In my five years of research into the family history I have, in all branches of the family started off with no knowledge beyond my grandparents and no expectations about what I would find. Family history is the ultimate in pyramid building and, like every modern day family researcher before me, I keyed in my own parents on my laptop to start my family tree. This particular avenue immediately opened up two unrelated areas of research, and by keying in grandparents it doubled into four branches. This exponential growth finding siblings, cousins, uncles and aunts, led to challenges in long forgotten branches of my family tree.

I suppose curiosity as a child has played a fair degree in my position now as the family researcher. I was always the one asking questions and when my parents were busy, I resorted to asking questions to maternal grandmother Lavinia Fuller nee Moar, who, on a fairly regular basis had lived with us when I was young. Our home at Point Piper was large and Gran played a big part in our lives. Importantly my dad, Reg Robson, got on really well with Gran, and my mum, Vena Robson nee Fuller had a wonderful life surrounded by everyone she loved. My brother Bill was nine years older than me, and my sister Lavinia, was nearly two years older. We were three children in a happy home. Little did we realise how lucky we were to be born into a home on the waterfront at Point Piper on Sydney Harbour in Australia. Rose Bay was our backyard and adventure land and when my sister and I wanted to play, we got into our “tinny” with a six horsepower engine and took off for Shark Island, Lady’s Martin’s Beach or a trip to The Pier at Rose Bay for an ice cream. It is little wonder today that I think of Rose Bay as a place to protect for future generations.

My earliest memories take me back to Caerleon, where my maternal grandparents Lavinia and John Fuller lived in Ginahgulla Road, Bellevue Hill in Sydney. As a child I loved visiting this magnificent house. Upstairs had been closed off, and the huge kitchen and pantry areas at the back were off limits, unless we were with grown-ups. I used to lie half way up the large front staircase staring up at the wonderful lead-light glass dome, which gave the large hall below a warm yellow and golden glow. A locked door on the landing closed off upstairs. Gran and Grandpa John Fuller were living downstairs in just a small part of their home after they had moved from their main bedroom upstairs to a bedroom that now fronted the driveway, on the left of the porch and front hall as you entered.

However, it was the gardens of Caerleon that I loved most, the sandstone lions who guarded the entrance to the turning circle at the top of the drive, the wire covered pond, the large and ornate, but sadly empty bird aviary, the stone sundial and the circular gravel driveway filled my childhood memories. Old Joe the gardener, used to rake the driveway and would tell us not to skid our bike wheels on the perfectly raked gravel surface.

Caerleon’s front hall had stag heads above the doorways and they were quite scary. In the library, which overlooked the lawns there were heavy timber bookcases lining two sides of the walls, and on another wall there were glass cabinets, filled with hundreds of dead butterflies of every colour and size, which were pinned through their bodies and attached to the material lining. Some of the butterfly wings had decayed and had fallen to the bottom of the cabinets. I hated those butterflies, but at the same time I had this compulsive urge to stand and stare at the poor dead things. Gran and Grandpa John had a radiogram and record player in a large wooden cabinet in the library and when it rained Gran would sit me down on her red couches, with large furry ginger coloured cushions and I would listen to stories from records. I remember my favourite record was “Keepy Mouse”. Interestingly, my father, Reg Robson must have listened to that same recording. Dad loved to quote the mouse war cry, “all men with sharp teeth, follow me”! It took me years to understand why dad thought it was so hilarious.

I also loved gazing into the drawing room, which was decorated in creamy yellows, where translucent drapes allowed the light to filter through the bay window, reflecting off elegantly decorated couches, dainty French chairs with lattice backs, all painted in gold, and amazing fluffy white alpaca mats which covered the carpets at the fireplace and windows. Gran’s small black poodle Hugo used to sneak in and lie on them, when no-one was looking and Gran would pretend to be cross when she found him there. Large urns and vases, clocks and glass ornaments were placed on tables, which were most definitely never to be touched. I loved the glowing amber and toffee coloured glass beaded heaters which were enclosed in ornate wrought iron fire boxes that decorated many of the rooms.

The dining room was very grand, and the very first Christmas I can remember was at Caerleon, sitting up at the large mahogany dining room table surrounded by traymobiles laden with turkey, ham and steaming vegetables. The towering sideboard at one end of the room was covered in silver ware and was most impressive. I was definitely on my best behavior that Christmas. When it came time to make the speeches, Gran got all teary and Uncle John Fuller stood up and, with his large white napkin, he came to her rescue. He wanted Gran to use his napkin as a handkerchief, and she kept pushing it away, and then her tears turned to laughter. I didn’t understand why Gran would be crying in the middle of our Christmas lunch, but I came to realise that it must have been just after Grandpa John’s death in September of 1959, and it seemed to me to symbolise her loss that day. I don’t think I even realised that Grandpa had actually died before that. I can’t remember being told. I think I was the youngest grandchild sitting at the table that Christmas day in 1959; I was only just three and a bit. When it came time for the plum pudding, I looked at this black mess in disgust. Aunty Phyllis Lewis, sitting next to me, leaned over and wisely told me to just take it and explore the pudding with my spoon as there was money in it! I couldn’t believe it, threepences and sixpences were all through my piece of pudding. When a penny could buy a cobber, I was pretty excited.

