James Neville Sperryn (1846 - 1922)Parents: James Browning Sperryn & Anne Neville Born: 12.Sept.1846 in India Died: 1922 in South Africa
Apart from these two photos and the letter below addressed to him we have no other memorabilia handed on down our branch of the family. Quite naturally they will have passed down his line in South Africa. Why then was the 1871 memorandum in the collection of Sperryn & Co paperwork? The only connection we can see is that in 1926 British Brass Fittings (aka Sperryn & Co) bought J Breeden Ltd., though that doesn't explain why the note had already been kept for 55 years. 
Transcription: Dear Sir It will make no difference to us where your return is made save that if your name is to appear yearly in our list, this question will so often be re-opened unless Mr Williams authorises us to withhold your name when making our return. Perhaps you had better arrange with him to write us to that effect and to put you right with the authorities here, when you can make your return to him. This appears to us the simplest plan of getting over the difficulty but if he can suggest a simpler solution so much the better. faithfully yours ?? Breeden & Booth Return the name on the list as usual but state that he is a???? at your London Depôt. ??? 11/7/71 However, at the time of the 1871 census (2.April.71) we know James (a "commercial traveller") was living with his parents, married Eliza Jenkins (1848 - 1940) in June 1871 and by the 1881 census was living at 177 Elm Park, Lambeth (Brixton). He's listed as 'Manr of iron & brass foundry'. A Canadian patent was issued in his name as a UK resident on 11.Aug.1882. This 1879 patent was possibly his too. In 1883 James and Eliza's 5th child (Wilfred) was born while they were living at 6, Park View, Kidderminster Rd, Croydon (CR0 2UE). Thanks to James's great-great-grandson for Wilfred's birth certificate. This shows that he is the manager of an iron tube makers. On 14.Aug.1885 he testified at the Old Bailey. JAMES NEVILLE SPERRYN . I am London manager of Russell and Co., 145, Queen Victoria Street, iron tube makers, who own the building, and let out the part they don't use at the end of October, 1884, the prisoner Alexander Murray Grant took one room on the second floor at 145, Queen Victoria Street I have left the agreement at home it was signed on 31st October in my presence by Grant, who gave me a reference to Mr. A. E. Hodder, of Salcot's Road, Clapham, and an address was also given in Queen Victoria Street I communicated with Hodder as to the reference, and got this reply. (This stated that Grant was a tenant of his; thnt he had known him 12 years, and considered him quite capable of paying 30l. a year rent, and that the business he had done with him was always satisfactory.) Grant told me he carried on a baker's business at 4, Exeter Terrace, Canning Town, and that he wanted the office for an agency for Swiss watches, and he showed me two or three watches from his waistcoat pocket two or three days later he went into possession of the room, and two or three weeks later the name of Tournier and Co. appeared painted on the door, with A. M. Grant and Co. in the corner I saw no one but Grant there I saw him there in November, December, and January the police came there about February after that I did not see quite so much of Grant the name of Tournier was up then about the middle of April I saw no more of himmin May I wrote to Grant, and Kitchener brought me a reply from him Kitchener said Grant would look in in a day or two I know none of the other prisoners the only person I knew as representing Tournier and Co. was Grant. According to a newspaper article (10.April.1886) in the London Standard, he was still the London manager of Russell and Co. (article yet to be acquired) The 1891 census shows that he'd moved back to a couple streets away from his 1881 home and is listed only as a 'hardware merchant'. 1891 census + home The Birmingham Daily Post (Aug 1892) reports that he retires from a partnership in the Aston Tube Works in Birmingham. Also in 1892 he started the company of Sperryn, McDonald & Co. His wife (Eliza), a shareholder, is shown as living at their 1891 census address. The newspaper article suggests that he split his time between London and Birmingham as he has manufacturing premises in both. The London location is now a prestigious office block on the Thames next to Blackfriars tube station. Here's the letterhead for his company mentioned in the newspaper article. It comes courtesy of Clive Sperryn who found it in 2023 when clearing out his mother's house after her death in 2022. 
Sperryn, McDonald & Co is listed in the 1896 London Gazette (but was that always up to date?). Sailing records (with mismatches in dates of birth) show journeys to Durban from 1892, and he eventually did take his whole family to South Africa. (Original sailing documents.) James lived within walking distance of his parents (James Browning & Anne), who died within a month of each other in 1899, but whether he emigrated before or after their deaths is unclear. (The facts that, although the eldest male child, he neither inherited his father's war medals nor was an executor of his mother's will signed in September 1897 (his younger brother George was), suggest he almost certainly did emigrate before mid-1897.) According to the Pietermaritzburg Archives Repository his son Arthur James (21) applies for the job of clerk in 1900. (He's a JP by 1905!) James is listed as being the employer of 3 people who arrived from India in 1903. 
(Gandhi-Luthuli Documentation Centre) A year later his son Wilfred Newson Sperryn was in the 1904 Junior Cup winning Stella Football Club of Port Durban. (back left standing - with moustache and a proper shirt on) 
By 1906 both Wilfred and his younger brother Clarence Percy are in the under 20 team photo, though Wilfred would have been at least 22. Clarence 2nd from left middle row in kit, Wilfred same row far right with moustache and proper clothes. 
The team photos for 1910 and 1922 (Wilfred now President of the team) can be seen in the Clarks of Port Natal website at the end of the chapter. Thanks to the South Africa branch of the family for contributing this much later photograph of James and Eliza. 
Return to homepage |
