The priced Ancestry database has UK naturalisation certificates and declarations, 1870-1916, from the National Archives’ class HO334. It can only be searched by name.
I have searched for “St Leonards on Sea” or “Saint Leonards on Sea” in the National Archives’ Discovery catalogue, which indexes a broader time period, 1870 to 1987.
For that longer period, Hastings had 140 entries, St Leonards on Sea 70 and Bexhill 63. “Saint Leonards on Sea” adds one, D’Orezza, below, while “St Leonards, Sussex” has four, all after 1935. Only 16 were from 1870-1916 and hence on the Ancestry database, and they make up my list. I suspect that some actual St Leonards entries are hidden among the Hastings entries. The numbers may seem rather small for such a lengthy period. For families, only the head of the family needed to apply, and wives and children were automatically included in the application.
There is an online leaflet which explains in exhaustive detail the documentation of naturalisation for British citizenship.
My own great grandfather, Jean van Dulken, immigrated from The Netherlands in about 1875 but never became a naturalised citizen. Like many immigrants (and some of those in my list) he married an Englishwoman, and they lived their lives in south London. He died in 1945. He may be the reason why I found trying to piece together details of these immigrants’ lives fascinating, although this was only for their lives in the UK, and we can only speculate on reasons for immigration. In fact not all were immigrants – the first and last entries in my list are for Englishwomen regaining British nationality after the death of foreign husbands. A British woman marrying someone of another nationality was considered to have become a national of that country.
Sometimes other sources help. For example, Ancestry also has the National Archives’ HO3, which covers alien arrivals for 1826-69. It has for example the list of aliens on the ship Medway, which arrived on the 2 February 1850 at Southampton from the West Indies. One of the nine passengers was Vigant Falbe, naval officer, a Danish citizen, who was later the husband of Emmeline Maria Falbe, the first in the list. My Dutch great great grandfather Hendrik van Dulken appears twice, on business trips to London and Hull. Ancestry also contains a database of incoming passengers to the UK, 1878-1960.
The list of applicants below is in application date order, with brief details from the actual application followed by, in brackets, notes I made from a little research on the person. The children are named in the originals, and were apparently only mentioned if both under the age of 21 and living with the applicant. I’ve given all the local addresses I could trace for them.
Emmeline Maria Falbe, Denmark, 25 Oct 1878. Re-admission. Of 6 The Lawn, widow. Subject of Denmark by virtue of her marriage with Carl Vigant Monterosi Falbe on the 12 Sept 1865, Malvern, Worcestershire. He died 19 June 1871 at Hastings. She is now 50 and has two underage boys residing with her, age 10 and 12 (She was born with the surname of MacArthur at Parramatta, New South Wales, and was a widow named Leslie on marriage to Falbe. In the 1871 census the family were at 5 Villa Road, he a retired Commander, Danish Navy. In the 1891 census she was in Christchurch, Hampshire, and she died in 1911 at Cheltenham)
Maria Pasqua Abruyyesi, Italy, 18 July 1879 (not traced in archive)
Francesco Censi, Italy, 26 Oct 1880. Of 19 Eversfield Place. Age 44, lodging house keeper, married, two children aged 7 months and 7 years (I have already written about his family, see The Censi family of 14 Eversfield Place for details of his family).
Charles Henry Young, Germany, 10 Jan 1887. Of 18 Warrior Square, 47, boarding house keeper. Married, no children (Possibly the man who as Henry Charles married in Hastings in 1885; and, as Charles Henry, died in 1893 in Hastings, but aged 63 rather than the expected 53).
Francis Joseph Kuhn, Switzerland, 10 Jan 1887. Of 65 London Road, 38, tutor of mathematics and modern languages, single. (In the 1881 census he was one of three boarders at 65 London Road, a tutor. In the 1891 census he was at 12 Pevensey Road, born Zurich, wife Marie born Chard, Somerset. Also in the house were two governesses, two tutors, 19 male pupils and three servants. In the 1899 Kelly’s Directory for Sussex he was at 12 Pevensey Road, running a ‘young gentlemen’s boarding school’. In the 1901 census he was in Southsea, a tutor, where he died in 1906).
George Wagner, Austria, 7 Nov 1887. Of 10 Cranbrook Road, 32, hotel waiter, married, 3 children residing with him, aged 4 to 6 (He married 1880, St Mary in the Castle, as a waiter, of the parish, son of a publican, Wilhelmine Christine Margaretha Friddicke Croucher, of the parish, daughter of an engineer. In the 1878 Post Office Directory she had been Wilhelmine Croucher at 8 Spring Terrace, Bohemia, dressmaker. In the 1891 census, 10 Cranbrook Road, he was a hotel waiter, 35, born Austria, she was 33, born Hamburg, Germany. In the 1901 census they were at 150 Hughenden Road, Hastings, she a dressmaker, and states that her father was English (and presumably his mother was German). In 1911 census of 58 Priory Road, Hastings. He died 1941, at the Municipal Hospital, Hastings, but of South View, Winchelsea Road, Hastings. Executor was his son Leopold, a butler).
