| 9. | Charlotte Kent was born on 28 Nov 1821 in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was christened in Feb 1833 in Trappes Valley, Eastern Cape, South Africa (daughter of James Kent, 1820 Settler and Ellen Williamson, 1820 Settler); died on 17 Oct 1898 in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was buried on 19 Oct 1898 in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa Cemetery, King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Other Events and Attributes:
Notes:
According to The Levey Family Tree book written by Val Trevorrow, Henry Levey (A3) married Charlotte HUNT (A3) in the Grahamstown Cathedral on 3 August 1843. Henry was 19 years old and Charlotte 22. Despite this marriage record for Charlotte Hunt, no record of her birth or death could be found. However, a record was found of a Charlotte KENT, who was believed to have married a Levey, and after he died, remarried a James Mardon. According to Val's research, Charlotte HUNT also married a James Mardon after Henry Levey died and that she had four children from James (this was later proved to be incorrect). The following similarities between Charlotte HUNT and Charlotte KENT suggested they were one and the same person;
a. Both were born in Grahamstown in 1821.
b. Both married a Levey.
c. Both married a James Mardon.
d. The marriages of Charlotte Hunt and James Mardon and that of Charlotte Kent and James Mardon both appeared to have taken place around 1860.
It has since been proven that Charlotte's surname was read incorrectly on the record of her marriage to Henry Levey in St Georges Church, Grahamstown, and that it should be Kent, not Hunt. It seems the error was duplicated on Hugo Slater's CD of 1820 Settler Family Trees, which records Henry Levey's details as follows: "Henry LEVEY [71928] was born about (est.) 1818. Henry 's occupation was a Shoemaker in 1843 at Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. Henry and Charlotte KENT or HUNT [71929] were married August 3, 1843 at Grahamstown Church (St George's - Anglican), Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa by Rev John Heavyside."
Charlotte KENT was born on 28 November 1821 on the family farm in Trappes Valley, Albany and died in King William's Town on 19 October 1898 (record from The Kent Family book by Pearl Scotney). She was the daughter of James and Ellen Kent who came out to the Frontier with the 1820 Settlers. The Kent family was from Tunstall, Lancashire. Liverpool, and came out on the ship "John", which sailed from Liverpool. They were part of the Hayhurst Party of 1820 Settlers who were settled at Trappe's Valley just NE of Bathurst. James Kent was a servant but after eight years of struggling on his farm he became a shoemaker in the village of Trappe's Valley. In 1833 he sold the farm and the family moved to Wiggel's Mill near Grahamstown.
After the tragic death of his wife, who died in July 1833 after contracting blood poisoning from a spider bite, James and the children left Albany and moved to a trading store about 4 miles from Pirie Mission Station in the Amatola Mountains, some 25 km north of King William's Town. James was employed to manage the store. On 24 December 1834, James was killed at the store by the Xhosa at the outbreak of the 6th Frontier War. Charlotte was only thirteen years old at the time and her and her three siblings were split up and sent to different foster families in Grahamstown. Charlotte was sent to the family of Mr. William Lee (jnr), who was a butcher in Bathurst Street, Grahamstown.
Nothing is known of her life as a young teenager but it's not difficult to imagine how she and Henry Levey got to know one another - her foster home in Bathurst Street was "just around the corner" from the Levey family home in Chapel Street.
On 13 December 1843, a mere four months after their marriage, Henry Levey died. Charlotte was pregnant by that time and just five months later on 9 May 1844 she gave birth to a son who was named Joseph Henry. Joseph Henry Levey was baptized in the Grahamstown Commemorative Methodist Church on 9 June 1844. His mother's name was given as Elizabeth instead of Charlotte in the Baptismal register but it was probably because Henry's mother attended the baptism in place of Charlotte.
One can only speculate on what Charlotte's state of mind must have been after facing so many tragic family deaths in the first 21 years of her life.
Some time during 1850 Charlotte became involved with a Joseph Hughes and by whom she had four children over a period of almost ten years. It is significant to note that Joseph Levey, Charlotte's father-in-law, died in May 1850 - did this leave her free of the influence of the Levey family to enter into a relationship with another man? Or was it perhaps that Joseph had supported Charlotte and her son Henry until he died in 1850? It certainly seems coincidental that she had not remarried in the seven years following Henry's death. No record of a marriage between Charlotte and Joseph Hughes has yet been found so it must be assumed they never married.
