Tom Poole's Other Brother Tom

Thomas Poole (b. 1856) and his Entertaining Family

After the breakup of the “Brothers Poole” about 1887, Tom (b. 1856) and his family also continued to perform. We have not been able to find any information about when Tom married Lily, although we do know she was born in the mid 1860’s, and so she was a few years younger than Tom. Unfortunately we have had a great deal of trouble reconciling the various sources to confirm how many children they had together.

Figuring out Tom and Lily’s children will be important in a few moments when we discuss the troupes they performed with. What we know is a combination of newspaper and census records, so now is a good time for a brief description of the census records I’ve been referring to. Like Canada, England holds a census every ten years; theirs started in 1841, and records up to and including the 1911 census are available on line for public viewing. Searching the records however, is not easy. A search for “Thomas Poole” in the 1911 census yields 445 records. Since we know our Thomas Poole was born in 1856 we can reduce that to 23 people who were born between 1855 and 1857, inclusive. What you then get is a list of 23 records with name, year of birth, sex, town and county. If you think you have the right person, you can then receive something which looks like this:

That is a record of all of the people who were resident on the night of April 2, 1901 in the houses at 19, 21 and 23 Greengate Street, Barrow-in-Furness. I won’t ask you to try and read the sample above to find our relatives; here they are “zoomed in”.

If you squint hard you can just about see that Thomas Poole was a boarder in the house, he was married (m) age 44, and he listed his profession as “artist music hall”. Just below him you can see his wife, Lily. The “do” beside her name and along the rest of the row is meant to represent “ditto”. Farther down you can see that their two children “Tilly (M? W?) and Elsie are with them, and that their ages are 13 and 11 respectively. All three of the women are “Artists Music Hall”.

Our family is particularly hard to locate in the census because they were constantly travelling. You see, the census is a snapshot of the population taken as of a certain moment in time. You fill in the census wherever you happen to be; our family were probably at this boarding house in Barrow-in-Furness for a week or so because they were performing in a show nearby. The following week they might have been a hundred miles or more away. Unlike people researching other families therefore, we can’t rely on a location to help find the people we are searching for – our people could have been anywhere on the night of the census, or even abroad.

Their travelling also makes it more difficult because the census we have access to does not include Scottish or Irish records, although the various members of the Poole family travelled a great deal to both places. Scottish records are kept separately, and we haven’t looked there yet. Although the census was performed in Ireland prior to independence in 1922, the records were destroyed and are irretrievable. So whatever parts of our family were in Ireland, Scotland or elsewhere overseas on the day the census was taken are unavailable to us.

As you can see, the forms were handwritten; since the handwriting is identical, you can assume that the same person, presumably the census taker, filled in the entire form. He (women weren’t allowed to be census takers until 1911) asked the residents questions and wrote down whatever answers he was given – whether truth or lies. The residents might, of course, have just returned from the pub, been interrupted from something important or just generally not felt inclined to truthfully answer the census taker’s questions. You also have to remember, particularly with travellers such as our relatives, that regional accents could play a role. Even today when travelling in the U.K., I sometimes have a great deal of trouble understanding some of the accents, despite having grown up with them. A hundred years ago, before radio and television toned those accents down, I’m sure it they were much more unintelligible. The image of a cockney census taker trying to understand what Tom Poole, a Yorkshireman was saying, particularly if Tom had just come out of the pub, is pretty delicious. The upshot of all this is that while the accuracy of the information show in the census are pretty good, they must always be viewed with caution.

Enough of that. On with the story. I was writing about how difficult it is to reconcile the number of children Tom and Lily had. We have been able to locate Tom and Lily in the 1881, 1901 and 1911 censuses. To our great dismay, we have been unable to locate them in the 1891 census. If ultimately we are able to do so, it may go a long way to explain a mystery.

There is a birth announcement in October of 1880 in “The Era” which reads “On the 22d of October, the wife of Mr. Thomas Poole, of Poole, Zanlo, and Poole, of a daughter.” If you have good eyes you might have seen in the census above that Lily said she was 35 in 1901, so she must have born about 1865. That would have made her about 15 when she had that first child. Although that initially made we wonder if Thomas had been married before Lily, in the 1881 census she said she was 19, which would make her born no later than 1862, and therefore 18 when she gave birth. (Thus illustrating another problem with relying on census data – people lie, especially about their ages).

There is another birth announcement in August of 1883 which states, “in Bucharest Romania, the wife of Thos. Poole of the Three Marvellous Pooles, a daughter.” There is yet another birth announcement in 1888. Presumably that was the Tilly we see in the census I showed above, because she was age 13 in 1901. I couldn’t find a birth announcement in 1890, when Elsie was born.

I spent a lot of time explaining about the census and Tom and Lily’s children, because it will become important when explaining who he performed with after the breakup of the Poole, Zanlo and Poole partnership in 1887.

The Two Pooles

The first mention I can find of Tom and Lily Poole performing together is in May of 1887 when a reviewer said “Tom and Lily Poole excel as acrobatic dancers and duettists”. In January of 1888, an ad for them said “The Two Pooles (Tom and Lily) Character Duettists, and the greatest Acrobatic Clog and Skipping-Rope Dancers in the World, bar none. Tremendous success everywhere...” Apparently modesty wasn’t Tom’s forte!

