David Cohen and his siblings
The remains of the once-majestic David Cohen and Co building are still a part of Maitland’s streetscape. Built in 1865 after a fire severely damaged the original building, the sandstone structure and its surviving façade are reminders of the enterprise's significance.
Views of the David Cohen building, High St, Maitland, over time
left to right: an 1889 line drawing of the 1865 building; fighting the fire that destroyed most of the building in 1970; the remains of the building in 1994 and 2010. Note: The substantial premises
click on above images for larger views
The business grew from the Cohen family’s trading activities in Maitland during the 1830s and 1840s and became a key part of the commercial and economic development of Maitland and beyond. Brothers Samuel and David Cohen, and their cousin Lewis Wolfe Levy, were central to the business's establishment and growth.
Samuel and David Cohen had seven brothers and a sister. All but one of their siblings came to Australia and were part of the network that centred, at least initially, on Maitland.
Here I provide some initial details about the first generation of Australian Cohens, their families, and some of the rich sources that track their stories. Other sources and details remain to be explored. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
Note: A starting place for an account of the life, family, business and community interests of Lewis Wolfe Levy, the third founding member of David Cohen and Company, is the entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Cohen parents
Barnett (Baruch) Cohen (1780-1854)
b: Bavaria, Germany, 1780
m: Sierlah Levy, New Synagogue, London, 1810
d: Lambeth, London, 30 March 1854
bur: Brady St Cemetery, Whitechapel, London
Sierlah (Sarah) Levy (1788-1854)
b: Aldgate, London, 1788
m: Barnett Cohen, New Synagogue, London, 1810
d: Lambeth, London, 5 Oct 1854
bur: Brady St Cemetery, Whitechapel, London
Family oral traditions and some earlier accounts of the Cohen family background refer to ‘a well-established Anglo-Jewish family’ (Fredman 1985) or suggest a connection to Hull (Falk). By contrast, in the 1851 census (see below), Barnett and Sierlah Cohen record their places of birth as Bavaria (Germany) and Aldgate (London) respectively, and their address as 10 Cheltenham Place, Lambeth, London. According to Jim Falk, the letters of administration following her death describe Sierlah’s occupation as the widow of Barnett Cohen, a clothier.
By 1850, all but two of the Cohens’ children were living and working in Australia. The Dinah Harvey collection of documents, now in the State Library of NSW, includes transcripts of letters dated 1840 and 1849 written by Barnett and Sierlah Cohen to family members in Australia. Both letters list the address as Lower Marsh, Lambeth, London, and they indicate that by June 1840, sons Lewis, Samuel and Solomon were in Australia and David was either en route or about to leave to join them. By the 1849 letter, only daughter Jane and the youngest son Charles remained in England. The English censuses of 1841 and 1851 also confirm the shrinking household. In 1841, sons George, Abraham, Morris, Henry and Charles were living with their parents. In 1851, only Charles, age 17, remained. By this time, daughter Jane had married. She was still living in London.
1841 English Census (Ancestry)
The online copy is very faint. The Ancestry summary states that the household residents included Barnett and Sarah, and sons Judah (George Judah), Abraham, Morris, Henry and Charles.
1851 Census (Ancestry)
The 1851 census places Barnett and Sierlah Cohen at 10 Cheltenham Place, Lambeth, with only their youngest son Charles, age 17, at home.
Cohen household entry in 1851 English Census (Ancestry)
Surviving accounts affirm the family’s Jewish heritage. In the excerpt below from a 1917 history of the Borough Synagogue, for example, ‘Baruch Cohen, grandfather of Neville D Cohen’ is noted as one of the ‘prominent seat holders’ in the early years, and the Cohen and Levy families are acknowledged as retaining an ongoing influence on and association with the synagogue.
See also: The former Borough Synagogue, Walworth, London SE17, JCR-UK for an overview of the history of the Borough Synagogue.
Barnett and Sierlah both died in 1854, and were buried in the Brady St Cemetery.
A view of the Brady St Cemetery
(Jewish East End Photo Gallery)
The Cemetery opened in 1761 and closed in 1858.
Cohen siblings
Barnett and Sierlah Cohen had nine sons and one daughter. All were born in London, England. All but one of the children migrated to Australia in the early to mid-nineteenth century.
