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To search for a particular Cohen is the Jewish genealogical version of digging for a needle in a haystack. But sometimes digging through a haystack pays off! Literally a day after first publishing this essay, on June 1, 2024, I finally learned the truth about my 4th-great-grandfather, Juan Cohen (c.1786-1869), thanks to historian and genealogist Caroline Gurney! I can barely believe it as I type this. This truth is a Jewish version of Jane Austen mixed with the frenzy of Emily Brontë, and what I originally viewed as a fascinating and unusual Anglo-Jewish family named Cohen turns out to be... his actual birth family!!!
It took me six obsessive years of searching to reach this point, but the major key came this past February, when I found Juan Cohen's death record, which said he was born in Bristol, UK. I've written previously about how Juan became a sailor and merchant, served as a privateer for Gran Colombia, and fought a horrifying legal battle to own 220 African captives held hostage on a slave ship. His origins were a frustrating mystery that had birthed many contradictory legends. Only one esoteric clue had survived: his granddaughter wrote that he had a sister in London named "Sahara Cohen" who owned a large, ancient house ("un casón muy antiguo").
Perhaps the answer was in Bristol. That's why, on May 15, I emailed the world's foremost expert on the 18th-century Jewish community of Bristol: Caroline Gurney, who delivered the (as the British say) "gutting" news that Bristol synagogue records prior to the 1830s were destroyed by a Nazi firebomb which hit the Mocatta Library during the London Blitz. So Caroline has dug through town records, directories, business records, and all sorts of archives to piece together over 1,800 members of the Bristol Jewish community between 1720 and 1881. Her research on locations of historical Jewish residents is incorporated into an interactive map of Bristol, "Know Your Place," which overlays antique and modern maps and historical markers. This painstaking work received a deserving prize from the Jewish Historical Society of England in 2022.
I've contributed a few more names to Caroline's tally of Bristol Jews: I found the will of Catherine Cohen (c.1773-1833), a Londoner whose siblings, Morrice Cowen (1791-1869) and Elizabeth Cowen (c.1783-1870), said in census records that they were born in Bristol. Catherine also listed a brother, Jacob Cowen, "who went many years since to the West Indies," a niece named Hester Lear, and a nephew in Kingston, Jamaica named John Dias.
I'm going to kill the dramatic tension by blurting out that Jacob Cowen is Juan Cohen! Caroline subsequently received on June 1 the will of Elizabeth Cowen, which mentioned this crucial phrase: "my brother John Cowen who is or formerly was residing at Barraquilla [sic] in South America". Without a doubt, this Bristol Cohen family is related to my Bristol Cohen! But first, you need to understand why I initially wanted to investigate this family so thoroughly.
Frankly, Catherine Cohen's will is very strange, compared with most of my Jewish genealogy research that usually involves working-class families and shtetls in Russia's Pale of Settlement. Catherine wrote that she bought her house from the "Duke of Buccleugh" and the executors of her will were "Lord Burghersh" and "Sir John Osborn, Baronet." She is listed as a "spinster" (unmarried woman), but her daughter has a gentile last name, "Knight." And what Catherine Cohen distributed to her heirs shows, as a Jewish woman in the Regency-era England of Pride and Prejudice and Bridgerton, she was not just rich — she was rich rich.
The top of the first page of Catherine Cohen's will. (discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk)
Catherine Cohen's total estate was valued at under £14,000 (about £1.8 million/$2.2 million today, per officialdata.org).
- Her daughter, Catherine Urania Knight, was left £2,000 (over £250,000/$300,000 today).
- Her sister, Elizabeth Cowen, was left £1,000, (over £125,000/$150,000 today), as well as an annual stipend of £100 (over £13,000/$16,000 today) for the rest of her life.
- Her brother, Morrice Cowen, was left £1,000.
- Her brother in the West Indies, Jacob Cowen, was left £300 (nearly £40,000/$50,000 today), on the condition he returned to England within six years to collect it, otherwise it would be split between Elizabeth and Morrice.
- Her niece, Hester Lear (daughter of her late sister, Hannah), was left £1,000.
- Her nephew, John Dias, was left £200 (over £26,000/$32,000 today).
- Her servants were each left £10 (over £1,300/$1,600 today).
Left: Georgian locket with hair. Right: Georgian enameled watch with pearls.
