Henry’s sixth son, William (c.1832–71), was born in London.
“On 22nd August 1851 the first sale of part of Goonoo Goonoo by the Australian Agricultural Company was held by it when Section J in West Tamworth was sold. West Tamworth is just over the Peel River from Tamworth. The sales of land in West Tamworth included Lot 4 to Lewis Wolfe Levy and Lot 5 to Henry Cohen. Each lot was two acres in extent.
“William Cohen’s store nearby was probably on Lot 6 at the time. William Cohen was the brother of the Hon. Edward Cohen, later Minister of Customs in Victoria, and [brother-in-law] of Abraham Cohen, of Port Macquarie, father of Nathan Cohen. . . . Nathan Cohen [at the time] was an employee of William Cohen, and, in connection with an application in 1866 to bring under the Real Property Act a lot of land situated on the north side of Gipps Street at the corner of Ebsworth Street, which David Collins had agreed to sell to William Cohen in consideration of the latter forgiving him a debt, I have seen statutory declarations by William Cohen and Nathan Cohen which record the fact. I gather that William Cohen also had a store at Nemingha.”[1]
William and Nathan Cohen were unrelated to the Abraham Cohen of the firm Cohen & Levy who came to the area in 1849 and subsequently, in partnership with Louis Levy, took over the business of L. W. Levy when Lewis Wolfe Levy went into partnership with Samuel and David Cohen in the business David Cohen & Co. Lewis Wolfe and Louis Levy were brothers, as were Abraham, Samuel and David Cohen.
“One day in August 1851, so the story goes, a squatter named Nathan Burrows of Hanging Rock station some 60 kilometres southeast of Tamworth near the headwaters of the Peel, was riding around his property when he came across one of his stockmen washing for gold in Swamp Creek with his pint pot. He showed Burrows the small but nonetheless impressive quantity of gold he had already won, which he claimed he had first discovered when he noticed a few yellow specks of metal in the bottom of his pannikin while washing it after a meal. Burrows immediately hastened to Tamworth, where he told William Cohen of the Commercial Store of the discovery. Two days later Cohen set out for Hanging Rock with two men named Charles Parsons, and William Blackburn. Together with Burrows they made a close inspection of the area and according to the legend, found a few specks of gold under a carpet snake which they had killed, then quickly obtained several ounces of the precious metal and at once returned to Tamworth and made their discovery known.”[2]
“Tamworth in the fifties: There were two stores: Mr L. W. Levy on the eastern side of the river and Mr William Cohen on the western, also two public houses on the west Tamworth: Gannons and Barnes. The post office was at Mr Cohen’s store.”[3]
“Mr William Cohen was a prominent man in Tamworth in 1852. A great sportsman getting up races on the old course, also as secretary, clerk and judge. Many’s the fine race meeting came of every year while he was at the head of the race club. Those times a horse ran on its merits to try and win. No such thing as pulling a horse like they do now or letting them run for a bookmaker as there was no such person those times. All the betting was done at the stand appointing a stakeholder. When the bets were paid over under the supervision of Mr Cohen there was very little disputes.”[4]
In 1852 William Cohen purchased town land lots at Tamworth, NSW. [///ref.]
On 7 September 1853, at the York Street Synagogue, William married[5] Sarah Solomon (1835–1918), the sixth daughter of S[amuel] Solomon (1774–1856)[6] and Rebecca (née Moss, d.1864). The witnesses were: Henry Cohen, Philip Cohen and I. Levey. The officiating clergyman was Jacob Isaacs. William and Sarah settled in Tamworth. Sarah was apparently the younger sister of Julia (1826–1914) who married Lewis Wolfe Levy, and Rose (d.1907) who married George Cohen (1820–1889) a brother of Lewis, Samuel, David, Solomon and Abraham Cohen, etc.
