Hermann Phillipp Rée ..... 1798- 1877...... another story from Tony Goulding

I have written about a number of the graves in Chorlton-cum-Hardy's old (St. Clement's) churchyard before and always intended to visit there again.  

Hermann and Catherine’s Grave

Two pieces Andrew has posted recently have provided the inspiration to do so. The first was a very informative one looking at Victorian mourning and funerals, the second just a few days ago was a photo of the graveyard as it looked before its “makeover”. In the piece on Victorian funerals, I was enlightened about the symbolic significance of one of the grave monuments in St. Clement’s. 

I was mistakenly under the impression that the broken pillar was the result of frost damage or more probably vandalism. 

No, the broken pillar was used by Victorian Architects to indicate a life cut short. On one of my frequent walks through the graveyard I decided to stop to investigate. The wording of the inscription proved a little puzzling, given the symbolism of the broken pillar. It stated the grave’s occupant had been 79 years old when he died! Returning home, I perused the available records and here is what I discoverd.  Philipp Rée was buried in this grave on the 15th January, 1878. He had passed away on the 30th December, 1877 in his home in Devon. His late residence there was, Villa Ditton, Lower Warberry Road, Tormoham, Torquay, Devon.

Hermann was born in Frederica, Vejle, Denmark on the 17th December, 1798. According to a family tree on Family Seach .org his parents were Philip Hartvig Ree and Hanna Hartvig Ree v Essen.  He came to Britain in the early 19th Century initially setting up as a merchant in Glasgow. There is a record of him purchasing a Brotherhood of the Burgess and Guild on the 28th August, 1828 when he was described as a Merchant of 25, Queen Street, Glasgow. A decade later Hermann married Catherine German in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire in the September quarter of 1838. The couple settled on Oxford Road in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester where Hermann now based his growing business with outlets also in Glasgow and Dundee, Scotland.  While at this address Hermann and Catherine had three children all of whom were baptised at St Saviour’s Church. James Hermann was born on the 6th September, 1839. He was followed by two daughters, Martha Anna, born on the 8th august, 1840 and Catherine Plumridge, born on the 6th November, 1842 (1)

 In the 1851 census Hermann and Catherine appear with their two daughters staying in Henry and Ann Carter’s lodging house at 15, The Promenade, North Meols (now Southport), Lancashire. Young James Hermann is not included on the census return and as I have found no subsequent records to prove otherwise, I am led to assume that he had died young. Catherine died in February 1856 after the family had moved to Whalley Range, then a very affluent area on the outskirts of Manchester. As she was only 37, when she died and was buried in St. Clement’s churchyard, according to the church’s burial register, on the 1st March, it is her death which accounts for the broken pillar.

 

St. Margaret’s Church- Whalley Range 2021

Electoral registers and Slater’s directory of 1863 both show Hermann Philip residing at “The Home” Whalley Road, Whalley Range.  His two daughters were both married at St Margaret’s Church, Whalley Range, which was almost next door to their home“

The first daughter to marry was the younger of the two, Catherine Plumridge. She married a wealthy banker, Emile Charles George Levita on the 30th August, 1860. Initially the newly-wed couple lived at the groom’s (nearby) address of Newstead House, Upper Chorlton Road, Brook’s Bar. As their family started to grow and with the marriage of his other daughter, Martha Anna, to Charles Jeffery William Allen, a Captain in the Scots Greys, on the 1st February, 1866 Hermann traded residences with Emile and Catherine.

Retiring from business in May, 1869 he relocated to Torquay, Devon initially staying in the Imperial Hotel, as revealed by the 1871 census, but latterly at the address where he died. He was brought back to be interred in the same grave he had buried his young wife in more than twenty years before. 

Imperial Hotel Torquay by Derek Harper

Pictures: - From the collection of Tony Goulding except The Imperial Hotel, Torquay by Derek Harper; geograph.org.uk  and licensed under creative commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC-BY SA 2.0)

Notes: -

1) Hermann’s daughters both made very “Good Marriages”. Catherine’s husband, Emile Charles George Levita was the son of a judge who became a very successful banker (Bank of India---). As early as the 1871 census he was able to employ 10 servants at his house in Whalley Range. When he died on the 21st July, 1909, he left an estate of £253,051-7s – 4d. (= £30,803,000 today). Martha Anna’s husband, Charles Jeffery William Allen was a Captain in the prestigious Scots Greys cavalry regiment who was later held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of the 2nd (Taunton) Battalion of the Somersetshire Volunteer Rifles. He was also a Justice of the Peace for his native county. He was born in Wells in 1832. The 1891 census records Lt. Colonel Allen retired and living with his wife in Lennox Gardens, Chelsea, London, looked after by seven servants.