On the trail of the Procter family of Constantinople

My Great Great Grandfather Edmund Procter (also Proctor) lived in Constantinople between approximately 1835 and 1847. He was born in London on the 21st May 1797 and was baptized on the 17 July 1797 at St George the Martyr parish, Southwark - image 1. He was a Presbyterian.

His father, Benjamin Procter was born in 1771 (birth place unknown), and he married Sarah Allkins on the 30 July 1796 in the church of St. George Hanover Square in London. Benjamin worked as a currier and fathered a further four children: Marianne, Luise, Emily and Charles - image 2.

Benjamin and Sarah lived in London until 1802, when Benjamin moved to Altona, Denmark (which from 1868 becomes a district of Hamburg).

We can find Benjamin also in the Adressbücher¹ of Altona from 1802 until 1816 as a resident and owner of a factory and a shop of Moroccan leather merchandise. The English and German denomination of this type of merchant is known as Corduan or Saffian.

Records indicate that in 1814 Benjamin was living in Vienna with his family and resided in Landstrasse n. 217², where Emilia Caterina was born. Presumably on the basis that the city was famous for the English firm of leather run by George Appleton. Whilst in Vienna, his daughter Emily Cathrine was baptised in the Evangelical Church.

Benjamin and his family moved to Venice, where he was employed as a British Consul (as known from oral tradition however he is not listed in the English Diplomacy Records). In Venice Edmund bought a house in Castello n. 4647.

Between the 1816 and the 1820 the family moved to Trieste, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (now in Italy).

Benjamin died before 1828 and his wife Sarah between 1828 and 1831, probably in Trieste.

In 1828 their daughter Mary married John Bishop (a Scottish merchant of Leith who lived and traded in Trieste) in Trieste. They had four children: Helene, Sarah, Mary, Emily.

In 1831 Louise married the Venetian merchant Luigi Contencin in Trieste. Their daughter Maria Regina Adelaide³ married Stephan von Herzfeld on the 28th June 1858 in Trieste. Stephan was born in Vienna in 1827 and was the captain of an Austrian warship. The Herzfeld’s were a rich family of Jewish merchants in Vienna, who converted to the Catholic Church during the 19th Century. Stephan became an aide-de-camp of Archduke Maximilian of Hapsburg and followed him in his expedition to Mexico in 1864, when he founded the Austrian empire of Mexico. Stephan was a member of the Mexican council and later the Mexican Ambassador of the court of Vienna. After his diplomatic career ended he worked as an agent for the Austrian Lloyd.

1. Stephanie Eugenie Angelique von Herzfeld (born in 1860 and died in 1942), married Thomas James Jackson on the 6th February 1883 in Trezbond (Turkey), owner of a mine in Paradise near Izmir. Thomas was born on the 1st October 1843 in Darlington (Durham, Yorkshire) and died the on the 9th December 1916 in Constantinople. T.J. Jackson was the son of the physician Thomas Hayes Jackson (who died the 21st December 1879 in Darlington) and Mary Hutchinson. The son of T.J. Jackson and Stephanie von Herzfeld, Edward Victor Jackson married Anne E Guard Gray on the 26th April 1923 in St. George Church (Stanford, Kent). Please note that the Jackson’s family is recorded in the Levantine Heritage website as members of the Levant Company and as owners of a mine in Izmir. There is a connection between the Procter’s and the Jackson’s. The daughter of T.J. Jackson and Stephanie, Frances Nahileh, married Ali-Mohammad Oveicy in Constantinople.

2. Alice von Herzfeld (born in November 1863 in Trieste and died in 1913) married Paul Aristide Hassan Khan Sheikh (an iranian diplomat) on the 9th August 1887 in Cairo. Paul was born on the 30th May 1863 in Sèvres (France) and died on the 3rd April 1894 in Paris. He was the son of Mohammed Khan and Leonie Constans. Their daughter, Fatemeh Sheikh married Esmail Khan (Dabir-Ol-Mamalek) FARZANEH (member of a family of Iranian diplomats) in Constantinople in 1910. A second daughter, Emineh Sheikh married Fathollah (Mochir Hozour) PAKRAVAN (member of a family of Iranian diplomats and officials).

3. Maximilian Ritter von Herzfeld (born on the 24th December 1864, died on the 20th October 1932) was an Austrian consul in Constantinople, he married Hilda von Herzfeld in Paris.

4. Rudolf Ignaz August Ritter von Herzfeld (born in Vienna on the 10th September 1867, died on the 25 September 1922 in Vienna) married Anna Johanna Maria Koczian Nemethy in Pressburg. He was a famous jurist.

5. Emmerich Ritter von Herzfeld (born in 1880 in Izmir, died in 1959 in Vienna) was an Austrian plenipotentiary minister.

Edmund later moved to Constantinople however we have no knowledge of the reason and date of this move.