Gran and Grandpa’s bedroom downstairs was most interesting, and after Grandpa John died I used to look in his cupboards at his many suits, some attached to stretchy braces, which Gran couldn’t bear to throw out. She told me that the tax men came to Caerleon after Johnny had died, and they had even assessed the cost of his suits so that she could be taxed! I hated the taxmen, and had the horrors to think that men had come through the house inspecting all Gran’s treasures. To me it wasn’t about money, it was about violation of her privacy. I knew the importance later when my Dad used to speak about “death duties” in a quiet, angry tone, and the horror that this tax had visited on his Robson family as well, and his fear it would be reintroduced. My sister Lavinia tells a tale about the taxmen, who were famously ruthless, and some would apparently inspect the walls of houses to make sure that paintings had not been removed, as the tell tale signs on walls of unfaded wallpaper would mean demands would be made to replace the items for assessment.

I imagine now that my grandparent’s downstairs bedroom must have originally been a sitting room. There was an odd metal fan heater in their bedroom, which was powered by large pink coloured light globe that would became very hot, behind an ornate metal fan. Gran never used this heater, it was used as a decoration and Gran explained that she had decided that it was a fire hazard, and didn’t turn it on any more. I think these incredibly ornate pieces of furniture and ornaments, were purchased in 1927 on the Fuller Family World Tour, when Gran attended the auction houses of Paris and purchased almost everything needed to decorate Caerleon.

Sculptures of women, half naked, were posed on elegant timber pillars in the main hall and drawing room. I loved them, and I loved to run my fingers over the smooth cold marble and alabaster, when no one was watching. It was always made clear that nothing was to be touched, and that at no time were we to run or jump in the house. I think my sister Lavinia and I must have been quite good girls, because I can’t remember breaking anything or actually being scolded! The enormous staircase also hid an amazing under stairs room, filled to the brim with oddments, and it was a fantastic hiding place when we played hide and seek. Mrs Noble, the house keeper, looked after everything. She bought us tea and ginger nuts and buttered arrowroot biscuits, to either the front sunroom or to a table out on the lawn in the garden, near the frangipani tree. Another of my earliest memories of my childhood was making a necklace with the frangipani flowers by threading them with cotton twine with Aunty Ethel Moar, Gran’s sister, whilst sitting on the sandstone balustrade of the steps to the sunroom on a sunny afternoon.

One afternoon I was in the closed in verandah at Caerleon and Grandpa John had a tear in his suit pants and Gran was sewing it up. Every time the needle went in, he cried out in pain claiming Gran was pricking and sewing him up. Gran was laughing at him, but still he carried on with the agony of it all, and he told me that Gran had sewn his skin to his pants at the knee. I was completely sucked in by this performance and absolutely horrified by what was happening! Grandpa John had made it seem so real to me.

Mrs Noble only let Gran into her kitchen to bake scones, Lavinia and I loved watching Gran roll out the dough and throw flour over her board and then cut the scones and place them on a baking dish. It is one of those memories that can always be recalled instantly from my childhood. Mrs Noble used to tell us that Gran’s grandmother was from Devon, and that Gran was the best at making scones. We waited impatiently as the smell wafted from the oven for our Devonshire afternoon tea, no cream was served with our scones, only melting butter and strawberry jam. Mrs Noble used Caerelon’s Butler’s Pantry as her main kitchen when I was a small child. I can clearly remember the disused and very big old kitchen out near the back yard, with a large set of scales in the centre, and a huge ceiling fan, knowing now, that at one point it must have been a hub of the household.

The last memory I have of my Grandpa Johnny Fuller was in my Mum’s two toned white and turquoise Holden car, parked in the turning circle of the drive at Caerleon. Grandpa was outside and Lavinia and I had locked the car doors and we were jumping up and down on the car seats whilst Grandpa was circling around the car pretending to be a robber, shaking the doors, trying to get in to us. It was such a game, he was making grimacing faces as he darted around the car, trying all the doors. I was so little and I was a bit scared, but it was such a good game.

The gardens were large and beautiful at Caerleon and I spent a good deal of my time there while my Mum went out to lunch, shop or to play golf. I have such enduring memories of long days at Caerleon. Mum obviously wasn’t letting me stop her going out, she wore lovely dresses that flared at the waist, which had stiff petticoats underneath, and I loved to dress up in her skirts and stilettos. This must have been about the time that our “Nanny” Irene left us to marry the skipper of the Aida, Rooney Rasmussen, who lived and worked at the boathouse next door to our home in Point Piper. I must have been about three or four at the time. I think it was a bit of a crisis for Mum, because Bill and Lavinia were already at school and I was the only one left at home to deal with. I think this was why I spent such a lot of time at Caerleon with Gran and Mrs Noble!

I knew more about my Mum’s family than my Dad’s, so that was where I started the family research in January 2011. Another Fuller family researcher and author was Alistair Duncan, who married Virginia Fuller, a granddaughter of Sir Benjamin Fuller, the a daughter of A. Ben Fuller and Josephine Seaton. Alistair wrote and published a book called Actors Blood on the golden age of Fuller’s Theatres. Thus, there was a whole section of the Fuller family history already completed.

However, I could see that Alistair hadn’t really touched the English part of the Fuller ancestry and I decided that this was where I was most interested. I wanted to see how far back I could actually go with the Fullers to find out where they lived and what they did. This chapter will help our family answer these questions and give an insight into the Fullers and their extended families living in London. It will also show how much we owe to our “Silvery Tenor”, John Fuller Snr., for taking a risk, joining a troupe of actors and singers and following his heart to travel to the far side of the world to live his dream. It was a lucky day for all of us, when John Fuller Snr. left his family in England in 1889 and boarded a vessel bound for Melbourne with the London Pavilion Company.

