Berend Jantzen. Bliżej znalezienia grobu gdańskich Tolkienów?

Mamy tu cmentarz Zbawiciela na Zaroślaku (ok. 1838-1842).
Być może któryś z krzyży to nagrobek Christiana Tolkiena i jego żony Euphrosiny

Nazwisko Jantzen reprezentowało w Gdańsku kilka rodów. Jeden z nich to ród mieszczański, związany z kilkoma cechami, w tym z cechem kuśnierzy. Inny to ród menonicki z gminy flamandzkiej w Petershagen (na Zaroślaku). Pod kamieniem nagrobnym nr 37 mieszczanina Daniela Jantzena w kościele św. Katarzyny na Starym Mieście pochowano w 1795 ciało innego mieszczanina i mistrza kuśnierskiego, Michaela Tolkiena (1708-1795), stryja Londyńskich Braci (warto przypomnieć sobie szczegóły tego odkrycia! - tutaj). 

Tymczasem pani Krystyna Ejsmont zwróciła się do mnie dziś z zapytaniem o pomoc w identyfikacji tej (patrz zdjęcie) steli nagrobnej z tzw. Nowego Cmentarza Zbawiciela na terenie dzisiejszej szkoły przy ulicy Na Stoku. Chodzi o ten sam cmentarz, na którym pochowany jest ojciec i matka Londyńskich Braci, czyli artylerzysta Garnizonu Gdańskiego, Christian Tolkien i i jego żona Euphrosina. 

Zajrzałem do moich czarodziejskich materiałów gdańskich... I jest rewelacja, która łączy się  prawdopodobnie z... Tolkienami! Oto mamy stelę nagrobną z grobu oznaczonego jako B17, Neuer Kirchhof, gdzie leży:

Nr. 17 Stehende Stein ['stojący kamień' z herbem]

BEREND JANT[ZEN
VND SEINE ERBEN]

Ten Berend Jantzen zmarł 9 maja 1738 według ksiąg parafialnych menonitów gdańskich - tutaj; był mężem Barbke Prinsche. Jego wnukiem był młodszy Berend Jantzen, syn Johanna, który urodził się 5 września 1743, przyjął chrzest w 1765 i zmarł 6 maja 1798 w Aleksandrii (w Egipcie?). Był mężem Eliesabeth z domu Loewens, ojcem Jacoba, Johanna i dwojga innych dzieci. Według ksiąg menonitów gdańskich z gminy flamandzkiej mieszkał w Alt Schotland/Starych Szkotach i należał do gminy menonickiej w Stadtgebiet/Chmielnikach Oruńskich (dziś Oruńskie Przedmieście), był szyprem, a pływał do Amsterdamu, Londynu itd.; poszukam jeszcze więcej informacji na jego temat! Oto opis tego grobu z oryginalnej księgi parafialnej St Salvator (Zbawiciela):

Najciekawsze jest to, że ja już na blogu (14 maja 2018) pisałem o tym grobie jako kandydacie na miejsce pochówku Christiana i Euphrosiny Tolkienów! Pisałem wtedy, że jest to grób rodzin Ziegenhagen i Jantzen. Jantzenowie byli kuśnierzami w Gdańsku, zaś Florentina Elisabeth Ziegenhagen była chrzestną Renaty Eleonory Tolkien 10 lipca 1756 (to siostra Londyńskich Braci!), zaś Martin Jantzen był chrzestnym syna Renata Eleonory, Johanna Christiana (ur. 1782). A zatem i Janztenowie, i Ziegenhagenowie byli blisko rodziny migrantów z Królestwa Prus, Tolkienów! Jeżeli tu leżeli Tolkienowie, to ten Berend okazuje się prawdzimym "Berenem" (nawiązanie do grobu J. R. R. Tolkiena w Wolvercote w Oksfordzie).

Prawda może być jednak bardziej przyziemna (w dosłownym tego słowa znaczeniu) - małżeństwo Tolkienów zostało pochowane w zwykłym ziemnym grobie bez żadnej steli nagrobnej. Wskazuje na to zapis na temat ich pogrzebów (gdyby pochowano ich w grobie z płytą kamienną, oznaczono by to w księgach parafialnych). 