Anchored to the development of the David Cohen business enterprise in Maitland, the siblings also prospered in Tamworth, Gunnedah, Murrurundi, Sydney and beyond. Their networks through family, marriage and business were extensive. For some, their connections to England remained strong and their commitment to Jewish practices and heritage persistent.
Lewis Cohen (1811-1894)
b: Lambeth, London, 1 Jan 1811
to Aust: per Sovereign, 1831
m: Sarah Hyams (c1816-1894), Sydney, 14 Aug 1833
children: Charlotte LAWRENCE (1834-1920), Jane (c1838-1849), Selina SOLOMON (1839-1930), Rose (1841-1933), Martha GABRIEL (c1842-1929), Barnett (Bernard) Lewis (1844-1880), Kate (1846-1930), Solomon (1848-1922), David (1854-1861), Rachel SAMSON (1856-1932), Samuel Lewis (1859-1941)
d: Sydney, 17 April 1894
bur: Raphael’s Ground, reinterred Rookwood Cemetery, Zone G Section 7 Grave 18
Lewis and Sara (nee Hyams) Cohen in later life.
(Private collection)
Lewis was the eldest Cohen sibling and the first to move to Australia. Initially he settled in Sydney where he went into business as a tailor and draper, trades that mirrored his father’s work as a ‘clothier’. Advertisements and notices in Sydney newspapers offer some details about his work, affirm that his work and personal life were at least partly located within the small Jewish community in the city, and also affirm that family connections and support played a role.
In April 1831, he advertised that he had just arrived from London on board the Sovereign, and that he had taken premises in Denmark Place, George Street, Sydney, ‘for the purpose of carrying on the business of a TAILOR in all its various branches’.
Sydney Herald, 25 April 1831, p 3
He had a short-lived partnership with a Kauffman Samuel, which was dissolved in January 1832. In 1833, ‘after the manner of the Jewish persuasion’, he married Sarah Hyams. In 1834 and 1835 he appeared in court in cases involving members of the Jewish community.
I have yet to locate further details about Kauffman Samuel.
Excerpts from reports on the two court cases involving Lewis Cohen.
The full, lengthy reports offer a taste of life in Sydney for Lewis Cohen at the time. The 1834 case involved an assault between two men over a woman’s reputation; the 1835 case was a fracas at the theatre between ‘a party of Australian youths’ and ‘a party of Jews’. The 1834 case included allegations that someone said ‘Throw the b… Jews overboard’ and that Lewis Cohen was seen ‘wielding a stick’. Members of the Sydney Jewish community mentioned in the reports include Henry Robert Reuben (who also later spent some time in Maitland), Joseph Simmons, George Moss, Vaiben Solomon
Lewis’s younger brother Samuel arrived in 1834. By 1837 the brothers were partners in a business trading as ‘Tailors, Drapers and General Dealers’ in Sydney, Maitland and Campbelltown. The partnership dissolved in 1839. Lewis retained responsibility for the enterprises in Sydney and Campbelltown (and their debts), and Samuel for the firm in Maitland.
Sydney Herald, 15 November 1839, p3
In 1842, Lewis Cohen, ‘tailor and draper’ of George St, Sydney, was declared insolvent. His insolvency file reveals mortgaged land, deferred payments, promissory notes, unsold or remnant stock, unpaid customer accounts and family advances. It also names business associates (Jewish and non-Jewish) and provides some insights into the nature of his property portfolio (mostly mortgaged), and the contents of his shop and residence in Sydney. The context, though not necessarily the primary or sole cause of his insolvency, was the severe depression that engulfed the colony in the early 1840s.
In 1843 and 1844, Lewis Cohen’s Lower George Street premises and some of his stock were up for rent and for sale.
Lewis Cohen and his family left Sydney. They initially relocated to Maitland, where Lewis’s brothers Samuel and David had established the business David Cohen and Company. The move marked the beginning of Lewis Cohen’s work and life in regional New South Wales and his diversification into different enterprises.
In Maitland, Lewis Cohen acquired the license for the Settlers’ Arms in April 1845 and, over the next two years, worked as a publican while continuing in his trade as a tailor (Maitland Mercury, 19 April 1845, p 2; 11 October 1845, p 4). In late 1846, Lewis Cohen’s stock and household goods were advertised for sale, and in July 1847 he transferred his licence for the Settler’s Arms (Maitland Mercury, 24 July 1847, p 2).
