Henry Nourse

  Research Notes:

Hughen Nourse notes:
I descended from Henry and Dorothy.
One of their sons, Lieutenant Joseph Nourse, RN, married the widow Ann Mary Norton, much to the chagrin of his brother, another Henry Nourse. This latter Henry moved from Aliwal North back to Port Alfred to run the family business. His father and mother were buried in the historic cemetery in Grahamstown, site 13. The headstones were vandalized at least twenty years ago.

Lt. Joseph Nourse RN, had sailed the HMS Fawn into the harbor of Port Natal and became the de facto harbor master there for some years. The cannon from the ship stands today in the garden across from Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Albert Luthuli Boulevard. He retired from the Royal Navy, suffering from rheumatic fever, and went sheep farming in Aliwal North with brother Henry until drought and the brotherly feud sent him looking for greener pastures in Natal. He purchased two Boer farms in the Rietvlei district just east of Mooi River. His farm was named Greenwich for the naval college he had attended, and the other farm, purchased for the Norton children was named Balmoral. Joseph and his wife are buried in the Settlers Cemetery in Pietermaritzburg.

Their children included Hugh, Henry, Temple, Marina, Alice and Will. This Henry became famous on the diamond grounds of Kimberley and later started Nourse Gold Mines on the Rand. A good athlete, he participated in an early Olympic Games, and much later became president of the S.A. Olympic Committee. Hugh was a founding scholar at Pietermaritzburg Boy School in 1866 (?) now known as Maritzburg College. He married Hendrika Aleta Botha of Greytown, (both families had houses there) who was an older sister of future Prime Minister Louis Botha. Hugh and Aleta moved to Kokstad, living there all the rest of their lives. They had eleven children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Their sons were Temple, Phillip Norman, Hugh Gordon and Ogilvie who died in an accident while a boy.

Hugh Gordon Nourse married twice. First to Edith Bruce who produced children Jean Edie, Gordon Bruce, and Randolph Hugh. Second wife was Anne Stubbings, who produced Hughen Hamish Edgar.

Going back a couple of centuries. My cousin, Steven Staples now of Toronto) has traced the ancestors back beyond Joseph Nourse, the gentleman and merchant of London. The spelling of the name had changed from Nurs to Nurse and then to Nourse. The family lived in the town of Buckingham where they apparently made a good living in the building trades. Buckingham had suffered a blow when the wooden houses burned in an epic fire. The town was rebuilt and is now considered to contain the prime examples of Georgian architecture.

  Noted events in his life were:

• source. & Hughen Nourse who writes from aol.com under the name hughen27
who notes:
Henry inherited the Wine merchant business at Wigmore Street, London, from his father Joseph Nourse. His mother was Jane Black. Henry expanded the business to include Fine Lace. (Wonder if that was Dorothy's influence since her family were merchants of Fine Irish Linen.) The Nourse family lived on nearby Welbeck Street, and married other residents of the street, such as the Maynards and the Christians. Henry's brother Captain (later Commodore) Joseph Nourse, CB seemed to have maintained a residence on the same street from about 1807 till his early death.
Susannah Nourse, perhaps a sister of the elder Joseph Nourse married a Maynard. The date 1753 sticks in my mind but that does not seem to jibe with the other dates. Later Mary Nourse, daughter of Henry and Dorothy also married a Maynard.
I have had difficulty trying to track the family back any further. I seem to recall seeing one document years ago that stated Joseph Nourse was from Newtown. Strangely, the most likely Newtown is the one on Isle of Man.
The ancestral homes on Welbeck Street were demolished about 1980 to make way for a Holiday Inn and parking garages. If you search a map, then Cavendish Square is a useful nearby landmark in west London.

• connection. The connection between Hughen Nourse & Robert is as follows:

Hughen Nourse . . . is somehow linked to Henry Nourse (1781)
His father was also Henry Nourse (c1760) & he also had Dorothea Nourse (1773) who married Thomas Maynard (1758)
They had Charles Maynard (1795)
He had Henrietta Maynard (1829) who married John Stokes (1875)
They had Charles Stokes (1851)
He had Charles Stokes (1881) who married Laura Poynton (1894)
They had Irwin Poynton (1925) who married Ailsa Compton (1926)
Her father was George Compton (1891)
His father was Edward Compton (1867) who married Agnes Mitchell (1865)
Her father was William Mitchell (1829) who married Isa Bickley (1834)
His father was William Mitchell (1803) & he also had Susan Mitchell (1828) who married Philip Chauncy (1816)
They had Theresa Chancy (1849) who married Samuel Hale (1847)
They had Rosa Hale (1878) who married Frank Woodhouse (1876)
They had Doris Woodhouse (1902) who married George Firkin (1903)
His father was Henry Firkin (1873)
His father was Thomas Firkin (1833) & he also had Caleb Firkin (1863)
He had Caleb Firkin (1892) who married Laura Effie Bray (1893)
Whose father was Thomas Alfred Inglis Bray (1870)
Whose father was Thomas Alfred Bray (1848)
Whose father was Thomas Bray (1821) & who also had Arthur Augustus Bray (1869)
He had Albert Alan Bray (1896)
He had Robert Alfred Bray (1920)
He had Robert Arthur Bray (1947) who married me Robyn Bray (nee Davies) (1950)

Henry married Dorothy Christian, daughter of Joseph Christian and Margaret Wattleworth, on 6 Sep 1804 in St Michaels, Workington, Cumberland England. (Dorothy Christian was born on 23 Aug 1783 in Marsham Lodge, Mordlake, Surrey England and died 419 Jul 1830 in Cape Colony, South Africa.)