COUSINS’ PARTY AT THE DOWNS SCHOOL, 29TH MAY 2004

Expanded version of talk on Lloyds of Dolobran—our branch of the family, including George Braithwaite Lloyd II & John Henry Lloyd—and previous cousins’ parties in Edgbaston

Introduction

My father and I are, I think, the only representatives here today of the so-called senior end of the family. We were both at The Downs and both brought up, at least partly, as Quakers. Our particular branch (for whom the line is defined by George Braithwaite Lloyds I and II and John Henry Lloyd) remained Quakers long after other branches had left the fold—well into the 20th century.  We have one or two cousins (not here) still practising.  My wife, Judy, is studying aspects of Quaker social and cultural history in her PhD thesis, using family archives to support her contentions, if you would like to know more about it.

When I was young, my mother was ticking off my grandfather, Gerald Lloyd, about something. Drawing himself up to his full height, he said, “But the Lloyds are beyond reproach!”, to which my mother, being Scottish, replied, “Fooey” and laughed her socks off. But in a sense he was right, at least as far as the past was concerned, because, as bankers (and Quakers), they had to be.

Ironmasters first, the family were metal bashers from the point they left Wales. This was the solid industry which underpinned the bank. From the middle of the 19th century, they turned to tubes (boiler tubes, gas pipes, water pipes)—the companies included GB Lloyd & Co, Albion Tube Co, Lloyd & Lloyd, Stewarts & Lloyds, Lloyds Fosters (who produced materials for Blackfriars Bridge) and British Rolling Mills.

Ignoring, for the moment, the earlier years in Wales, it has become customary for Lloyd cousins’ parties to trace descent from Samuel Lloyd I (1768-1849), who married Rachel Braithwaite (1768-1854) in 1791. This is because, conveniently, he is the earliest Lloyd in the four-volume Descendants of Isaac & Rachel Wilson; but an even more key figure is his grandfather, Sampson Lloyd II (1699-1779), for whom “everything came right”, according to Humphrey Lloyd. Successful ironmaster and good businessman, he made a shrewd marriage to Sarah Parkes of Wednesbury, who was monied. He made a good second marriage too, to Rachel Champion of Bristol, and ended up with his brother’s, Charles the Mill’s, mill business when he died. He also bought ‘Farm’ in 1742 (Owen’s Farm, having turned down the opportunity to buy back Dolobran, because it was uneconomic, impractical and too far); he founded the bank, Taylors & Lloyds, in 1765 and lived till he was 80.

Farm (the building still stands in Sparkbrook, Birmingham) became significant as the focal point in family mythology and it was where the cousins often gathered; but there was a degree of family break-up after Samuel Lloyd joined the Plymouth Brethren, troubled over the issue of baptism (they baptise and Quakers don’t), while Rachel remained a staunch Quaker.

George Braithwaite Lloyd I (1794-1857) became Samuel and Rachel’s eldest son after the death in infancy of an elder brother. Later, the widowed George Braithwaite Lloyd I and motherless George Braithwaite Lloyd II (1824-1903) were obliged to return to live at Farm, where they were given a small suite of rooms over the laundry, while GBL II’s elder brother, Sampson Samuel (1820-1899), was sent away to school.  GBL II, who became Mayor of Birmingham, was a particularly interesting man—Judy will tell you.

There was a significant divergence between Sampson Samuel and GBL II: the former appears to have got out of Birmingham and Quakerism as fast as he could. He joined the C. of E., became a Tory MP (failed twice in Birmingham, but was eventually elected in Plymouth), while GBL II remained a Whig. [NB The Whigs were the party for Dissenters while the Tories were the party of the C. of E. and the establishment.] Sampson Samuel lived in London and sent his sons to Eton, some of whom went on to join the army—anathema to the Quaker cousins remaining in Birmingham!