Maitland Mercury, 3 October 1846, p 3
Lewis Cohen, like other family members, engaged with local Jewish community concerns. In 1847, for example, he was President of the Jews’ Burial Ground Society, which secured the site that became, and remains, Maitland’s Jewish Cemetery.
By late 1847, Lewis Cohen and his family had relocated further north, to Murrurundi, where he acquired the licence for the Woolpack Inn. He also opened a store in the town with branches in nearby settlements, purchased land in the district, and tried his hand at gold-seeking.
Murrurundi Railway Stores invoice, 26 June 1866
(Australian Jewish Historical Society Archives)
The invoice notes ‘Bought of Lewis Cohen’ and advertises the store as ‘Ironmonger, grocer, general draper, and flour factor’
He was an active member of his local Murrurundi community, including his role as a founding member of the Murrurundi Benevolent Society, which established the local hospital. His contributions are recognised in places and sites named after him. His leisure interests included horse racing.
Sterling silver presentation snuff box, inscribed ‘Lewis Cohen, Murrurundi 1844’
The snuff box was sold at auction through Elder Fine Art in Adelaide in Mar 2009. It came from the Alex McEwin Estate. (Antiques Reporter)
Curiously, although the inscription is dated 1844, the silver hallmarks date the box itself to 1851. The reason for the retrospective date remains uncertain.
The snuff box was purchased by Michael Reid of the Michael Reid Gallery which now occupies the former Woolpack Inn in Murrurundi. On Instagram in Feb 2024, Reid posted:
Lewis Cohen (1811-1894), a proprietor of the ‘Woolpack Inn’ in 1848. He was a man and a family that, in many ways, helped build Murrurundi. The intermittently running stream, or Cohen’s Creek, is named after him. Many years ago, I purchased a silver Presentation Snuff box in Adelaide (thank you, Peter Walker), and I have reunited this beautifully tooled silver box with the house. The house was renamed Bobadil House in the 1890s ...
Cohen Street and Cohen’s Gully, Murrurundi, photographed in 2009.
Sadly, while in Murrurundi, three of Lewis and Sarah’s children passed away. Jane, aged 12, died from scarlatina in 1849; David, aged 7, died from a drowning accident in 1861; Barnett, aged 36, died in 1880. All three are buried in the Maitland Jewish Cemetery.
Lewis and Sarah Cohen retired to Sydney in about 1890. They both died in 1894 and are buried next to each other in Rookwood Cemetery.
Samuel Cohen (1812-1861)
b: Lambeth, London, 14 July 1812
to Aust: per Resource, 1834
m: Rachel Nathan (1813-1893), Sydney, 23 Aug 1837
children: Sarah MANDELSON (1839-1894), George Judah (1842-1937), Charlotte MOSES (1844-1929), Louis Samuel (1846-1922 ), Hannah (1848-1849), Norman/Nathan Samuel (1850-1917), Bernard/Beresford Samuel (1855-1905)
d: 16 4 November 1861
bur: Devonshire Cemetery, reinterred Rookwood Cemetery, Jewish Section OGS, Grave 356
Samuel Cohen arrived in Sydney on the Resource in April 1834 (Sydney Gazette, 22 April 1834, p2). Family tradition maintains that he was sent to Australia to take his older brother, Lewis, back to England but that Samuel decided to stay – allegedly because he found the long trip out unpleasant (Harvey).
Samuel Cohen
(Bergman, 1969, p337)
By 1837 he had opened Lambeth House in Maitland, a store named after his birthplace. In the same year, he entered into a partnership with his brother Lewis and opened a branch of Lewis’s Sydney tailor and drapery business in Maitland. It was called L & S Cohen. It is unclear whether these were separate enterprises or the one business with a changing name.
click on above images for larger views
It was also in 1837 that Samuel married Rachel Nathan, daughter of ex-convict Nathan Lyon and Sarah (nee Nathan) Nathan. Rachel’s sister, Julia, married Samuel’s brother David (see below).
In April 1842, Samuel and Rachel were in Sydney, where their son George Judah Cohen was born. They lived in Bridge Street and then moved to Pitt Street. In October 1842 Samuel advertised property for lease in West Maitland that was previously occupied by Edward Salamon as a wine saloon (Australian, 3 October 1842, p 1).
