HOLT LINEAGE
“Do what you feel in your heart to be right – for you will be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) US diplomat and reformer
Henry Charles Fulford (1850-1897) Liberal politician and founder brewer at the Holt Brewery, Birmingham. The Holt Brewery was prolific throughout the Victorian era with over 250 public houses in Birmingham and the Midlands.
The daughter of Henry Fulford (1850-1897), Catherine Fulford (1880-1960) was an Alderman and Conservative Politician who received the highest accolades. She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, (M.B.E.) in 1920 for her role as Honorary Member and Secretary of Fulham Local War Pensions Subcommittee. Later in 1953, as part of the Coronation Honours, Catherine was made a Dame of the British Empire, for political and public services in London.
“Fulfords were established as maltsters in 1819”
(See Holt Brewery)
RICHARD FULFORD (1789-c.1847)
Baptized: 8th November 1789
Parents: Joseph and Ann ‘Wilson’
Occupation: Maltster, Victualler, Publican
Siblings: Thomas (1783), John (1785), William (1786)
Married: Elizabeth Woodward (1801),18/6/1817 Aston Juxta
Residence: Aston Road (1817-1850)
Children: (7) Baptized: St Martins
Charles Born: 6th May 1819
Richard Born: 3rd February 1821 (Aged 20 on 1841 Census)
HENRY CHARLES Born 6th February 1823
Elizabeth Born 20th March 1826
Joseph Born: 1st October 1827 (14 on the 1841 Census)
Mary Born: 23rd February 1830
William Born 5th September 1831 (10 on the 1841 Census)
Richard (1821) married Elizabeth Howell
Henry Charles (1823-1886) married Elizabeth Rochford (1823)
BAPTIZED: 8th November 1789, Solihull, Warwickshire
Courtesy: Family Search
PARENTS: JOSEPH FULFORD and ANN ‘WILSON’
SIBLINGS:
THOMAS (1783) living next to nephew Joseph (1812) at Perry Barr.
JOHN (1785/6) ‘Victualler, Publican, Canal St married Ann. Father of Fulfords, Joseph (1812) (GGGrandfather) on Mott Streets Minerva Brewery, John (1816) The Bulls Head, 1 Price St, Henry at The Vine, Summer Lane, Thomas (1817) at The Bartons Arms and Edwin (1820) at The Globe.
Courtesy: Family Search
HENRY CHARLES FULFORD (1823–1886)
Born: 6th February 1823, Aston Street
Parents: Richard and Elizabeth ‘Woodward’ (1823-1900) daughter of Thomas Rochford (1792-1845) and Phoebe Farnell (1796-1835) Reference Dawes Family Tree
Siblings: see above under children of Richard (1789)
Occupation: Maltster (Holt Street)
Married: Elizabeth ‘Rochford’ (1823) Marriage 20/6/1840 St Phillips
Children:
Catherine Elizabeth ‘Kate’ (1844)
Ellen 1848,
HENRY CHARLES (1850-1897) HOLT BREWERY
Residence:
1851 Park Crescent, Aston Manor
1861 New Walsall Rd, Handsworth
1871 Birchfield Lodge, Birchfield Road
1872 72 -79 Holt St, Malthouse and Fulfords Brewery later Holt Brewery.
Died: April 1875 West Bromwich Staffs aged 52 years (Dawes FT)
BORN: 6th February 1823
Courtesy: Family Search
BAPTIZED: 6th March 1823
Fulford Brewery was established around 1872 by Henry Charles Fulford (1823-1866) and renamed Holt Brewery in February 1887 by Henry’s son, Henry Charles (1850-1897) who lived another 10 yrs. (See Holt Brewery)
HENRY CHARLES FULFORD (1850-1897)
HOLT BREWERY AND LIBERAL POLITICIAN
Occupation: Brewer: Holt Brewery, Politician
Residence: 1880 Edgbaston and London
Married: Agnes
Children:
CATHERINE FULFORD (1880-1960) M.B.E., D.B.E.
Henry Charles (1850-1897) was a Liberal politician and Brewer, who stood for parliament on two occasions ;
1892 Liberal MP Birmingham East general election
1895 Lichfield division of Staffordshire
Henry only narrowly missed parliamentary election when an independent candidate stepped forward and split the vote at the last minute. Sadly he died in 1897 only a year after his second attempt at ministerial election in 1896.
“Henry Charles Fulford was a British Liberal Party politician whose election to Parliament was overturned in the courts by an election petition”.
Courtesy: Wikipedia
1892 Birmingham East
1896 Lichfield by-election
Courtesy: Wikipedia
DEATH
Henry Charles Fulford (1850-1897) died on 18th January 1897, aged just 48 years of ‘Consumption’ now a curable disease known as tuberculosis in Cairo, Egypt. This was just a year after his second electoral challenge.