While the Quaker Lloyds were Liberal, they were not radical. When Joseph Chamberlain, key figure in Birmingham politics in the 1870s and ’80s, split the Liberal Party over Home Rule and formed the Liberal Unionists, George Braithwaite Lloyd II and his son, my great-grandfather, John Henry (1855-1944), followed him, but other Quaker families, eg, the Cadburys, stayed with Gladstone and Home Rule. The Unionists (and the Lloyds) eventually joined the Conservatives in the 20th century, whereas many of the old Liberals (the Gladstonians) became Socialists. I could never understand why, at The Downs 50 years ago, the Cadburys and one or two other Quaker families supported Labour, while my family voted Conservative. Now I know!

John Henry became something of a patriarch in the family because of his great interest in genealogy: he also did much to revivify the family parties.

Cousins’ parties 100 years ago

Humphrey Lloyd, as you know, wrote the book The Quaker Lloyds in the Industrial Revolution and in July 1966, during his researches, he wrote to my great-uncle Ron, enclosing a copy he had unearthed of a tribute in the Budget to John Henry, who died in January 1944. It doesn’t say so, but I am pretty sure it was written by Humphrey himself. In this he says,

Cousin John Henry was a student of the Lloyds. He was not primarily interested in the connected families beyond the present day. We of this Budget are a Howard Group. We derive from John Eliot Howard and Maria Crewdson of Lords Mead, Tottenham, and we are, therefore, interested in names such as Eliot, Braithwaite and Crewdson; John Henry was not. To him a Braithwaite was just a Lloyd wife. But, as no less than four of the Lords Mead daughters married Lloyds, a good many of us have Lloyd blood in our veins—we are really a kind of Howard-cum-Lloyd budget—, and in this way we do come into Cousin John Henry’s sphere of interest and study. But to him those other Lloyd branches were equally an open book, which did not inter-marry with Howard, and some of which we do not know so well. He knew not only about the old Lloyds of other centuries, about Dolobran, about Farm and its origins, and the development and vicissitudes of the Lloyds’ iron businesses; he knew also the senior Lloyd branches of his own day. The Lloyd blood in the veins of this budget flows from the younger branches; he himself belonged to a senior branch. It was consistent that the object of one of his most famous gatherings, the “Cousins Party” of 1914, was to draw together the descendants of Samuel & Rachel Lloyd, married 1791.

That party was held on New Year’s Day, 1914 at the Edgbaston Assembly Rooms. John Henry and Gertrude kept a series of entertainments books. [Here are two of these books, the 1914 invitation, with silhouette of Samuel and Rachel Lloyd, and the genealogical tree John Henry prepared for the party.] The entry for that event says, “over 260 accepted but owing to bereavement, sickness and wintry weather there were about 213 present. Hosts: Farm, RC & C Gibbins, Wilson Kings, Jack & Lou Wilson & ourselves”.

I don’t have to hand John Henry’s full record of that party, but the following entry for the next day illustrates the extensive partying which went on:

Friday, January 2nd, 1914—Our house party having gone to Fayrestowe (Eric, Ronald, Annette & Erica Fox, Cyril & Viola Fox, Collier & Brain, Joyce & Leslie Somervell), we asked various cousins to stay another night & dine with us, finally the following sat down for a family dinner, cooked at home, Elton & Adelaide Fox, HW & Carrie Freston, the 3 sisters Florence Somervell, Jessie Sturge & Gertrude Fox, Arthur Ll Sturge, Ivy Fox & Marian (Howard) Fox with Gerald & ourselves. Gerald & 6 from Fayrestowe went on to the “Scrip” dance.

Edgbaston was already a hive of social activity in the 1880s and ’90s, even among the Quakers: new year’s parties, musical soirées, amateur dramatics, essay meetings and lawn tennis tournaments all featured strongly. The Wilsons at Wyddrington were among the most active and in the archive are invitation cards and programmes for a number of these. Players in the 1888 tennis tournament included: Wilsons, Howards, Lloyds, Peases, Lowes, Albrights, Fowlers, Foxes, Staceys, Sturges, Harrisons, Somervells and Tucketts. There were further tennis tournaments at Wyddrington in 1889 and 1890.