In August 1843 Samuel Cohen was declared insolvent. His insolvency file indicates that, like his older brother Lewis, the largest part of his financial stress was from his property portfolio. He had buildings and land in High Street, West Maitland, valued at £5,500. All were mortgaged. These presumably included the premises he advertised for lease the previous year.
Sydney Morning Herald, 4 August 1843, p3
Samuel’s insolvency file indicates that his younger brother David occupied one of the houses in Maitland owned by Samuel and had taken over Samuel’s Maitland shop and business. It is presumably the shop that evolved into David Cohen and Company.
Samuel was released from his insolvency in August 1844. Samuel, Rachel and their family moved back to Maitland where they lived for about a decade. Their baby daughter Hannah died in 1849 at the age of 16 months and is buried in the Maitland Jewish Cemetery.
Samuel recovered financially from his insolvency. He was a partner and manager of David Cohen and Company, a property owner and a director of the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company.
The family relocated to Sydney in 1855.
Maitland Mercury, 20 January 1855, p2
In Sydney Samuel Cohen managed the growing Sydney base of David Cohen and Company. He was also an active member of the Sydney Jewish community. He served on the board of the York Street Synagogue (1855-1859) and founded the breakaway Macquarie Street Synagogue (1859), serving as its first president. The split followed a dispute arising from a perceived insult when Morice Robertson Cohen (not a relative) of the York Street Synagogue failed to say the appropriate prayers following the circumcision of a baby son of one of Samuel Cohen’s relatives on the grounds that the mother was not Jewish.
Samuel Cohen, Letter to the editor, Empire, 1 Feb 1860, p 3. (Cohen refers to the child’s parents being married by the Rev Isaacs of the York Street Synagogue. His brother Solomon’s marriage in 1856 (see below) was officiated by Isaacs and Solomon’s mother-in-law was not Jewish.)
Samuel Cohen also briefly served as the Member for Morpeth in the NSW Legislative Assembly in 1860. He was defeated at a subsequent election. A contemporary Maitland Mercury account suggested that his absence from the Land Bill division contributed to his defeat partly because he was not present for the second reading of the crucial Robertson Land Bill. It was held on a Friday evening, the Sabbath, and in accordance with Jewish practices, Cohen did not work on the Sabbath.
‘Mr Cohen at Morpeth’, Maitland Mercury, 24 Nov 1860, p 1.
Mr Samuel Cohen (1812-1861), NSW Parliament
Samuel Cohen died suddenly in September 1861. His funeral with its ‘hearse, fourteen mourning carriages, and seventy-two carriages’ was reported at length in the Empire, 7 Nov 1861.
Colin Choat, ‘Samuel Cohen (1812-1861)’, Obituaries Australia.
Following Samuel Cohen’s death, his son, George Judah Cohen eventually took over the management of David Cohen and Company. This is the George Judah Cohen who is sometimes confused with Samuel Cohen’s brother of the same name (see details following). Cohen’s widow Rachel moved back to London where she died, aged 80, in October 1893.
Henry Cohen (1814/15-1860)
b: Lambeth, London, 1814/15
to Aust: c1848
d: West Maitland, 6 Jan 1860
bur: Maitland Jewish Cemetery, Grave 34
By about 1850 Henry Cohen was in New South Wales with his brothers, who had established the firm of David Cohen and Company in Maitland. His death certificate (Harvey, Family Tree) notes that the cause of death was paralysis from which he had suffered for 22 years. His long-term paralysis suggests that he may have depended on family support. The announcement of his death records that he died at the residence of Mr L. W. Levy in West Maitland. Lewis Wolfe Levy was his cousin and a partner in David Cohen and Company.
Maitland Mercury, 10 Jan 1860, p 1.
Jane Cohen (1816-1878)
b: Lambeth, London, England, 1816
m: Hyam Hyman (1816-1860), London, 1840
children: Jacob (1841-1906), Hannah (1842-1911), Lewis Hyam (1847-1914), Burnett (1849-1914), David (1850-1901), Solomon (1853-1905), Sierlah (1857-1898)
to Aust: May 1859
d: Woollahra, Sydney, 18 Mar 1878
bur: Raphael’s Ground
By the time of her marriage to Hyam Hyman in 1840, four of Jane Cohen’s brothers had moved to Australia. By the mid-1850s, most of her brothers were living there; the youngest, Charles, remained in England.
