Today I want to present Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien's obituary, written most probably by Rev. K. F. A. Steinkopff, a friend of the Tolkien family in the beginnings of their life in London. Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien was J. R. R. Tolkien's 2nd great-granduncle. The shorter version of this obituary was published in the Methodist Magazine from 1813 (here you can read about it on my blog). The longer text can be found in the Wesleyan-Methodist magazine, being a continuation of the Arminian or Methodist magazine first publ. by John Wesley (London 1813, p. 949-950):
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Pastor Karl Friedrich Adolf Steinkopff (1773–1859) |
OBITUARY
Died, in Hoxton-square, London, May 27, 1813, DANIEL G. TOLKEIN. He was born at Dantzic, in July, 1746, of respectable and religious parents. Coming to Amsterdam the age of twenty, he was providentially placed in a religious family, in which, by the instrumentality of social prayer and religious conversation, he was awakened to a sense of his guilt and danger. So painful were his convictions for sin, and so strongly was be tempted to despair of mercy, that he was ready to wish he had never been born. In this state of despondecy he remained, until be opened his mind to a religious friend, whose conversation and prayers the Lord blessed to his protif. Coming to London, in 1770, be attended on the ministry of Mr. Burgman, then minister of the German Lutheran church in the Savoy. The letters which he wrote at that time to his parents and brother, savoured much of the love of Christ, He attended the private meetings for prayer and edification, which Mr. Burgman encouraged; and he derived much profit from his pastoral counsels. Having acquired the knowledge of the English language, he began to visit some English churches and Chapels; and, conceiving a peculiar regard and affection for the people in the late venerable Mr. WesIey's connexion, he joined their society; and he gratefully acknowledged, to the latest period of his life, the spiritual blessings which he received in that connexion.
He was humble, because he was a strict self-observer. Far from resting in the externals of religion, he looked to the inner chambers of his heart, searched the secret motives of his actions, and made the word of God his rule. All who knew him must have observed, that he was a man of prayer. Whilst praying, he felt sensible of his speaking with God, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords; but he also felt that the God whom be addressed was his reconciled Father in Christ. Thus, whilst be prayed with a holy awe and reverence, he approached his God, with filial love and confidence. The word of God was very precious to him; to read it, and to hear it preached, he felt both his duty and privilege. So long as his health world permit, he visited the sanctuary of his God, and approached his altar, in order to have his faith strengthened by partaking of the memorials of the Redeemer's dying love.
He took the most tender interest in the temporal and spiritual prosperity of his family, and it was the constant wish and prayer of his heart, that every branch of it might be happy here hereafter. He loved the disciples of Christ, to whatever country or denomination they belonged, and cheerfully contributed to the extension of his kingdom, both among Christians and the of Heathen.
After having honourably carried on a considerable business for a number of years, he resigned it to his son, hoping to spend the last years of his life more than any of the former, to the glory of God. Scarcely had he began to taste the sweets of retirement, when it pleased his heavenly Father to visit him with tedious disorder, which gradually undermined his constitution, consumed his strength, and was attended with a depression of spirits, which was often painful to himself, his family, and friends. But in the midst of all, his painful exercises, he held fast the shield of faith, and could say of his heavenly Father, "Though he slay me, yet will í trust in him.". He often breathed out his soul to God in short ejaculations for mercy through the merits of Christ; and longed to drop the burden of flesh. The wished for happy period at last arrived, when be changed a state of suffering for that of heavenly felicity.
Two funeral sermons, which were very numerously attended, were preached on the occasion of his death, one by the Rev. Mr. Steinkopff, June the 6th, in the Lutheran Church, in the Savoy, and other the next Lord's day evening, by the Rev. Mr. Benson, in the New Chapel, City-road. The Rev. Mr. Steinkopf, to whom we are chiefly indebted for foregoing short account, was intimately acquainted with Mr. Tolkein, who regularly attended his ministry on the Sunday mornings, for several years, at the Savoy Church. In the evenings he attended at the New Chapel, City-road.