My mind is blown that somehow the son of a Jewish woman found favor and received jewelry from the Tsar of Russia! Granted, Alexander I was a "liberal" tsar, compared with his younger brother who ordered the mass kidnapping and military recruitment of Jewish boys, but Alexander could only do so much to counter deep-in-the-wool Russian anti-Semitism. His 1804 statutes gave Jews some rights like the ability to attend public schools, but Jews were still mostly confined to the Pale of Settlement, could not be innkeepers, could farm only under certain conditions, etc. etc. etc. Tsar Alexander was quoted as saying, "If, through my efforts to improve their condition, I should succeed in bringing forth only one Mendelssohn from among the Russian Jews, I shall be abundantly rewarded." Between the lines, it seemed he wasn't holding his breath for his empire's Jews to produce many assimilated, wealthy subjects.
Going back to the fabulous Catherine Cohen, I was also baffled by a seeming lack of sources on such a wealthy, well-connected individual. Using Catherine's address listed in her will, "122 Sloane-street," I found on Google Books a "Mrs. Knight" listed in the 1829 edition of Boyle’s Court and Country Guide (a directory for London gentry). "Catherine Urania Knight" turned up nothing.
Here's where genealogist Caroline Gurney came to the rescue. She found Catherine Urania's baptismal record: "Catherine Urania D.[aughter] of Coulson, Esq. and Catherine Knight," born on May 27, 1801 and baptized on July 21, 1801 in St. George's, Hanover Square. By the way, the parish of St. George's, Hanover Square includes Hyde Park, Handel was a noted parishioner, and Benjamin Disraeli and Teddy Roosevelt had weddings there.
However, "Coulson Knight, Esq." cannot be found in any other records, Catherine Cohen was listed in her will as a "spinster," and beyond that will, there is no other record mentioning "Catherine Urania Knight." The story might have ended there, had little Catherine not had a very unusual, Romantic-era-kind-of-a middle name: "Urania," the Greek Muse of astronomy and astrology. There is one Englishwoman named "Catherine Urania" who is the same age as Miss Knight, whose father is recorded but whose mother is unknown: Catherine Urania Steward (1801-1864).
Catherine Urania Steward's father was none other than a member of Parliament: Gabriel Tucker Steward (c.1768-1836), the son of another member of Parliament, Gabriel Steward (1731-1792), and brother of yet another member of Parliament, Richard Tucker Steward (1773-1842). Gabriel Tucker Steward never married, and his will is very unusual. While Catherine Cohen's will is 4 pages long and Gabriel Steward Sr.'s will is over 11 pages long, Gabriel Tucker Steward's will is a mere half-page, directing that "the Rest, Residue, and Remainder of my property, both real and personal, of which I am possessed or hereafter may become possessed, I give and bequeath to my beloved daughter, Catherine Urania Steward, for her sole use and benefit for ever." He wrote his will on August 23, 1827, ten days after Catherine Cohen wrote her will, on August 13, 1827.
Caroline Gurney has come to the working hypothesis that Catherine Cohen was the mistress of Gabriel Tucker Steward, MP, and the mother of his daughter, Catherine Urania Steward. In an attempt to avoid scandal, Catherine adopted the Anglicized married name of "Mrs. Catherine Knight" and claimed a fictitious husband, "Coulson Knight, Esq." Caroline has an intriguing theory that if Catherine hailed from Bristol, perhaps "Coulson" was an homage to the famous (and now deservedly infamous) Bristol slave trader Edward Colston (also spelled "Coulston")? And I wonder if "Knight" was a playful pairing with "Steward."
Caroline also commented to me in an email, "Catherine was a fascinatingly heterodox Jewish woman... Catherine is the first case I have come across of a Jewish woman in the 18th or 19th centuries having children out of wedlock, let alone in a liaison with a Gentile, though the reverse was relatively common for Jewish men."