After the troupe became insolvent, about five months into their Australian tour, instead of returning to London, down on his luck, like many in the troupe did, he realised that there was a new world opening before him and he wanted to be part of it. He instructed his older children to immediately give up what they were doing and told his wife Ma and younger children to pack up their home in Shoreditch and catch the next ship to Melbourne. He wanted his family together and he wanted everyone to meet up in Melbourne as soon as possible. He was about to found Fullers Theatres, New Zealand and Australia, an enterprise that would make him, and his sons, a fortune. We are so lucky he had such a positive and happy outlook on life, and that he was also such a wonderful family man.

As I placed my grandparents, Johnny Fuller and Lavinia Moar into my tree I immediately began to accumulate records. The beauty of subscribing to a search engine like ancestry.com is that once you proceed beyond the 50 year limitation period for privacy purposes, records start being produced that can come up as recommended matches. It is quite amazing, as the search engine knows that you are looking at records that others may have collected, and they make suggestions, and invite you to look at other family trees. However, accept these trees at your peril, as you can go very wrong if you don’t do the research yourself. I did learn this lesson the hard way, when I accepted incorrect information from another Fuller family tree.

Johnny and Lavinia Fuller had married in Wellington, New Zealand on 28 September 1916. The marriage record was not torn out of the page, as a family myth claimed, however, New Zealand BDM Registry Office records have been slow to come online, and, like the U.K Registry Office, are only indexes with scant information.

Full records can be purchased, but for an exorbitant price. There are some NZ voting records available online which list those in the family over 18, and their addresses and occupations. Through previous knowledge that Johnny Fuller had been born in England, I was able to find an amazing hand written English Census from 1881 fairly quickly online. This was the start of an incredible journey back in time. Each person in my tree then had a timeline profile created where records were collected. I quickly learned that adding in brothers and sisters at each generational level would help to lead me back to the next generation. I discovered these names and addresses in an area of London I had never heard of before, called Shoreditch. Googling a London map, I realised that this was a poor area in London, near to the Thames and to the theatre district of London, which had beckoned Johnny’s father John Fuller Snr., away from his trade as a printer’s compositor, to treading the boards of London’s theatre halls. Johnny Fuller Jnr. always claimed he was a small man because of his poor diet when he was a child. Obviously the family was poor, and Shoreditch was the poor man’s area of London. My mum used to tell us that her dad, Grandpa John Fuller Jnr. was given bread and dripping every day, except on a Sunday, when he had an egg for his dinner.

I quickly collected records for the family. In no time at all I had established that John Fuller Snr’s parents, were Benjamin Fuller and Mary Walter, this information coming from his baptism in 1850. John’s parents, Benjamin and Mary Fuller lived in Shap St, London, and Benjamin was a Cabinet Maker by trade. Today the Church of St Mary’s, Haggerston, where John Fuller Snr. was baptised is gone; blown apart in the London blitz of World War II.

The diligence of the Fullers to record their children’s baptisms is today an amazing collection of hand written family documents. These were large families, and it was evident that they had been living a quiet, hardworking, god fearing and law abiding life in this very poor area of London. It was also becoming obvious that they didn’t stray far from their familiar boroughs and parishes, and this was helpful to me as a family historian collecting their records in the one area.

It is my intention to illustrate these written documents, together with some family charts to provide an insight into our family heritage. I have received most encouraging help from other members of the family. In particular, thanks must go to my sister Lavinia Chrystal for her interest and excitement in my uncovering each generation of the family tree, and for her extensive travels to New Zealand and England to visit cemeteries and locate graves and find homes in areas that a few years ago we never knew about. I also enlisted my enthusiastic cousin Scott Fuller in these adventures. Scott was enthralled with my discoveries and in many cases he would arrive at my home in Double Bay for a visit and end up grabbing my laptop with excitement. At the very beginning of my research I remember sitting Scott down and asking him what he knew about Cornelius Fuller? I had journeyed back to records and other online family trees that persistently gave Cornelius Fuller as our direct ancestor. It was early days in my research, and I had not yet learned to disregard other misleading online family trees, without collecting my own records, and making my own decisions. It was a valuable lesson for me in genealogy, and I remember clearly the lamentable day that I had to call Scottie and inform him that we sadly must say “Goodbye Cornelius” to our struggling poster colourer from Magpie Lane in Shoreditch. It was such a shame, as I had grown fond of Cornelius Fuller, and his not so law abiding family, and Scottie was on such a jag with this family, who, he had decided were possibly part of the Fullers who had boarded the Mayflower, bound for Plymouth Rock! The important thing is that it has been the most fun, and it has bought the family closer together. Just recently we had a small family gathering to share our knowledge and to generally just get to know each other better, and we all want to do it again, but on a larger scale.

I did however, have a good news story that day for Scott, and that was that our correct, and direct ancestor Richard Fuller had a father named Richard, who was a Merchant of London, and a silversmith. It was a fairly simple matter of finding the correct baptism for Richard. It so happened that two Richard Fullers were born in the same year, in Shoreditch in 1791. I collaborated with a very kind online Fuller researcher who pointed this fact out to me, and she was the one who consoled me with the information that Richard Fuller’s father was a silversmith, whilst her ancestor Cornelius was a lowly poster colourer, who trawled the streets of London with a wagon pulling his wares! She was actually quite sorry that my Richard Fuller wasn’t her ancestor, and I was pretty pleased with this turn of events, because Scottie and I had actually found Cornelius Fuller’s Will and his bequests, and the bestowal of his cart and its contents were quite unsettling and extraordinary.