In Constantinople, Edmund worked as ship chandler, as discovered from reference to the citations of two books as follows:

Oriental Outlines, Or a Rambler's Recollections of a Tour in Turkey, Greece, & Tuscany in 1838 by William Knight London 1838 (from Google Books)

“Leaving this disgusting neighbourhood – in which is situated the english hospital for seamen – the houses at once assume a better appearance. Many which were built by the Genoese, still remain. The Franks merchants have here chosen their warehouses. Near a large mosque in this quarter, are the wellknown shops of Stampa and Procter, chiefly the resort of the captains of english merchantmen, but which should also visited by every traveller; for many curious characters may occasionally be seen there; much information obtained of passing events, that reaches not the circles of Pera; and anything and everything be procured;wether a bottle of porter – that unrivalled luxury in the east – or anght else necessary for the exterior or interior of the body, or a house. …”

“Who’s Stampa ?” asked Webster of Knighton, as Mac Cuming left the cabin.

“Stampa—the glorious Stampa—is as well known in the Turkish capital as the sultan himself,” replied Knighton. “His rank, it is true, is but that of a ship-chandler, of which useful class there are but two or three notables in the place, Stampa and Proctor, and, I think, another, but I can’t recollect his name. Of Greek and such-like ship-chandlers there may be shoals for aught I know to the contrary, but the English, as a body, patronise Stampa. He was the original in the trade, has lived safely through revolutions, plague, and fire ; was on the spot when the Janissaries were suppressed, or rather ‘smashed into smithereens’ in ’26, and at the present moment is said to be as rich as a Jew, though it is right to say the old boy is a Christian, and one not only in name but in character. His shop is situate in the suburb of Galata, and is the grand resort of English skippers and travellers, where they quaff grog and pale ale, smoke the best tobacco, pick up the news, arrange excursions into the country, and trips to the Mussulman side of the harbour, to the tcharshees, baths, bazaars, and so on. The shop itself is what is vulgarly called an omnium gatherum, containing every thing, from vinegar to attar of roses, trinkets, cheeses, and hams, walking-sticks, ladies' slippers, and God knows what; order what you will it is obtainable through Stampa, the honest Genoese, in the turn of a handspike, or before you could say Jack Robinson. I’ll introduce you, my boy, as soon as we set foot on the shores of the Golden Horn.”

In 1837 the American Consul George A. Porter authorised Edmund Procter to manage the docking and unloading of American ships in the port of Constantinople.

The following document identifies the role of a ship chandler in Constantinople in 1854:

“A Firman has to be obtained from the Turkish authorities at Constantinople before a vessel is allowed to proceed into the Black Sea, which must be delivered up, or shown to an officer who comes off in a boat, when vessels are passing the batteries at the foot of the Giant’s Mount.

It saves time if, upon arrival at the Dardanelles, the master of the vessel writes to his ship chandler at Constantinople (stating name of vessel, quantity of cargo, number of crew, and also where bound to), who will then order the Firman, and have it in readiness by the time the vessel arrives at the Bosphorus. The Firman has to be ordered two or three days before it can be obtained; so that if a vessel arrives at Constantinople with a southerly wind, and the Firman is not ready, it may cause a detention, as the Bosphorus cannot be passed through without a fair wind. The usual time to expect a southerly wind, and thereby to enable vessels to proceed through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, is at the full and change of the moon; but it generally lasts only a few hours in summer. Steam tugs are now established in the Bosphorus and can be procured at all times at moderate charges.”

Edmund Procter met Matilde Modini, the daughter of a captain of a mercantile ship, in Venice and she later moved to Constantinople where they married on the 17th of August 1840.

The wedding ceremony occurred either in the chapel of the British Embassy in Pera or by the summer English residence of Tarabya.

(The writing is very faded, but it is possible to identify the following information)

EDMUND PROCTER of Galata Parish Constantinople, Bachelor
and Matilda Modini late of Venice Parish Austria, Spinster
were married in this Chapel by …………………..with Consent of
English Ambassador Extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the Sublime
…….., in Constantinople for Rights Her majesty Viscount Ponsonby
This Sevent…th Day of
Augustin the year 1840
By me Sam. Bennett .. .. Chaplain of St. B. M. Embassy

(One of the witnesses is Pisani, who came from a famous family of Franks in Constantinople).

On the 29th August 1842 Matilde and Edmund's first child Raymond was baptised in the catholic church of SS.Pietro e Paolo church in Galata.

Witnesses of the baptism were Stefano Scopinich ship owner from Dalmatia and Rosa Stampa, wife of Antonio the Italian ship chandler.

On the 6th of October 1844 Victor and Emily Procter (twins) were baptized in the Catholic church of S. Maria Draperis in Pera.

Witnesses of the baptism were Francesco Perti from Como and Joanna Miller from Liverpool.

On the 30th of January 1848 while in Venice with his family Edmund died suddenly from pneumonia. The death is conserved in the Registers of deaths of the Anglican Church of Venice.

Edmund’s daughter Emily Johanna (also known as Emma) my great grandmother lived in Venice untill 1872, when she married Gaetano Sorgato, my great grandfather from Padua.

1 Königlich allergnädigst privilegirtes Altonaisches Addresbuch für das Jahr …, Personen- und Firmenverzeichnis: Erster Abschnitt. Alphabetisches Verzeichniß aller Einwohner, mit ihren Vor- und Zunamen, ihrem Gewerbe, den Gassen wo sie wohnen und der Nummer ihrer Wohnungen.

2 Konskriptionsbogen (residence certificate) – Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv.

3 Wer einmal war, das jüdische Grossbürgertum Wiens 1800-1938, di Georg Gaugusch, Amalthea 2011.