The Samuel Family – Introduction

H Samuel Watch Ad December 12 1896

The Samuel family arrived in England from Posen on the continent in the late eighteenth century and settled in London. The family at the time consisted of Menachem Samuel, his wife Hannah Israel and son Nathan Meyer Samuel. Two more sons were born in London, Louis in 1794 and Moses in 1795. Young Louis took off for Liverpool at an early age to continue the family business of watch making and selling jewelry. After the death of Menachem, Hannah followed her son Louis to Liverpool bringing Moses with her. For a genealogical print out of the Samuel and other families and which does not include (as far as possible) living descendants HERE.

The two brothers, Louis and Moses, married two sisters, Hannah and Harriet Israel, who were also their maternal cousins. Thus making the descendants of Louis and Moses much more closely related than would otherwise be the case.

GENERATION 1

  • Samuel, Louis: Silversmith and Jeweller. We do not have much evidence of Louis’ commercial activities in Liverpool, although they must have been ample given that he retired comfortably to London. Not to be confused with Lewis (Judah) Samuel (1783 – 1854) watchmaker of Lord-street, Liverpool.
  • Samuel, Moses: Watchmaker and Author, Paradise Street and 104, St James Street, Liverpool.  
  • Samuel, Nathan Myer: Navy agent and occasional silver merchant, 65, Cable Street, Liverpool.

GENERATION 2

  • Samuel, Albert: Son of Moses and Harriet. Watchmaker, 10, Manchester-street, Liverpool. Married Emma Wolf(f). His business was taken over by his son Lawrence Samuel who became Lawrence Lawrence.
  • Samuel, Montagu who became Montagu Samuel: Son of Louis and Henriette (Israel) Samuel. Founded the bank that would bear his name. He also became the second Jew in Britain to be raised to the peerage, becoming Baron Swaythling. Montagu married Ellen Cohen, daughter of Louis Cohen.
  • Samuel, Edwin Louis: Son of Louis and Henriette (Israel) Samuel. Money Broker, 5, Castle Street, Liverpool. He married Clara Yates, daughter of Samuel Yates.
  • Samuel, Eliza: Daughter of Louis. Married Moss S. Samuel of Birmingham.
  • Samuel, Hannah: Daughter of Moses and Harriet. Married Samuel Woodburn and helped run his business at Ranelagh Place, Liverpool.
  • Samuel, Henry Israel: Son of Moses and Harriet. Jeweller and silversmith. Married Rachel Wolf(f). Started out in Liverpool but later moved to The Strand, London. [Not to be confused with another Henry Samuel whose jewellry shop was in Bloomsbury].
  • Samuel, Marian: Daughter of Moses and Harriet. Married Jonas Reis.
  • Samuel, Marian: Daughter of Louis and Henriette (Israel) Samuel. Married Adam Spielmann
  • Samuel, Walter: Son of Moses Samuel and Harriet. Watchmaker and Jeweller, 20 Paradise Street. He married Harriet Wolf(f) who with their son Edgar formed H. Samuel & Co, jewellers.

GENERATION 2 ‘IN-LAWS’

  • Reis, Jonas: Married Marian Samuel, the daughter of Moses and Harriet (Israel) Samuel. He was a money changer and bullion merchant originally from Mainz, Germany. Their sons were: Charles Lionel, Alphonse Louis, and Arthur Montagu.
  • Woodburn, Samuel: Married Hannah Samuel, the daughter of Moses and Harriet (Israel) Samuel

The Wolf / Wolff / Wolfe Sisters:

Marian Samuel who married Jonas Reis
  • Hannah married Walter Samuel
  • Rachel married Henry Israel Samuel
  • Emma married Alfred Samuel
  • Sarah married John Saqui
  • Annie married Isaac White.
  • Spielmann, Married Marian Samuel, daughter of Louis and Henriette (Israel) Samuel and the niece of Moses. Adam was a Banker in London. Partnered with Jonas Reis.
  • Sandheim. Not directly related. Isaac Sandheim married Annie Woodburn whose sister Elizabeth married Charles Lionel Reis.
  • White: Isaac White married Annie Wolf(f ) – the sister of Emma, Ruth, and Harriet Wolf(f). Isaac’s sister Ellie White married Herbert Wolff. His brother Berens / Benjamin White married Evelyn Samuel the daughter of Walter and Harriet (Wolf(f)) Samuel.
  • Yates, Samuel. His daughter Clara Yates married Edwin Louis Samuel. Samuel Yates established a thriving watchmaking business on Lord-street, Liverpool.

