I am searching for information on these 2 photos of the Wedgwood family. One portrait of "Fanny Wedgwood, (Mrs. Francis) and one portrait of three children listed as "Aunt Rose, Aunt Mab, and Grandaddy Wedgwood (Lawrence).
They are both about 8 x 10" albumen prints, mounted behind arch-topped boards. Fanny heavily painted(oil?), and the children, well sadly it looks as if they were painted at one time and someone has tried to remove the paint.
Would anyone be able to tell me if these indeed are Wedgwood family members descended from Josiah Wedgwood? Are they related to Emma Wedgwood? Is the boy Lawrence the one who eventually took over the pottery factory?
Thanks in advance for any information!
David
Comments
We will get in touch with the Wedgwood Museum next week, and pass on the link to your blog.
There is a chance that they might be able to identify the 'Fanny Wedgwood' picture that we have. We have found a lot of duplication within family collections, and also collections in the museum.
Very few of the people whose photos appear in our various albums are named, and even fewer of the photos are dated, which is a warning to us all!
Best wishes
Janet
Janet,
Thanks again for sharing your photos. I notice that the Wedgwood Museum website has an image gallery with Photos and Paintings of family members through several generations, but none of Fanny or the children. perhaps they would be interested in adding both your and my photos to their site?
Best Wishes, David
Janet,
Those are wonderful images! Thanks so much for sharing them!
Best Wishes,
David
I can't find anything in our albums as early as your photos. If there were any, either they passed down through another member of the family, or perhaps Nancy gave them away together with the two prints that you have. After the 1850s, the photographic record seems to skip a generation to the 1870s, when the grandchildren of Francis and Fanny have come onto the scene. The picture of Lawrence above is in the same album as the portrait of Aunt Mabel, but is used again in a larger album on a page of photos of his children taken between 1874 and 1879. The Wedgwood Museum might know of any earlier photos
The print below is of Fanny's husband Francis and is said to be the only photograph of him. This one is undated, but in another album the same picture is dated 1883.
Best wishes,
Janet
Dear Janet,
Thank you for your most valuable information! Do you have any other photos of the children when they were young? Mine seem to be from the mid 1850's, judging by the ages. Is there a known photo of Frank (Francis ) Wedgwood? perhaps in one of your albums?
Best Regards, David
Our cousin Antony Wedgwood has alerted us to your enquiries about the Wedgwood family photographs that you have purchased.
My husband Alan is also descended from Frances (Fanny) Wedgwood through Clement Francis, but has several photograph albums given to him by granddaughters of Clement's younger brother Laurence. We have been looking through these with added interest since seeing your blog.
It seems fairly certain that your photos come from the collection of Laurence's granddaughter (Kennard's daughter) Esme Alice Wedgwood, generally known as Nancy Wedgwood, who lived all her life in the US. In later years she seems to have gone through her albums (many of which she gave to Alan) annotating them with the names of those she could identify. We have fairly positively identified the writing as hers - and she certainly referred to Laurence as 'Grandaddy' in one of the albums that we have.
Interestingly, we have found another photograph purporting to be of the same Fanny Wedgwood, but the date on the reverse is later than Fanny's death in 1874 so we rather doubt it. We wonder who she is.
There are numerous photos of the sons and grandsons of Frank and Fanny, but not so many of the girls of the family. But we have found several photos of Aunt Mab - the most recent was a snapshot taken in 1923.
Here is the doubtful photo of Fanny Wedgwood nee Moseley and the inscription on its reverse, and a portrait of Mabel from the same album:
Best wishes,
Janet Wedgwood
Dear Mr. Wedgwood,
Thanks so much for even more valuable information! I will try to track down more information about Kennard Lawrence and his daughter.
I was about to correct my mistake regarding Josiah vs.Thomas as the early photography pioneer, but you beat me to it!
Again, Best wishes,
David McGreevy
Thank you very much indeed. You are very kind!
Various Wedgwoods did settle, or at least spend a lot of time, in the US. The most likely candidate in this respect is Kennard Lawrence (1873 – 1950) who was Laurence’s older brother. He was chairman of the Wedgwood Company (as the partnership had then become) between 1930 and 1946, and set up the firm’s New York office. He had one child, a daughter born in 1910, who never married. She lived in Vermont and died about 10 or 15 years ago. It seems quite possible that these photographs came from her estate.
Could I just mention one small point? The pioneer of photography was Thomas Wedgwood (1771 - 1805) who was one of Josiah I’s sons, rather than Josiah himself.
With very best wishes
Antony Wedgwood
Dear Mr. Wedgwood,
Fascinating indeed! I was so pleased to hear from you and receive your detailed information. Please feel free to copy, print, save the images! It's so extraordinary to hear from a family member. I only wish the photos were in better condition.
I wonder how they ended up in the US. I am in New York and purchased them at a photo show in Connecticut. perhaps the grandchildren emigrated here?
In spite of the condition, I could not resist the Wedgwood family name, both for the connection to the Darwins, and of course the history of Josiah Wedgwood's early photography experiments.
Best wishes,
David McGreevy
This is really fascinating!
I think that the sitter in the first picture is my great great great grandmother, Frances (‘Fanny’) Moseley who married Francis (Frank) Wedgwood (1800 – 1888), a grandson of Josiah Wedgwood I, in 1832.
Emma Darwin (née Wedgwood) was Frank’s sister, and Charles Darwin was not only their brother-in-law but also their first cousin.
The only other picture of Fanny that I am aware of is a drawing, probably made when she was somewhat younger – perhaps at the time of her marriage. There is some similarity between the two images, especially around the eyes, although the jaw in the drawing looks a bit more narrow.
Frank and Fanny had seven children, the youngest of whom were Laurence (1844 – 1913), Constance Rose (1846 – 1903) and Mabel Frances (1852 – 1930). I am descended from an elder brother, Clement Francis.
These younger children appear to be the sitters in the second photograph.
Rose married Herman Francke in 1880, and Mabel married Arthur Parson, also in 1880, but neither of them had children.
Laurence (the spelling seems to vary) married Emma Houseman in 1871 and they had five children and five grandchildren, one of whom presumably added the second set of inscriptions.
Francis was a partner in the Wedgwood business from 1827 and was largely responsible for reviving its fortunes in the mid 19th century. Laurence followed him as a partner, although his cousin Godfrey was probably more significant.
Antony Wedgwood