The record of the baptism of the four children in the Commemoration Church in Grahamstown on 13 March 1862 seems to confirm this assumption. The register does not reflect the surnames of the children but the names of the parents are given as "Joseph Hughes and Charlotte Levey now Mardon". The details from the register are as follows:
Ref 1332 - Susanna «tab»-«tab»Born. 3 November 1850«tab» Baptized 13 March 1862
Ref 1333 - James «tab»-«tab»Born. 18 February 1854«tab» Baptized 13 March 1862
Ref 1332 - John«tab»«tab»-«tab»Born. 8 February 1857«tab» Baptized 13 March 1862
Ref 1332 - William «tab»-«tab»Born. 28 May 1859«tab» Baptized 13 March 1862
Nothing is known of this Joseph Hughes as no birth or death record has been found to date. However, a notice placed in the Graham's Town Journal of 27 August 1853 by the town council and listing voters, contains the name of one Joseph Hughes, a tailor, resident in Smith Street. This is most likely the father of Charlotte's four children. As a tailor he would surely have been known to Joseph Brilliant Levey (Charlotte's brother in law and a tailor himself), and perhaps they were even friends. Joseph Brilliant Levey was more than likely supporting Charlotte and her young son Joseph Henry after the death of his father in 1850, and he may well have facilitated the "union" between Joseph Hughes and Charlotte.
Joseph Hughes must have died (or he and Charlotte parted ways) before September 1861, as Charlotte and James Mardon were married on 10 September 1861 in the Grahamstown Baptist Church, six months before the baptism of the children. It is obvious that the 4 "Hughes" children had never been baptized and again indicates they were probably born out of wedlock. James Mardon may well have insisted on the children being baptized before they assumed the Mardon surname. It should be remembered that there were no adoption laws at that time and the children of common-law marriages assumed the name of the new father.
Another indication that Joseph Hughes was not the "legal father" of the children is that the children were named after Charlotte's family - Her daughter after her sister Susannah, her first son after her father James and her second son after her brother John. The 4th child William appears to have been named after Charlotte's foster-father, William Lee. Had Joseph Hughes been Charlotte's husband, he would surely have had some say in the naming of their children.
A statement made by a great granddaughter of James and Charlotte more than 100 years later in a letter to the Levey Family researcher Val Trevorrow, appears to verify the theory that the children assumed the Mardon surname. The letter was from a Daphne Ross (nee Westbrook) who was the grandchild of Charlotte Amelia Mardon, Charlotte Kent's daughter from James Mardon. In her letter dated 14 December 1972, Daphne wrote that her great grandmother (Charlotte Kent) had been married to a Levey before her marriage to James Mardon and that her great grandmother had children from her Levey husband but that her great grandmother and James Mardon had "sons" and a daughter as well. The wording in her letter is very confusing and it is repeated here for brevity - "Our Great grandmother [Charlotte Kent] married Mr. Levey [and] after the death of her husband [Henry Levey] she had sons and her daughter was our grandmother [Charlotte Amelia Mardon] but as far as we know her children were to her first husband". This statement also makes it clear that later generations of the Mardon family did not know that Joseph Hughes was the father of the four illegitimate children.
This is perhaps not surprising, as it is was not known what surname Charlotte used for the four children before she and James Mardon married (it appears to have been Levey). It has, however, since been established that all three boys (James, John & William) changed their names to Mardon but that Susanna retained the Levey surname.
Daphne also went on to say in another letter dated 22 January 1973, "Although my Aunt told me my great grandmother married a Jew by the name of Levey, I have no way of confirming this. She was the only member of the family who ever mentioned the marriage" (This aunt was, more than likely, Violet Sabina Bristow, younger sister of Daphne's mother Amy Gertrude Catherine Bristow. Violet's daughter Sybil and Daphne were apparently inseparable all their lives). Daphne's comment seems to indicate that the Hughes children were indeed illegitimate and that the Mardon family passed them off as Henry's children. Despite James Mardon "adopting" them, it would seem the greater Mardon family were reluctant to accept them as family. It is obvious that Joseph Henry Levey did not assume the Mardon name, as he was a legitimate child of Charlotte and Henry Levey.
