Grave 49
     

Hannah Jacobs

1824  – 1899

Here lies
The dear honest and glorious woman
Married/Mrs  Hannah
wife of The Rev/Rabbi Natan Jacobs ZL
The pure soul ascended to heaven
day Friday 28 Adar, 
buried day Sun 1 Nissan 659 small counting
May her soul be bound up in the bond of life eternal

פ׳ט
האשה  היקרה הישרה והמהוללה
מרת חנה
אשת החבר רי נתן יעקאבם ז׳ל
נשמה הטהורה עלתה השמימה
ביום ו ע׳ש׳ק כ׳ח לחדש אדר
ונקברה ביום א ר׳ח ניסן תר׳נט לפק
ת׳ נ׳ צ׳ ב׳ ח׳


IN MEMORY OF
HANNAH JACOBS,
WIFE OF NATHAN JACOBS
WHO DIED ON THE 10TH
AND WAS BURIED ON THE 12TH MARCH
1899, AGED 75.


Hannah was born in Poland to Isaiah and Catherine Wolf. By the 1841 census the family were living in Pensons Gardens, Oxford and Isaiah was described as a jeweller. 

They were one of only three Jewish families living close to each other in Oxford at the time, though Aaron Jacobs and his family arrived a year later, also from Poland. In February of 1844 there was a serious fire at the Jacobs’ family house at 9 Ebbes Street. Aaron and his daughter Rebecca were killed. The eldest son Nathan aged 18, who had only recently arrived from Poland and spoke no English, escaped by jumping out of the window but fell on his head and was badly injured.

A few months later in September 1844, Nathan and Hannah Wolf, both only 19 years old, were married in Oxford, the first Jewish wedding in the city. It attracted much interest locally and was also reported in The Times. Their first son Aaron, named after his grandfather, was born in 1845.

Nathan was by then the shochet (ritual slaughterer) and it is likely that services were held in the family home. Around 1847 a small synagogue opened in Oxford and Nathan became the first Reader. Nathan and Hannah’s second son was born in the same year, followed by three more sons and two daughters. In 1858, the family including Hannah’s recently widowed mother moved to Cardiff where Nathan had been appointed the first rabbi at the new synagogue. 

Their last child Judith was born there in 1865. In 1872 the family suddenly left Cardiff and went to Newport where Nathan held various posts before retiring to Bath in 1879 with Hannah and two of their children. They lived at 16 and then 20 Charlotte Street, their home being used for some of the synagogue business meetings. 

Nathan and Hannah’s eldest daughter Rose and her husband Michael Franks moved to Bath around 1890. After her Nathan’s death in 1890 Hannah moved in with them at 14 Manvers Street before they moved to Prior Park Buildings where Hannah died in 1899 of heart disease. Reuben Somers was present at her death. 

When they died Nathan and Hannah were grandparents to 54 grandchildren.
Administration of the Personal Estate of Nathan Jacobs late of 1 St Mary-buildings Wells-road Bath in the County of Somerset Jewish Minister who died 12 May 1890 at 1 St Mary-buildings was granted at the Principal Registry to Hannah Jacobs of 14 Manvers-street Bath Widow the Relict. Personal Estate £150. 

Children 

Rose (b 1846) married Michael Franks, a jeweller and pawnbroker from Russia. In the 1871 census they are living in Midsomer Norton with their daughter Fanny. In 1881 they were living in Blaenavon, South Wales with their five children. By 1891 they were living in Manvers Street Bath and then moved to Prior Park Buildings. 

Rebecca (b 1854) married Jacob Wolf, headmaster of the Westminster Jews’ Free School.

Judith (b 1866) married Benjamin Woolf, a Newport pawnbroker at 20 Charlotte Street in August 1887. 

Aaron Joseph became a pawnbroker, married Sarah Samuel from Liverpool and lived in Pontypool, South Wales. 

Emmanuel married Priscilla Abrahams and was a pawnbroker living in the 1891 census at 18 Cardiff Road, Newport with 10 children and 2 servants. He died in 1899, leaving over £3,500 to his wife and son Bertram a solicitor.

Julius (b 1848) a general dealer, married in 1872 in the Great Synagogue London to Marie Berlyn, a school teacher. They lived in Neath, Birmingham, Bedford and London with their eight children.

Benjamin married Lotti Pichi in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Isaiah married Josephine Hast. They had three children and lived in Cambridge and then London.

Census records
  1841     Pensons Gardens   Oxford
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1851     Little Clarendon Street   Oxford
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1861   22  East Terrace   Cardiff
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1871   39  Love Lane   Cardiff
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1881   16  Charlotte St   Bath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1891   14   Manvers Street   Bath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
Associated addresses
     9  Prior Park Buildings   Bath
  Home of Judith and Michael Franks (Hanna's daughter and son in law) and place of Hannah's death