Saturday 18 July 2009

Catharine Veri Vlieland

Catharine Veri Vlieland
born 1831 - Norwich, Norfolk, England
Daughter of Jerome Nicholas and Sarah Heath.
She married 02 of august 1855 at ST Michaels at Plea Norwich with Samuel Ethelbert White.







Census 1851 
The children are living in Redwellstreet .

Later her mother comes to live in her family.






An article in "The Era" on 12th November 1881 shows Samuel Ethelbert White as a Freemason - a visitor from Lodge No 922 of the Lodge of Asaph at the " installation meeting of this celebrated dramatic and musical Lodge held on Monday evening at Freemasons Hall". (this is a typo since he was actually Initiated into Augustine Lodge No 972, Canterbury in 1878 before the family moved to London).
He was born in 1830 and died June 1886 in Fulham at the age of 56.
His father Samuel White was a Gentleman.
Catherine died 1 april 1916 in London Bow.

And we received a lot of information about Catherine and Samuel from their great great grandson.
Here his story.
Samuel Ethelbert White was born about 1828 in Canterbury. A chorister there at six, he becomes a supervisor for Her Majesty’s Excise. At the time of the 1951 census “White Samuel E” age 23, an Officer Of Inland Revenue - born in Canterbury, Kent is shown as a “Visitor” at a lodging house at Elm Hill, St Peters Hungate, Norfolk. Samuel Ethelbert married Catherine Veri Vlieland in Plea Norwich, Norfolk on the 2nd of August 1855. Unlike his ancestors, Ethelbert seemingly did not stay in one place for long. Perhaps his job as an Inland Revenue Officer of the Excise regularly moved him or perhaps he moved on promotion. Certainly the Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh, Scotland), for Monday, January 26, 1857; Issue 21009 reports under "Home Intelligence - Inland Revenue Department" that “Samuel Ethelbert White, officer of Gye-Ryde has been appointed on promotion to be officer of Southampton forth division - Isle of White collection". Forgetting about any moves not picked up by the census, they had moved from Norwich to Southampton. They thenmoved from Southampton after the birth of their two year olds Charles Ethelbert and Elisabeth Mary Mills Annie (Bessy) and before the birth of Bertha Susanna in 1860. They are at 22 Sussex Street, Winchester in 1861 and he is an Excise Officer.
they are still at Winchester for the births of Ethelbert Ernest, William Blomfield (named after Catherine's Aunt's husand the Bishop of London) and finally Samuel (Athelstan) in 1870. The census shows them at home with a live in servant.

This presumed ‘settling’ is not to last. The family have moved to London by the time of the 1871 census. Samuel Ethelbert is not at home on census night. Instead White Samuel E age 43 (Supervisor Of Inland Revenue [Excise Branch]) is shown as a Lodger at 23 Market Place, Warwick. So not simply an Officer by now, but promoted again to Supervisor. He is at home at the time of the 1881 census. By then they have moved, again, from Waterside, Jew's Row, Wandsworth to 9 Alfred St Lucas Terrace, Bow, Stratford-le-Bow. Samuel is a Freemason.


An article in "The Era" on 12th November 1881 shows Samuel Ethelbert White as a Freemason - a visitor from Lodge No 922 of the Lodge of Asaph at the " installation meeting of this celebrated dramatic and musical Lodge held on Monday evening at Freemasons Hall". (this is a typo since he was actually Initiated into Augustine Lodge No 972, Canterbury in 1878 before the family moved to London).
Samuel Ethelbert’s death is registered in Fulham in 1886. He had made a fresh will only the previous year. Although one witness is a clerk William Staunton, the other is a master mariner; Frederick John Davis of Belle Vue Gibbons Street Plymouth – a friend or someone from ‘off the street? The Death Duty Register for that year suggests that the executor of his will was wife Catherine and that Probate was granted (affidavit 8096 folio 2226). The will itself, though, shows Charles Ethelbert as sole executor but that Catherine Fritz White (widow) is the lawful attorney (presumably since Charles is in Bombay).

in Samuel’s will obtained from the probate office, he is left a house in “Ryde Street in the Parish of Saint Dunstans in the City and Borough of Canterbury”. William Blomfield and Samuel Athelstan, his brothers, are also left a house in the same street. Bertha Susannah White (spinster), his second daughter, is left number one Ryde Street. Although the houses are no longer there, pictures of the street in the 1940’s show Ryde Street as a terrace of six houses numbered one to six and from the front at street level they simply looked like a terrace of brick/white painted tiled roof cottages (much like many normal early Victorian ones) BUT from the back and high up it was obvious that five and six were later additions with a separate pitched roof and nos 5-6 were not even rendered at the back. (The properties were still occupied when the council took the pictures). It seems clear that Samuel Ethelbert owned the whole original terrace (1-4).

In addition his eldest son Charles Ethelbert is left his Fathers old residence at 6 Blackfriars (currently tenanted by William Jennings Esquire) together with his main address at 36 Chesilton Road, Munster Place Fulham. His wife also receives his A shares in the Civil Service Supply Association Ltd and the balance in his Inland Revenue Building Society Account and, of course, all the rents and revenues for the rest of her life. After his wife’s death these are also to go to daughter Bertha.