Scott has long been the research enthusiast of the family, interested in “all things past” about the Fullers. Scott has journeyed to New Zealand’s Dunedin, and found posters and memorabilia about Fullers Theatres. I will endeavour to include some of these in my next chapter on the Fullers in New Zealand and Australia, which I am going to call Fuller’s Earth, in honour of a New Zealand newspaper article which explained in glowing terms the rapidly growing fortune of the Fuller family. In this chapter I have included an amazing newspaper interview in New Zealand with the effusive John Fuller Snr., where he talks about his early singing successes.

In each of my chapters, where possible, I will show copies of original records. Once you have seen these originals, the transcriptions, which many online servers provide, are simply just not good enough. Every time I find an original hand written record I find out more precious information about the Fullers. With the advent of the internet, digitised old newspapers, the accessibility to Library collections and online records from long forgotten archives, I can now find out about our past more easily, and in many cases from the home computer. Long forgotten books, the so called “dusty documents” that have lain unread on library shelves for decades are now being digitised, and are opening up the past. A quick Google of the internet will capture a name in a book and will take you to that very page, with the press of a button. My father Reg Robson’s mother Mabel Wise was from a prominent merchant family from Cork and Dublin, Ireland, and recently I placed the name of her Colley ancestor into my computer, and found that in 1890 a book was written, and then long forgotten, about historic Irish gravestones. The author had transcribed a Colley grave from 1777, commenting that it was so weather worn, it was hard to read. The headstone may not survive today, but his transcription confirmed my direct line to Sir Henry Colley of Carbury Castle, Co. Kildare, and took me back several further generations.

During the first weeks researching the Fullers, and before I was confident collecting records on the ancestry website that I was certain belonged to the Fuller family, I firstly searched for the birth records of both John Fuller and Harriett Jones without much success. There were so many Fullers, and way too many Jones! Scottie Fuller was certain that Harriett’s father John Jones was an accountant from Wales, and I spent a great deal of time searching the Welsh Census’ for the Jones family. I nearly went mad, and it proved absolutely fruitless, and Scottie and I were disappointed with the progress I was making. There was no John Jones who was an accountant, with a daughter named Harriett. I must say I was frustrated with the terrible misinformation that had been passed down to Scottie, as he had this information directly from his own dad, John George, the son of Johnny Fuller, who presumably gave his son this information in the first place. Seriously, who was I to question family stories, and not take them as correct? This experience was another good lesson in genealogy – never rely on family information and stories, as it is almost always incorrect, and is destined to disappoint! I can clearly remember my phone call to Scottie, telling him crossly (!) that I had wasted so much time on a wild goose chase in Wales, after I found out that Harriett was actually born in Islington, London, and that her father John Jones was a rope maker! Later l found out that one of the family was listed on the census as an annuitant – someone had read a document and mistook an annuitant for an accountant! I can’t find this record at the moment to illustrate this, as it was early in my research, and I still hadn’t learned another very valuable lesson of keeping a foot print of every piece of good information found. This was why I undertook the two year Research Diploma at the Society of Australian Genealogists, but honestly, I could have done without the exam at the end! It was a good grounding for me in the skills I needed to capture records and documents, that I would refer to at a later date, when it came time to write up the family tree. I must add here that thanks have to go to my husband Geoff for his encouragement to write up the tree, and the many hours of the day that I have my head immersed in my laptop, putting at least two hundred years between us.

As I take the Fuller family tree back in time, with each generation I will give the maternal branch of the family. In the case of the Fullers, I will deal with the Jones and Beck Families, the Walter Family and the Euesden Family.

These branches are probably best illustrated by giving a five generational chart for Johnny Fuller Jnr. as a starting point. This chart is interesting because it illustrates all our ancestors who were born in England, as so many of our family information had concentrated on the Australian and New Zealand parts of the family tree. My intention has always been to take the family back to England, and illustrate by way of original records our family history. For the most part this area of the family was not known, and there are very few family stories that stretch back to Shoreditch. Whilst the records show the facts, they also weave a wonderful story about our family and how they were living in the midst of London during the industrial revolution. The English census carefully describes their occupations, ages, family members, places of birth and addresses. Their Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths support these records and incredibly I can see our ancestors placing their signatures onto their marriage certificates and see who the witnesses were, and in some cases work out how they were related to the bride and groom.

 

The first record I opened with some confidence and excitement was the 1881 English Census for the Fuller Family living in the Parish of St Leonard Shoreditch, in the Municipality of Kingsland and Parliamentary Borough of Hackney, London. The Fuller’s address was listed as 6 Rutland Street. John Fuller was a printer’s compositor and stated that he was born in Shoreditch, Middlesex. His wife Harriett was listed as being born in Islington, Middlesex. This was obviously my first contradictory evidence that Harriett Jones was not born in Wales. Their children Walter, Benjamin, Lydia, Harriet and John were also listed on the census as well as a nurse, Caroline Randall. I can remember feeling so pleased that Harriett had help in her large household of children, and my thoughts were, that they cannot have been that poor, if they could afford a nurse. As mentioned earlier, my mother, Lavinia “Vena” Fuller always explained that her father had told her how very poor the family was in England.

 

The next record I found was the marriage of John Fuller to Harriett Jones on October 7 1871, at St Matthew’s Church, City Road, Shoreditch. John and Harriett both signed their signatures to the document and gave their address as 17 Remington Street. The fathers of John and Harriett were also listed on the marriage record. Harriett’s father John Jones was listed as a rope maker, and John’s father was listed as Benjamin Fuller, cabinet maker. St Matthew’s Church was bombed and destroyed during the blitz of London in World War II, and historically it is recorded that the East End of London was hardest hit by the Germans.