Daphne also made the comment that Charlotte Amelia Mardon's brother was Alfred Mardon and from that it would seem the two of them were the children Charlotte Kent had by James Mardon. This Alfred Mardon is no doubt the Alfred Charles James Mardon who is listed in The Kent Family Book.
Although Joseph Henry Levey and the Hughes children were not Mardon descendents, they are undeniably Kent family descendents. It is therefore somewhat odd that Charlotte's previous marriage to Henry Levey, her common-law-husband Joseph Hughes and all her children from those partnerships are not mentioned in Pearl Scotney's book, The Kent Family Book. According to that book, James Mardon and Charlotte Kent had 3 children -
1. William Mardon - date of birth unknown
2. Charlotte Amelia Mardon - date of birth unknown (but presumed to be after 1861).
3. Alfred Charles James Mardon - date of birth unknown (but presumed to be after 1862).
The last child Charlotte had from Joseph Hughes was also named William (born May 1859) and it is beyond doubt that the William Mardon in the book is in fact Charlotte's fourth child by Joseph Hughes and that he had assumed the Mardon surname. It is quite clear that the Mardon family thought him to be a child of James Mardon, possibly because he was only just over two years old when James and Charlotte married. This William, named William James on his death certificate, died in King William's Town on 19 February 1911 and his Cape Civil Death notification was signed by an A C J Mardon, who is quite obviously Alfred Charles James Mardon, his step brother. Strangely enough, the relationship of the signatory to the deceased is not stated as is usual and the only comment made was "Present at death". Is this another indication that Alfred never quite accepted William as a brother?
The omission from the book of Charlotte's previous husbands and the children born of those unions is perhaps not surprising if one considers that Pearl Scotney obtained the Mardon family details from Philip Gray Mardon, Charlotte's youngest grandson. Because his grandmother's previous marriages were not discussed in the Mardon family, it is quite obvious that Philip did not know about Charlotte's former husbands.
In November 2008 the author of this article contacted a great granddaughter of Charlotte and James Mardon, a Mrs. Joyce West (formerly Jacobsen, nee Taylor), who was living in East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa Mrs. West, it so turns out, is a second cousin once removed to the author. Not surprisingly, Mrs. West was not even aware that Charlotte Kent was her great grandmother and was hence unable to shed much light on the Mardon family.
One can only wonder how Henry and Charlotte's only son Joseph Henry Levey fitted into the family. What is apparent is that the family moved to King William's Town some time (after 1870?) where they all lived out their lives. Joseph Henry Levey, his mother Charlotte, his stepfather James Mardon and his stepbrothers William and Alfred James Mardon all died and are buried in King William's Town.
Records also show that Charlotte's second child from Joseph Hughes, James, took on the Mardon surname and married in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa sometime around 1884. That marriage produced 3 children, who all bore the Mardon surname. In 2014 a Cape Civil Death notification was also found for John Mardon (formerly Levey). He died in Cradock on 3 December 1899. His wife was Catherine Maria but it is not known whether or not they had children; research continues. It would appear that Susanna was the only child that retained her mother's married name (Levey) and not that of her father Joseph Hughes or that of her stepfather Charles Mardon. This would appear to be confirmed by a record of a Susan Levey who was a witness at the wedding of Susan Martha Levey to Frederick Samuel Lee in the Trinity (English) Church in King William's Town on 9 March 1903. This is clearly Susanna Levey as she is the only other Susan in the Levey family, other than Susan Martha the bride. Susan Martha was Susanna's niece and a grandchild of Charlotte. It is probable that Susan Martha was named after Susanna (and Susanna herself was named after her mother's sister Susanna). Susanna was 50 years old at the time of the wedding and it would appear she remained a spinster all her life and probably died in King William's Town.
Author:
Colin Edwin Levey.
Great, Great grandson of;«tab»Henry Levey and Charlotte Kent,
Great grandson of;«tab»«tab»Joseph Henry Levey and Martha Shaw,
Grandson of;«tab»«tab»«tab»Joseph Henry Levey and Martha Maria Dorothea Hamann,
Son of;«tab»«tab»«tab»«tab»Henry Benjamin Levey and Daphne Dardenelles Smith,
This update, March 2014
when orphaned went to Mr William Lee
Children:
- 4. Joseph Henry Levey was born on 9 May 1844 in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was christened on 9 Jun 1844 in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa; died on 30 Aug 1887 in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa; was buried in King William's Town, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
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Abt 1895 - 1897 (1 year)
