#17 FRIEND Family
- derek4440
- Sep 13, 2023
- 7 min read
Dusty Springfield Son of a Preacher Man, her very best number.
Never forget the time I saw her with her brother in The Springfields at the Windmill Club on North Street in LEEDS in the very early 60's, she was great then & only got better with time. Sadly missed
Herman FRIEND & Levi NEIMAN/NIMAN were Married to two Sisters. Herman to Amelia SMYLSICK & Levi to Hannah SMYLSICK. Herman & Levi ZAGOFSKY were also in business together
Connections between the FRIEND, NIMAN, ZAGOFSKY & GINSBERG Families
As you can see from the above Chart;
Bernard GINSBERG Married Sarah the Daughter of Levi ZAGOFSKY.
Levi ZAGOFSKY'S Daughter Fanny Married Marks Morris NIMAN, whose Parents were Levi NIMAN & Hannah (nee SMYLSICK)
Amelia, Hannah's Sister Married Herman FRIEND
Herman FRIEND was Born 12/JUN/1827 & Married Amelia SMYLSICK on 14/AUG/1844, both events were in GOMBIN. They arrived in LEEDS about 1847 & lived in Templar Street, & by 1861 had moved to 36 Templar Street & by 1871 had moved to 33 Trafalgar Street. By 1884 they’d moved out of the Leylands to 9 Elmwood Terrace, off Camp Road where they remained until about 1901 when they moved yet again to 3 Exmouth Grove.
They had 8 Children as follows
Joseph FRIEND Born about 1852 probably GOMBIN. Joseph became a Watchmaker in LEEDS, but never Married. By 11/JAN/1924 he was living at The Beeches, Moortown, LEEDS
Unknown FRIEND Born 22/MAR/1856, LEEDS & Died shortly after
Sarah FRIEND Born 30/AUG/1857 & Married Davis JOSEPH aka “Ginger” 10/JAN/1877. He owned a Clothing Factory, & they had 6 Children. By 1901 they lived at 34 Louis Street, Chapeltown. Davis Died 1933 & Sarah Died 1935, all events LEEDS
Davis JOSEPH Death Notice
Eva FRIEND Born 30/MAR/1859 Married Lipman Myer WINTER 22/AUG/1883, they had 1 Son Leon who Married Leslie (originally Lily COHEN). They had 5 Children, the youngest Isaac was Born 1920 & Died 27/JUL/1945 in GERMANY. Isaac was Buried in the KIEL War Cemetery in Grave Ref 6 A 16. We assume he Died from wounds incurred earlier as the war in Europe finished on 6/MAY/1945.
Etty FRIEND Born 30/MAR/1862 LEEDS & Died 1943 LONDON & never Married
Elias Lazarus FRIEND Born 10/MAR/1864 & became a Tailor. He never Married & Died 5/JUN/1921, all events LEEDS
Julius FRIEND Born 4/NOV/1866 & Married Rosa CAMERAS in 1896. They had 1 Daughter Caroline. Julius studied Medicine in GRIMSBY, though he practised in LEEDS. He & Rosa lived at 138 Chapeltown Road from 1911 until he Died 11/FEB/1949 & Rosa Died 26/AUG/1933
Marks FRIEND Born 31/JAN/1869 & Died 17/JAN/1948 both in LEEDS. Marks never Married & was variously listed as a Tailor, & Clothiers Manager. In 1901 he was a Clothiers Manager & lived at Atkinson Road, ASHTON UPON MERSEY, UK. By 1921 Census he had moved in with his Brother Julius at 138 Chapeltown Road, LEEDS & was employed as a Clothiers Manager by Messrs Lubelski & Sons, Hillidge Road, Hunslet, LEEDS.
Herman FRIEND Died 7/FEB/1905 & his Wife Hannah Died shortly after him on 13/JUN/1905. They both Died at 2 Hillcrest Avenue, Cowper Street, LEEDS, They are both buried at the United Hebrew Congregation Cemetery, Gelderd Road, LEEDS.
Memorial Herman FRIEND Detail
Memorial Herman FRIEND
Herman FRIEND was one of the most important people who helped make LEEDS “The Tailoring Capital of the World”. Though he never established a large clothing empire the likes of Burtons or even a smaller one like Alexandre’s, in many ways he was more important than any of them, for without him & his Brother in Law who was my Great Grandfather Levi ZAGOFSKY, tailoring as a major industry may never have come to LEEDS.
The history of Tailoring in LEEDS started with John BARRAN who moved there in 1842 & opened his own tailoring shop at 30 Bridge End South. By 1851 he had moved to Briggate, & in 1856 he had a factory with 20-30 sewing machines. He was the first to use a band saw for cutting cloth, which was a major innovation. By 1878 he had St Pauls House, Park Square, LEEDS built as a warehouse. When I first started in business I had a small office on the opposite side of Park Square to St Pauls House.
St PAULS HOUSE, Park Square LEEDS
John BARREN like many Gentile businessmen wouldn’t employ Jews in his factory but couldn’t meet his orders without further operatives. The answer was to use Jewish tailors as outworkers, where the tailor does everything from cutting the cloth to sewing the suit & pressing the finishing item.