Guilio Piccolomini D’Orezza, France, 8 Nov 1893. Of 6 Kenilworth Road. Born Bastia, Corsica, father French, mother Italian, age 38. Teacher of languages and music, unmarried (The 1891 census at 6 Kenilworth Road lists him as a lodger, professor of Italian and the violin, born Siena, Tuscany, with a visitor, Carlo Luigi Ventura, single, 38, artista and dilettante [!], born Bastia. I suspected because of the details he supplied in his application that the places of birth of these two men were accidentally switched, but in the Dover Express, 13 March 1891, when advertising that he visited Dover on Saturdays for work, he said he was from Siena. The landlord was Francois Xavier Pichon, professor of languages and drawing, who was naturalised five days later, see the next entry. D’Orezza married, 1897, Christ Church, as of 6 Kenilworth Road, son of the late Francesco Ventura D’Orezza, Count of D’Orezza, Ellen Seaborne, 40, of 48 Carisbrooke Road, daughter of a gentleman. She already owned no. 48, as the 1894-95 electoral register for local votes listed her at that address, which was only possible if she owned it. D’Orezza was on the lodgers’ electoral register in 1897 as occupying two unfurnished rooms on the second floor of 6 Kenilworth Road, his landlord being Xavier Pichon of the same. His wife, born St Marylebone, and a servant were at 48 Carisbrooke Road in the 1901 census, but I could not trace his whereabouts. He died at Maywood, 48 Carisbrooke Road, on Christmas Day, 1903. His widow died at the same address in 1918 as Ellen Piccolomini D’Orezza).
Francois Xavier Pichon, France, 13 Nov 1893. Of 6 Kenilworth Road. Born Paris, age 46. Teacher of French and drawing. Married, no children (In the 1881 census he occupied 43 Gensing Road, a Professor of French and drawing, diploma, with wife Laure P. Pichon, 31, born Chateau Marne, France. He had hundreds of brief adverts over the years in the local paper. Despite the wife in 1881, an index entry shows that he married, 1890, Hastings, Laure Virginie Pietrement – despite the different middle name presumably the same woman. In the 1891 census he was at 6 Kenilworth Road, wife Laure, 40, born Parguy, Marne, with 2 boarders (one being Guilio Piccolomini D’Orezza, professor of languages and the violin, see previous entry), and was also there in the 1901 census. By 1907 he was of 23 Lower South Road, and in the 1911 census the couple were at 297 London Road with two French-born boarders. He had a long and respectful obituary in the Observer, 13 April 1912. Besides private lessons, he had taught in local schools and in evening classes “under the local Education Authority”. He was a good artist, with many examples of his watercolours and drawings in his house on London Road, and was a violinist. Aged 65, he had died from bronchitis and heart failure. He had a Catholic funeral at St Thomas of Canterbury church).
George Hugo Henry Michaelson, Germany, 7 Sept 1904. Residing at The Clarence (public house), Silverhill. Born Berlin, age 34, musician. Married, child Henry George Charles, 7. (In the 1901 census at St Marylebone, wife Florence born Birkenhead, son Henry born Fulham. In 1911 census in Islington. Son served in the Army in WWI).
Josias Samuel Thornton Danielsen, Denmark, 7 May 1906. Of Kelvedon, 20 Chapel Park Road. Born Flensburg, Duchy of Schleswig, Germany, father Danish, mother Fanny Thornton, British subject. No occupation. Age 48, married, two children, aged 3 months and 4 years (Flensburg was in Denmark until it passed to Prussia and in due course to unified Germany after the 1864 2nd Schleswig War, when Josias was about 6. He had an Anglican wedding in 1900 at Brighton, but with the address of 70 Marina, Constance Parkinson. In the 1901 census he was at 20 Chapel Park Road, living on his own means. The enumerator had written in Germany after Josias’ place of birth Schleswig Holstein. In 1911 census still there, private means, born Denmark. He died in 1915 at a London hospital but of Benenden, Kent).
Aldo Rusconi, Switzerland, 21 Oct 1909. Born Ginbrasco, Tessin (Ticino), born 1863. Resturanteur. Four children living with him, aged 7 to 13. (Married 1895, Rye parish church, as of Holy Trinity Hastings, confectioner, son of a schoolmaster. His bride was Louisa Standen, of Rye, daughter of a miller. In 1897 had a vote derived from his shop at 7 Royal Victoria Buildings, but this was apparently a mistake, as in the Observer, 17 September 1898, there was an objection to his right to a vote. Normally objections were because someone did not own or rent property of the appropriate rateable value. The newspaper’s full entry:
AN ALIEN.
