Solomon Joseph (1834–1901) married Caroline Cohen (1844–1921), a grand-daughter of Henry Cohen, daughter of his daughter Sophia and Abraham Cohen, born at Port Macquarie on 2 March 1844.
“Another prominent Jewish resident of Tamworth was Solomon Joseph, a member of an Anglo-Jewish family prominent in the middle of the 18th century. He was born in 1834 and came to Melbourne in 1859. In 1867 he married Caroline, the sister of Nathan Cohen. He subsequently lived in Dunedin, New Zealand, returning to Melbourne in 1871, where he edited the Australian Israelite. In 1875 he came to Sydney, and in 1882 moved to Tamworth, where he became proprietor and editor of the Tamworth News, a bi-weekly paper which had been founded ten years previously.”[1]
///Research Solomon’s brother Henry’s child, Albert Joseph (News + Observer = Leader); and Albert’s son Harold Joseph (newspaper and local television)
Solomon and Caroline had ___ children:
Abraham (1869–1912); married Naida Barnett (____–____) daughter of Nahum Barnett (1856–1931) and Ada née Marks.
Hannah (1872–1940); married Octave Levy (1870–1949) the youngest son of Lewis Wolfe Levy.
References:
l [???]Solomon Joseph’s Diary presented by W. S. Jessop to the Mitchell Library.
Porush, I. “The Jews of Tamworth” AJHS, Vol 3, Pt 4, 1951, pp.193–202.
Cohen, A. M. “The Jews of Tamworth—Supplemental Notes”, AJHS, Vol 3, Pt 7, 1951, pp.350–60.
Extensive bio: Jessop, W. S. “Solomon Joseph (1834–1901)” AJHS Vol 6, Pt 6, 1970, pp.320–29 (includes pics of Solomon Joseph and his wife Caroline Cohen.).
Henry Cohen’s grand-daughter Miriam, the daughter of Edward Aaron Cohen and Rebecca (née Benjamin), married Alexander Marks, the son of Caspar Marks, an early Melbourne pioneer.
A youth of 21, Alexander Marks set up business in Yokohama. This was in 1859, after more than two centuries of deliberate seclusion by the Japanese. When Japan was virtually forced by the Powers to open her ports to trade and to foreign residents Alexander Marks, a Jew born in the United States, saw an opportunity and took it.
Although born in the United States he was raised for the most part in Australia and was to become one of Australia’s most enterprising and public-spirited citizens. More should be known about him. Following the loss of two of his brothers on ss Julia in a trading venture between Yokohama and the Marianas, he returned to Melbourne. Here he continued in trade with Japan until his death in 1919. From what G. E. (“Chinese”) Morrison had to say about him he had considerable business acumen: he described him as “worth £80,000 in Melbourne and having much property in Yokohama.” This did not stop him from occupying a public position for 17 years: he was Honorary Consul for Japan for the Australian colonies from 1879 to 1896. From 1896, when a career consul was appointed in Townsville he was also Honorary Consul for Japan in Victoria. He retired in 1902 after a strenuous consular career.
His consular responsibilities were no sinecure. In the earlier period he and his Japanese clerk handled a large volume of despatches to and from him. These despatches interestingly survive him in the archives of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Not only did he travel extensively on his consular duties, including tours of Thursday Island, but he learned the Japanese language which enabled him to act as an interpreter in court proceedings. In many ways his interest in Japanese–Australian relationships were remarkable. It might reasonably be thought that his consular activities were merely extra-curricular because of his trading activities, but this was not so. It is doubtful whether more than a portion of Alexander Marks’ trading activities in Yokohama were in Australia: Australian imports to Japan were virtually non-existent until wool shipments began in the 1890s.
Alexander served on the Committee of the Jewish Herald Association. He served as a Vice-President of the Melbourne Hospital, and acted as a Commissioner on the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition. On a visit to Tokyo he received the Order of the Rising Sun from the Emperor. Alexander Marks died on 21 May 1919.
Alexander and Miriam had ___ children:
Gwen (____–____) who married Septimus Levy, the son of Lewis Wolfe Levy.
Reginald (____–____) who married Irene Cohen, the daughter of George Judah Cohen and Rebecca née Levey.
[Reference: Biography+pic, AJHS, Vol. 8, Pt 3, April 1977, p.122.
