Grave 53
     

Herentz Leon

1806  – 1884

Here lies
...
...
son of Abraham
...
May his soul be bound in the bond of life eternal

פנ
[We do not have the Hebrew characters yet]
תנצבה

IN MEMORY OF
HERENTZ LEON
WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE
DECEMBER 10TH 5645
1884
AGED 79.


Herentz Leon was born in Dusseldorf, Germany. We don't know when he came to Britain., but he first appears in the 1841 census living in Bedwelty, Tredegar, Monmouthshire, aged 35, a Jeweller born in foreign parts. 

In October 1841, the Bristol Mercury reported the following marriage: 'According to the rites of the Jewish Religion, Mr H Leon, Silversmith, Wales, to Hannah, eldest daughter of the late Mr Emanuel Hart of Plymouth'. The family lived at Newfoundland Street Bristol where their first son Emmanuel, named after Hannah's father, was born in 1842, followed by a daughter Melina named after Hannah's sister. 

By 1845 Herentz and Hannah were living in Bath at 6 Princes Street. They had another eight children all born in Bath, three of whom died in infancy. From 1861 the family lived at different addresses in Widcombe.

The Bath Directory for 1858-9,  lists Herentz as a 'general commissioning agent' - a money lender. At different stages in his life Herentz also described himself as a jeweller and a cigar manufacturer. He certainly had a shop at 38 Claverton Street which sold cigars and where his wife Hannah and son Alfred also worked. 

In 1870, three men were found guilty of stealing from this shop.  The report of the trial contains explicit anti-semitic remarks made by defendants lawyer in his summing up to the jury 'The Jury must know ho he was, and what he was, in fact his demeanour showed he was an Israelite indeed. The Israelite never sowed unless to eat, and Leon tried to sell anything that came to his hand, etc'. 

Herentz  died in Chippenham in 1884 aged 78. Just two years later his son Alfred pleaded guilty to bigamy and was imprisoned for five years. 
Hannah does not appear to have been well provided for by her husband or her children. In the 1891 census she is living in a widow's home at the Hand in Hand asylum in Hackney. There is no record of her death.

Children

Emanuel Leon:  Emanuel never married. In the 1871 census he is living at 42 Mary Street, Merthyr Tydfil,  aged 28, unmarried, pawnbroker. Living with him is his eldest sister, Melina, aged 27, also unmarried.  In later census he is listed as a traveller in cigars/tobacco dealer, and a lodger at various addresses in Lancashire.  He died in 1919 in Prestwich, Lancs.
 
Melina Leon:  In 1886, at the age of 40 Melina married Louis Symons, a widow aged 60, in the Western Synagogue, London.  

Louis Leon: Louis married Rosetta Davies, born in London,  at the Western Synagogue London in 1878. He was a watch importer. They had three sons - Joseph, Reginald and George. He died in Fulham in 1905.

Alfred Leon: On 6 Jul 1880 at St Paul’s Church, St Pancras, Middx: Alfred Leon, aged 26, commercial traveller, of 10 Merchant St, Bow, commercial traveler, married Edith Fanny Glasier, aged 22, spinster, of 517 Caledonian Road, Islington, daughter of Samuel Glasier, chemist. They had a daughter, Edith and two sons.  But in 1886 Alfred pleaded guilty to bigamy for feloniously marrying Emily Elizabeth Elisha. He was sentenced to five years but released from prison in 1890. He married again in Newton Abbot in 1906. There is no more information about him. 

Adolphe Leon:  In the 1891 census at 15 Alfred Place, Holborn, London: Adolphe Leon, aged 30, unmarried, lodger, dental surgeon, born at Bath. In January 1893 aged 32 he marries Georgina Reisdale aged 21 In London. Adolphe's profession is now listed as Commercial Traveler. It  seems that he marriage did not last as in December 1893  Adolphe went to New York where he died in 1940. 
Census records
  1841   1  Bedwelty   Tredgar
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1851   6   Princes Street   Bath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1861   2  Princess Buildings   Bath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1871   38  Claverton Street   Bath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
  1881   1   Claverton Buildings   Bath
Name | Age
Birth
Relationship
Occupation
Associated addresses
  1884-1884   Bear hotel  Market Place   Chippenham
  Place of death. 9 December 1884.