The beauty of these documents on a computer screen is that you can enlarge and inspect the details.

The witnesses to the marriage were Benjamin Fuller, John Snr’s father, and Frances Jones, Harriett’s mother. At first I was not sure of these relationships, wondering if they were possibly siblings, however, after collecting some further records I was able to confirm these family relationships. Genealogy is rather like completing a jig-saw puzzle, you know the pieces should fit, but you have to do a lot of brain-teasing before it is completed, and rather like most puzzles, there are always a couple of pieces missing in the puzzle at the end! This is the same with our tree, there will always be puzzles and there will always be a time when records simply dry up and it is no longer clear who our direct family is. In the case of London I think we can be quite clear that we can go back no further than the Great Fire of London, when most of the parish records perished as so many of the churches of Shoreditch burnt to the ground.

The great rebuilding period shortly after the Great Fire of London saw a massive amount of money put into the rebuilding of London’s churches. Shoreditch stood in the shadows cast by the building of London’s magnificent St Paul’s Cathedral, built by Sir Christopher Wren, and its inhabitants would have witnessed the spectacle of this great church rising from the ruins and ashes to dominate the skyline of London.

  

Sketch of St Mary Haggerston Church, designed by John Nash with its exaggerated and ungainly tall spire that was criticised as an oddity by London’s society when it was built in 1827. It was bombed during World War II and totally destroyed in the blitz of 1941.

The Baptism record for John Fuller Snr gave Benjamin and Mary Fuller’s address as Shap Street, Shoreditch, London, not far from St Paul’s Cathedral. I noticed that this was the street that Johnny Fuller talked about visiting in his Tour of the World 1907 when he went back to Shoreditch and reminisced about his school days. I remembered that I had actually collected a school admittance record for his elder brother Walter Fuller, when he started his schooling there. It helpful to collect a variety of records to find that the address of the family can be confirmed by other sources.

Admission to Shap Street School, Hackney, for Walter Fuller of 6 Rutland St, 27 April 1880

The Fullers would have rented their homes, it is doubtful that they were ever landowners in London, and for this reason I found that they moved a fair bit between the census collections from 1841 to 1911.

Recently Scottie Fuller unearthed a much sought after photograph of Harriett from the collection of Virginia Telfar in Christchurch, New Zealand and her brother John Stuart, Queensland, Australia. Virginia and John are the grand children of Hettie Hamer, John Fuller Snr’s youngest daughter. The photograph is stamped on the back with a London studio, Fehrenback,111 Strand, London Est. 1842. Much speculation and confusion followed as to whether the photo is that of Harriett or Matilda May “Ma” Fuller. Likenesses were drawn to my sister Lavinia Chrystal and my first cousin Carolyn Begg, both granddaughters of Johnny Fuller.

This is certainly an historic photograph from London, and I am now happy to attribute it to Harriett Fuller, despite earlier concerns about her likeness to Ma Fuller in the family portrait taken of the family in Auckland a few years later.

Scott.

 

I then looked for Harriett Jones’ baptism, and found it quickly, thanks to the knowledge that her family were living in Islington, Middlesex, and that her father was a rope maker. The record also confirmed her mother’s name as Frances Mary, and showed the family living at St James Street, Islington. It showed that Harriett was born on 7 April 1852 and baptised on 2 January 1859. This Parish Record revealed a lot of information, as three of Harriett’s siblings were also baptised on the same day, John born 28 August 1848, Edwin born 17 January 1854 and Charlotte Elizabeth born 29 August 1856. The records coming from page 92 and 93 of the Parish Book of St Mary Islington.

 

Mohawk Minstrels Poster, Agricultural Hall, Islington

I am indebted to Jean Thomas, a talented researcher whose husband’s ancestor Little Thomas performed on stage at the Mohawk Minstrels with John Fuller. Jean kindly contacted me after finding my website, realising how much information she had on both John Fuller and the Mohawk Minstrels, kindly sending me many emails together with newspaper clippings, posters, songbooks with relevant songs and lyrics sung by both John and his eldest son Walter Fuller. Jean’s information opened a door for me on John Fuller’s enormous success on the London stage. I really had no idea about this side of his musical career until Jean enlightened me to these successes and those of his son Walter, who was also a gifted musician and child singer. It was exciting to open Jean’s email to me and find this confirmation of John Fuller’s employment at the Mohawk Minstrels in October 1881.

The Stage, 7 October 1881

The Stage (London), 28 October 1881

1882 was a pivotal year in John Fuller’s life, when he made the enormous decision to change his occupation. John moved from a man who dabbled in stage performance and song at Music Halls and Theatre Troupes in his spare time, to taking this as a serious occupation. He was born to entertain, and for the first time in his life he was doing something that he thoroughly enjoyed. When he gave up his career as a printer’s compositor he accepted an invitation to join the celebrated Mohawk Minstrels as a chorus member and soloist, and remained with the Troupe for about five years. He also sang in some of the famed London Ballad Concerts at The Royal Albert Hall and became a favourite among the audiences of London.

Let me Kiss your Tears Away, written by T. Pinder, Composed by William Francis, illustrated song-sheet cover, as sung by Mr John Fuller of the Mohawk Minstrels, Agricultural Hall, London, from The Jean Thomas Collection

The Stage (London), 22 September 1882

The Stage newspaper states, “a new ballad, “Let me Kiss your Tears Away”, sung with much taste by Mr. John Fuller.”

