Woolfe Jackson (1871 - 1911)

Woolfe Jackson is the husband of Betsy Rebecca Rosenberg, my maternal 2nd cousin 3x removed. Rosenberg family tree Here

Parents: Tobias Jackson and Rebecca Leah

Born: 1871 in Telshi (now Telšiai), Lithuania

Hebrew name: Ze’ev Volf son of  Tuvyah

Migration: Woolfe came to England as a teenager sometime before the 1891 census. It appears that his parents never came to England

Married: Betsy Rebecca Rosenberg in Manchester, England in (April - June) 1891

Children

Their first child was born in 1892 when Betsy was 20 and Woolfe 21. Their last child was born in 1894 when Betsy was 22 and Woolfe 23

• Fanny Leah Jackson 1892 - 1968
• Louis Jackson 1894 - ?

Occupation: Furniture dealer, then pawnbroker and financier and debt collector

Census details

1891

Woolfe is age 21 and living at 203 Attwood Street, Wolstanton, Staffordshire, England. His occupation is listed as a furniture dealer. Living with him is his sister Lena, age 19 who is a domestic housekeeper

1901

Betsy and Woolfe are now married and living at 2 Bowling Green Bank, Chester, England. Woolfe is age 29 and a furniture dealer and financier. Betsy is 28 and their children Fanny and Louis are 9 and 7 respectively. Living with them is Beatrice Jones, age 18 and a housemaid; her brother-in-law Tobias Peachman age 52 and his son Louis age 19

1911

The family are living at 70 Plymouth Grove, Manchester. Woolfe is 39 and a financiar, pawnbroker Betsy is 38, Fanny is 19 and Louis is 17. Their servant is Ellen Elkington, age 44 and a widow. Betsy is listed as having given birth to 4 children, two of which are still alive.

Naturalization

Woolfe Rosenberg became a naturalized citizen on 30 June 1898. At the time he was residing at 8 Lightfoot Street, Chester, Cheshire. 

" ... subject of Russia, having been born at Telshi, Kovno, and is the son of Tobias and Rebecca Leah Jackson, both of Russian nationality = of the age of 27 years, a financier is married and has two children under age residing with him. viz.- Fanny Leah Jackson, aged five years

Louis Jackson aged four years"

Advertisements

Woolfe Jackson, financier in the Rhyl Record and Advertiser 27 August 1910. Address is 7 St Mark's Terrace, Wrexham, Cheshire, England

Woolfe Jackson, financier in the 1909 phone book. Address is 70 Plymouth Grove, Rusholme, Manchester. England

Death

In loving memory of Woolfe Jackson, who departed this life on 23rd Tamuz 5671. 19 July 1911, aged forty years. May his soul rest in peace

Hebrew translation: [abbr] here [lies] buried
Ze'ev Wolf [pronounced Volff] son of Tuvia
[circular text] "How, from the mouths of sons and daughters great lamentations come forth...
[...instead of joyful songs; may pleasantness be removed on this Motzei Shabbat" 

This is followed by an intricate, multiple, acrostic-based format that is also bound by rhyming line-endings 1&2 ['sh'] and 3,4,5&6 ['yim'].

Ze'ev ז א ב appears as the enlarged first letter of each of the first three words on the first line; and as the enlarged letters within the initial three lines – the first, second, and first words respectively.

Wolff ו ו א ל ף appears as non-consecutive large letters on line 2 – its middle letter א is also part of the Ze'ev acrostic.

Son of 'ב'ר heads line 3 and is also part of the Ze'ev acrostic.
Tuv-ia טוב יה appears enlarged as two separate words with the the meaning 'God's goodliness'.

God furious in anger [or, since אף is both anger and 'nose' in Hebrew, anthropomorphically: 'God steaming with anger from His nostrils'], the crown upon our heads fell and was bequeathed / our father and the champion of my youth [referring to the wife, presumably] among the hallowers of his name, is hallowed / with (great) noise and calamity he departed the land of the living / God's goodliness for all, since reason was with heaven [i.e. 'ours is not to reason why?'] / a man of repute was he, all the days of his years, forty / on the 23rd Tamuz 5671 did his light darken at noontime / may his soul be bound in the bond of [eternal] life.

It appeared that Woolfe met with a tragic death. Probably suicide due to being declared bankrupt the day before his death

Woolfe Jackson, residing at 70 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, and carrying on business at 26 Corporation Street, and I St. Ann Square, both in Manchester, moneylender and debt collector; 215 Piccadilly, London, and 7 Fountain Street, Halifax, pawnbroker; also carrying on business at 47 Medlock Street, Hulme, Manchester, and 125 Mostyn Street, Llandudno, and also carrying on business at 38 New Brown Street, Manchester, merchant. (Edinburgh Gazette 18 July 1911, p. 730)

Place of Birth

Woolfe was born at Telšiai in northern Lithuania

More than half of the Telšiai population consisted of Jews in the 19th century. Nevertheless, Telshe never had a very large Jewish community, in comparison with the large populations of Jews residing in many cities in Lithuania. Telshe also grew very slowly, such that in 1939 it had almost the same number of Jews as a hundred years earlier. In 1847, 2,248 Jews lived in Telshe. The number almost doubled in 1864, to 4,204, but thirty years later, in 1897, it [had] decreased to 3,088. The specific factor in the loss was the emigration of Telshe Jews in the decade of the eighties and later. In 1885, for example, twenty Jewish families wandered off in a few days. In the following years, even during the spiritual/cultural flowering of Telshe between both world wars, the number of Jewish residents did not even reach the number of almost a hundred years before.

Most Jews lived on the northern side of the market’s square, the current day Respublikos street was almost completely inhabited by Jewish traders and artisans. During the interwar period, the Telšiai Jewish community was active, had the Jewish folk bank, library, sports club, and various caritative organizations.

Telšiai is widely known for its achievements in the field of education. In the middle of the 19th century, a secular Jewish school was opened, where subjects had been taught in the Russian language; during the interwar period, the orthodox girl gymnasium and parallelly the first and only (in Lithuania) Jewish’ teachers seminary opened its doors. In 1875 one of the most famous Eastern European yeshivas was founded in this town.

Residences

In the 1891 census Woolfe is boarding at 203 Attwood Street, Wolstanton, Staffordshire, England

In 1898 the family are living at 8 Lightfoot Street, Chester, Cheshire, England. No 8 appears to no longer exist

In 1911 the family were living at 70 Plymouth Grove, Manchester, England