Their son Ethelbert Ernest White was my G grandfather. A master fishmonger, he was born in Winchester, Hampshire (the county town of Hampshire) on 2nd September 1862. According to the records, the boy Ethelbert was sent back to Canterbury by his parents to what is understood to be the oldest school in England (Leach – Hist Med Schools - Methuen 1915), The King's School. According to the school register he left in April 1877.
Catherine survives husband Samuel Ethelbert for nearly thirty years. The houses in Ryde Street do not stay in the family for that long. In 1907 the following advertisement appears in the Canterbury papers – “Four empty freehold cottages, Ryde Street, St. Dunstan's Canterbury, what offers. Contact Lepine, 43 Broad Street, Canterbury” The street, in the St Dunstans area of the city is a historic suburb centred on the route towards London.


Older Daughter Bessy (Elizabeth Mary Mills Annie) was not mentioned in the will. Had she married or died since she was shown in the 1881 census living at 9 Alfred St Lucas Terrace, Bow? There is a plethora of Elizabeth White’s in the appropriate records and I cannot yet tell for certain…
Younger sister Bertha Susanna White marries on the 7th of June 1888. Her husband Edward Brice Presland is a company secretary. The witnesses are her Mother Catherine Veri and Adolphus Charles White a Professor of Music living in Park Road Hampstead. He was born in Canterbury and is then 57. He is a widower, his wife Eliza A White an artist painter born in Chelsea is deceased. He is not the only Mr White, a professor of music in the lives of the White siblings. Bertha, however, is not to inherit for almost thirty years. At the time of the 1901 census Edward Bertha and their daughter Helen Bertha age 21 are living in Putney (an area they have been in since the birth of their daughter). Helen Bertha marries Leslie Miller in 1914.
Catherine is also in Putney in 1901– a widow of 67 “living on her own means” and is still in London at the time of the 1911 census. Her death is recorded in Kensington in 1916; aged 82. She has lived alone for some time. At the time of the 1891 census, however, she is a widow of 57, living at 26 Waldemar Ave Fulham ‘on her own means’ and two of her children are home that night.
William Blomfield is shown as a captain in the merchant service and Samuel Athelstan is a commercial clerk. Later, the South Africa magazine of December 12, 1896. under "Domestic Announcements" reports a marriage, on December 1, at St. Peter’s Church, Brockley, Deptford, London by the Rev. C. H. Grundy of William Blomfield White, Chief Officer S. S. Inyoni, to Jessie, second daughter of the late James Tench White, of Canterbury. One of the witnesses is her Mother Sara. Jessie had been born in 1874 to another professor of Music born in Canterbury; living at 42, St Georges Street. His name is James Tench (or Tench James) White.
Charles Ethelbert has joined the Navy. He is in Bombay in 1886 at the time probate is granted on his father’s estate and the London Gazette shows the Admiralty Notice of the l5th January, 1890 showing that he is appointed sub lieutenant from 31 Dec 1889.
Perhaps it is fitting, that Samuel Ethelbert White became a supervisor for Her Majesty’s Excise. since his father Samuel White was a collector of ‘poor rate’ taxes for the Crown at the time of the 1851 census although Stapleton & Co’s Topographical History and Directory of Canterbury…August 1838 directory records him, not only as “S White – collector of poor rates” but as the Parish Clerk of St Mildreds (near the Cathedral) and All Saints (Eastbridge) and also as the Deputy Registrar of births and deaths and living at 6 Blackfriars. It also shows a Mrs Samuel White under “Milliners and Dressmakers” at St Georges. It is possible that this was his wife…
Samuel White (Senior) had been born in Canterbury in 1802, married Elizabeth Mary Hatton, also a ‘Canterbury lass’, in 1822 and lived in the St Alphege area of Canterbury (in the shadow of the Cathedral) all his life.
Not only did Samuel name his first and second sons Ethelbert (first Christian King of Kent), but his first born Bertha, the name of Ethelbert’s wife. (But then his last born he called Athelstan. Athelstan (or Æthelstan) called the Glorious, was the King of England from 924/925 to 939 – effectively the first King of England!)
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Looking for more information of Catherine or her spouse Samuel Ethelbert White we
found Ethelbert White and we wondered if the name is the only link or that it could be a grandson of Catherine.




Ethelbert Whites biography
Ethelbert White was born in Isleworth, Middlesex. In 1911 studied St.John's Wood Art School under Leonard Walker, a watercolourist who also acheived much acclaim for his beautiful decorative stained glass windows. In 1911 also married Elizabeth Crofton Dodwell, always known as Betty, the couple shared a liking for a simple and unconventional way of life, full of fun, friendship, music and travel. Lived in a little 18th century cottage in Hampstead Grove, Camden. Travelled around countryside in their gypsy caravan 'Reading', Ethelbert producing paintings of village life and Betty playing the lute. The couple became very popular and attracted social gatherings. Befriended Mark Gertler and C.R.W.Nevinson. White exhibited at London Group and New English Arts Club from 1916. First one man show at Paterson and Carfax Gallery in 1921. Was a regular exhibitor at the RA and RWS. Memorial exhibition at the Fine Art Society in 1979. His work is represented in many public collections.

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