Below, a ‘Patent’ pocket watch, signed S. (Samuel) Yates, Lord Street, (lower left corner). The family’s original name was Samuel and descends from Ralph Henry Samuel, the first to set up a watch manufacturing business in Liverpool. The two “Samuel” families do not appear to have been related.

GENERATION 3

  • Montagu, Edwin Samuel. Son of Samuel Montagu. Edwin held various cabinet positions. He was also Secretary of State for India.
  • Montagu, Gerald Samuel. He was the son of Samuel Montagu and brother of the above.
  • Montagu, Louis, 2nd Baron Swaythling. He was the son of Samuel Montagu and brother of Edwin and Gerald (above).
  • Samuel, Edgar: Son of Walter and Harriet (Wolf(f)) Samuel. Jeweller and Watchmaker. Changed his name to Edgar Samuel Edgar and took over from his mother — Harriet (Wolf(f)) Samuel – who had founded the firm H. Samuel & Co.
  • Samuel, Herbert Louis. Son of Edwin Louis Samuel and grandson of Louis Samuel. He married his cousin Beatrice Franklin.
  • Samuel, Evelyn / Eveline. Daughter of Walter and Harriet (Wolf(f)) Samuel and sister of Edgar Samuel Edgar. Married Benjamin White who became Beren White, the son of Anthony and brother of Isaac.
  • Samuel, Lawrence: Jeweller and Watchmaker. Son of Alfred and Emma (Wolf(f)) Samuel. Changed his name to Lawrence Lawrence and partnered with John Saqui to form Saqui & Lawrence & Co.
  • Reis, Alphonse Louis: Son of Jonas and Marian (Samuel) Reis. Jeweller, Watchmaker, and Spectacle Maker. Married Marian Dugan who was eight months pregnant when they married. She converted to Judaism.
  • Reis, Charles Lionel: Son of Jonas and Marian (Samuel) Reis. Jeweller and Watchmaker. Married his cousin Lizzie Woodburn, daughter of Samuel and Hannah (Samuel) Woodburn.
  • Reis, Arthur Montagu: Son of Jonas and Marian (Samuel) Reis. Bullion dealer, took over his father’s bullion company but failed. Married Lillian Samuel the daughter of Henry Israel and Rachel (Wol(f)) Samuel. Separated.
  • Evelyn Samuel, Daughter of Walter and Harriet (Wolf(f)) Samuel. She married Benjamin / Beren White. Beren’s brother Isaac married Annie Wolf(f) sister of Harriet and his sister Ellie married Herbert Wolf(f).

GENERATION 4

  • Montagu, Ivor: Son of Gladys (née Goldsmid) and Louis Montagu, 2nd Baron Swaythling. He was a film director and producer as well as a member of the Communist Party.
  • Montagu, Ewen: son of Louis Samuel Montagu, 2nd Baron, etc. and brother of the above.
  • Samuel, Basil: Son of Henry Samuel Samuel and Grace Jacobs (whose mother Clara (Samuel) Jacobs was the daughter of Henry Israel and Rachel (Wolff) Samuel). Basil formed, with his brother Howard, one of London’s major property companies – Great Portland Estates which rivaled that of his cousin Harold Samuel’s – Land Securities Trust.
  • Edgar, Samuel Edgar. Chairman of Britain’s largest jewellry chain: H. Samuel, Limited.
  • Samuel, Harold: Son of Vivian and Ada (Cohen) Samuel, grandson of Henry Israel and great grandson of Moses. He established one of the largest properties companies in the UK – Land Securities Trust. He became Baron Samuel of Wych Cross.
  • Samuel, Howard: Son of Henry Samuel Samuel and Grace Jacobs. He formed, with his brother Basil: Great Portland Estates; but he was more interested in publishing and owned various publishing companies and magazine publications such as: Tribune and The New Statesman.
  • Verney, Eric: Communist and Author. Died young of TB.
  • Verney, Myra: Soprano
  • Verney, Olga Violinist. She married Ernest Alexander Kann. She also went by the name Elsie Ethel Cohen.
  • Verney, Harriet who retained the Cohen half of her name to be known as Harriet Cohen: Concert Pianist