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| A Fragment of my Tolkien Family Tree made on Ancestry.co.uk (1300 persons) |
And this is my own biographical account about Daniel Gottlieb Tolkien (1746-1813):
First known English Tolkien was Daniel Gottlieb. In London he used only the name Daniel, sometimes shortening it to Dan, and he anglicized his second name to Godleip. He was born in Bischofsberg (today Biskupia Górka) in Danzig (today Gdańsk) in the so called Polish or Royal Prussia, being since the 15th century a part of Kingdom of Poland (later a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth). Born in July 1746 to the artillerist Christian Tolkien and his wife, Anna Euphrosina neé Bergholtz, he was baptized in the Lutheran church of St Salvator on 18 July of the same year. In 1766, at the age of twenty, he came to Amsterdam, where he not only learned his furrier craftsmanship but also met religious friend (or friends), probably someone from the circle of Rev. Johann Gustav Burgmann (1744–1795), a pastor of the Savoy Lutheran Chapel in London, who took part in his religious awakening. He brought his craftsmanship from Gdańsk and Amsterdam to London in 1770 and became a furrier (written sources call him "Master Daniel Tolkien of Cheapside, London Skinner and Furrier"). At the age of 36, on 7 April 1782 he married Ann Austin (1762–1828) in Holy Sepulchre church in Holborn. His best man was his younger brother John Benjamin Tolkien I (it did not take Johann long to make his name more English) who had married Mary Warner in the same church only a year earlier (and the bridesmaid was Ann, Daniel’s future wife). On February 14, 1794 Daniel, as the elder brother, applied for British citizenship. He succeeded 12 days later. It was supposed to help him get a firmer position in the business. In the years 1784–1800 children of Daniel and Ann were born: Maria (later Wotherspoon, 1783–?), Daniel George (1784–1815), Ann (1786–?), Martha (1788–1819), Charles (1789–1833; he was a Methodist missionary to Canada; Charles Tolkien's obituary can be found here), John Henry (1795–1820), Charlotte (1797–1817) and James (1800–1855; James Tolkien was a forefather of the family of the Canadian and American Tolkiens - about his courageous life you can read here). They were baptized in German Lutheran church in the former Savoy Palace. The family lived in the merchant and handicraft part of London, first at 27 Bedford Street (called also 27 New Street) in the parish of St. Paul in Covent Garden (data from the certificate of naturalization, 1794 and from the years 1796–1808), and meanwhile at 60 Cheapside Street close to St. Paul’s Cathedral (from at least 1794).
In 1811 Daniel was the owner of houses at 12 Hoxton Square and at 7-9 Cumberland Street in Shoreditch (today’s Scawfell Street). In 1799 he accepted his nephew George Tolkien (1784–1840; he was J. R. R. Tolkien’s great-grandfather and he was not George William Tolkien as other scholars write. George William Tolkien, 1805–1877, was George’s oldest son) as an apprentice in his furrier manufacture. He was a member of the early Methodist community by the house of John Wesley and he attended the City Road Chapel (today Wesley’s Chapel). In 1810 he wrote the testament [see here and here], in 1813 he was among the benefactors of the British and Foreign Bible Society. He died on 26 May 1813 and had a modest funeral on 2 June. The family grave does not exist anymore (it was located at the back of Wesley’s Chapel where new buildings have been raised). Since some information on his life has been revealed and some more is in his last will, he will be remembered as a charitable and righteous man. In the last will he ordered his family to take care of his brother’s debt and to take it to court, and considering the good of his wife and children he did not cancel that claim.
The Tolkiens quickly forgot about their Eastern European, the "Easterling" descent. James Kenneth Tolkien (J. R. R. Tolkien's 3rd cousin 1x removed) wrote in his book from 1913:
"On my father's side. I am descended from an old Alsace-Loraine family. Nearly two centuries ago two brothers, Daniel and Henry Tolkien, left the land of their fathers and settled in London, England, with a fairly good start, financially. Daniel chose, for his investment, the fur business, while Henry fancied he could get more notes out of the music business. Report has it that both made good, however, and today there is a piano in England bearing the name of Tolkien.
How many false information can be found here, you can read in my comments to the text by James Kenneth - "James Kenneth Tolkien (1881–1925) about his roots".
The most romantic (and most fantastic) story of the Tolkiens' descent is described later in the Carpenter's Biography of J. R. R. Tolkien (see here):
There was, however, Ronald’s Aunt Grace, his father’s younger sister, who told him stories of the Tolkien ancestors; stories which sounded improbable but which were, said Aunt Grace, firmly based on fact. She alleged that the family name had originally been ‘von Hohenzollern’, for they had emanated from the Hohenzollern district of the Holy Roman Empire. A certain George von Hohenzollern had, she said, fought on the side of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria at the Siege of Vienna in 1529. He had shown great daring in leading an unofficial raid against the Turks and capturing the Sultan’s standard. This (said Aunt Grace) was why he was given the nickname Tollkuhn, ‘foolhardy’; and the name stuck. The family was also supposed to have connections with France and to have intermarried with the nobility in that country, where they acquired a French version of their nickname, du Temeraire. Opinion differed among the Tolkiens as to why and when their ancestors had come to England. The more prosaic said it was in 1756 to escape the Prussian invasion of Saxony, where they had lands. Aunt Grace preferred the more romantic (if implausible) story of how one of the du Temeraires had fled across the Channel in 1794 to escape the guillotine, apparently then assuming a form of the old name, ‘Tolkien’. This gentleman was reputedly an accomplished harpsichordist and clock-repairer. Certainly the story -typical of the kind of tale that middle-class families tell about their origins - gave colour to the presence of Tolkiens in London at the beginning of the nineteenth century, making their living as clock and watch manufacturers and piano-makers. And it was as a piano-maker and music-seller that John Benjamin Tolkien, Arthur’s father, had come to Birmingham and set up business some years later.
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