Joseph and Susanna Cassini

This page of notes does not really fit with the other pages in this section which set out information on the French family of scientific Cassinis. The reason for its inclusion here is that it deals with the reason for my initial interest in that family. The Joseph Cassini discussed here is not a member of the French scientific Cassinis though, at one time this is what I had been led to believe.

Many years ago my paternal grandmother, a Cassini, told me that we were related to the Cassini astonomer family. This belief seemed to have developed in her family at least in her great grandfather’s time as one of his sons, my grandmother’s grandfather, together with his son, her father, were both named John Dominicus Cassini, a very similar translation of Jean Dominique Cassini, the French name of the Italian astronomer Giovanni Dominicus Cassini who was poached by King Louis XIV and renamed to the French version on his marriage to Geneviève Delaistre in France. My grandmother said that one of the male members of her family had gone to Somerset House, then the repository in London of the records of births, marriages and deaths in England, and found there the proof of this relationship.

Begun in 1837, the initial records were made on vellum in large leather-bound documents, written usually in beautiful cursive manuscript by a number of different hands. In the initial years there were many omissions made for a variety of reasons but with time the records became more complete, then removed, first to Islington and then digitised and taken to the National Archives in Kew, London.

In the Someret House records my relation is said to have found the documents ‘proving’ he said, that the family was related to the French Cassinis. Neither my father nor my grandmother would have known that this was impossible as those records would never have been linked to the French or other foreign records and, in any case, the French line had died out with the death in 1832 of Alexandre Henri Gabriel Cassini, the fifth of the scientific Cassini line, and who died without issue.

The second ‘fact’ she told me from the information found at Somerset House was that our line had developed from a Joseph Cassini who had arrived in England in 1797 bringing with him the gift of an embroidered waistcoat, a gift to the King of England, George III from the King of Naples.

My grandmother would not have known that the story makes considerable sense in terms of the year quoted, 1797, when Naples was in an increasingly difficult position politically. Revolutionary interests were developing from the French Revolution, and Italy was not yet combined as a nation but consisted of a collection of kingdoms, duchies and republics backed variously by the interests of at least the British, French, Spanish, Ottomans and Austrians.

My enquiries at Windsor Castle, keeper of the records of gifts to the British royalty, revealed no note of such a gift, and there was no Neapolitan agency of record for noting such a gift in London at that time. My best guess is that Joseph was a tailor, and came to London with other immigrants to avoid difficulties in his own country and establish a new identity in England. Nor is it possible to say whether he was Italian, as his name suggests, or French. What was, and remains extremely difficult for me to understand is how he managed to enter the country with no record of his entry and settlement into an English way of life.

Situated originally on Duke Street but now on Kingsway, in London’s Holborn, the Catholic church of St. Anselm’s was rebuilt in 1909 to accommodate the reorganisation of the small, irregular street pattern of this part of London at the turn of the twentieth century. This illustration, taken from Horwood’s map of London, published between 1792 and 1799, shows the location of the Chapel on Duke Street in the red circle with Lincoln’s Inn Fields to its east, and is set on a modern map of that part of London showing Kingsway and the present position of St. Anselm’s in the blue circle.

At the beginning of the 18th century the building contained the Embassy of Portugal but, following an exchange of lands by the Duke of Savoy, it was reconstructed in the 1760s and became known as the Chapel of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sardinia and was one of the main sites of Catholic worship in London.

However, this identified it as a focus in the week-long anti-Catholic Gordon Riots beginning on the 2nd July 1780 before the army was brought in to quell the riots. Among other destructive activities, the rioters wrecked the Chapel. It is likely that between 300-500 persons were killed and wounded. Bear in mind that at this time Britain was involved with the American War of Indepence and was fighting against both France and Spain and that the riots were read by some as an indication of an unstable monarchy.

Rebuilt by the end of the eighteenth century to cater for the needs of the Catholic population, despite their proscription, the Chapel is where the marriage records show that Joseph married a Susanna Gill on the 6th April 1802.

Initially living in Westminster they moved soon to Marylebone where many other Italian and, particularly, French immigrants were making their homes. At this distance in time, and with the scarcity of useful documents available to me, it is impossible to know how and where they met.

Obviously at least one of them, probably Joseph, was a Catholic wishing to marry in a Catholic church. The Marriage Act of 1753 allowed only Jews, Quakers and members of the Church of England to obtain legal marriage; Catholicism was proscribed at that time and Catholic marriages became legal only after the 1st July 1837 with the Marriage Act of 1836. It follows from this that Joseph and Susanna are likely to have been aware that their’s was not a legal marriage. A subsquent legal marriage may have been made as was sometimes the case, in order to legalise their status but, if there was, I have not yet been able to find it.