Henry Israel and Rachel (Wolf) Samuel had SEVEN daughters:

  1. Harriet married John Elkan. He was a major watch manufacturer and distributor in London. He briefly went into partnership with his wife’s maternal uncle Herbert Wolf senior, the brother of .
  2. Eugenie married Ralph Raphael. He was a solicitor who appeared frequently in the Newspapers representing all sorts of defendants.
  3. Marian married Marcus David Loewenstark (1850 – 1908). They emigrated to South Africa.
  4. Clara married Harry Braham Jacobs and then Nathaniel Platnauer. Like her sister, she too emigrated to South Africa.
  5. Ida Henrietta married Tobias Scharrer (divorced). Their daughter was the concert pianist Irene Scharrer
  6. Blanche Violet married Morris Millingen
  7. Maud married Joseph Henry Raphael
A Loewenstark Filigree Patterned Silver Box

Some of the In-Laws

The two Samuel bothers (Moses and Louis) would have been surprised at what their descendants achieved with the businesses which they started.

Moses’ business flourished after his death to become H. Samuel, the largest jewelry chain store in the United Kingdom.

Some members of the family changed their names so Edgar Samuel became Samuel Edgar, Lawrence Samuel became Lawrence Lawrence, and one group of Samuel became Hill.

Some of the Israel family became Ellis and Helbert.

John Helbert, who was Hannah and Harriet Israel’s second cousin, married Adeline Cohen daughter of Levi Barent Cohen. Adeline’s sister Judith Cohen married Sir Moses Montefiore and Hannah married Nathan Mayer Rothschild.

The main source of genealogical information for the Samuel, Reis, Wolf, and other families comes from the book: ‘The Samuel Family of Liverpool and London…’.

Another useful source is ‘The Cousinhood’ by Chaim Bermant. Collateral families of Samuel and Reis include: de Pass, D’Arcy Hart, Emanuel, Goldsmid, Mocatta, Montefiore, Sebag-Montefiore, Rothschild, de Lyons, Helbert, Israel, Solomon, Salamans, Franklin, Davis, Cohen, Aaron, Jacobs, Lazarus, Waley, Lousada, etc.

The Jewish Chronicle 20 November 1936
LIVERPOOL
The Montagu Samuel Family
INTERESTING ASSOCIATIONS WITH THE CITY
[From our Correspondent]

Recent correspondence in the columns of the LIVERPOOL DAILY POST, regarding Liverpool tradesmen of other days, recalls the interesting associations with this city of the world-famed Montagu Samuel family. The earliest traceable ancestor of the family was Menachem Samuel, born at Breslau, who died at Kempen, near Posen, before 1783. One of his sons was Emmanuel (Menachem) Samuel, whose sons were Nathan Mayer Samuel, Louis Samuel, and Moses Samuel. Of these sons, Louis, who married Henrietta Israel in 1819, had among his sons Edwin Louis, father of the late Sir Stuart Samuel and Sir Herbert Samuel, and Montagu, the first Lord Swaythling. Emmanuel (Menachem) Samuel came to London about 1775, his wife Hannah following in or about 1793 with a child or children. They lived at 3, Frying Pan Alley, a small house off Aldgate, where he died when his two sons were children. Nathan came to Liverpool to seek his fortune, and became President of the Congregation in 1820. He married Miriam, daughter of Solomon, and in 1809 he lived in Whitechapel (Liverpool) and in 1821 at 7, Northside, South-West Dock. He carried on the business of pawnbroker and Navy agent. His brother Louis followed him shortly after he left school, and their mother followed later with Moses. Louis is recorded, in 1843, as living “West Side of Paradise Street ” and “South Side of Atherton Street,” Liverpool, where he had a shop as silversmith and pawnbroker. He gave up the latter business in 1846, and a year later returned to London where he died in 1859. Moses Samuel is recorded as living at 30, Paradise Street, Liverpool, where his wife Harriet, daughter of Israel Israel, of London, died in 1843. He was the author and publisher of the periodical “Cup of Salvation,” which was issued in 1850.

