The Fenn Family🩺

This blog is about five named CDVs that I bought on eBay back in August 2025. So many named old photos that you find for sale have come from family Albums that have been split up to sell, so I’m doing my bit to ensure that at least some of them stay together!

Although there are only five old photos here, I’m really pleased to have three generations of the Fenn family. They have been really interesting to research.

First CDV, Robert Fenn.

Robert’s parents were Simon Fenn (1785-1844) and Elizabeth Underwood (1789-1864). In 1791, Simon had taken over the lease of ‘Valley Farm’, Coddenham, Suffolk.

Robert was designated as the son and executor in his father’s will. He was also the legatee of all residual assets, which included household furniture, silverware, linens, china, etc. Plus, both live and dead farming stock, as well as crops such as corn, hay, stover, grain, seeds, etc. Additionally, he was given the right to occupy and use the lease for Valley Farm.

Robert Fenn was born in 1785 in Coddenham, Suffolk. Robert married Harriet Liveing on 18 May 1813 in Essex. Robert’s occupation was a Farmer and obviously a successful one. He died on 27 March 1844 in Coddenham, Suffolk, at the age of 59, and was buried there.

Harriet Liveing was born on 21 September 1789 in Harwich, Essex. Her parents were Thomas and Harriott. She died on 28 March 1864 in Suffolk at the age of 74.

The couple’s three children were Robert Liveing Fenn, Thomas Harrold Fenn and Elizabeth Fenn.

Thomas Harrold Fenn.

H.T.Fenn Esq, (Thomas Harrold) December 1863. Father of Ernest Harold Fenn.

Thomas Harrold Fenn was born in 1816 in Coddenham, Suffolk. His mother was Harriet Liveing (1789-1864), and his father was Robert Fenn (1785-1844). Robert was a Farmer. Thomas married Maria Alston (1816-1871) in April 1840; at this time, he was a qualified Surgeon. Then later, he became a General Practitioner. Maria’s parents were Margaret Anne Vanderzee (1776-1856) and George Alston (1763-1856). George was a Solicitor.

Thomas and Maria had eight children: Annie Vanderzee b1841, Isabella Frances Louisa b1843, Edward Liveing b1843, Catherine Maria b1844, Theodore George b1846, Lucy Vanderzee b1848, Ernest Harrold b1850 and Margaret Henrietta b1852.

Thomas Harrold Fenn died on 13 April 1870 in Suffolk at the age of 54, Maria died the following year on 21 March 1871, she was 55, they were both at buried in Nayland, Suffolk.

Ernest Harrold Fenn.

Ernest Harrold Fenn was born on 1 April 1850 in Nayland, Suffolk to parents Thomas and Maria. He had one son and one daughter with Bertha Alison Jobson who he married in 1887. Ernest was a Surgeon and a Major in the Army. Ernest died on 24 November 1916 in Worcestershire at the age of 66.

Katherine Pauline Julius.

The last photo was taken in the early 1880s and is, I believe, Katherine Pauline Julius; it says on the back, ‘Mrs E L Fenn & infant’. During Victorian times, married women were known by their husband’s initial and name. So, after researching the Fenn family and adding the wider family, it’s the only Mr E.L.Fenn that I have found and it also matches perfectly with the other family photos in this little collection.

Edward Liveing Fenn was born on 20 August 1843 in Nayland, Suffolk; his parents were Thomas and Maria. He married Katherine Pauline Julius, and they had nine children together but only five lived to be adults.

This is such a beautiful photo showing a mother’s love for her new baby.

Katherine Pauline Julius was born on 27 December 1850 in Richmond, Surrey. Her parents were Frederic and Ellen. She married Edward Liveing Fenn on 12 November 1872 in West Molesey, Surrey.

Katharine Pauline Julius came from a medical family. She married into another medical family. I simply cannot imagine the grief and sadness that she and the family went through losing five children. Katherine was only 35 when she died on 15 April 1886; her cause of death was TB, tuberculosis. After Katherine’s death, her sister Mary Caroline Julius (Aunt Polly) looked after the Fenn children.

After Katharine’s death, Edward married Edith Todd, and they had three children together. Edward died on 8 December 1907 in his hometown at the age of 64.

As I was nearing the end of my research, I came across this amazing website, which details the families of ‘Julius, Fenn, Alston, Liveing, Vanderzee, Elworthy, Parker’, and many other connected family histories. It also contains numerous wonderful, very personal family letters and extracts from family diaries, and once you start reading them, it’s hard to stop! The research and time invested in this website are truly phenomenal. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Here’s the link to the home page if you are interested in any of these families: The King’s Candlesticks

A Medical Dynasty & their homes.

The Fenn family of Nayland, Suffolk, has a documented history spanning the 19th and 20th centuries, most notably associated with the medical profession and local landmark properties.

For several generations, the Fenn family were a prominent family in the village of Nayland, closely associated with medicine, public service, and some of its most notable houses.

In the early nineteenth century, Dr Thomas Harrold Fenn (1815–1870), a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons, practised in Nayland for twenty-seven years. Known in medical records as a “precise man” and an “old-fashioned gentleman,” he lived at Stourbank, which he rented from his uncle, Dr Edward Liveing. His son, Dr Edward Liveing Fenn (1843–1907), was born there and followed him into medicine, qualifying as M.D. and M.R.C.P. In addition to his medical work, he served as a Justice of the Peace. He remained at Stourbank until 1872, when the house was sold to another surgeon, Henry Drake Palmer.

Later in the nineteenth century, the family made Alston Court their principal residence, where they remained until the late twentieth century. The house stayed in Fenn ownership until 1968, shortly after the death of Colonel Arthur Alston Fenn in 1966.

The family also gave distinguished military service. Lieutenant Edward Gerald Palmer Fenn (1894–1918), born in Colchester and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, served in Egypt and Palestine during the First World War and was killed in action. He is commemorated on the Nayland War Memorial, which stands beside Alston Court. Lieutenant Commander Cyril Duncan Fenn (1882–1921) served in the Royal Navy, was invalided out through war-related illness, and died at Alston Court in 1921.

Beyond Nayland, the Fenn name is well known in Suffolk history. Sir John Fenn (1739–1794) was an antiquary famed for transcribing the Paston Letters, while his wife, Lady Ellenor Fenn (1744–1813), born in Westhorpe, Suffolk, was a writer of educational children’s books. Another branch of the family founded Fenn’s Academy in Woodbridge in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

These are just a couple of screenshots of Ernest and Edward’s Ancestors, including their parents. Here’s a link to the tree I’ve compiled on Ancestry: Fenn Family Tree

You can see how the various surnames were remembered in this family by using them as a middle name.