There had long been a Lloyd family tradition of ‘mustering’ at Farm: see Programme Dec 29th 1891:

7.45 to 8.30		The Mustering of the Cousins
8.30 to 9.15		A Vision of Statues: Minerva, Calliope Diana
9.15 to 10.30		Cousinly Intercourse varied with Music and Feats of Skill

Farewell; but only till you come again.

John Henry seems to have taken over the mantle of organiser-in-chief early in the 20th century, when increasingly large parties were arranged at Edgbaston Grove, where GBL II and subsequently John Henry lived. They also used the Edgbaston Assembly Rooms and the Botanical Gardens. Farm, which was briefly occupied by Sampson Samuel after the death of GBL I and before he (Sampson Samuel) fled Birmingham, was meanwhile taken on by Samuel Lloyd III, 1st cousin to Sampson Samuel and GBL II, neither of whom wanted to live there. The old family house, in the wrong part of town, which by then had engulfed it, was abandoned after the death of Samuel Lloyd III at the end of World War I and eventually given to the City.

The entertainments books are a mine of interest, as much for how the Quakers had caught up with style as for the style of those days itself. There are entries for dinner parties, supper parties (“...attempted ‘supper party’ 21 July 1898. Asked 14, not one could come! So our party collapsed, at least William Henry Lloyd only came!”), children’s parties, garden parties, lawn tennis & croquet parties, “brides parties”, business meetings followed by lunch or dinner (Dinner for the Gas Committee, Thursday April 5, 1900, Neville Chamberlain present), essay meetings, book sales, ladies’ luncheons, reading circles, drawing room meetings, whist parties, gatherings for teachers from Severn Street Schools, the Young Abstainers Union (John Henry’s wife, Gertrude Eliza Keep, was strictly teetotal, obliging John Henry and her children to follow suit, whereas Quakers were not automatically averse to alcohol), Friends Sewing Guild and the occasional funeral tea.

The earliest record I can find of a cousins’ party organised by John Henry is a ‘Christmas’ one, on 12 January 1896 at Ferndale in Carpenter Road. The entry in the Entertainments Book reads as follows:

As the large houses such as Wyddrington, Mariemont and Farm were not giving the usual great gatherings, we were asked if we would (by Annie & Amy Sturge). To this we heartily agreed on condition they did something to entertain the company.
So with only a week’s short notice, the company were summoned. Being Saturday evening the Birmm cousins proved to be very free and able to come but it was not a good evening for cousins from a distance.

Hours 7pm to 10pm
Tea & coffee on arrival in Dining Room.
Ladies uncloaked in Nursery & Spare Room. Men in Night Nursery.
Ronald & Eric were at Westmere
Gerald & Alan sat up.
John (coachman) helped to wait. Davis, Alice, Annie.
Grandma Lloyd lent “Jones” parlourmaid.
Owens Hagley Rd supplied tea and supper, all glass china table linen & cutlery. (£16.0.0)
Supper in Library as well as Dining Room. Stand up.

“Legge” Bromsgrove Street moved all necessary furniture took down our bed etc & packed it in spare room dressing room: also raised two or three back benches, provided rout seats & chairs etc. W.H. Sturge arranged electric light for stage etc. Acting was got up very rapidly by Amy & Harry Sturge with assistance of Jno. P. Smithson, W. Waterhouse Gibbins his sister Lucy, Albert Wm Lloyd. Cousin Annie Lloyd & Charlotte were the great inspirers & decorators.

“A Question of Diplomacy” a tale from Conan Doyle’s “Round the Red Lamp”. Acting in my bedroom. Then supper. All big Drawing Room & Dining Room furniture packed in one room upstairs.

Afterwards Char. as a Gypsy distributed presents—we paid for them—riddles having been prepared mostly of a personal character to those present or belonging to the circle.

A happy, pleasant, friendly gathering. Everyone voted it a great success, only the evening seemed too short! All complimented us much.