These particulars and other genealogical references are to be found in the “Records of the Franklin Family” compiled by Mr. A. E. Franklin. In considering the pedigree of the Samuel family, care has to be taken to distinguish their genealogy from that of another Samuel family with whom, at different periods, some of their members intermarried. Again, care has to be taken, as pointed out in the late Mr. B. L. Benas’s “Records of the Jews in Liverpool,” to distinguish between the Moses Samuel referred to in the above pedigree, with the Moses Samuel, who, in 1811, founded the Liverpool Hebrew Philanthropic Society, the oldest local Jewish charity.

The Jewish Chronicle January 15, 1937
The Samuel Family of Liverpool
A correspondent writes:

The note which was published in a recent issue of THE JEWISH CHRONICLE, entitled “The Montagu Samuel Family,” constituting as it does a distinct contribution to Anglo-Jewish historiography, is of great importance to those interested in historical and genealogical origins, but in the writer’s respectful submission is liable to cause confusion in the minds of many, both on account of its heading and certain patent errors which, inadvertently no doubt, have crept into its contents. In respect of the heading “Montagu Samuel Family” is certainly as novel as it is obscure. Is there an implied or intended hyphenation so as to convey a reference to Eliakim Goetz and Samuel of Strelitz, the progenitors of the Yates and Samuel Family of Liverpool? If so, it should be mentioned that except for the marriage of Edwin Louis Samuel to Clara Yates, there is no connection between his great-grandfather, Menachim Samuel of Kempen, or any of the latter’s progeny, and the older family. Should the heading merely have been intended to refer to Menachim’s great-grandson, Montagu Samuel, and the latter’s offspring, then it is meaningless without the nomenclatural transmutation which in fact took place. Montagu Samuel (1832-1839) became Samuel Montagu when he entered the Liverpool Institute in 1839; and it is Samuel Montagu, not Montagu Samuel, who became known and famed in the world. It is in respect of Montagu Samuel, and consequent upon the omission to note the reversal of his name, that an error is made. It was he who, after sitting for many years as Member for Whitechapel, was transplanted to the Upper House as Lord Swaythling. He was the first peer, not his father, as is stated. Another error occurs with reference to the “Cup of Salvation” which is stated to have been published in I850. Actually, it was published in 1846 and was reviewed in THE JEWISH CHRONICLE for April 16th of that year. Among its contents was a poem initialed E.L.S., who may be guessed as the father of Sir Herbert Samuel. Moses Samuel was joint Editor of this publication with the Rev. D. M. Isaacs.

It is surprising that no reference is made to Sydney M. Samuel, who is referred to in THE JEWISH CHRONICLE (November 17th, 1911) as “the favourite nephew” of the first Lord Swaythling and a cousin of Sir Stuart Samuel. He was one of the three — the others were Asher Myers and Israel Davis who purchased the paper nearly sixty years ago from the Anglo-Jewish Association to which body Abraham Benesch had bequeathed it. It should be added that those desirous of delving further into the history of the Jews in Liverpool will find ample material in the records of B. L. and Bertram B. Benas, and in Lucien Wolf’s “History and Genealogy of the-Jewish Families of Yates and Samuel of Liverpool.” With reference to the latter work, the edition was limited to fifty copies and is now thirty years out of date. Few Jewish families can boast of a nobler record in the-service of its own Community and the larger community of which it is a part, and it would be a pity if the record of its achievements was left unmodernised. Perhaps the Jewish Historical Society, which recently came to Liverpool to appeal for the support of local Jewry and whose learned President has deplored the lack of records of provincial communities, will see that this omission is rectified?

