Jennens Road

[flossiefoster]

I am aware that there is a Jennens Road in Edgbaston and that this was probably named after the Jennens family business of making papier mache products. I have been trying to find out as much as I can about the Jennens family because my great grandfather was told that his grandfather was illegitimate following an incident between his great grandmother and one of the Jennens male family members. I have been attempting to trace the Jennens family tree but as with many families there are family members all sharing the same forename. I am also very familiar with the story about how they lost their fortune to lawyers over court cases over who should have inherited when their rich family member died without signing his will. The money they were fighting for actually went to the lawyers representing them. Did any of the family live in Edgbaston?

Any ideas?

 

[RobT]

I am aware that there is a Jennens Road in Edgbaston and that this was probably named after the Jennens family business of making papier mache products. I have been trying to find out as much as I can about the Jennens family because my great grandfather was told that his grandfather was illegitimate following an incident between his great grandmother and one of the Jennens male family members. I have been attempting to trace the Jennens family tree but as with many families there are family members all sharing the same forename. I am also very familiar with the story about how they lost their fortune to lawyers over court cases over who should have inherited when their rich family member died without signing his will. The money they were fighting for actually went to the lawyers representing them. Did any of the family live in Edgbaston? Any ideas?

Is this Jennens Row, Duddeston?

 

[MWS]

Jennens Row is mentioned about half way on the article below, it suggests the family it was named after came from Nether Whitacre and they died out late 1700s. There appear to be many, what must be, unrelated Jennens in the Bham area after this date.

The secret origins of Birmingham's street names

We walk or drive along them every day without realising their amazing history

www.birminghammail.co.uk

 

[johnny082]

Great Video MWS but had to give up watching half way through as the adverts moving both sides of it, driving me crazy

 

[flossiefoster]

Jennens Row is mentioned about half way on the article below, it suggests the family it was named after came from Nether Whitacre and they died out late 1700s. There appear to be many, what must be, unrelated Jennens in the Bham area after this date.

The secret origins of Birmingham's street names

We walk or drive along them every day without realising their amazing history

www.birminghammail.co.uk

This is absolutely fascinating. Thank you so much.

 

[flossiefoster]

I came across an article on Birmingham Online (ie the Bham Mail online) that listed many of the well known roads in Birmingham with Jennens Row as one of them. As MWS says above, it mentions that the Jennens family were ironmongers from Nether Whitacre. That's fine but were they the same branch as the Jennens family that were papier mache manufacturers in the early 1800s?

This is what the Bham Mail had to say about them:

"Jennens Road​

There was originally a Jennens Row, named after the Jennens family, who were 17th century ironmongers from Nether Whitacre in north Warwickshire.
The family set up several forges at the hamlet now called Furnace End, in north Warwickshire.
They also had a smelting furnace in Aston, using local woodland as a source of fuel.
Jennens Row ran from Bartholomew Street to Masshouse Lane.
It no longer exists but there is today a Jennens Road running alongside Millennium Point, Birmingham City University and the Thinktank science museum.
The Jennens family died out in 1798, leaving a fortune of £12 million which is still unclaimed today.
Nine members of the family are buried in a church vault at Nether Whitacre.
It's believed Charles Dickens - who visited Birmingham in 1853 for the first public reading of his new work A Christmas Carol - based his book Bleak House on the Jennens family."

However, the papier mache manufacturing Jennens family went bust because they began to argue amongst themselves, and went into litigation, about the family fortune. They then spent money on going to court about it until all of the money went on legal fees so I wonder that there were two branches of the family with one having an unallocated fortune while the other spent it all on litigation trying to claim the fortune. It's quite a conundrum. Any ideas?

 

[Davenport]

My 3x Grt grandmother was Mary Jennens b.1790, her Brother Aaron b.1788 was the papier-mâché manufacturer.
Jennens name has been used in my family as a second name.

 

[flossiefoster]

Great Video MWS but had to give up watching half way through as the adverts moving both sides of it, driving me crazy

I agree Johnny! Thanks for the reply.

 

[flossiefoster]

My 3x Grt grandmother was Mary Jennens b.1790, her Brother Aaron b.1788 was the papier-mâché manufacturer.
Jennens name has been used in my family as a second name.

Thank you for your useful reply, Davenport. I think that my 3xgreat grandmother, Hannah, was born in 1786.