A Foray into Victorian London

Always, for me, finding individuals on the family tree inevitably becomes more about all the events and people giving historical context to a name inked on a dry, old page.  The hope is always that you will come across direct references to a family member, but as that is fairly rare, then something interesting about their residence at the time in which they lived there, or where they worked, and who else of documented note was a part of their lives become the obvious points of attraction.  Many entertaining imaginings about my family members have begun with just the smallest fact or detail.

This past weekend, I found one little morsel of information on a census that quickly became an interesting piece in the massive puzzle of Victorian London.  My great-great-grandmother, Caroline (Ingrams) Sawyer, was listed on the 1891 census as being a servant for Lady Martha Christiana Nottage, residing at 35 Collingham Road, Kensington.  I could not find Caroline's husband, Charles, anywhere on the 1891 Census (and still haven't found his record of death), but assume he had died young and Caroline had to go into service, as she had three children to support.

[Late entry: Charles Thomas Sawyer died 1883, aged 33.]

The next question, of course, after wondering what happened to Charles, was who was Lady Martha Nottage  (who sounds like a character in a P.G. Wodehouse story).  Here the fun begins.  It turns out that she was the widow of a Lord Mayor of London named George Swan Nottage (photograph below).  He died in office in 1885.   Alas, I cannot find any pictures of Lady N., but she died 5 December, 1916.

And even more interesting, George Nottage was the co-founder of the London Stereoscopic Company, which specialized in mass production of stereoscopic photographs, becoming one of the largest photographic publishing companies in the world, sending their photographers all over the globe to take pictures.

The reason this photography connection is of particular interest, is because Caroline's son, also named Charles, my great-grandfather, was a photographer.  He worked for the Medici Society and went around Europe photographing famous works of art for their high-end reproductions.  Did he get his start with the LSC?  Were these two companies connected in any way?  The Medici Society was founded by Philip Lee Warner, and Lady Nottage's family name was Warner.  I will look into that, because that would be quite interesting from our family history point of view if these two Warners were from the same family.

An interesting note about this company: it went into liquidation decades ago, but has since been revived by Brian May, the band member from Queen, who has had a long standing interest in stereoscopic photography (he's quite an interesting character - he also has a PhD in astrophysics that was interrupted by years of touring when the band became successful, and finally completed a few years ago).

Here's more information on the company:

http://www.londonstereo.com/index.html
http://blog.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/2013/10/26/a-z-photography-l-is-for-london-stereoscopic-company/