Mrs. Sarah Lyon and the Ansell family

My mother, Jean Birman, was born Jeannie Ansell. She married my father, Max Birman, in 1933. Jeannie was one of the eight children of George Asher Ansell and his wife, Sophie Belasco. My grand father George was a painter by trade and was active in the American labor movement, a friend of Samuel Gompers. My mother (his daughter, Jeannie) told stories of meetings around the family kitchen table. I understand that he emigrated to the United States in the late 1800s. My mother was born in New York in 1900. My grand mother, Sophie (nee Belasco) was distantly related to the broadway producer, David Belasco.(third cousin)

The Ansell family ancestry file was originally compiled by Mrs. Judy Wolkovitch in 1998. It has been updated and was considerably expanded in March 2001. Her research confirmed the genealogy traced by cousin George Ansell some years ago. They both traced the Ansell family back to a Mrs. Sarah Lyon who lived from 1703 to 1808. The information is recorded in a genealogy program written by John Steed called Brothers Keeper.

This family tree shows the presumed lineage only from Sarah Lyon to myself. (Paul Birman). If the genealogy is correct, Mrs. Sarah Lyon* 1703-1808, was my 5th great grand mother.

In the Jewish Chronicle of June 19 1896, there appeared the following article about Sarah Lyon.

*NB I have maintained the two spellings LYON and LYONS, as they appear in these documents.

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
June 19, 1896

Mrs. Sarah Lyon 1703-1808.
A Sketch
By the Rev. Hermann Gollanez, M. A.

In the paper which I read before the members of the Jewish historical Society in May last, in that portion relating to disused Jewish cemeetaries, I referred to an individual name SARAH LYON and quoted the following passage from Clark's History of Ipswitch (1830-)

The publication of my paper in the Jewish Chronicle has elicited the interesting fact that there exist in London two portraits of this remarkably long-lived person: one an oil painting in the posession of Mr. Sam Hickman of Sandringham Road N.E. and the other small engraving belonging to Mr. CmM. Ansell of the Dalton Synagogue, Poets Road. The latter is now for the first time reproduced in the columns of this journal.

Both Mrs. Hickman and Mr. Ansell are decendants of this old lady of Ipswich, whose maiden name, I am informed was Levy; and it may not be without interest to some members of the Angle-Jewish community to learn of the connection between persons living in our midst at the present day, or between those known to us of a past generation, and this venerable old dame, Mrs. Sarah Lyons, who was born about 193 years ago, about the year 1703. This date will be brought more vividly before our minds if we recall the fact that it is but two years later than the date of the present Spanish and Portugese Synagogue (as inscribed beneath the clock just above the entrance to the imposing edifice in Bevis Marks)and only about 50 years after the re-admission of the Jews into England in the time of Cromwell, owing to the never-to-be-forgotten efforts of Menaseh ben Israel.

But first a few words with regards to the portraits themselves. The impression which is here reproduced is that of "Mrs. Sarah Lyon" (not Lyons as Clarke has it), "aged 104 years." It was engraved by R. Roe from a mimiature painted by T. Lethbridge, Esq., and published by W.H. Smith, Cambridge, Sept. 4th 1822.

The larger oil painting had the following words written on the back of the canvas:

SARAH LYONS
Painted by Constable
about the year 1804
when she was 101 years old
and lived 4 years after
at Ipswich, Suffolk.
and lined and restored by her
great grandson Mier Ansell
in 1857

The size of the painting (as seen in the frame) is 23 1/2 by 19 inches; the expression of the painting itself is very similar to that of the above print, with the exception that the face, or rather the general pose is from left to right and not right to left.

Note: the portrait presently hangs in the Skirball Cultural center, 2701 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90049. I obtained (or rather, Mrs. Judy Wolkovitch obtained for me) this copy through their Media Resource Dept.

I understand that there is a third portrait of Sarah Lyon at Dublin, taken at the age of 105 years.