WILL
“HENRY CHARLES of Augustus rd, Edgbaston and at 69 Cadogan Gardens, London, esq died 18th January 1897, 15th March to Mary Anne’s Fulford, widow effects,
£ 422,151,11s, 2d.“
The monetary equivalent to £422,151,11s, 2d. in 2019 is
£ 55,282,371.76…. Over 55 million pounds !
Henry married Agnes but Agnes is only present on Census records until 1881 and then not again. After 1881 we may presume that Agnes died or that the couple divorced. Henry Charles (1850-1897) then remarried Mary Ann leaving her an enormous fortune in his will.
Residence: 69 Cadogan Gardens. One of Henry Charles properties, the other listed in Edgebaston ,
Above 67 and 69 Cadogan Gardens an established and popular residential property in Kensington, Central London.
69 Cadogan Gardens is an imposing red bricked mid-terrace building overlooking Cadogan Gardens, spanning around 8,000 square feet.
OBITUARY : Wednesday January 20th 1897
London Daily Mail newspaper archives, Jan 20, 1897,p.3.
‘AN UNLUCKY POLITICIAN
THE LATE MR H.C. FULFORD’
(“Daily Mail” Special.)
“The death was announced yesterday of Mr. Henry C. Fulford, whose election as Liberal member for the Lichfield division two years ago was followed by a petition, as the result of which he was unseated. The night meetings he held during that campaign affected his lungs, and he went to Egypt, but galloping consumption set in, and he died early yesterday morning at Cairo. He was the financial mainstay of Birmingham Liberalism, and as far as anyone could be so called, he was Mr. Chamberlain’s chief opponent at Birmingham.
Mr. Fulford’s was one of the most pathetic political careers ever known. His heroic struggles to get into Parliament, which were at Lichfield the direct origin of his fatal illness, and which had included an effort at East Birmingham in 1892, appeared to have,
COMMANDED SUCCESS AT LAST,
When in 1895, the returning officer for the Lichfield division of Staffordshire announced the result of the poll as follows:-
Fulford .. .. .. .. .. 3,902
Darwin .. .. .. .. .. 3,858
Mr. Fulford was reputed to have spent some £7,000 upon achieving this victory; but it proved to be but Dead Sea fruit after all, the petition 1896 Lichfield by-election which was brought being decided against him. Although personally a teetotaler, Mr. Fulford was formally a brewer and owned a number of public houses all around the Black Country. He was very well-to-do, and a most amiable and companionable man. Indeed, he had the reputation of being as good a man at an all night social gathering as any man in Birmingham, where he would not lack competitors. There was nothing at all to be said against him outside of his Glastonianism. He founded and maintained one of the pleasantest clubs in Birmingham. This was The Garrick
The £ 7,000 Henry spent on trying to achieve his election in Parliament is the equivalent of over a million GBP today.
GEORGE GORE (Electrochemist)
Courtesy: Wikipedia
AMERICAN BREWERS REVIEW
American Brewers’ Review Vol 10
Brewers’ Review pg 295
Posthumously, Henry was recognized for his outstanding achievements by the American Brewers’ Review.
THE BREWERS’ JOURNAL JAN 15th 1898 pg 4
Reference: International Brewers’ Journal Volume 34
“The death roll for this past year has we regret to say been heavy, and our obituary month by month has chronicled the removal from our midst of many well-known and honoured names whose loss will long be deplored by their friends as well as by the trade at large. The list will be found to include… Mr H.C. Fulford Birmingham..”
DAME CATHERINE FULFORD (1880-1960) DAME OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
(Great granddaughter of Richard Fulford (1789)
Henry Charles Fulford (1850-1897) and Agnes gave birth to daughter Catherine Fulford (1880-1960) who became a Conservative politician. Catherine was granted an M.B.E. in 1920 for her role as Honorary member and Secretary of Fulham Local War Pensions Subcommittee supporting war veterans. As part of the Coronation Honours in 1953 she was made a Dame of the British Empire, “for political and public services in London”. Catherine was an Alderman, a member of a county or borough council, next in status to the Mayor.
Courtesy: Londonfandom
St Michael and All Angels, Thursley, Photograph: Jane Fulford
Courtesy: Londonfandom
Courtesy Wikipedia
‘Extract from a 1947 confidential briefing paper to the Conservative members of the London County Council Education Committee Dame Catherine Fulford, the opposition leader, condemned the dogmatic tone of the London School Plan, which approached the “Hitler State”.’
Reference: Going Comprehensive in England and Wales: A Study of Uneven Change edited by David Crook, Ken Fogelman, Alan C. Kerckhoff, David Reader. Routledge Copyright.
Catherine Fulford (1880-1960) Grave
Photograph: Jane Fulford 2023
Photograph: Jane Fulford 2023
Photograph: Jane Fulford 2023