ENSOR, James Frederic b. 27 Oct 1833 Brussels, Belgium d. 14 Apr 1887 Ostend, Belgium: The EDGOOSE and Related Families of England, Australia, Fiji, Jamaica, and the USA
   
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 Genealogical Project

ENSOR, James Frederic

Male 1833 - 1887  (53 years)


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  • Name ENSOR, James Frederic 
    Born 27 Oct 1833  Brussels, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Died 14 Apr 1887  Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I8863  Edgoose
    Last Modified 30 Jan 2024 

    Father ENSOR, James Rainford,   b. 6 Mar 1804, Wallasey, Cheshire Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 14 Dec 1877, Nottingham Registration District, Nottinghamshire Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 73 years) 
    Mother ANDREW, Ann,   b. Between 1815 and 1816, Finchley, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 16 May 1904, London Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age ~ 89 years) 
    Married 16 Jul 1833  Stoke Newington, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2911  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family HAEGHEMAN, Maria Catharina Lodewijke,   b. 24 Apr 1835, Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 1915, Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 79 years) 
    Married 4 May 1859  Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. ENSOR, James Sidney,   b. 13 Apr 1860, Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 19 Nov 1949, Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location  (Age 89 years)
     2. ENSOR, Mariette,   b. 29 Aug 1861, Ostend, Belgium Find all individuals with events at this location,   d. 27 Dec 1945  (Age 84 years)
    Last Modified 19 Mar 2024 
    Family ID F3127  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • JAMES FREDERIC ENSOR 1833-1887

      According to Nick GRIBBLE he was born in Brussels, Belgium, on 27 October 1833.

      He was baptised at St. Mary's, Worsbrough, Yorkshire, on 27 December 1835, son of James Frederick ENSOR and Anne (sic).
      (FamilySearch)

      James Frederic ENSOR, born in Brussels of English parents, was a cultivated man who studied engineering in England and Germany.

      On 17 October 1854 he enrolled at the faculty of medicine at the Rheische Friedrich Wilhems
      University in Bonn, Germany, but left at the end of the academic year. He returned to England and worked as a civil engineer.

      He met his future wife, Marie Catherine Louise HAEGHEMAN whilst holidaying in Ostend, Belgium, with his parents. He married her in Ostend on 4 May 1859. Not long after the birth of their first child, James Sidney ENSOR, on 13 April 1860 he left alone for the United States in an attempt to find work as a civil engineer. His plans were thwarted by the outbreak of hostilities which led to the Civil War and he returned to Belgium a few months later. The birth of his daughter, Mariette, followed on 29 August 1861. She came to be known as 'Mitche'.

      Ostend was a small seaside resort town. Marie followed in her parents' footsteps and opened a souvenir and gift shop to support the family. The shop sold Chinese goods, seashells, and Carnival masks, elements that were eventually to have a strong influence on their son James Sidney ENSORS's art. James Frederic ENSOR ran the HAEGHEMAN shop with little enthusiasm and even less expertise. By 1875 the business was insolvent and the HAEGHEMANs assumed control of the finances.

      In a letter he wrote to the Belgian critic Jules du Jardin dated 28 October 1899 his son James Sidney ENSOR, the famous painter, provided some insight into the life of his parents:
      "My father married in Ostend in 1859. He was a very
      knowledgeable man who spoke several languages. Remarkably
      handsome and prodigiously strong. He had a high forehead and
      his whole appearance bore the stamp of majesty. He always
      inspired a kind of fearful respect in me. He truly was a superior
      man. He was knowledgeable in many fields. He had extraordinary
      musical abilities. He had pursued serious studies at
      the universities of Heidelberg and Bonn. He was familiar with
      the most complex scientific questions, the hardest calculations
      were child’s play to him. Old people in Ostend still speak of
      him with admiration and enthusiasm. He was a perfect gentleman.
      His projects, too vast and beyond the grasp of the doctrinaire
      bourgeois of the time, were not appreciated and, worse still,
      distorted and all his great goals and lofty projects were
      thwarted. Over time my father was deeply hurt by the attitude
      of the Ostend public, composed at that time largely of hoteliers
      who had made a lot of money, brewers, ship-owners, exploitative
      merchants, who had become enemies of any innovative advance;
      he preferred to cut himself off completely and afterwards sought
      the company of more humble people. He died in 1886. My
      mother, daughter of Ostend sea-shell sellers, continued her
      parents’ trade and I spent my childhood in the paternal shop
      surrounded by curiosities from the sea."
      (www.hatjecantz.de/leseproben/9783775724654_06.pdf)
      (James Ensor, Lettres, edited by Xavier Tricot, Brussels, Labor, 1999, p. 275–77.)

      "James Frederick ENSOR of 21 rampe-de-Flandre, Ostend, Belgium, died 14 April 1887. Administration 6 March (1905) to James Sidney Edouard ENSOR artist. Effects £2276 17s 10d."
      (National Probate Calendar 1905)

      NOTES & QUERIES:
      Sources used:
      Familysearch
      Wikipedia
      Anna Swinbourne: "Meeting James ENSOR"
      www.hatjecantz.de/leseproben/9783775724654_06.pdf
      James Ensor, Lettres, edited by Xavier Tricot, Brussels, Labor, 1999
      National Probate Calendar

      (revised 17.10.2011)