There are several families among us who are connected either in line direct line or indirectly with Mrs. Sarah Lyon; and I now give the particulars as far and as correctly as I have been able to ascertain. It is quite possible that there may be here and there an error or an omission, considering that my information has been by word of mouth; but I shall be much pleased if any of the readers of this column will correct or supplement the information here given.

Joseph Ansell, the father of Mr. C.M. Ansell, of the Dalton Synagogue (and of Isaac, Elias and Ansell Ansell, brothers and of Mrs. Altman, Mrs Hickman and Mrs. Flatau, sisters) was, I am told, the son of of a daughter of Sarah Lyon. I am, however, inclined to think that he was the son of a grand daughter of Sarah Lyon. Unless there were two persons named Myer or Mier Ansell, uncle and nephew. I am confirmed in my opinion by the words at the back of the oil painting attributed to Constable and referred to before, namely "lined and restored by her great grandson Mier Ansell," foy Myer and Joseph Ansell, being brothers, Joseph Ansell must also have been the great grandson of Sarah Lyon. This Joseph Ansell had four brothers: Myer (who died in Dublin two or three years ago), Jacob (married to the sister of Mrs. Jacob Salomons, wife of the late Secretary of the Hambro' Synagogue), David and Moses; and a sister Kate (married to the Rev. Isaac Davidson, Chazan, etc. of Dublin), mother of Mrs. Sandheim, wife of the late Rev. Julius Sandheim of Dublin.

Now the daughter (or grand daughter) of Sarah Lyon maried Asher Ansell of Ipswich who, according to the inscription on his tombstone in the Ipswich Jewish Cemetery died 1835/6, 77 years old. Asher Ansell of Ipswich had also four brothers, of whom Rab Salmon was one. This Rab. Salmon (grandfather of Mr. P.N. Caspar) was once Dyan of London before our genial and unostentatious friend the dear old Rabbi Aaron (we omit the Levy), father of the Rev. I.A. Levy, minister of Hull, who, being of the true old type of Rabbis, literally spent his days in the old Beth Hamedrash in Smith's building, Leadenhall Street, access to which was often, as I well remember, barred by Messrs. Pound's packing cases which were heaped up on all sides. Portraits of Rabbi Salmon are in the posession of Mr. P.N. Caspar and Mr. J.M. Ansell.

This Mr. J.M. Ansell of Torrington Square, is a great grandson of Rabbi Salmon; his father, Moses Ansell (once the energetic President of our admirable charity, the Soup Kitchen for the Relief of the Jewish Poor); having been the son of Hyman Ansell, a son of Rab. Salmon. Another son of Rab. Salmon was Moses Ansell, a former Secretary of the Great Synagogue, London; his son was Abraham Ansell, one of whose sons, I regret to have to add, but two months ago, so far forsook the traditions of his highly respected family by marrying in Church one not belonging to our communion, a lady of title, it is true.

I understand, though I have not positive proof, that a brother of the late Chief Rabbi Herschell of London (who died in Birmingham some 25 years ago) was married to a daughter of Rabbi Salmon.

To return now to the old ancestress of so large a family, Mrs. Sarah Lyon of Ipswich. Having been born in 1703, she forms a connecting link between the present time and the earliest days of the Resettlement of the Jews in this country. We feel tempted to enquire, who was her father. If he was an Englishman, that is, had settled in early life in this country, it is quite evident that she must have heard him recount the stirring events as regards the Jews of these early days, either as witnessed by himself, or as related to him by others.

Surely the Mrs. Sarah Lyon - the subject of our present sketch - who was born almost at the beginning of the 18th century, must be regarded with more than passing interest by us English Jews living at the close of the 19th century.

This concludes the article in the Jewish Chronicle

If you have additional information about the Ansell family, we'd love to hear from you.
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A useful link is to the Jewish Genealogy site. The researcher who came up with this and much of the Ansell genealogy, Mrs. Judith Wolkovitch, recommends it as "one of the best on the web."

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