as a chainman (a chainman worked for a surveyor, the chain being used for measurement).His younger brother Alfred was a horse trainer, the first person with this occupation in the Jerrems annals. Moonee Ponds, where the family lived, has a horse racing track dating back to the 1880s. Presumably this was where Alfred trained horses until his early death at the age of thirty four. Perhaps he died in an accident connected with handling horses. Alexander married Charlotte Louisa Simcock (1900-) in 1919, having a son and a daughter. It is likely that their descendants are still in Melbourne. Letitia married Alfred William Morissey (1887-1948) in 1919. She died in 1950 aged 71. I have not been able to trace the other children.
Alfred Alfred was born in 1849 in Marylebone, London. He is shown in the 1851 UK Census but I have not found any further record, so he possibly died young. Fanny’s full name was Frances Victoria, born 1864 in Melbourne. She married Frederick Octavius Matthews (saddler) in 1899, in Hampstead, London. Frederick died in 1920 in London and Fanny died there in 1936. I have not located any children.
Donald Here is a general photo of the Nicoll Family Monument. The front panel in the photo records the death of Nicoll the Tailor and his wife Elizabeth. Donald was born in 1853 in St James, Westminster, London. Briefly, according to information in US Censuses Donald arrived in New York in 1867, married Lee Coleman (b1855 England) in 1873, and they had four children who reached adulthood, a daughter (Florence born 1880) and three sons, Alexander (b1881 NY), Donald (b1882 NY) and Wallace (b 1883 NY). It is a complete mystery as to how (and whether) a fourteen year old Donald travelled by himself from Australia to New York in 1867. Perhaps it is part of the Nicoll the Tailor” folklore, perpetuated by the demonstrably incorrect statement in Nicoll’s epitaph that he migrated to New York from England in 1859. I have written separate articles about Donald and his children. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| When did the family leave Australia?
This is open to debate. At the end of December 1865 in a diatribe against protectionism (one of his hobbyhorses) Nicoll declared that “Everything must be sold. Leaving for England.” This may have been a case of literary license, or perhaps it was designed to put the wind up his bankruptcy creditors, because advertisements under his name appeared for four more years until January 1869. In July 1869 advertisements referred to “SG Nicoll and Co” (managed by Wallace). It therefore seems likely that Nicoll and some of his family left Australia for England in early 1869. Later sightings in Melbourne of Alexander, Wallace, Letitia, Mary, and Emma show that they chose to stay in Australia. It seems that only the younger children returned to England and the joys of London, being Donald (aged 17 at that time), Hellen (aged 16), Annie (aged 9) and Frances (aged 5). Conclusion |