- 1795: Park Street North (appearing as Mrs. Cathne. Knight)
- 1796: 84 Park Street, Grosvenor Square (Catherine Knight, spinster)
- 1798: 7 Queen Street (Catherine Knight, spinster)
- 1799: Park Street (Cath. Knight and Cathne. Knight)
- 1800: Queen Street (Mrs. Knight)
- 1805: Half Moon Street (Catherine Knight and Catharine Knight)
- 1810: Half Moon Street (Catherine Knight, Catharine Knight, and Cathne. Knight)
- 1810: Charles Street (Catharine Knight)
- 1814: 7 Argyll Street (Mrs. Cath. Knight)
- 1815: 7 Argyll Street (Catherine Knight)
- 1819: Clarges Street (Cath. Knight)
- 1819: Half Moon Street (Cathe. Knight)
- 1827: 122 Sloane Street (from the will of "Catherine Cohen")
- 1829: Half Moon Street (Catharine Knight)
- 1829: 122 Sloane Street (Mrs. Knight)
- 1833: Half Moon Street (probate record of "Catherine Cohen")
Catherine Knight's London. The pink marker is Berkeley Square, near Gabriel Tucker Steward's home. The red markers are Catherine's various properties and St. George's, Hanover Square.
We may never know the nature of Catherine and Gabriel's relationship. Was Catherine like a secret common-law wife, or a kept woman, or a demimondaine who had other admirers from the landed gentry? Gabriel may or may not have been the father of Catherine's "dear deceased son," who for now remains nameless. A fellow parliamentarian described Gabriel as "the greatest rascal I ever knew," so maybe he was a difficult or unfaithful partner.
Speaking of which, what was Catherine's family like? Her siblings assimilated to the point of spelling their last name like the Scottish "Cowen," and Morrice Cowen was even baptized in St. George's, Hanover Square on October 15, 1807, at the age of 16. Was Morrice under the influence of his big sister, Catherine the parishioner? Morrice's parents were listed as "John and Elizabeth Cowen," but given that Catherine gave a fictional husband's name in the parish registry, I wonder if "John and Elizabeth," the same names as his younger siblings, were also invented.
Another hint comes from the marriage record of Catherine's sister, Hannah Cohen, who married Nathan Lear in the Great Synagogue on February 26, 1794. The Great Synagogue was the center of London's Ashkenazi Jewish community, and the name of Nathan Lear's father, Pais Levi Lehr, seems very Yiddish/German. Hannah's father was listed as Nathan KZ, standing for "Katz," the German abbreviation for "Kohen Tzedek," Hebrew for "righteous priest." So it seems Nathan KZ was the man with the "portrait in oil," who maybe went by "John Cowen"? It also seems the Cohen/Cowen family was Ashkenazi?
The Great Synagogue records' index shows no consistent Hebrew equivalent for "Catherine," but a number of the Catherines did have the Hebrew name "Gitla." Could that have been Catherine Knight's original name?
Left to right: An "Old Gent" purportedly painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds, an 1801 portrait of a mother and child, and an anonymous miniature.
Hannah Cohen remarried on October 27, 1801, to Benjamin Dias Fernandes (died 1818), a Sephardic "West Indies merchant" like his father, Jacob Dias Fernandes (died 1814). While Benjamin was apparently Christian, his namesake grandfather, Benjamin Dias Fernandes, wrote letters published as "A Series of Letters on the Evidences of Christianity" which argued against the religion. Hannah and Benjamin were married in St. George's, Hanover Square, and while the marriage banns strangely describe Hannah as a "spinster," when she was really a previously wedded mother, the other family records in St. George's, Hanover Square have clear inventions or inconsistencies. I have suspicions that the "Cowen" family did a lot of bluffing and fibbing to "save face" in a world obsessed with social status.
Hannah Cohen and Benjamin Dias Fernandes's marriage record, 1801.
As I said before, there's no clear answer to who was the "late dear son" of Catherine Knight, the one who got an amethyst and diamond ring from the Emperor of Russia, but one of the executors of Catherine's will did meet Tsar Alexander I! John Fane (1784-1859), who was known as Lord Burghersh during Catherine's time and then later inherited the title of Earl of Westmoreland, was a military man, a member of Parliament, and a diplomat. From 1813-1814, Lord Burghersh was the British representative at the Allied Armies' headquarters as they battled Napoleon in Germany, and his wife Priscilla, the niece of the Duke of Wellington, was one of the few ladies present at the military camps. Caroline Gurney also found a reference of Lady Burghersh having danced with Tsar Alexander at a ball given by Talleyrand in Paris in 1814.
Tsar Alexander had a habit of gifting amethyst jewelry, including a "large amethyst ring surrounded with diamonds" to the literary translator John Bowring, a necklace to a German diplomat's sister-in-law, and 14 amethysts to the Marchioness of Londonderry, who he unsuccessfully tried to seduce. As the German diplomat wrote about the necklace, "It is much too generous and I almost regret it. May the heavens bless the Emperor!" I can only imagine the circumstances that made Catherine Knight's son so favored by the Emperor of Russia.