Petershagen w 1820 - za Radunią widać ogrodzenie cmentarza

Concerning Reuel (part 2)

See "Concerning Reuel (part 1)"

In his letter from 1969 J. R. R. Tolkien wrote (cf. Letters, no. 309 to Amy Ronald, 2 January 1969):

Of course there is always Reuel. This was (I believe) the surname of a friend of my grandfather. The family believed it to be French (which is formally possible); but if so it is an odd chance that it appears twice in the O[ld] T[estament] as an unexplained other name for Jethro Moses' father-in-law. All my children, and my children's children, and their children, have the name. 

As you remember from my previous posts, J. R. R. Tolkien's grandfather was born in Pentonville, London and his Evangelical chapel during his childhood was Pentonville Chapel (read more about the Tolkiens from Pentonville who were the Pentonville-Tolkiens like the Sackville-Bagginses here and here). His father George lived there (77 White Lion Street, Pentonville) up to circa 1822 and then he moved with his wife and his children to 4 High Street, Islington. But still their chapel was Pentonville Chapel. It is described in The Evangelical Register from 1838 (see here): 

The Pentonville Chapel was an Evangelical place of worship of the first Tolkiens from J. R. R. Tolkien's line. The Professor's great-great-grandfather, Johannes (John) Benjamin Tolkien (born in Danzig/Gdańsk in 1752) attended to the services there (he can be found on the lists of the members of that community) and this place was connected with early Calvinistic Methodist movement of Lady of Huntingdon Connexion (read about it here). This movement is mentioned above in the footnote.

As you can see, 

"the present [1838] Minister is the Rev. D. Ruell, M. A. (...)"

Rev. David Ruell is in my opinion this whose surname became the second name of Arthur Reuel Tolkien and of all his descendants! The Professor's grandfather gave surnames of his most favourite pastors to the children in his second family (read about it here). For instance the Professor's uncle, who paid for his education after Mabel's death, Lawrence George Hammond Tolkien (1873-1939) had his third name Hammond probably after Rev. John Hammond from the Congregational Union Chapel in Handsworth:

"In Handsworth is a large Independent Chapel, which is called the Union Chapel, and was erected in 1788, but was improved and enlarged in 1818 and 1850. The Rev John Hammond is its minister, and attached to it is a burial ground."

In my opinion it is more than probable that Reuel in the Tolkien family comes from the first pastor of George Tolkien and his son, John Benjamin Tolkien. Ruell in English is the same as Reuel; see here:

I have found many interesting information about Rev. Daniel Ruell. He lived in the years 1783-1846. He was born in Wales, in Llandewi, Ystradenny, in Co. Radnor, as a son of James Ruell. In London his address was Owen's Row, Islington near 145 St John Street where the Tolkiens produced their clocks and watches (see "Tolkien & Dancer, Toolmakers" (c. 1807), "George Tolkien, Ironmonger/Toolmaker" (1808–1810), "George Tolkien, Clock and Watchmaker" (1809–1811) - here). He studied at the Oxford University (St. Edmund Hall from 1807, B. A. 1811, M. A. 1814):

His last address was Gainford Place, White Conduit Fields, Islington. And he was buried in Pentonville Chapel. I am in the possession of his last will, where he wrote that his body shall be "interred in the vault under Pentonville Chapel in which place of worship I have laboured as Minister during the last thirty five years". His goods were inherited by his sister, a widow Mary Fairbairn (a Hobbit surname!). The same Rev. David Ruell of Pentonville subscribed a guinea towards a book called A Brief Account of the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Most Honorable and Loyal Society of Ancient Britons (a fundraiser) in 1825, along with a whole load of other London Welshmen. According to another book of 1848, Rev. David Ruell was Chaplain of the New Prison, Clerkenwell. The Rev. David Ruell, M.A. also appears in notices of marriages, officiating at St. James's, Clerkenwell.