Thinking the witnesses to Joseph’s marriage might lead me somewhere I have searched for both Joseph Onoratici and an Anna Demontihiè. Neither is a common name but they are obviously Italian and French respectively. I have not found anything about the latter but have discovered a Gioseppe Onoratici who married a Ludovica Bouevy, or Bovary, on the 11th April 1796 at St. James, Picadilly, Westminster having obtained a Licence from the Vicar-General six days previously. He was recorded as living at St James, Westminster, she at St Clement Danes. Both of them swore that they were ‘thirty years and upwards’, an expression I understand to suggest that they were unaware of their exact ages. I believe he might be the same person as the witness to Joseph’s marriage. The witnesses to Onoratici’s marriage may have been French and English, respectively a John Baptiste and Guardy? Pride. I have not been able to do anything with this information yet.

Incidentally, St. James, Picadilly is a lovely church with beautiful naturalistic wood carvings by Grindling Gibbons over the altar.

It has not been possible to come to any conclusion as to what Joseph’s occupation might have been. The occupation of one of his sons was given on a Census return as ‘Clothier’, which might suggest he was following his father’s occupation. It is possible that Joseph’s links with Italy might have led to his beginning business in this area of London, and that he might have been a tailor from the family rumour that he was said to have brought an embroidered waistcoat with him as a gift to King George III.

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Immigration

Curiously there is no record of Joseph’s arrival in England at a time when the English were concerned for the possible introduction of the Revolution to England. In fact there is a letter in the National Archives, Kew, from either the Home Secretary, Henry Dundas or the Duke of Portland in the early 1790s instructing British ports and customs officers to arrest and imprison ‘every Italian picture framer and French mirror maker’ entering the country in the belief that foreign artisans might be involved in espionage or otherwise sympathetic to revolutionary causes. The French and Italians were particularly singled out for their possible ties to political movements, and a number of Italians were refused entry at Kent ports in 1797, the Alien Office considering that Italians might be in the service of France.

This action was part of a broader set of measures Britain took to curb the influence of foreign nationals during the French Revolutionary Wars, which included not just arrests, but also more formal controls on immigration and the monitoring of foreigners. The regulation of those entering the United Kingdom was introduced by the Aliens Act on the 7th January 1793, and the development of information gathering through the use of agents, both in England and abroad, was notable; William Wickham, British spymaster and director of internal security services controlling agents in France and William Windham, Secretary of State for War, having a particular interest in French Royalists, meeting Mme de Cassini at least twice in 1797.

In correspondence with a distant cousin she, too, had heard a similar story to that of Joseph Cassini but, in this case, Cassini I and Cassini II were specifically mentioned as our relations, and the embroidered waistcoat was supposedly brought as a gift to Louis XV which, if it were true, would mean it was brought before May 1774. Bear in mind that it was Louis XIV who brought Cassini I to France, and he and Cassini II died in 1712 and 1752 respectively, with Cassinis III, IV and V dying in 1784, 1845 and 1832 respectively.

The story of our being related to the French astronomer family is also recorded in a Bedfordshire Times and Independent newspaper article of the 10th July 1936 on the death of Fanny Warry Mummery, daughter of the younger Henry Thomas Cassini, that they ‘were related to the Astronomer Royal of the period’.

It seems the story was current in the family but had slightly different journeys for the waistcoat. In my cousin’s story Joseph was said to be a ‘secret’ son of one of the scientific Cassinis, and it was one of those scientists who brought the waistcoat to the French King Louis XIV, though from whom is unclear unless it was from one of the Cassini scientists themselves; in the story on my side of the family it was Joseph who brought the gift to the English King George III from the King of Naples, no secrecy was mentioned, and the dates make very good sense.

In any case having our family related to the Cassini scientific family is impossible as there appear to be no links betwen them and our Joseph Cassini and his marriage in London in 1802. The only possible contender whom I can find would be Mme de Cassini. The French records for the Cassini family seem thorough due to their prominence, and I have been unable to find any record suggesting she might have had children.

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Settling in London

It appears that Joseph and Susanna settled into life in London first in Westminster where their first twins, Joseph and Mary Ann were born, but had moved to Marylebone at least by the time Ann Angela was born where they are recorded as living at Little Marylebone Street, now Marylebone Street. This map has a small white circle illustrating Marylebone’s situation near the north-west limit of London.