In the 1851 England census, Jane, her husband and their four eldest children were living in Russell Place, Old Kent Road, Camberwell, London. Hyman, born in Oxfordshire, is described as a ‘general dealer’.
Entry in 1851 England Census (Ancestry)
In 1854, Jane Hyman was granted the administration of her mother’s estate. In the records, she is described as the wife of Hyam Hyman, a dealer in Old Kent Road (Falk). In an 1856 Post Office Directory Hyam Hyman is still listed at Russell Place, Old Kent Road.
Val Rudkin (2011) has established that the family of nine, accompanied by one servant, arrived in Sydney on 18 May 1859 on board the ship Wild Ranger.
Hyam Hyman had a hardware business on George Street, Sydney. He died unexpectedly a year after the family’s arrival in Australia.
click on above images for larger views
Jane Hyman settled in Sydney. In the 1868 notice of her daughter Hannah’s marriage, Jane’s address is given as 67 William St, Woolloomooloo. The following year the funeral of her sister-in-law Leah Cohen, wife of Abraham (see below), departed from the Woolloomooloo address. (Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Jun 1868, p 1 and 8 April 1869)
Jane Cohen died at Montaubin Villa, Moncur St, Woollahra. The house was then, or became, the property of her son Burnett, a solicitor.
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 March 1878, p 1
David Cohen (1818-1902)
b: Lambeth, London, 1818
to Aust: 1840-1841
m: Julia Nathan (1822-1876), Great Synagogue, London, 21 Aug 1850
children: Neville David (1852-1923), Burnett (1853-1930), Herbert David (1855-1933), Louis (1857-1926), Zara LEVY (1858-1932), Henry (Harry) David (1860-1938), Annette LEVY/LEWIS (1862-1931), Rosetta (1866-1935)
d: London, 13 March 1902
bur: Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, London, Plot G, H, 2
David Cohen was the third in his family to migrate to Australia, arriving in 1840-1841. A letter from his parents to his older brother Lewis, dated 17 June 1840, mentions that they were waiting for David’s departure for Australia and that he would ‘bring letters with him’. (Dinah Harvey Papers).
David Cohen spent about 10 years helping his older brother Samuel (see above) in business in West Maitland. By the mid-1840s, David Cohen and Company was advertising in the Maitland Mercury. The business may have taken his name because his brother, Samuel, faced insolvency and was released from it during the mid-1840s economic downturn.
David Cohen was back in London in 1850, where he married Julia Nathan, sister of his brother Samuel’s wife. The couple returned to Australia and, in February 1852, their first son was born in West Maitland. Two more sons were born in Sydney. By 1861, David and Julia Cohen and family had returned to London, where more children were born.
David remained a partner in the family business and for many years represented its interests in London.
The family lived in comfortable circumstances. Their residential addresses recorded in the English censuses indicate that they lived in well-to-do parts of London, in houses supported by domestic staff and able to accommodate multiple family members. In 1901, the year before his death, for example, David Cohen lived in Pembridge Square, Kensington. His wife had died. His daughter Zara and her husband, Benjamin Wolfe Levy, were living with him. They were in a household of 16 people, including an extensive domestic staff.
Entries for David Cohen and household in England Censuses, 1861 to 1901
addresses in London: 1861 - 24 Tavistock Square, St Pancras; 1871 - 87 Lancaster Gate, Paddington; 1881 and 1891 - 25 Pembridge Gardens, Kensington; 1901 - 8 Pembridge Square, Kensington.
click on above images for larger views
Business and family were intertwined. Four of David and Julia Cohen’s children married the offspring of his business partner and cousin, Lewis Wolfe Levy: Neville to Roselind, Burnett to Bertha, Zara to Benjamin, and Annette to Samuel Eleazer.
David Cohen died in London in 1902. His will and estate affirmed his wealth, while his bequests also reflected his continuing commitment to the Jewish community in Maitland.
‘Death of Mr David Cohen’, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 Mar 1902, p 4.
‘The late Mr David Cohen’, Hebrew Standard of Australasia, 8 Aug 1902, p 5.
‘A valuable estate: the late Mr David Cohen’, Australian Star, 9 Sep 1902, p 7.
