Views of Maitland

People

COHEN David (1816-1902)

Gender:	male
Date of Birth:	1816
Place of Birth:	Lambeth, London Country: England
Father:	COHEN Barnett
Mother:	LEVY Sierlah
Date of Arrival:	1840
Ship:	Australasian
Naturalisation:	n/a
Marital status:	married
Spouse:	NATHAN Julia (1822-1876)
Date Married:	1850, 21 August
Place Married:	Great Synagogue, London
Children:	Neville David (1851-1923), Burnett/Barnett (1853-1930), Herbert David (1855-1933), Louis (1857-1926), Zara LEVY (1858-1932), Henry (Harry) David (1860-1938), Annette LEVY/LEWIS (1862-1931), Rosetta (1866-1935)
Occupations:	merchant, storekeeper
Places of Residence:	London, Maitland, Sydney
Date of Death:	13 March 1902
Place of Death:	8 Pembridge Square, London, England
Buried at:	Willesden Jewish Cemetery
Profile:
David Cohen was the namesake of the Maitland based wholesale and retail business David Cohen and Company. He was the fifth child of Barnett and Sierlah Cohen, and the third of his family to migrate to Australia. A letter dated 17 June 1840 held in the Dinah Harvey collection and written by David’s parents to his oldest brother Lewis, indicates that David was about to leave for Australia and would be bringing letters and family news with him. Once in Australia, David spent about 10 years working with his older brother Samuel in business in West Maitland. By the mid-1840s David Cohen and Company was advertising in the Maitland Mercury. It is possible the business was given his name as his brother, Samuel, had faced and was released from insolvency in the mid-1840s economic downturn. David Cohen was back in London in 1850 where he married Julia Nathan. The couple spent the next ten years in Australia. At first they were in West Maitland where, in 1852, their first son was born. They then moved to Sydney where two more sons were born and, by 1861, were back in London. Throughout, David Cohen was a partner in the family business and worked to see it expand. He became the London representative, able to monitor and manage the selection of goods for import and export, and anchor the family and business networks that linked Australia and London. Those networks included marriages that saw family and business intertwined. For example, four of David and Julia Cohen’s children married the offspring of his business partner and cousin, Lewis Wolfe Levy: Neville to Roselind, Burnett to Bertha, Zara to Benjamin, and Annette to Samuel Eleazer. The family became wealthy and lived in very comfortable circumstances in prestigious parts of London. The year before his death, for example, the 1901 English census recorded that David Cohen lived in Pembridge Square, Kensington. His wife had passed away. His daughter and her husband, Benjamin Wolfe Levy, were living with him, and there was an extensive domestic staff. A total of 16 people. David Cohen died in London in 1902. His will and estate affirmed his wealth. His bequests reflected his continuing commitment to his family and to the Jewish community in Maitland. (Sydney Morning Herald,9 September 1902)

Related Records

Documents:
B & S Cohen to son (Lewis Cohen), 17 June 1840	Cohen, Barnett and Sierlah
Deed of co-partnership as merchants between Messrs David Cohen, Samuel
English censuses. 1841, 1861, 1881, 1901
Insolvency file of Samuel Cohen, general dealer, West Maitland, 1843-1844
Maitland Lodge of Unity No. 4: list of foundation members and	Crethary, J
Profiles of members of Maitland’s early Jewish community, 2011	Rudkin, Val
Local Government Areas:
Maitland City
Monuments:
Cohen, David	grave marker	Willesden Jewish Cemetery, Beaconsfield Rd
People:
COHEN Barnett	1780 to 1854	Germany; Lambeth, London
COHEN Neville	1852 to 1923	Maitland, Sydney, (London
COHEN Sierlah	1788 to 1854	London
Sites:
David Cohen & Co, Maitland	Maitland	Maitland City
Themes:
Ethnic influences - Jews
Towns:
Maitland	Maitland City
Publications, Reports, Theses:
Apple, Rabbi Raymond, ‘Maitland and its Jews’, The Great Synagogue Journal, 62/1, April 2005, pp.14-15 Bergman, George F.J., ‘The Jews of Maitland’, Australian Jewish Times, 3 July 1975, pp.10 Cemetery Scribes ‘Cintra’, NSW State Heritage List 2012 Falk, Jim, Cassirer and Cohen histories, relatives and descendants (website) Fredman, Lionel E., ‘The rise and decline of provincial Jewry’ in W.D.Rubinstein (ed.), Jews in the Sixth Continent, Allen and Unwin, Sydney 1987, pp.51-61 Fredman, Lionel, ‘David Cohen & Co - the family and the firm’, Australian Jewish Historical Society Journal, 9/8 1985, pp.594-608 Fredman, Lionel, ‘David Cohen and Co: the family and the firm’, Journal of Hunter Valley History, 1/1 1985, pp.47-62 Free settler or felon? Levi, John S., These Are the Names: Jewish Lives in Australia, Carlton Victoria, Miegunyah 2006 Marks, Percy, ‘The Jewish pioneers’, Maitland Mercury, 7 January 1933 ‘Will of the late Mr David Cohen’, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 1902, pp.6 Wilton, Janis, ‘David Cohen and his siblings’, Maitland: Our Place, Our Stories, Maitland and District Historical Society 2026

Views of Maitland Record No.: P17
Created: 17/12/2008
By: Janis Wilton
Modified: 27/03/2009
By: Janis Wilton