September 22, 1997
I received the following e-mail from Mark Reed, September 22, 1997. I believe Mark's
information has some relationship with data we have posted under "Other
Ollises".
Ollie:
I've just returned from my trip to England, and I picked up some info from Keynsham. We
didn't have time to really research as we only had a couple of hours in town before moving
on, but I bought a few books on local history. My mother has them at the moment, but I'll
copy the Ollis bits and send them to you soon.
The books indicate that in 1702 a man named Champion established the first brass mill
in England in the city of Keynsham. Prior to this time all brass in England had been
imported from the continent. He traveled to Holland and learned the trade, and when he
returned to set up his company he brought several skilled Dutch brass workers back with
him. The area of Holland from which they came is now in the Belgian state of
Limburg, on
the border near the German city of Aachen.
One of the immigrant brass workers was Nicholas Hollis (with an "H"), from
whom the Ollises of Keynsham are descended. The H was dropped from the name in English
pronunciation.
Since our Boston was born around 1740, this Nicholas could have been his father, but
more probably his grandfather. Nicholas was a skilled worker and probably had a few years
in the trade behind him already. If he was thirty in 1702, he would have been seventy in
1742.
The Dutch workers were famous in the community. They were at first restricted to a
"furriners" community, and were denied certain rights and privileges
by the
locals. Special laws were passed to keep them separate. At Boston's time, these laws were
probably still in place. By the 1800s things had changed and they were accepted as part of
the community, and were noted for the symbol of their brass working trade: the top hats
they always wore to work! When the brass mill closed down in the early twentieth century,
the last general foreman was an Ollis.
One of the books has census data on the Ollis family for around 1850. Most were still
brass workers at that time, but some were farmers or railway workers.
Mark
Mark thanks for sharing this information.
Ollie
September 22, 1997
My response to the above message.
Hi Mark,
Nice to hear from you with such great information. I will get your e-mail posted on our
Ollis site very soon. Very interesting stuff that you sent.
Thanks so very much. We will be awaiting more information.
Ollie
Mark responded:
September 22, 1997
Ollie:
I'm not sure how the LDS info and the Keynsham folks connect. It would be interesting
to see what LDS had on the "Hollis" name. Hollis isn't an uncommon name in
England, and I've never considered it to be a Dutch name, or German for that matter.
"Hollis" is recorded in two of the books I bought as being synonymous with
Ollis, but no source is given other than "my grandfather told me." I don't know
what documentation is available for the Nickolas Hollis that the Keynsham Ollises trace
themselves from. I think much of it is "family tradition," which shouldn't be
discounted, but also shouldn't be proof.
For my money, Boston probably came from Britain. He's probably one of the Keynsham
bunch of Ollises. They definitely had their origins in the immigrant brass workers. Those
immigrants came from the border area between then Holland and Germany. They could just as
well have been "Deutsch" as "Dutch."
In one of the books I bought, on a roll of charity recipients in the mid-1800s, is a
"Jarmin" Ollis, a name we've seen before, and another Ollis labelled as
"son of German Ollis," spelled just like the nationality.
I think I mentioned before that one of my Australian correspondents mentioned her
daughter met a "Van Ollis" while working in Brussels.
So far we have the Scottish verdict of "not proven" on Germany, Hollis, or
even Boston Ollis' country of origin being England. But there is good circumstantial
evidence for the Limburg area of Belgium, or the Aachen/Cologne area of Germany.
Mark
September 26, 1997
Continuing follow-up from Mark Reed
Ollie:
Here are some excerpts from the books I got in Keynsham:
Keynsham in Grandfather's Day, Michael C. Fitter, The Ammonite Press, Keynsham, 1994.
P. 21: Our brass mills and the beginning of change: And the first big industry came to
Keynsham. Up to that time we had imported all our brass, mainly from Holland. Now a man
named Champion learned the technique -- secretly they say -- in Holland and brought it
back to England, with some eight families -- Ollis, Frankham, Fray, Cramer, Hollister,
Steager, Krink, Fudge.
P. 30: Up to the beginning of the 18th Century all the brass in England was made
in Holland and no one knew the secret until Richard Champion, a native of
Warmley,
disguised as an ordinary working man, went to Holland and learnt it. As soon as possible
he returned to England bringing with him 10 or 15 Dutch, whose names still survive here in
Seger, Ollis (Hollis) and Frankham.
P. 51: Mr. Bob Milner was for nine years the secretary of the Keynsham and
Saltford Local History Society. ...As Mr. Milner mentions, the Ollis family were
"descendents of the original skilled Dutch workers," brought over from the
Continent for their "brass" skills in the 18th century. He records the
descendents' ages and occupations a century later, in 1851. Miss Fairclough [of the Local
History Society] commented that, when they arrived around 1720, they were probably
regarded as intruders, and that it was not until the following century that they were
regarded as "the Gentlemen Brass Workers of Keynsham," who appropriately went to
work in top hats.
P. 55: The Ollis Family in Keynsham, 1851. [There were 49 people in 10 Ollis
households in the Keynsham Census].