The next John Henry cousins’ party noted is Friday 30 December, 1904, when they had moved to Edgbaston Grove and there was dancing after supper in the empty billiard room (“our table not then bought”). Now the entertaining gets more self-assured in the big house—“we hired & borrowed nothing but 4 dozen chairs or rout seats for walls of billiard room”. “Mostly young people our own and our children’s generation except Samuel Lloyd who came unasked! The house looked very pretty, the white walls are very ‘becoming’ to people!” The list of those attending includes Lloyds, Kings, Wilsons, Hodgkins, Tangyes, Sturges, Albrights, Godlees, Staceys, Hoylands, Scott-Moncrieffs and Whitwells. Older members of the family were deliberately not invited on this occasion.

The 1914 cousins party was at the Edgbaston Assembly Rooms to accommodate everyone indoors, but John Henry and Gertrude were capable of entertaining huge numbers at Edgbaston Grove: the 1908 (Quaker) Yearly Meeting Garden Party—“our garden & Wyddrington open: 1470 & over came—a huge tent, a band...”

They bashed on through the war, though less intensively and with some differences. There was an Adult Cripples Party on 1 July 1916 and a Belgian ‘At Home’ on 20 July 1916. They also had a gathering on Saturday 19 July 1917 to celebrate the 80th birthday of Cousin Anna Lloyd, with 63 cousins present. [See photos in album, with the older women still in Quaker bonnets and children dancing round a maypole.]

The Cousins’ Lawn Tennis Tournament in 1920 was elaborate and is recorded in great detail in the entertainments book. Stretching over 4 days (30 July - 2 August), there were 48 players, who played doubles and mixed doubles, plus 31 non-players: there was dancing and croquet and spottted clearly among the players’ names are Geoffrey & Dorothea Hoyland!

On Friday 27 May, 1921, there was a small cousins’ party to celebrate Cousin Annie Lloyd’s 84th birthday. “Owing to coal strike, which has now lasted 8 weeks, it was difficult to get hot water, as there is only gas from 4.30 to 6.” Among those present were Cousin Anna Lloyd, now 85, and Cousin Sara Wilson Sturge, in her 90th year. Also present were Bunty, Philip & Nurse, while GBL in USA and Nan at Malvern!

The Cousins Lawn Tennis Tournament for 1922 was at Wellington in Somerset and although this is Fox territory, is recorded in the Lloyd entertainments book apparently because they took a house (Overside) and hosted several guests. One of the young men this year was Humphrey Lloyd, who stayed at Linden, home of Lloyd & Griselda Fox, where also staying was a certain Frances de Winton.

December 29th 1924 saw a large cousins’ party at the Botanical Gardens with 170 guests, but curiously, apart from the list of names, there is no other information in the book. However, I have again spotted the name Frances D. De Winton, along with sisters Eleanor and Mary, plus Humphrey. [See also three photos from 1924 of a hockey match in Farquhar Road.]  Frances re-appears at the Cousins’ Lawn Tennis Tournament for 1926, back in Edgbaston.

And then there are no more entries for cousins’ parties or tennis tournaments (although there is a loose copy of a Lloyd-Tanqueray party at Ipswich in 1949). I don’t know why John Henry stopped at that point, because he continued to hold massive garden parties and other kinds of gathering until 1940. He turned 70 in 1925 and Gertrude had died in 1923, so maybe that had much to do with it. Birmingham-based cousins, of course, appeared at many of these other dos and there was a gathering of sixty of the clan on Monday 27 February, 1939, to celebrate the 80th birthday of M. Catharine Albright, when, among other things, they were subjected to a quiz about Catharine and sang a modified version of the Song of the Circle, a family song, which first surfaced at Farm in 1890. The first verse goes:

When we survey the world around—
The wondrous things that do abound;
’Tis meet the praises should be sung
Of those dear friends we live among:
So let the world do all it can,
There’s nought shall sever the Cousins’ Clan;
So wish them joy where’er they be,
We wish them joy and jollity.

Would anyone like to suggest what tune, probably a hymn tune, they sang this to?

(Two suggestions – “Jerusalem” and “St Patrick’s Breastplate” will both fit – but would they have been (a) known and (b) regarded as suitable?)

	Alan Lloyd