‘The late Mr David Cohen: an in memoriam’, Hebrew Standard of Australasia, 21 Mar 1902, p 6.
‘David Cohen (1818-1902)’, Obituaries Australia, ANU.
George Judah Cohen (1820-1889)
b: Lambeth, London, 1820
to Aust: c1842
m: Rosetta (Rose) Solomon (1831-1907), Sydney, 14 Feb 1849
children: Cora Rose (1849-1908), Burnett George (1851-1933), Elizabeth (1853-1909), Samuel George (1854-1937), Hannah Maud BARNARD (1856-1940), Caroline (1857-1941), Henry George (1861-1949), David George (1863-1942), Rebecca (1865-1954), Herbert Charles (1867-1958), Leah (1869-1874), Percy Edgar (?-1942)
d: Tamworth, 20 Oct 1889
George Judah Cohen in later life
(Centenary of Gunnedah book, Australian Jewish HIstorical Society Archive, File 61)
Born in London, George Cohen lived in West Maitland by 1843 and worked with his brothers Samuel and David in their shop (Rudkin, 2011). In February 1849, he married Rose Solomon. Rev J Isaacs, Reader of the Sydney Synagogue, conducted the ceremony (Maitland Mercury, 17 Feb 1849, p 3). The following year, the couple’s first child was born in Scone.
George and Rose spent about five years in Scone and ten years in Tamworth before moving to Gunnedah.
In Scone, George and one of his brothers, probably Samuel, established a general store called ‘Lambeth House’, echoing the store of the same name that Samuel Cohen had established earlier in Maitland (see above). An 1849 advertisement declared their association with David Cohen and Company, and emphasised that there was no longer a need to travel to Maitland to purchase supplies.
Gunnedah Family History Resources (Harvey, Family group sheets) establish that George Cohen was Gunnedah’s postmaster from 1861 to 1874, and was a Justice of the Peace. He also ran a store, and built a private residence, ‘Roseneath’. The iron bridge across the Namoi was completed in 1884–85 and in 1885 was officially named Cohen Bridge in his honour.
George Cohen retired to Tamworth in about 1888. He died there in 1889. He was interred in the Maitland Jewish Cemetery. His infant daughter Leah was also buried there.
Excerpts from ‘Death of Mr George Cohen, JP’, Maitland Mercury, 24 Oct 1889, p 4.
George Judah Cohen is sometimes confused with his nephew (son of Samuel Cohen, see above) of the same name.
Solomon Cohen (1823-1903)
b: Lambeth, London, 1823
to Aust: c 1848
m: Julia Hannah Cohen (1840-1889), Maitland, 27 Feb 1856
children: Barnet Solomon (1857-1905), Joel (1858-1906), Sarah (1860-1948), Hannah (Nance) (1863-1937), Seirlah (1864-1864), Martha (Molly) (1867-1940), Samuel (1868-), Francis Henry (1870-1892), Lionel Abraham (1872-1908), Charlotte Rachel (Nonie) (1873-1955)
d: Melbourne, 13 Jun 1903
bur: Melbourne General Cemetery, Section G, Row G, Grave 724
By the late 1840s, Solomon Cohen was based in Maitland. Reports in the Maitland Mercury show that he spent time visiting and assessing goldfields in the Central West and on the Northern Tablelands for David Cohen and Company.
Reports from the gold fields: Maitland Mercury, 19 Jul 1851, p 2;15 Sept 1852, p 2; 2 Aug 1856 p 2.
In 1856, Solomon married Julia Hannah Cohen, daughter of Joel John and Frances Sarah (nee Neaden) Cohen, at the home of Solomon’s cousin, Lewis W Levy, in Maitland.
Maitland Mercury, 5 March 1856, p 3
The birthplaces of Solomon and Julia Cohen’s children recorded in the NSW BDM index and newspaper announcements indicate that the family was initially in the Hunter Valley, then in Armidale and Sydney.
At some stage, Solomon and Julia moved to Melbourne. They lived in a property called ‘Dene’ on Toorak Road, South Yarra. Julia died there in 1889, their son Frank in 1892, and Solomon in 1903.
