| |
|
Descendants
of Zohrab of the Manuchariants
Descendants of Peter Paul
John Zohrab |
|
|
|
(Click on the pictures to see larger
versions.)
Peter Paul John
(possibly known as "Paul") Zohrab
In 1795, some members of the Zohrab family are said to have escaped
from Persia to Turkey. Donoghue
(2004) (page 297) states that the father of Sophie
Zohrab (and therefore also of her brothers, Constantine
and Peter Paul John) was not Constantine
(as stated on the family tree up to 2012) but Paul
Zohrab, second dragoman (and later first dragoman) at the Danish
embassy at Constantinople/Istanbul. However, there could have been
confusion about who was who, because it seems to have been common
for family members to be known by their middle names, rather than
by their Christian names. Donoghue
(2004) also states that Thomas Thornton had described Paul, in
a letter to Sir Robert Liston, as "in the service of His Danish
Majesty" in Constantinople. That information puts the exact sequence
of events and this section of the family tree in question. It is possible
that Paul was taken by his parents to live in Istanbul, and that those
Zohrabs who were living there were later joined by those others who
had escaped the 1795 massacre in Iran. There
are other possibilites, as well, of course.
A Note about Dragomen
The 'dragomen' -- interpreters -- attached to foreign embassies
and legations in Oriental countries must not be confounded with the
dragomen employed by travellers in those countries. The former
are educated gentlemen who are not only masters of the principal languages
spoken in foreign lands, but are in confidential relations with their
chiefs, and are distinguished by their diplomatic tact and reticence.
There is a sort of freemasonry between themselves, and although they
never reveal the secrets of their respective embassies, they pick
up a good deal of information, which can be communicated, with discretion,
to each other. (p.204)
According to Peter Paul John's
son Peter's manuscript, Peter Paul John and Constantine were educated
in England. (Tuckerman (1895)
states that Constantine's son, Paul, received all of his education
in Scotland). Paul married his first wife, Elizabeth Hitchins
on 17 Sep 1807 in Saint Pancras Old Church, London, England.
"... But when the first war (Napoleonic War? -- PDZ)
broke out, and Turkey was against England, my father was appointed
secret English Minister to Constantinople & was sent to Malta
by the English frigate 'Isis', & thence secretly in a foreign
merchant ship. After this he settled down in Malta as a merchant."
The second Napoleonic War ended in 1815, so it was presumably
on Malta, where he became British, that he met his second wife,
Frances (Fanny) Williams, whom he married in
Malta in 1816.
He spoke Armenian, Farsi, Turkish, English, and probably French,
as well, and he worked as an interpreter (dragoman), as well as an
agent, for the British government. From 1830, he spent at least 8
years in Erzerum, the
capital of Turkish Armenia, sharing accomodation with a Mr. Abbott,
an agent for the British Consul, James Brant (see below). This is
according to Lady Patricia Maddocks'
book.
According to this
webpage, Peter Paul John died in October 1869 at Smyrna, Turkey,
at a very advanced age, and had been for many years employed by the
British Consulate at Erzeroom, the Capital of Turkish Armenia. Frances,
born about 1787, died in 1862 on Malta and her tomb (below) was damaged
by a World War II bomb.
|
 |
Frances Williams or (possibly) Kate Archer Williams (Clothing apparently
not contemporaneous with person named on back of picture) |
 |
Tomb of Frances Zohrab, Ta'braxia Cemetery, Malta (photograph courtesy
of Dr. John Zorab)
|
 |
Undamaged tomb, similar to that of Frances Zohrab, Ta'braxia Cemetery,
Malta (photograph courtesy of Dr. John Zorab)
|
|
|
 |
Three Zohrab sisters (Cecilia, Adela and Evelina) on a picnic in
the Cave of Ferhad, "2 hours from" Erzerum, Turkey in 1843
|
  |
Sir William Holmes & Lady Adela Holmes (nee Zohrab).
(Photos courtesy of Lady Mary Holmes and Dr. John Zorab.
These photographs remain the property of the Holmes family.)
|
 |
Evelina married James Brant.
|
|
  |
|
|
Other evidence that links between various branches of the family
were kept up is the fact that Lt.-Col.
Dr Johannes Manuk Zorab was
a Civil Surgeon and Superintendant at Brussa Medical School. The only
known "Brussa" (Bursa) is in Turkey, and there is no known
documentation as to whether he ever even went to Turkey. However,
his distant relative, Lady Fanny Blunt,
mentions in Chapter One of her book,
"My Reminiscences," that her father, the British Consul
in Brussa, initiated a plan by the Turkish Sultan in about 1840 to
build a hospital in Brussa. Fanny's uncles, Dr.
Paul Zohrab and John Zohrab,
and her cousin Edward Zohrab also
had links to Brussa, so it is quite possible that it was the family
connection which got Johannes a medical job in Turkey.
Some of these Zohrabs were very active
as British
diplomats . See also the webpage http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/features98/saud1.htm,
Karpat, Kemal H. 2001.
Peter Paul John Zohrab's second-oldest son, Edward
John Paul Zohrab, was a British diplomat and Constantine's
oldest son, Edward was an Ottoman Turkish
diplomat. "Kelly's
Handbook" 1909 says on its last page (p. 1798) that Fanny's
son, James Napoleon Zohrab, was the nephew of the late admiral of
the fleet, sir Fairfax Moresby. This is because sir Fairfax Moresby
was married to Fanny's sister, Eliza Louisa Williams. This connection
may have been the reason for at least some of the Zohrab family
entering the British military ( e.g. General
Sir Edward Henry Zohrab Pasha, K.C.M.G., C.B., James
Napoleon Zohrab and Edward John Paul
Zohrab) or the civil service (e.g. James
Napoleon Zohrab and Edward John Paul
Zohrab, as well as Peter Paul John Zohrab, their father).
An interesting aspect of the Zohrab family (which may be quite common)
is the number of pairs of siblings who married each other:
-
William Holmes married Adela
Zohrab and William's sister Emily Holmes married James
Zohrab, Adela's brother.
-
Edward ("Fort")
Zohrab married Blanche Mabin, and Fort's sister Nura
Zohrab married Blanche's brother Francis Mabin.
-
Fort's son Edward ("Ted")
Zohrab married Margaret Miller, and Ted's brother Balfour
("Doug") Zohrab married Margaret's sister, Rosemary
Miller.
For convenience, the descendants of Peter are divided as follows: |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Webmaster |
|
Latest Update |
2 March 2017
|
|
|
|
| |