Remember Tom placing an ad chastising his brother Ted? It seems Tom and Ted (or perhaps another family member) had another falling out, or maybe a continuation of the old one. In September of 1888, Tom placed an ad “Notice to Proprietors and Managers. - In consequence of a certain Agent representing that we, the TWO POOLES are working with Three others, which is not true. In future we shall be known as TOM AND LILL PELHAM.” They placed similar ads for the following two weeks. This makes it seem as though he was so mad at his family he was actually starting to use his wife’s name.

Despite what their advertisement said, I have not found any connection with the name Pelham. It doesn’t seem to have been Lily’s maiden name – in 1881 his mother-in-law Ellen Heming is living with them. Of course, If Lily’s father died and her mother remarried . . . Regardless, although there were numerous Pelhams performing in the theatre at that time, I can find no connection between the name Pelham and our family.

The Poole Pelhams / The Zednas / Laurette and Laurel

Sorry to say, the story gets stranger. Thomas placed yet another ad in the paper, in 1898, “Wanted, Everybody to know that the Poole Pelhams have not left the Profession, as some of our friends report. Going Strong as ever.” Our Thomas did seem to have a chip on his shoulder, didn’t he?

They continued to perform as Tom and Lily, and then about 1891 begin to perform as the Poole Pelhams, and in February of that year place an ad as follows: “The Marvellous Four Poole-Pelhams (Tom, Lily, Dave, and Fred) the greatest Black and White Acrobatic Specialty in the World, with Double Somersaults...” Who were Fred and Dave? I have no idea. We have tried every combination we can think of, and cannot find them in any records. They could be cousins we haven’t found, or simply been hired.

We do know they were children, because in March of 1892 an ad placed by the Poole-Pelhams quoted the Bolton Evening News as saying “The Four Poole Pelhams, I might say, man and wife and two children, work an acrobatic performance with much skill, combined with a musical entertainment. They were deservedly recalled.” In 1892 Elsie and Tilly would have been 1 and 3 years old, so I don’t think they were the children in the show.

Could Tom and Lily have had two children before Elsie and Tilly who were named Fred and Dave? Even though we have found no records of them, it is possible. Perhaps there were mistakes in both the 1880 and 1883 birth announcements, and both were sons, not daughters. If that is the case, then the oldest one must have been missed in the 1881 census, because he is not shown. The other option would be for them to have been born shortly after the 1881 census (say in 1882 and 1884, between the two daughters mentioned in the birth announcements, and then Fred and David both died or emigrated before the 1901 census. That scenario would make them about 10 and 8 when the Poole Pelhams started performing. If only we could find them in the 1891 census... we’ll keep trying.

I admit I am completely lost with this one. That being the case, are we certain that we have the correct Thomas Poole? Yes, beyond all doubt. When Flora Poole died, (Ted’s daughter) in 1896, the newspaper article identified her as the niece of Tom and Lilly of the Poole-Pelhams. The 1881 census shows that in addition to Tom and Lily, and her mother, the household includes John Henry Poole – Zanlo in other words. I am absolutely certain that Thomas Poole of Poole, Zanlo and Poole performed with his wife Lily first as the Two Pooles, and later as the Poole Pelhams. Now if we could just figure out where that Pelham name came from... Again, we’ll just have to keep trying.

We can continue to follow the Poole Pelhams until 1907, when references to them end. In the last review I can find of them, however, there is a trail... the review includes a reference to “The Zednas (Lily, Tilly and Elsie)”. I hope that sounds familiar, for those are the names of Tom Poole’s wife and two daughters. The Zednas don’t seem to have had a long career; they start performing in the same programs as the Poole Pelhams in 1907, and continue advertising for work into 1908. Sometimes they were the Zednas Sisters (Tilly and Elsie), sometimes the Three Zednas when Lily was included. The last reference we have is in May of 1908.

I don’t think that quite ended Tilly and Elsie’s show business career, however. Two chance references (which you will see later) led me to “Laurette and Laurel”, whom I believe were Tily and Elsie. The first reference we have to them is in 1913; the next-to-last is in 1925. They were dancers, contortionists, and, yes, acrobats.

Before we leave Tom’s side of the family for now, I promised a long time ago that I would tell a tale about children acting in plays in Victorian London. I can’t tell it better than The Era of October 22, 1898, so here goes:

“At Clerkenwell Police-court, on Saturday last, Thos. Poole of 12, New Church-road, Camberwell, was summoned for that, having the custody of a child – vis. Elsie Poole, under eleven years of age – did unlawfully cause such child to perform at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Police-inspector Briggs said that he visited the theatre in question on the evening of the 10^th and saw the defendant, his wife and two daughters gambolling, skipping, rope dancing, and going through “other absurdities.” It struck (the) witness that the youngest child was not eleven years of age. Four times in ten minutes she ran on the stage, rolled over on a carpet, and made grimaces at the defendant, which caused “roars of laughter.” Altogether she was on the stage three and a-half minutes. After the performance witness saw the defendant at the wings, and asked the age of his youngest daughter. He “very frankly” said she was under ten. The officer said, “You know you should apply to the magistrate for a certificate for her until she is eleven,” and the defendant replied, “She is is on such a short time that I did not think it was necessary.” He added that she had been performing about a month, but he would at once withdraw her. The child, the officer added, was well cared for and happy. Mr. Horace Smith said that Poole had acted very properly, and he would be bound over for his good behaviour.”

Need I say more?