Sweating Dens
What Herman FRIEND & Levi ZAGOFSKY came up with, was each stage was undertaken by a different individual, so the cutting was done in the factory, the jacket was sewn together by one person, as was the trousers, & likewise the vest (waistcoat). The lining would be fitted by another, & the hand stitching by another, & finally the pressing done by another.
The benefits of this system, which they called Divisional Labour, was de-skilling the whole operation, & it could be done at home, & all members of the family including the wife & children could be involved, Besides de-skilling the operations it also meant that the work could be done outside of factories & the costs were much less, enabling the suits to be sold at a lower price, meaning more people could afford to buy a suit.
Trafalgar Street, street sign
It also meant that workers without any tailoring skills could be taught to do the one simple operation. The boast was that they could take an immigrant arriving at the docks in HULL in the morning & by the afternoon he/she would be working. An added benefit was that no knowledge of English was needed as the person giving the instructions was also Jewish & therefore, they both spoke a common language, namely Yiddish.
Herman Friend's tailoring workshop - Vicar Lane / Lady Lane from Murray FREEDMAN
On the corner of Vicar Lane and Lady Lane, is the site of the erstwhile West Yorkshire bus station, but it also marks the earlier site of the Leeds Workhouse later occupied by tailoring workshop owned by Herman Friend, who helped to found the wholesale tailoring industry in Leeds.
He worked as an outworker for John Barran who did not allow Jews to work in his factory. Barran had introduced the band knife for the multiple cutting of cloth and Friend in his workshop adapted the divisional labour system to tailoring -- breaking the process up into various parts that an unskilled worker could quickly learn.
Both these developments coincided with the introduction of the sewing machine in the 1850's and enabled the establishment of the very large mens' tailoring industry in Leeds, in which its Jews were heavily involved. Friend encouraged his fellow Jews in Russia to come to Leeds where there was plenty of work in tailoring.
Many of his employees eventually set up workshops of their own and thus the Jewish contribution to the industry, and the Jewish community, grew. In the 1891 census as many as 72% of the listed occupations of the Jews were in tailoring, with some 60% in the following, 1901, census. Lady Lane marked the southern boundary of the Leylands proper - though many Jews also lived in the adjoining streets. (The old dilapidated building on the north side was once a Wesleyan chapel built in the 1840's on the site of the first Roman Catholic chapel in Leeds.)
This started the explosion of tailoring in LEEDS & led to the more enterprising opening their own workshops, separate from their homes, & therefore employing their fellow Jews, & producing more suits. The more entrepreneurial then built factories & even some like Montague BURTON (real name Moishe OSINSKY) opened their own shops. Burtons had the largest tailoring factory in the world at Hudson Road in LEEDS, where my Uncle Philip GINSBERG worked as a cutter, Joan worked in the offices, & I worked in Display, though not at Hudson Road.
Philip GINSBERG (later GRANT) in the Cutting Room at BURTON'S Hudson Road
Burtons Hudson Road Factory
Herman had a younger Brother called Abraham Born about 1851 who Married Dinah FRANKLIN from NEWCASTLE upon TYNE. They Married in Belgrave Street, Synagogue, LEEDS but Lived in THIRSK, a Market Town in North Yorkshire, where 7 of their 8 Children was Born. Abraham was a Tailor in 1871, but by 1881 was a Boot & Shoe Hawker & 10 years later was a Boot & Show Dealer. Abraham & Dinah moved to LIVERPOOL in time for their youngest Child Morris to be Born there in 1893. Dinah Died in Kensington, LONDON in 1925. It’s possible that Abraham emigrated to SOUTH AFRICA & Died there 2/JUN/1913 in JOHANNESBURG & was Buried in Braamfontein Cemetery.
His eldest Son Leopold Jacob FRIEND emigrated to BULAWAYO in todays ZIMBABWE, met his future wife Lena SCHULMAN who was Born in LONDON & Married her there 14/MAY/1909. Leopold Died 15/OCT/1954 & is Buried Athlone Avenue Cemetery in the same city.
Joseph FRIEND Born 21/APR/1882 in THIRSK Married his Cousin Esther JOSEPH 25/MAY/1915 at Belgrave Street Synagogue, LEEDS, they went to live at 11 Fines Gardens, Golder’s Green, LONDON, before moving a few years later to 8 Wycombe Gardens, Finchley, LONDON. Joseph had a very unusual occupation as he was an Ostrich Feather Merchant.
Abraham FRIEND advertising his shop in THIRSK
Then there was his elder Brother Henry FRIEND who was Born 1845 who Married Selina FRINKLE & had their eldest Children Abraham & Lipman all in GOMBIN, RUSSIA. All their other 10 Children were Born in LEEDS, where they lived in the Norhfield Villas area of Camp Road. Henry whose Jewish name was Reb Tzvi ben Yacov Aryeh was a Dealer in Sponges which seems an unusual profession, though apparently, he was in this business all his working life. It would appear none of his Children followed him into the business. Many of his children went to live in LONDON after their Marriage.
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