Marylebone was where many immigrants lived, particularly those who were of French origin. Italians tended to settle to the east and south of Marylebone in Soho, Holborn and, particularly, in Clerkenwell, essentially the north and east of London, while the French settled west and south with, perhaps, the more genteel French settling in and around Marylebone and further west in Richmond. It is not an accident that, when Mme de Cassini visited London to meet William Windham in 1797, she stayed at a house on Lisson Grove, to the west of where Joseph and Susanna were living. Note on the lower illustration the blue circle which marks the Marylebone Infirmary, the likely institution where Susanna is recorded as having died.

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Children

Joseph and Susanna had seven children including two pairs of twins before Joseph died in 1816, all of them baptized and brought up in the Anglican traditions.

The first twins, Joseph and Mary Ann were born two months prior to their parents’ marriage, on the 2nd February 1802. Neither survived long. Joseph died and was buried on the 2nd June 1803, with Mary Ann’s death followed his on the 24th December 1804.

Joseph	b. 02.02.1802	c. 01.08.1802	d. 02.06.1803	bur. St. Anne’s	Soho, London
Mary Ann	b. 02.02.1802	c. 18.03.1803	d. 24.12.1804	bur.	Westminster, London
Joseph Lewis	b. 29.03.1808	c. 14.09.1808	d. October 1862	bur.
Ann Angela	b. 20.08.1809	c. 20.08.1809	d.	bur.	Marylebone, London
Henry Thomas	b. 19.12.1810	c. 15.05.1811	d. 18.04.1877	bur.	Marylebone, London
John	b. 26.04.1814	c. 26.04.1814	d. 11.04.1816	bur.	Marylebone, London
Joseph	b. 26.04.1814	c. 01.01.1815	d. 1862	bur.	Marylebone, London

The parish records for Marylebone show that Joseph John Cassini was buried on the 3rd April 1816 at the stated age of 64 at St. Marylebone on a Wednesday, and at the cost of £1.11s.10d. He was recorded as having died at Little Marylebone Street, Marylebone, London. The letters and numbers before the cost on the records relate, I believe, to the position of the burial in the graveyard.

Susanna Cassini died in the Infirmary of St Marylebone, London and was buried on the 21st February 1852 at the stated age of seventy-nine. This would have had her married at the age of twenty-nine to the fifty year old Joseph in 1802, and born in 1773. Their ages suggest that they may both have been married previously.

It should also be remembered that, particularly with old records, ages given are not always accurate. There are many people who don’t know their date of birth or age, and others who accidentally or deliberately give different information.

Times must have been hard for the family as one of them was caught and charged with criminal offences at the age of twenty – Joseph Lewis Cassini, and Henry Thomas Cassini became bankrupt at least once.

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Joseph Cassini

On the 9th January 1827, Joseph Cassini, a labourer, and James Corson or Cosson, both 20, are recorded as being sentenced to seven years at Newington Quarter Sessions for ‘receiving stolen money’, implicitly from a 62 year old John Robins or Robbins who also received seven years. First imprisoned in Horsemonger Lane gaol, Surrey’s main prison and place of execution, prisoner no. 2099, Joseph’s ‘Bodily state’ was recorded as ‘Healthy’ and his conduct aboard the ‘Cumberland’, a prison hulk, as ‘Very good’.

A warrant notes the removal of a number of people on the 19th January 1827: H S of Surrey ditto to remove Jas. Johnson, Elijah Smith, Wm. Bransby, Geo. Smith, Jas. Robins, Jas. Corson alias Cosson, Josh. Cassini, Chas. Rowland, Jas. Lamb, Thos. Kischer, Thos. Baker, Thos. Haynes also Jno. Wilks to Dolphin – 19 Jany. 1827. Both the ‘Cumberland’ and ‘Dolphin’ were based on the Thames at Chatham.

In the Surrey Winter Special Assizes of 1827 James Rose, James Corson and Joseph Lewis Cassini were tried for ‘Accessory to felony before the fact’. Rose was sentenced to seven years transportation; Cassini and Corson were found Not Guilty. Another document has Corson and Cassini ‘procuring another to commit felony’.

In 1831 Joseph is recorded on a register of prisoners, being with Corson, alias Cosson, on the ‘Cumberland’. Sentence type is annotated as ‘FP’ – Perhaps free pardon?. The ‘Cumberland’ was another prison hulk – originally a 74-gun Third-rate, launched in 1807 at Northfleet. She was converted to a prison hulk in 1830 and renamed ‘Fortitude’ in 1833. She was put on the sale list in 1870 and was subsequently sold.

Dated 19th July 1831, a letter has been written giving a ‘free pardon’ to those listed and signed ‘Melbourne’ at the Court of St. James.