Tamworth’s first newspaper the Examiner was launched on 3 April 1859, “and the Tamworth shopkeepers and merchants . . . lent the fledgling paper strong support through advertising. . . . Prominent among those anxious to publicise their goods and services in the first issue was William Cohen, of the Commercial Store, who ‘begged to inform his numerous friends and patrons’ that he had just received ‘a very large supply’ of sundry wares ‘which he is prepared to sell at a small advance on Maitland prices.’ They featured an extensive range of liquor, a somewhat scantier array of groceries, ‘Colonial Soap,’ Wetherspoon’s confectionery and jams, ‘Miners’ Tools of all descriptions,’ and ‘a large and well-assorted stock of Drapery, Hosiery, Ironmongery, Saddlery, Boots and Shoes, &c.’ Not to be outdone, Cohen and Levy’s Tamworth Stores ‘Established 1846—successors to L. W. Levy,’ also announced an imposing list of liquors ‘selected under the immediate superintendence of our own agent in Sydney,’ plus drapery and ‘clothing at the lowest remunerative prices.’”[7]
The first inter-district cricket match between Gunnedah and Tamworth was played at Tamworth on 12–13 February 1861; The umpires for the match were William Cohen and a man named Haddington.[8]
[///Insert line drawing of Wm Cohen’s Flour Mill from Tamworth: A Pictorial History. Tamworth Historical Society, 1980, p.42; MosLibrary SS994.4TAM].
“Of central importance to the economy that produced this impressive mercantile superstructure were Tamworth’s three flour mills with their “superior wheat grinding machinery,” described by the Illustrated Sydney News as ‘the primary source of that general prosperity which has within the last 15 or 16 years pervaded the town and district.’ Their somewhat complicated history was indeed a reflection of the area’s development in the twenty years since free selection. The first mill—following Charles Armstrong’s short-lived or perhaps even still-born venture of 1859—was a three-storeyed structure bounded by Peel and Bligh streets and backing onto the river, built by Donald Munro in February 1864 and leased or bought later that year by William Cohen. With its resultant success, the unconnected firm of Cohen and Levy saw the possibilities offering and in 1867 built a second mill in Fitzroy Street, bringing in George Fielder from Branxton as their first miller. On William Cohen’s death in 1871, Cohen and Levy shrewdly leased his mill and immediately closed it down to prevent competition with their own expanding and more modern plant.”[9]
“This was the same mill that was better known later as Fielder Maxwell’s. The building still stands today [c.1980], opposite Maguire’s (Tattersall’s) Hotel, Peel Street. One can still see on it very faintly ‘Fielder and Maxwell, Rolling Flour Mills’ and also the name ‘William Cohen.’”[10]
On his father Henry’s death, William’s share of the estate was a life interest in the income from “two houses in Hamilton Street Sydney known as numbers 3 and 4.” On the death of William and his wife, the legacy passed to their daughter Fanny.
William Cohen died, aged 40, at Tamworth on 2 October 1871[11] and is buried at Rookwood Cemetery. Sarah died, aged 83, on 10 July 1918[12] and is also buried at Rookwood.
William and Sarah had ___ children:
Frances (Fanny) (1854–____) born[13] __________ 1854 at Tamworth; m. Henry Marienthal.
Birth of a daughter on 19 January 1855 at Tamworth.[14]
Birth of a daughter on 27 October 1856 at Tamworth.[15]
Elizabeth (1857–____) born[16] at Tamworth on __________ 1857, m. Arthur Benjamin, son of Solomon Benjamin and Miriam (née Nathan).
Birth of a daughter on 11 July 1858 at Commercial Street, Tamworth.[17]
Hannah (1858–____) born at Tamworth on __________ 1858.[18]
Henry S. (1860[61?]–____) born at Tamworth on __________ 1860[61?].[19] Died at Tamworth on __________ 1862.[20]
Edward (1863–____) born at Tamworth on __________ 1863.[21]
Rebecca (1868[65?]–____) born at Tamworth on __________ .[22]
Violet (1867–____) was born[23] at Tamworth on __________ 1867; m. her first cousin, Arthur Isaac Cohen, son of Hon. Edward and Rebecca Cohen.
Maud (1868–____)born[24] at Tamworth on ______1868; m. her first cousin once removed, Ernest R. Cohen, son of George Cohen and Elizabeth née Davis, and grand-son of Abraham and Sophia Cohen.
Anne (____–____) m. Lewis Isaacs.[25]
Other references:
AJHS, Vol 3, Pt 4, p.193, “The Jews of Tamworth”
AJHS, Vol 3, Pt 7, p.350, “The Jews of Tamworth—Supplemental Notes”