 

The Era (London), 13 September 1884

Mohawk Minstrels Programme 11 September 1884, Image courtesy of Harvard University Library

Harvard University’s Houghton Library has a wonderful collection of Mohawk Minstrel Programmes and included in this group I was able to find the exact evening that John Fuller sang Shine on Fair Moon and Walter Fuller sang The Grave of Little Kathleen.

Mohawk Minstrels’ Magazine No 43 circa 1884, image courtesy of Jean Thomas Collection

The Era (London), 3 January 1885

The Erawrote “Master Walter Fuller in “When the Blue Birds Build Again”, displayed the good quality of a clear, bright voice. Mr John Fuller, Mr Martin and Mr. Will Parker also contributed valuable aid; and the merry sketch “Captain Slasher’s Black Brigade” made a capital conclusion to the first part of the programme”

Mohawk Minstrel’s Easter Programme 1885, Agricultural Hall, London

 This Mohawk Minstrel Easter Programme lists two solos for John Fuller who sang One Heartwhilst his son Master Walter Fuller sang Only a Pansy Blossom.

Plymouth Evening News, 7 July 1885

John Fuller is reported from The Portland Hall, Southsea, on 7 July 1885 in the Plymouth Evening News singing, A Boy’s Best Friend is his Mother. which was met with great merit.

What was interesting was that the Mohawk Minstrels had just commenced their summer tour, in interviews in New Zealand John Fuller had mentioned his tours of the “Counties”.

The Era (London), 8 August 1885

Top billing was accorded to Mr. John Fuller, who performed with the Mohawk Minstrels at the Agriculture Hall, Islington and was reported in The Era, 8 August 1885, when “Mr. John Fuller first sang the sentimental ballad entitled A Flower From Mother’s Grave.…. Walter Fuller was also rewarded with applause for his song, “Don’t Leave your Mother when her hair turns Grey.”

The Era (London), 19 November 1887

What an interesting article on an alleged copyright infringement bought by Vesta Tilley against Messrs’ Francis and Hunter, proprietors of the Mohawk Minstrels over a song that had been published in their Mohawk Magazine called Making Love to Nelly. It is marvellous to see that John Fuller was sitting quietly up the back of the court during the hearing.

Islington Gazette, 17 May 1888

It was so interesting to see this newspaper clipping so kindly sent to me from Jean Thomas with the query, “Is this your family?”.  John Fuller Jnr. was performing alongside his father at The “Favorite” Omnibus Sick and Burial Club performances at Holloway Hall. The Islington Gazette stated, “John Fuller Snr. was heard to advantage in The Death of Nelson and Alice, Where Art Thou? and much precocious ability was displayed by Master John Fuller.”

I am sure that Master Walter Fuller had by now moved on from his time at the Mohawk Minstrels, his pure tenor voice would now have broken, and with his maturity, his voice needed to be rested for it to achieve resonance in the future.

The Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 29 September 1888

Islington Gazette, 1 November 1888

Islington Gazette (very blurry), 3 May 1889

Just a month before his departure to Australia, John Fuller is listed as a tenor vocalist, performing alongside Master John Fuller at Holloway Hall in a grand concert with the “Favorite” Omnibus Sick and Burial Club, Master John Fuller described is as a “juvenile character comedian”.

Islington Gazette, 30 May 1890

Master John Fuller is again part of The “Favorite” Omnibus Company’s Concert, performing at Holloway Hall, Holloway Road in May 1890, alongside such luminaries as G.H. Chirgwin, Herbert Campbell, Harry Bluff, Will Moore and Carl Benson. The Islington Gazette reports “ Master John Fuller scored a success in his various songs and dances, the little fellow promises to become one of the talented of our characteristic singers.”

The following year John Fuller Jnr., together with his sister Lydia and stepmother Matilda Fuller migrated to Australia to join John Fuller Snr. in Melbourne.

It was wonderful to see that witnesses to the marriage of John Fuller and Emily Matilda Cryer were Alfred Francis Crier and Lydia Fuller, father of the bride and daughter of the groom. However it was curious that John Fuller, after all his singing successes in London, gave his occupation as compositor and this raises questions as to why he did this.

The Fullers Front Row: Lydia Fuller (Boddam), Mrs “Ma” Crier Fuller, May Fuller, Mr John Fuller Snr.

The headstone from the grave of James John Walter, who died on 17 April 1875, aged 76 years, includes “a good and affectionate wife of forty one years, Mrs Mary Walter, who died on Dec 4 1861” aged 63 years, and sister Elizabeth Brown, who “died on 27 May 1886, after a few days illness, aged 82 years.” Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law Eleanor, “loved and loving wife of George” Walter, can just be made out at the bottom of the headstone.

We are probably lucky that the headstone fell with the inscription face down, as this has helped to preserve it after all these years. It is from this headstone that I feel I can correctly accept the death record I found online for Elizabeth Brown see below. I will apply for this record from London’s BDM Registry.

 

Notice that the father of George is listed as James John Brown, Ironmonger, this is probably James John Walter, not George’s father, but his uncle, listed on the marriage record! I hesitated at first to collect this record, as did Yvonne Darby, and I had a message on ancestry from Ken Walter telling me I had the wrong relative. I firstly undid my connection for George Walter and discarded the marriage record. However this all changed when I saw the Walter grave. It has spurred quite a few people to look again at this record, including my sending a message via ancestry.com back to Ken Walter, the ancestor of George Walter who runs the Walter Family Tree. He is also rethinking his position on the marriage record. It is significant that George Walter named his second daughter Elizabeth after his mother Elizabeth Brown. However his marriage record is certainly mysterious, to say the least. The next record I collected for George Walter Brown was this census for 1871 where he is listed under the surname Walter.