An objection was taken to the claim on behalf of Aldo Rusconi, of Victoria-buildings, St Leonards.
Mr Langham said he understood that the claimant was an alien; he had not been naturalised, and was not born in England.
The objection was sustained.
Langham was a lawyer working for the Conservatives, so Rusconi was clearly a Liberal supporter.
In the 1901 census, at 28 London Road, Rusconi was running a restaurant and a confectionery shop. His wife Louisa, 26, was born America, B[ritish] subject. Kelly’s Directory, 1905, lists him as a confectioner at 7 Royal Victoria Buildings and as a restauranteur at 28 London Road. In the 1911 census, 28 London Road, she is listed as born Aurora U.S.A. (a town in Illinois) and assisting in the business, as was her sister, who was a restaurant waitress living with them. The American birth appears to have been from a stay there of some years by her English-born parents, as a younger brother was also born in America, while the eldest and youngest siblings were born in England. In 1939 the couple were at 6 Claremont, Hastings, he a retired caterer, she manageress of a café. He died 1942, Dartford).
Haroutune Kalevradjian (known as Haroutune Altoun), Ottoman Empire, 26 May 1910. 3 Horntye Road. Born at Trebizonde, Turkey, 1887, parents Armenians, a cashier, unmarried. (Could not trace him further. Numerous Armenians in Turkey were killed in 1894-96 in the Hamidian Massacres, and he could have been an asylum seeker).
Theodore Oscar Knofe, Germany, 14 Aug 1913. Of 4 Warrior Square, born at Priebus Schlesien, 1850, no occupation, married, no children [He had married, 1904, Hove, age 53, as a merchant of Lubeck, Germany, son of a merchant, Rose Johnson, 45, widow, daughter of Richard Burgess, gentleman. Shipping records tell us that they travelled, August 1911, from Liverpool to New York on the Mauretania, as of Bournemouth, with the house of Mrs E. Schramm, his sister, at Los Angeles their final destination. Their relatives’ address in England was in Hove, home of “mother-in-law Mrs Burgess.” We are even told that he was 5 ft 3 ½ inches tall, with blue eyes, brown hair and a fresh complexion. He had $50 with him. I’m not sure if it was emigration or a holiday, but in 1925 at Hastings he married Pauline E. Zeller. I cannot trace him further.
Gustav Salinger, Germany, 14 Jan 1913. Of 71 West Hill, born Mark Friedland, Prussia, in 1855. Retired East India merchant. Married, one child aged 11 (He was an indigo merchant in London in 1881. He married 1899, Holy Trinity, Hastings, as of St George’s Club, Hanover Square, London, son of a merchant, Emily Furnivall, of Robertson Terrace, Hastings, daughter of a gentleman. When son Cecil was baptised at St Leonards church in 1902 the family was of 5 Maze Hill (which was a lodging house in the 1901 census, when the Salingers were staying at a hotel in Kensington). 1911 census, 71 West Hill. He died 1920, 5 Dane Road).
Arend Jurjans, The Netherlands, 5 Aug 1915. Of 112 Marina, no occupation, born Samarang, Java, in 1875 (Had married, 1899, Surbiton, Isabel Skeate. In 1901 census in a hotel in Westminster, in 1911 census in Coulsdon. In 1902 as of Surbiton was taken to court by a turf accountant to recover £102 in horse racing debts. In World War I he was a 2nd Lieutenant in the Sherwood Foresters. He and his wife were at 112 Marina in the electoral registers, 1918-23. His wife died at 3 Grosvenor Crescent in 1924. At that address, just before, was a bankrupt, of no occupation. He too died in 1924).
Matthew Manuia Makalua, United States of America, 10 July 1915. 37 Pevensey Road, medical man. Born Lahaina Maui, islands of Hawaii, 1867. Married to Clementina Anne. I wrote about him in my very first post, An Hawaiian doctor in St Leonards on Sea. There is also a detailed account of him with photos in the Friends of Hastings Cemetery website.
Rose Alison Baumgartner, Germany, 15 June 1916. Of 6 Anglesea Terrace, no occupation. Born 1871, Ebury Street, London. German by marriage, a widow. Father was James Thornton Hoskins (In 1898, St Marylebone, she had married Herman F. Baumgartner. Yet in the 1901 census, she was single, surname of Hoskins, age 30, born London, running a laundry business. Her husband is a mystery).