#1/3 Male Age 25 Servant of Farmer
#1/5 Female Age 29 Housekeeper
Female Age 12 Daughter
#1/7 Male Age 37 Grocer and Railway Labourer
Female Age 35 Wife and Grocer
Male 13 Child
Male 10 Child
Female 5 Child
Female 3 Child
Female 1 Child
Female 2mnths Child
#3/29 Male 80 Brass Worker, retired
Female 67 Wife
Female 36 Daughter, Stay Maker
#3/35 Male 75 Brass Worker
Female 77 Wife
Female 40 Daughter
#3/71 Male 48 Brass Worker
Fem 48 Wife
Male 24 Brass Worker
Male 15 Brass Worker
Fem 13 Daughter
#3/83 Fem 50 Grocer and Housekeeper
Male 38 Gardener and brother to above
#4/24 Male 45 Agricultural Labourer
Fem 45 Wife
Male 21 Agricultural Labourer
Fem 17 Daughter, Stay Maker
Fem 15 Daughter, Stay Maker
Fem 13 Daughter, Stay Maker
Fem 11 Child
Fem 9 Child
Fem 7 Child
Fem 3 Child
Fem 3mnths Child
#4/29 Male 40 Brass Worker
Fem 40 Wife
Male 14 Brass Worker
Male 12 Child
Male 9 Child
Fem 5 Child
Male 3 Child
#4/50 Male 59 Boot and Shoe Maker
Fem 65 Wife
Fem 28 Stay Maker
Male 22 Pattern Maker
Fem 8 Child
Male 5 Child
Male 3 Child
P. 275: Mr. Ronald Headington, a scion of the well-known Ollis family. ...Alas
the lovely old Spring Cottage, built on the level of the ford, is no more. It was a victim
of the building of the latest bridge. However, as Ronald said, "the lower part of
Spring Cottage was Elizabethan, that is, the kitchen and the lower rooms. The house was
built on two elevations. One level faced the road, while the older part, with it's stone
mullion windows, the river. When the packhorse bridge was widened to accommodate the toll
gate traffic, in the time of my great grandfather, Mr. Ollis refused to move, so the
bridge was built through the upper bedrooms, while the ancient stone toilet and the coal
house remained under the bridge, where years later I could hear the traffic overhead.
There was no compulsory purchase then. In compensation the family were excusede paying
rents."
Who were these firm-minded Ollises? What was their origin, where did they come
from, and when and why? Their scion Ronald already carried their genes, and most
eloquently answered the questions in the following manner.
"After the dissolution of the monasteries, the presence of the mills and
water at hand led to the desire to establish a brass industry in the district. The
difficulty was the absence of the necessary know-how, so skilled workers from the
continent, from Holland, were brought over around 1680. They settled locally and started
building the mill at the Shallows, Saltford, in the 1700s, as well as the Keynsham, Brass
mill. Their names were anglicized. Vory became Fray, Steger became Seager, and Hollis
became Ollis, and Frankom remained unchanged. The Ollis family all descended from the
original Nickolas Hollis, according to my grandfather, Joseph Ollis."
Keynsham and Saltford: Life and Work in Times Past, 1539-1945, Elizabeth White, Ed.,
Keynsham and Saltford Local History Society, 1990.
P. 15: [List of Charity Recipients in 1870].
Ollis, Henry
Ollis, George
Ollis, John
Ollis, Nathaniel
Ollis, William Spring
Ollis, widow of Charles
Ollis, William Jarman
Ollis, William (epileptic)
Ollis, William (son of German)
Ollis, William (son of Nathaniel)
Ollis, George (later described as one eye)
P. 25: Earlier efforts to make and work brass in the country had met with failure or
only comparatively short-lived production. It was necessary, therefore, to find workers
with the required skills from the European industry. The nearest were situated in that
part of the Netherlands which later became Belgium, or in the vicinity of Aachen in an
adjoining area of
Western Germany. Calamine, the zinc ore, was available locally in both areas.
Abraham Darby is known to have traveled to Europe in the early years of the [18th]
century to obtain the skills of the "melters" and "batterymen," those
who could produce the alloy and others to operate the fast water-powered hammers. As early
as 1708 the parish registers of St. John Church were recording the birth of a son for John
Buck, described a brass worker and believed to have been an immigrant. A month later
similar record refers to the Steger family, known from later references to have had
continental origins. Names later recorded include those of Francome, Craymer,
Rackham,
Fray (anglicized from Varoy), Crinks (anglicized from Krintz) and Ollis, most with
variable spelling but all connected with the immigrant work force.
By tradition, the immigrant brass workers have been assumed to come from Holland as
Abraham Darby is said to have referred to them as "Dutch." This description,
however, was frequently used to include those from the low countries generally, including
Germany. ...The immigrants' names have identified as a group, both in Belgium and Germany,
as being most typical of those in areas in, or near, the western borders of Germany. The
small German town of Stolberg near Aachen on the borders, was the largest and most
successful centre of brass production in the early eighteenth century, having
overtaken the earlier importance of Aachen itself and the areas now lying in Belgium.
It is very likely that Darby journeyed to Stolberg to find the best source of skilled
labour.
More information on the Ollis migration:
Subject: Ollis Surname
Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 19:15:48 +0100
From: "Peter Ollis"
To: "Prentis L Ollis"
Excerpt from an e-mail I received June 9, 1998
Dear Prentis,
In your web-site you say that you believe that the name could have originated in
Flanders. My grandfather had the same story, but had a slightly earlier time-frame: he
always maintained that our ancestors came across the English Channel with William of
Orange, who became King of England in 1689. I have no evidence to support this, but the
story is interesting nevertheless!
I forwarded this information to Mark Reed who has been very helpful providing data on
the Ollis Flanders connection. The following is Mark's response:
Subject: Re: Ollis Surname
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 09:53:25 -0400
From: reedm@cc.tacom.army.mil (Mark Reed)
To: "Prentis L. Ollis"
Ollie:
He's somewhat correct. When William became king, it stimulated a lot of