The Census shows George and Eleanor Walter and their large family, George Jnr, Eleanor Jnr, Elizabeth, Henry, Louisa and Anne. George is listed as a Foreman Packer and his son George Jnr is listed as a Clerk, aged 14. The rest of the children are listed as scholars, except the 11 month old baby Anne. They are living at 30 Fellows Street, Hackney in Shoreditch. George is listed as being born in Shoreditch, Middlesex and Eleanor is listed from St Luke Finsbury, Middlesex. As mentioned, the family are all going by the name Walter and this continues in the Censuses, even after Eleanor dies, and George remarries to Emily Ellis, this time he married under the name Walter. In subsequent censuses George became a travelling salesman and in the previous 1850 Census when George was living with James John Walter and his wife Mary he was a tailor’s apprentice. In later records George can be seen witnessing all of his children’s marriages, and seems to have been a most supportive and accessible father to his children.

http://www.devsys.co.uk/ap/

Burial of Eleanor Walter: Birth: unknown, Death: Oct., 1892 Note: Age 59y, Grave No. 028214, Burial No. 089134, Burial: Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London. Borough of Hackney Greater London. England Plot: Sec G03, Index 4S01 Address of Deceased: 11 Osterley Road

Three months after witnessing the probate document of her father James John Walter, Mary Fuller died at the age of 53, leaving her widowed husband, Benjamin Fuller to survive her until his death in 1903. During my research I found Benjamin Fuller living with various children in the English census of 1881 and 1891 and saw that he witnessed each of his children’s marriages. I am sad that there is no verbal history handed down about Benjamin to his grandchildren, however, I feel confident that he was a caring and diligent father.

Baptism of James John son of James and Susanna Walter, 4 November 1789 St Johns Hackney

ALFRED WALLBANK AND ANNA FULLER

1881 English Census for Benjamin Fuller and Alfred and Anna Wallbank of 28 Weymouth Terrace

Benjamin Fuller, now a widower is living with his daughter Anne “Anna” and her husband Alfred Wallbank at the Fuller’s home at Weymouth Terrace, Hackney. It is comforting to know that Benjamin Fuller was not alone at this time in his life.

Benjamin Richard Fuller was a cabinet maker, and his wife Mary Walter Fuller had died in 1875, and Benjamin was to live to old age, dying in 1903. Benjamin and Mary Fuller’s eldest son was named Walter Fuller, his occupation was, like John Fuller Snr’s, a printer’s compositor. Another brother Benjamin Fuller followed his father into the cabinet making business. It is not clear why the two eldest sons of Benjamin Richard Fuller, Walter and John, were printer’s compositors and not cabinet makers like their father. It may have made their decision to migrate to Australia much easier knowing they were not letting their father down, because continuation of his trade was being upheld by another son Benjamin.

Marriage of Anne Fuller and Alfred Wallbank 20 November 1879 at St Marys Haggerston

This record is also interesting because all of Richard and Elizabeth’s children were baptised at St Leonard Shoreditch. I was expecting their marriage to have taken place in this church where so many of the Fullers have been baptised. However it would seem that previously the church of St Luke Finsbury was the parish church of worship for the Fullers. Richard Fuller was baptised at St Luke as was his elder brother Benjamin and another brother who died young, who also called Richard. Not only that, but, as you will see later, Richard and Benjamin’s father and uncle were also buried at St Luke Finsbury.

As a matter of great interest in 2012 I undertook a DNA Genealogical Test for the Kilpatrick Project which was connected to FTDNA. Unfortunately my results did not find a match for this project and while it was disappointing, I did make one very interesting DNA family connection, finally cracking my Veitch line in relation to the Robson Family of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England.

The entire process has been a fascinating one and of course, this science is opening up doors to the past for many families. My results were then kept in the FTDNA database to cross match in their surname register.

Upon undertaking a FULLER surname check I came across a close third/fourth cousin match with Don Anderson who I then emailed and we had a delightful correspondence discovering our connection through his ancestor Richard Fuller (1822-1903) who was a brother to my great great grandfather Benjamin Richard Fuller (1824-1903). The two Fuller brothers, both being cabinet makers of Shoreditch, London. Don’s family later migrated to Ontario, Canada, where they became organ makers, their family also showing a musical bent.

Like me, Don Anderson had inspected his Fuller connections on FTDNA and we agreed that we were quite baffled and amazed regarding our strong matches with many of the American families connected to Samuel and Edward Fuller, who both sailed on the Mayflower, founding America when they landed on Plymouth Rock in New England in 1620. How could this possibly be we both wondered?

America certainly holds their founding fathers in the highest esteem and their descendants are justly proud of their early ancestors. As a result, there is an enormous amount of genealogical information to be found online. The Fullers of the Mayflower confidently take their forebears back to Norfolk in England to the tiny parish of Redenhall with Harleston, where brothers Samuel and Edward Fuller’s parents are identified as Robert Fuller (1548-1614) and Sarah Dunkhorne (1558-1584).

Robert Fuller’s family can then be taken back two further generations, to his parents John Fuller (1518-1559) and Ann Collinge (1520-1887) and grandparents William Fuller (1483-) and Alice King (-1558). These were large families and whilst it is not possible for me to predict exactly which branch our family descends from Redenhall, I think I can quite confidently state that our Fuller family originally came from this tiny parish in Norfolk, moving south to settle in London, sometime during the Tudor period of English history.