Catherine Knight clearly had a high degree of social standing, getting two highly accomplished men to be executors of her will. Sir John Osborn, Baronet, had been a Lord of the Admiralty, but Lord Burghersh, on top of his military and political endeavors, also seemed genuinely fun. He was described as "a talkative and good natured man" who composed music, and his social circle included literary luminaries like Mary Shelley and Edward Trelawny. Lord Burghersh served as the minister to Tuscany for 14 years, and in 1825 he brought the castrato singer Velluti to London to perform operas. The two became good friends and even published music together. One can picture Catherine Knight in her shawl and jewelry, seated in a parlor listening to love songs sung by Velluti with Lord Burghersh accompanying on piano.
Lord Burghersh (left) and Velluti the castrato singer (right).
The party came to an end for Catherine Cohen a.k.a. Catherine Knight on July 17, 1833, when the 60-year-old died "after a few hours of severe illness, which she bore with the Greatest patience and resignation," according to her epitaph. Could it have been cholera, another kind of infection, a heart attack, or a stroke? Catherine's will requested that her daughter choose her burial place, and on July 20 she was buried in St. Martin of Tours churchyard in Epsom, about 14 miles southwest of London.
Catherine Knight's pedestal tomb says she was "suddenly taken from her afflicted relatives," but they are not identified. There was no obituary written for Catherine, and no relatives seem to be buried in her cemetery. Gabriel Tucker Steward was buried nearly 50 miles away in Brown Candover. Was Catherine Knight put out of sight, out of mind?
I think it's telling that Catherine and her siblings Morrice and Elizabeth Cowen died unmarried, as they occupied a liminal space, probably being too assimilated for Jewish spaces but too "Jewish" for Anglo-Saxon spaces. Morrice did find a successful career out at sea, as a British Navy lieutenant and then commander, who served in the Mediterranean, Baltic Sea, and East Indies, and stopped smugglers as part of the Coast Blockade. Jacob Cohen, a.k.a. Jacob Cowen, John Cowen, and John Cohen, also had a career at sea, first as a merchant, and then as a privateer.
Agents of empire: A British Navy lieutenant's uniform akin to what Morrice Cowen wore (left), and Walter Stevenson Davidson in old age (right).
When Catherine Urania Steward did marry on May 18, 1837, her marriage record and the newspaper accounts only mentioned her father, whose inheritance she had received a few months before. She landed a fabulously wealthy husband, the widower Walter Stevenson Davidson (1785-1869), who made a fortune through trading in the East Indies, including the sale of opium in China and exporting Australian wool, and then maintained that fortune through banking. Walter is a good reminder that the frivolity and luxury of Regency England was built on a solid bedrock of colonialism and exploitative capitalism.
Saxonbury Lodge in Frant, Catherine Davidson's home.
Mrs. Catherine Urania Davidson had a London home at 16 Lowndes Square and also resided in Saxonbury Lodge, the Davidson family manor in Frant, nearly 40 miles southeast of London. She died childless at age 63 on August 23, 1864, leaving behind nearly £3,000 (over £470,000/$600,000 today). Walter died in 1869, leaving a fortune of £400,000 (over £59.6 million/$75.5 million today), and Commander Morrice Cowen also died in 1869.
Elizabeth Cowen died in 1870, and as I mentioned at the beginning, her will confirms her relationship with "my brother John Cowen who is or formerly was residing at Barraquilla in South America." It's sad that Elizabeth was not even sure if her brother was alive. Juan had also died in 1869, meaning Elizabeth was the last surviving English Cohen. What a family saga!
My 5th-great-aunt Catherine Cohen a.k.a. Catherine Knight and Jacob Cowen a.k.a. Juan Cohen were not only siblings, it seems they were also kindred spirits. They were English Jews who dared to enter worlds completely unlike the environments in which they were raised. They reinvented themselves, and likely converted, but Catherine did not forget her birth family in her will, and Juan passed a strong sense of Jewish identity to his descendants. The Georgian era may feel like an alien world, but the passions that drove Catherine Cohen and Juan Cohen are still recognizable today.
Questions? Comments? Please email me at ruedafingerhut (at) gmail.com.
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