The Jewish Chronicle   12 February 1937
The Samuel Family of Liverpool. Our Liverpool Correspondent writes:

I feel deeply indebted to your correspondent who styles my note, entitled, as it appeared in THE JEWISH CHRONICLE of November 20th, 1936, “The Montagu Samuel Family” “a distinctive contribution to, Anglo-Jewish historiography.” I make no claim to that grandiloquent description for my modest note. To some of the criticisms offered by your correspondent I feel impelled to reply. With regard to the question of “nomenclatural transmutation,” which is, apparently, a matter of great concern to him, I must point out that had I referred to the Montagu Samuel family as the Samuel Montagu family I would have been much more worthy of historical censure than by giving to the family the correct name of their first most illustrious member. I am afraid that I cannot hold myself in the least responsible for the vivid imagination of your correspondent, who asks about implied or intended hyphenations. I referred to the Montagu Samuel family for the very simple reason that it was someone named Montagu Samuel who first gave to the particular family in question its interest from the viewpoint of extra Jewish matters, as well as its Jewish importance in social rank. Montagu Samuel’s brother Edwin was the father of a Cabinet Minister (Sir Herbert Samuel) and a baronet and Member of Parliament (Sir Stuart Samuel). It is true that by a slip of the pen I referred to Montagu Samuel as the father of the first Lord Swaythling instead of as the first Lord Swaythling. But my note, nevertheless, dealt essentially with the Montagu Samuel family, whereas it is your correspondent who introduces the “families of Yates and Samuel of Liverpool,” and it would appear that this is the main objective of his own note. Actually, I made it quite clear that in considering the pedigree of the Samuel family, care must be taken to distinguish their genealogy from that of another Samuel family.

I erred with Mr. Franklin in giving the date of issue of “The Cup of Salvation” as 1850 (see Arthur Franklin’s “Records of the Franklin Family”, second edition, p. 141). The correct date, of course, is given in the late Mr. H. L. Benas’s “Records of the Jews in Liverpool” (Transactions, Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, vol. 15, pp. 08-70). I have a sincere admiration for those who serve in the modest spheres of communal and local civic life, but I think the term “better record” can be more appropriately ascribed to the Montagu Samuel family, who, at any rate, from the standpoint of the paternal ancestry, have given of its members to the Peerage, the Baronetage, Knighthood and Ministry of the Government, as well as devoted service to the Jewish religious and National causes.

Below, some Samuel family graves at the Willesden Cemetery, London. These are the descendants of Moses Samuel.

Gilbert Harold Edgar was the grandson of Walter and Harriet Samuel. Below H. Samuel in Maidstone, Kent. (Section F, Row E, Number 12).

Harriet Samuel
To the dear memory of

HARRIET SAMUEL.
BORN MARCH 8TH 1836
DIED FEBRUARY 6TH 1908.
WIDOW OF WALTER SAMUEL
OF LIVERPOOL
WHO DIED DEC 3RD 1863.
DEEPLY MOURNED BY HER SORROWING
CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN
HER CHILDREN ARISE UP AND CALL
HER BLESSED. PROVERBS XXX1 V28
LIFE IS THE BETTER THAT SHE LIVED
AND ALL SHE LOVED IS SACRED FOR HER SAKE
LOVE SELF-RENOUNCING OUTLIVES DEATH
AND EVER LIGHTS THE WAY THAT LEADS TO GOD.
harriet samuel garve2 (1)

The above booklet Inscription reads:

IN EVER OUR DEAR MOTHER
LOVING MEMORY HARRIET SAMUEL
OF FEBRUARY 6TH 1908

(Section M, Row L, Number 32).

The above Harriet Samuel (nee Schreiner-Wolfe) married Walter, Moses Samuel’s son. It was she who put the ‘H’ in H. Samuel the jewelers.

Samuel family Graves at Willesden