A CHAT WITH MR JOHN FULLER SNR.

I used to sing old English ballads in the second part of the programme while I was with the Mohawks. One night W. C. Levy, the famous musical composer, of Drury Lane celebrity, and the composer of ‘Esmeralda’ heard me sing, and said to the manager, “I should like to compose a song for Mr Fuller”. Harry Hunter, of the Mohawks, wrote the song and sent it to W. C. Levy who composed the music. So originated ‘Geraldine’ which has been ever since my most popular song. In London, in the English provinces, at the English watering places, in Australia, and in Auckland the success of this song has been simply amazing. It is on sale at Eady’s and all the Auckland music-sellers.

I remember once being engaged to sing at Rlyl, North Wales. It was during the summer months of course, while the place was full of tourists and visitors. I sang ‘Geraldine’ there one night as an encore. It made a tremendous hit. Next day the man who was running the show asked me to put the song on the regular programme. I did so, and every night of my stay, after that I either sang ‘Geraldine’ as a programme item or as an encore. The people never seemed to tire of it. Did you hear me sing it at the Opera House, Auckland? I sang it one night for the first time as a wind-up to the programme, but though it was the final number the people encored me four times. At last one of the Misses Albu said to me, “don’t sing it any more, we shall never get home.”

‘We Don’t Know How We Love Them Till We Lose Them’, is another song which I have sung all over the colonies and elsewhere with enormous success. In Sydney they prefer it to ‘Geraldine’. It was composed by W. S. Eaton, Harry Hunter supplying the words. While in London I was for a considerable time second leading tenor at the Brompton Oratory. My experience has been a very varied one. I was engaged once, for a fortnight, to sing ballads at the Oxford Music Hall, Oxford street. I was so successful then, that the management extended the engagement from a fortnight to nine months. I sang Sims Reeves’ songs at the Oxford. Soon after my engagement I terminated there I received an offer to join Fred E. Hiscock’s London Pavilion Company which was starting to tour Australia. The stars of the troupe, well, Jolly Nash was one and I suppose I may say without vanity that I was the other principal. We visited Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. I suppose the tour lasted about five months. While with the Pavilion Company I was wonderfully successful.

I like Adelaide very much. I once accepted an engagement to sing at the popular concerts in the Exhibition Building in that city. I was very successful indeed in Adelaide. In fact I have reason to be well satisfied with the way in which I have been received by the colonial, public everywhere. I have made troops of friends out here, and am now as well known in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane, to say nothing of the smaller Australian cities, as I am in Auckland.

After we had done all the principal cities we disbanded. Most of the people went home again. No, I didn’t go. I received a tempting offer from the Outtiea Italian Opera Company (they were throngh New Zealand a year or two ago). I was their second tenor for some time. I subsequently joined Emerson and Wood’s Minstrels as principal tenor. We opened at Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide, where we disbanded. It was at Launceston (Tasmania) that I met the Albu’s and accepted an engagement with them as tenor. We toured the tight little island, afterwards coming to New Zealand, landing in Dunedin. I suppose I was with the Albas for about five months. At Auckland, as you know, we parted company, and I took over the l pops from Harold Ashton. Do I think Auckland has a right to the title of ‘Musical Auckland’? Yes, I do. I consider the Aucklanders are genuine lovers of music, especially vocal music. But they want popular selections, something they can understand and appreciate, and what finer music can you have than the dear old songs and ballads which have delighted generations, and will continue to doing it until the end of the chapter.

Could I secure engagements in the Old Country now? Certainly I could, plenty of them. The Mohawks would give me an engagement to-morrow. But Ido not like the English climate, or rather the English climate does not like me. A London doctor told me before I left that I must seek a more genial climate than that of England if I hoped to preserve my voice and my general health. Which New Zealand city do I prefer? Auckland, without a doubt I hope to make Auckland my head-quarters for the future. The people here are more sociable, more kindly, more genial than those I have met in any other of your leading cities. I was astonished at the warmth of the welcome extended to me on my return here the other day. It was really like coming home.

The pops? Yes, they are more popular than ever I am pleased to say. I really think I have established them now as a permanent winter amusement in Auckland. Do I accept country engagements? Yes, certainly. Last summer I had almost more than I could attend to, and this year promises well for I have been asked to visit three country townships already. My terms for country engagements? Three guineas, and expenses. Letters or wires addressed to me here at “Bellevue, Beresford-street,” are sure to find me.

Funny incidents? Oh yes, I have met with plenty of them in my time. I was proprietor of a flourishing dancing academy in North London, once upon a time. One evening the supply of gentlemen unexpectedly ran short, so I went into the ballroom to take a hand. A very plump lady (she scaled about twelve stone) attracted my attention. I asked her for the pleasure of a dance. She smilingly assented. Beamed at the offer. She couldn’t dance a bit. Just plumped down into my arms and I had to almost carry her. Never mind, I thought, the waltz was almost through when we started. It will be only once round. But imagine my horror when the musicians went on playing. I thought they would never stop. At last they did so. I went up nearly fainting to the leader, my son was acting as musical director, and asked him how it was he had played the waltz twice. He grinned as he replied, “Oh, your son, Mr Fuller, told us to play it over again, as father seems to be enjoying himself so much.” Wasn’t that cruel? Going are you? Well, good-bye. Have I submitted to the pumping process gracefully?

The Observer Newspaper, Saturday, September 15, 1894.