On Google Books you will find many sermons and texts by him and on him. At the moment I am looking for the picture of Rev. Daniel Ruell, the pastor of the London Tolkiens.

The Tolkiens, Congregationalism and Númenóreans

J. R. R. Tolkien in his letter from 1951 to Florence Tolkien (see here) wrote about his grandfather, John Benjamin Tolkien ("III"):

He was once a wealthy man, but not one of business and a rigidly religious Baptist and would not deal with music halls or theatres. He was a dear old and poor man in the nineties when I knew him.

From my previous research I know that the Tolkien family in Birmingham were Pedobaptists (they baptized children) from the Congregational chapels called Ebenezer Chapel (at Steelhouse Lane; it was a worship place of the Stowe family, J. B. Tolkien's third wife, Mary Jane Stowe was baptized there in 1833) and Union Chapel (five minutes walk from John Benjamin Tolkien's house in Handsworth). This denomination evolved from the Proto-Methodist Connexion of Lady Huntingdon to which John Benjamin Tolkien I (J. R. R. Tolkien's great-great-grandfather) belonged after he left Gdańsk (Danzig) and arrived in London in c. 1770. 

Some John Benjamin Tolkien's children with Mary Jane Stowe had second names being the same as the family names of the Congregational ministers (see here):

Grace Bindley Tolkien was named after Rev. R. Bindley from Birmingham
Frank Winslow Tolkien after Rev. Octavius Winslow from Leamington
Lawrence George Hammond Tolkien after Rev. John Hammond

The last uncle of J. R. R. Tolkien was very important for his education. Lawrance Tolkien (a resident secretary to the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society living in Moseley) was regularly paying for young Tolkien's school.

So the original Christian denomination of the paternal family of J. R. R. Tolkien's father, Arthur Reuel Tolkien is already known. Professor Tolkien called it "Baptist" but it was in fact a part of the 'Baptist' tradition which was connected with Congregational chapels in and near Birmingham.

It is interesting that the religion of Gondor and Arnor in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was more like Puritan and Congregationalist religion of J. R. R. Tolkien's ancestors than his Roman Catholicism. See the fragment from a letter of J. R. R. Tolkien do Rhona Beare about the resemblance of the Númenóreans to Egyptians, Puritans and Hebrews.

«The Númenóreans of Gondor were proud, peculiar, and archaic, and I think are best pictured in (say) Egyptian terms. In many ways they resembled 'Egyptians' – the love of, and power to construct, the gigantic and massive. And in their great interest in ancestry and in tombs. (But not of course in 'theology' : in which respect they were Hebraic and even more puritan – but this would take long to set out: to explain indeed why there is practically no overt 'religion', or rather religious acts or places or ceremonies among the 'good' or anti-Sauron peoples in The Lord of the Rings.)»

Help me to find the grave of J. B. Tolkien IV!

Read more: "Four Johns Benjamins"
and "Four Freemasons in the Tolkien family" 

Uncle of J. R. R. Tolkien, John Benjamin Tolkien (1845-1883; I call him "John Benjamin Tolkien IV"): sports journalist, musician, sailor and freemason (Senior Warden in the Lodge of Perseverance in Halesowen), who passed on the tradition of the Tolkien coat-of-arms. He was a half-brother of Arthur Reuel Tolkien. He is buried in Camberwell, London (Camberwell Old Cemetery), in a private tomb (with wife and daughter), in an unconsecrated earth (because he was not a member of the Anglican Church). I have a plan but I don't have a photo of the grave. And there may be interesting information in the epitaph. Maybe even the coat-of-arms! How to get there? The grave is by ... Underhill Road, Camberwell, London. I can provide you with additional information. Maybe one of you in London could take a picture of this grave's epitaph? This John Benjamin Tolkien was last of these names in the family (next John was John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and then his son John Francis Reuel Tolkien, a Catholic priest, so the tradition has been broken...)

A fragment of the full page

Full page

Authority: London Borough of Southwark

Cemetery: Camberwell Old Cemetery

Grave reference: 5/8365

 

It is somewhere here!