Who Do You Think You Are - Sophie Raworth 8th Mar

[kiterunner]

At 8 p.m. on BBC1, and repeated Wed 15th Mar at 11:45 p.m.

[Margaret in Burton]

OH and my son in law have Raworth's. same ancestor he was a naughty chap.
I don't expect them to do the Raworth line but if they do and it leads back to Yoxall in Staffordshire .......................

[Guinevere]

Another fascinating tale.

[Ann from Sussex]

When they said the Motts went to New York I began to wonder if Mott Street in Manhattan had anything to do with the family but then when we learnt how short a time they actually spent there I realised it couldn't have. I was reminded of Michael's Beginner's (over) enthusiasm thread, given Sophie's family had thought they were descended from the piano maker to George IV and it turned out to be the ne'er-do-well brother/cousin!


Oh please, let me loose in the New York City Archives! I'll bet I would be able to fill in some of the gaps in my grandfather's family.

The Crowder horticulture connection was interesting to me as there is a huge garden centre about 30 miles from here called Crowders. Given the occupation and that I don't think it is a particularly common name, I wonder if there is a family connection. No mention was made of any Lincolnshire link though.


I did like Sophie Raworth. She was enthusiastic without going over the top (as I recall there was only one "Wow!") and without being over emotional or over dramatic. Above all she just seemed to be a really nice person. It was a good one to end the series with.

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Sophie Raworth, a mother of three, grew up in Richmond, London, and her parents, Richard and Jenny, who are both in their seventies now, still live in the same house that they moved to there when Sophie was five.

Sophie went to see her parents, who have a lot of photos of their ancestors on the walls. They told her about some of them. Richard's mother was Edna Crowder, and her parents (Sophie's great-grandparents) were Edgar Cussons Crowder and Amy Mott. Edgar was a travelling salesman, but Richard's cousin had told him that he also worked at Kew Gardens at one time.

Amy was the daughter of Henry Isaac Mott, and Richard told Sophie that Henry was the son of Isaac Henry Mott, a piano maker and musician. They had information that Isaac lived in Brighton and played music for King George IV. The back of the photo of Isaac said "Royal Pavilion, Brighton".

Sophie went to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton to see the piano there which was made by Isaac Henry Mott in around 1820 A plaque on the piano gave his business address as 92 Pall Mall. A historian told Sophie that although Isaac Henry Robert Mott did indeed play for the king, Sophie's 3xg-grandfather was not in fact Isaac but another Henry Isaac Mott, the son of Isaac's cousin Samuel Mott. Samuel's brother Julius Caesar Mott was Isaac's business partner, and Samuel worked for them as a piano hammer coverer.

Sophie was shown a letter dated 1829 to Julius about Samuel, who had been sacked by Isaac, and another letter, dated 1827, also about Samuel, who was in debt, wanting to work in the piano business.

Sophie went to meet a genealogist who showed her an insurance policy from 1834 for the house which Samuel, still a piano hammer covererer, rented at 72 Regent Street, London. The 1841 census showed his widow Ann at Kensington Place, St Helier, Jersey, aged 55, with 3 children. A newspaper report from 1838 stated that Mr Mott had been showing symptoms of insanity and killed himself. The genealogist had not managed to find out any more about that stage of Samuel's life.

Sophie went to Birmingham, where the Motts originally came from, and met a historian who showed her the entry in the 1791 Birmingham directory for Samuel's father William Mott, plated buckle maker. The records of the New Jerusalem Church in Birmingham (a non-conformist church) showed that Samuel and his four siblings were baptised there on the 15th April 1792, their mother Martha was baptised on the 25th Dec 1791, and William in May 1792. The genealogist said that the family had been Baptists and then converted to the New Jerusalem church, although there had been anti-dissenter riots (the Priestley Riots) in the area of Birmingham where the family lived (Newhall Street) in 1791, only a few days before the youngest Mott child was born. A historian told Sophie that 27 dissenter families' homes were destroyed in the riots, and that the New Jerusalem Church was fire-bombed in 1793.

Sophie was shown a letter from William Mott dated 1793, saying that he was thinking of emigrating to New York (the "New City") with his family. Sophie went to New York and met a historian who showed her the entry in the 1794 New York directory for William Mott, merchant, 240 Water Street. The building is no longer there.

The records of the New Jerusalem Church of New York showed that in 1793 Mr Mott and his family arrived from Birmingham, and the church met at the house of Mr Bragg, also from Birmingham. Records showed that Mrs Bragg returned to England in 1796 after the deaths of her husband and three children.

Sophie went to the New York City Municipal Archives and met a historian, who showed her a newspaper article from August 1795 about an epidemic of yellow fever in Water Street. The register of people who died of yellow fever in 1795 included William Mott and John Bragg, and a letter from 1798 said that Martha had also died in New York, with the children being taken in by various people. Samuel and his younger sister Jemima were said to be with a Mr Sherwood. A 1796 newspaper bankruptcy listing included Jonathan Sherwood of Birmingham.

Sophie then went to the archives of Kew Gardens to find out about Edgar Cussons Crowder. Edgar's file showed that he applied to be a student gardener there on the 21st Oct 1891, age 22. The log book showed that he worked in the Palm House until he left. Sophie looked at the Dictionary of Botanists and Horticulturalists, and found that it listed a lot of Crowders, going back as far as 1734, mostly in Doncaster, so she went there to find out more. She met a gardening historian at Cusworth Hall, near Doncaster, who told her that her 5xg-grandfather was Abraham Crowder, nurseryman and gardener to a local landowner. An invoice from Abraham dated Dec 1783 showed that he had sold plants and trees, including pineapples, to William Wrightson, the owner of Cusworth Hall. Sophie was shown the remains of the "Pinery" there, where the pineapples were grown, and then went to Tatton Park in Cheshire which still has a Pinery. The gardener there showed her Abraham's obituary, which said that he died in the "98th year of his age" (i.e. age 97).

[kiterunner]

Sophie seemed determined to find something which caused Samuel to be the way he was (though I would have thought having a brother named Julius Caesar would do it, lol), and was satisfied that it was the death of his parents, and him being sent to Mr Sherwood, a bankrupt, who they seemed to assume was not a close relative. Surely he could have been Samuel's uncle? Or was there research we weren't shown to prove that he wasn't? But anyway, I wasn't convinced that all his troubles were caused by his childhood, rather than his genes.

[kiterunner]

Oh, and this was another one of those episodes where they decide that some ancestor was an amazing, strong woman, on very little evidence. But I enjoyed it anyway.

[Lindsay]

Did they mention where they found the letters they kept reading out?

I'd be thrilled to find just one letter that mentioned my family!

[kiterunner]

No, I don't think they did, Lindsay.