Death notices for Julia, Frank and Solomon Cohen
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Will of Solomon Cohen, 1897 with a codicil added in January 1903
(Grant of Probate, Public Record Office of Victoria 28/P0002, 87/350, copy available from Ancestry.com.au)
Abraham Cohen (1825-1901)
b: London, 1825
to Aust: c1842
m: Leah MANDELSON (1837-1869) in Sydney, 23 Jan 1856
children: Sierlah NATHAN (1858-1929), Phoebe NATHAN (1860-1943), Rachel SAMUEL (1862-1900), Samuel Burnett (1865-1901), Nathaniel COWAN (1867-1934), stillborn daughter (1869-1869)
d: London, 29 May 1901
bur: Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery, London
Abraham Cohen settled in Tamworth in the 1840s. In the early 1850s he entered into a partnership with his cousin Louis Levy (the brother of Lewis Wolfe Levy), in the business known as Cohen and Levy, which developed into a notable commercial enterprise that operated under that name until 1906. Levy left the partnership in 1872 and was replaced by Cohen’s nephew, Lewis Hyman (son of Jane and Hyam Hyman, see above). Cohen himself eventually retired and was replaced in 1896 by Charles Collins who, at the time, was the MLA for the district.
Abraham Cohen, Sydney Mail, 4 December 1897, p 1181
The photograph was published after Abraham Cohen had retired from the Cohen and Levy store in Tamworth. It was included in a lengthy illustrated article on Tamworth that was complemented by an article (pp 1181 and 1184) specifically on the history of the Cohen and Levy store.
In 1856, Abraham Cohen married Leah Mandelson, daughter of Nathan and Phoebe (nee Cohen) Mandelson. The couple’s first child, Sierlah, named after Abraham’s mother, was born in Sydney. Their remaining four children were born in Tamworth. Leah Mandelson died in Tamworth in 1869, a few days following the birth of a stillborn daughter. Leah Cohen is buried in Rookwood Jewish Cemetery.
Abraham Cohen actively participated in Tamworth’s civic life. He was an alderman of the first Municipal Council, and generously gave time and money to local services. He was especially generous to the Tamworth Hospital. According to Porush, Cohen contributed £500 towards one of the hospital wards, named the Leah Ward in memory of his wife. (Porush p 197).
Cohen eventually returned to England. The 1891 English census has Abraham Cohen, aged 66, as the head of a household at 9 Fitzjohns Ave, Hampstead, London. Listed as a widower, he was the head of a household that included his two sons; his daughter Phoebe, her husband and their daughter; his daughter Rachel; and a niece (Florence, daughter of Morris Cohen), along with seven servants, including a governess and a cook from Hamburg.
Entry in the 1891 English census (Ancestry)
Abraham Cohen died in London in 1901. Like his brothers, Abraham Cohen was a wealthy man. He left an estate valued at over £130,000.
Abraham Cohen’s obituary eulogises his business success and his charity work, and provides some details about his children and siblings. A report on his will highlights the extent of his wealth and his urging his children to continue donating to a variety of institutions and organisations.
Hebrew Standard of Australasia, 14 June 1901, p 9. and Maitland Daily Mercury, 25 November 1901, p3.
click on above images for larger views
Morris Cohen (1827-1878)
b: Lambeth, London, England, 1827
to Aust: c1850
m: Deborah Reuben (1839-1915) in West Maitland, 11 June 1856
children: Burnett Morris (1857-1930), Celia (1859-1860), Emma LEO (1861-1942), Ida Hannah HART (1863-1931), Florence Jane (1865-1923), Blanche Rebecca ‘Rey’ BENNIE (1867-1926), Henry Morris (1869-1925), Cecil Morris COWAN (1872-1942), Karl (1874-1952), Vivian (1877-?)
d: Maitland, 22 Aug 1878
bur: Maitland Jewish Cemetery, Grave 44
In the 1841 English census, a 14-year-old Morris Cohen was living with his parents and four of his brothers - Judah (George Judah), Abraham, Henry and Charles - in Lambeth, London. By the mid-1850s, he was in Maitland, where he became a member of the staff of David Cohen and Company. In 1865, in correspondence establishing a debt owed to David Cohen and Company by absconding insolvent Joseph Goulston, Morris Cohen described himself as a ‘manager’ of the company (SRNSW: Insolvency file of Joseph Goulston, 1865.) In 1866 Morris Cohen, along with his brother George Judah Cohen (see above) became partners in David Cohen and Company.
