Barnett Lyon Joseph

Barnett L Joseph 1871 England & Wales Census Birth: Circa 1802 - Cornwall, England Residence: 1871 - Beaufort Road, Birmingham, Worcestershire, England Wife: Betsy Joseph Daughter: Arabella Josephhttp://www.jhse.org/book/export/article/17991

Barnet and Betsy Joseph left Falmouth for Bristol, where Barnet Joseph became President of the Bristol Hebrew Congregation at the age of 24. Later they moved to Liverpool and here Barnet Joseph was one of the prime movers in the foundation of the Hope Place Congregation. Finally they retired to Birmingham, where they died. They had a very large family, of whom a daughter, Rebecca Joseph (1835-1919), mar- ried Ephraim Joseph (1829-1896), who came from Swansea and was the grandson of the founder of the Hebrew Congregation there. Another daughter, Rachel Joseph (1831-1891), married Alexander Levin (1828-1891), from Penzance, and their son, Lionel Barnet Levin (1862-1933), settled in Tonga. Here he contracted native liaisons resulting in two half-sisters (to each other), also half-Tongan and half-Jewish. These ladies are now living in retirement in Auckland, New Zealand, from where I have had letters from them both. The elder, Amelia Oswald, is nearly 90 and writes of her father in the most affectionate terms. Ephraim and his half-brothers had been in Australia and the brothers remained although Ephraim himself came home. One half- brother, Robert Joseph (1845-1902), founded the Volunteer Defence movement. It is said that the brothers, who were clockmakers, built Melbourne Town Hall clock. However, my investigations on the spot revealed that the clock was modern, although I was told that the initial mechanism had been put into a suburban church clock. After some difficulty I located the clock and climbed the tower on a very hot Australian summer day. To my bitter disappointment the clock bore a label that it had been made in Scotland and shipped out directly; the origins of the family legend are still a puzzle to me but assuredly it is a legend.

By Motorbike to Singapore

A great-grandson of Ephraim and Rebecca Joseph, Montague Joseph (1925-1962), migra- ted to Australia by riding a motorcycle across Europe and Asia and then catching a boat from Singapore. Although his method of transport was unusual, Montague Joseph to some extent reflected a modern phenomenon that the Australian Government uses very effectively for its own purposes. Australia is a large country with a small population. It needs people and encourages migration to it especially from England, with whom its ties of history and culture are the closest. Many Jews have been included in the migrants who have reached Australia by assisted passage since World War II. However, it may be noted that these modern Jewish migrants travelled voluntarily and in much greater comfort than their unfortunate coreligionists of a hundred and fifty years before. Since the existence of the State of Israel the Jewish migration to Australia has decreased but still occurs. Barnet and Betsy Joseph's three sons, incidentally, emigrated to the Vancouver area of Canada in the 1840s, where they lived rough lives in the developing timber-growing trade of that part. Later they returned home, where one of them, Lionel Joseph (1826-1905), married his second cousin, Katie Joseph (1842-1912), and among their grandchildren is Dr. Hugh Schonfield, the author and Biblical scholar. Dr. Schonfield's father, William Schonfield, read a paper before this Society in 1938, from which I obtained much material.