Joseph was pardoned and discharged on the 26th July 1831. The Gaoler’s report noted ‘Bad character. Behaved well in gaol’. Lower down, on the same page, and under ‘January Sessions’ Joseph Cassini and James Corson (also Cosson) were noted as having been tried for ‘Procuring another to commit felony’.

There were apparently 17,644 prisoners recorded for the period 1818-1831 held in prison hulks ‘Cumberland’, ‘Dolphin’ and ‘Ganymede’. Hulks were ships used as floating prisons, often when they were no longer fit for battle but were still afloat. ‘Ganymede’ would have held around 120 prisoners. HMS Ganymede was a British prison hulk which was moored in Chatham Harbour in Kent, England, and was the former French 450 ton frigate ‘Hébé’ (20 guns, pierced for 34), which, under the command of Lieutenant Bretonneuire, was captured by the British frigate ‘Loire’ on 6 February 1809 while en route from Bordeaux to San Domingo, carrying 600 barrels of flour. Renamed ‘Ganymede’, she served with the Royal Navy before being decommissioned. She was converted to a prison hulk in 1819 and broken up in 1838.

Joseph Lewis Cassini, mentioned in records only as a labourer, died in Edmonton, North London, in 1862 at the age of 48.

I can find no subsequent record of Ann Angela Cassini, born in 1808; neither her marriage nor death seem to be recorded. The fact she was born and christened on the same day suggests she may have died almost immediately, christening on birth a common practice when the baby seemed likely to die.

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Henry Thomas

Sadly, Henry Thomas, too, had a difficult life, apparently being bankrupt on more than one occasion. It appears that, like many, he went into businesses relating to pianos, their making, tuning and hammer covering, these activities being carried out in north-east London and at different addresses most likely due to the financial difficulties he had.

In those days there was little in the way of home entertainment as we know it today. For those with a little money a musical instrument might bring significant benefit to those living in crowded and poor accommodation. Harmonimums and pianos were a common purchase for those who could afford them, but the British market was increasingly undercut by German imports, causing significant problems with the English engaged in that area, as was my family.

There were several reasons for this. German piano makers were leaders in terms of innovation and technological improvements. The quality of their pianos had a richer, fuller sound compared with their English counterparts; for which reason they were preferred by professional musicians. In addition to this the German manufacturers benefitted by being able to produce pianos in large quantities at lower costs due to the scale of their operations and efficient manufacturing methods making English piano makers unable to compete with the lower prices, leading to financial difficulties for many of the smaller, traditional firms.

Public records, notably the Census, as well as statutory notices in the press refer to Henry as having been bankrupt in 1845, dissolving his partnership with an Edward Doughty on the 23rd January 1855, and as an insolvent debtor in 1858 and 1865. Despite that at least one Census record has the family living with a servant suggesting they had funds to cover that expense, and there are also newspaper advertisements for him continuing to work and, on the 16th September 1864, selling harmoniums as illustrated in the first clipping above. Moreover, there are a number of sale notices in the press referring to pianos having been made by him, suggesting they were of some quality.

Henry Thomas and his wife, Isabella Elizabeth Lodge, known as ‘Fanny’, were married on the 29th March 1834 at St. James, Paddington, had six sons and two daughters, none of them dying early as had some of Henry’s siblings.

The 1871 Census has him living with his wife, four sons, two daughters, an apprentice piano hammer coverer and a young female general servant.

Henry died on 18th April 1877, his probate showing him to have effects of under £200 – less than £30,000 in 2025. The 1891 Census has Fanny living as a widow and registering four sons, a daughter, an aunt, Ellen Marchmont aged 66 and single, and a young female servant.

The oldest son of Henry and Fanny, also named Henry Thomas died on the 21st January 1890. It is notable that he made his Will out a year after his father’s death, on the 20th December 1878 with three codicils added, two on the same date, 22nd February 1884 and, prior to that, the first undated. Probate was granted to Henry Richard Leonard Cassini and James Abraham Oglesby two of the Executors on the 17th February 1890. James was the husband of the first Henry Thomas’s older daughter, and Henry Richard the oldest of the second Henry Thomas’s ten sons. There are two notable elements to the Will, one is that Henry gave good sums to friends and family and, secondly, it was complex, long and sad:

I earnestly hope and wish that their (sic) will be no wrangling or quarelling among any one whose names are either in Will or Codicils and that my children will be kind and good to their mother but try and work as hard as their father had done but not to worry as he did which took years off his life…

This younger Henry Thomas died at the age of 55 on the 21st January 1890. His estate of £14,000 being the equivalent of around £2.3m in 2025.

more to be written…