Maitland Mercury, 13 September 1866, p 1
In 1856 he married Deborah Reuben, daughter of local Jewish resident Henry Robert Reuben.
Maitland Mercury, 14 June 1856, p 3
Their second child, Celia, died from diphtheria in 1860. She was 21 months old. She is buried in the Maitland Jewish Cemetery.
By the time their son, Karl, was born, the family lived in Kooreelah House, 40 Bourke Street, West Maitland (Maitland Mercury, 3 September 1874).
‘Koorelah’, 40 Bourke St, Maitland, in 2011.
Morris Cohen’s father-in-law, Henry Robert Reuben, purchased the property in 1852. At the time, it had a four-room, single-storey cottage with a detached kitchen. HR Reuben left Maitland in 1859, and Morris and Deborah Cohen lived in ‘Koorelah’ until it was sold in 1861.
Between 1861 and 1875, several different owners held the property. During this period, a second storey was added.
In 1875 Morris Cohen purchased the property. He and his family lived there until his death in August 1878.
(Hunter, 1999)
It was at Koreelah House that Morris Cohen, after suffering a bout of bronchitis, died suddenly from a severe asthma attack in 1878. (Maitland Mercury, 28 August 1878, p4)
Maitland Mercury, 24 August 1878, p 4
Morris and Deborah Cohen had ten children, nine of whom survived him. At Morris’s death the surviving children ranged in age from less than one year to 20 years. His wife, Deborah, who volunteered much of her time to the Maitland Benevolent Home, later made her home in London.
Charles Cohen (c1834-?)
In the 1851 census Charles Cohen, aged 17, was living with his parents at 10 Cheltenham Place, Lambeth, London. The other occupant was an 18-year-old servant.
1851 English census - excerpt
(Ancestry)
It seems that Charles was the only one of the siblings to remain in England. To date, little else is known about him. There is, however, one connection with the family. According to Falk, Charles is mentioned in his brother David Cohen’s will as a beneficiary. Charles was to receive an annuity of £250, with the note that if David’s estate was not sufficient to cover the annuity, then their brother Abraham should take on the obligation.
Family and business intertwined
Taken together, the ten siblings reveal how closely migration, family and business were intertwined. Maitland was the principal anchor for the Cohen commercial network, but the family’s activities extended through regional New South Wales, Sydney, Melbourne and London. Their stories also illuminate the importance of kinship, marriage, Jewish communal life and continuing connections with England in the growth of David Cohen and Company.
References
Australian Dictionary of Biography.
Australian Jewish Historical Society Archives
Births, Deaths, Marriages Victoria.
Brady Street Cemetery, Jewish Gen.
Burials (online database), Australian Jewish Historical Society
Cintra House: A Legacy of Love (video), Stories of Our Town, 2026.
Currency Converter, UK National Archives.
Devonshire Street Cemetery reinterment index, Museums History NSW.
Falk, Jim, Cassirer and Cohen: histories, relatives and descendants
Former Members, NSW Parliament. Entries on Samuel Cohen and Lewis Wolfe Levy.
Harvey, Dinah, Papers relating to the Cohen family and David Cohen and Company, consulted in about 2010. Dinah subsequently deposited these papers in the State Library of NSW. They are catalogued as David Cohen & Co, West Maitland, papers (see entry and hyperlink above).
Harvey, Dinah, The Levy Family for Janis created in Family Tree Maker Reports, 2009.
Harvey, Dinah, Two Cohens, a Levy and one Hart, c2009.
Hunter, Cynthia, Bourke St, Maitland, Report for Maitland City Council, 1999.
JCR-UK (Jewish Communities and Records - United Kingdom)
Levi, John S., These Are the Names: Jewish Lives in Australia, Carlton Victoria, Miegunyah, 2006.
Maitland Mercury (Trove)
NSW Births, Deaths, Marriages.
Rudkin, Val, Research notes on members of Maitland’s early Jewish community, 2011. A4 lever arch folder, Maitland and District Historical Society Collection.
Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (Trove)
Views of Maitland, Heritage Futures online database, University of New England. Entries for each of the siblings are in the People section of the database.
Wilton, Janis, Maitland Jewish Cemetery: a monument to dreams and deeds, Maitland Regional Art Gallery, 2010.
Wilton, Janis, ‘Maitland Jewish Cemetery’, Maitland: Our Place, Our Stories, March 2022.