Seaverns, Joel Herbert (1860 – 1923)
Joel Herbert Seaverns M.P. 13 November 1860 – 11 November 1923 – 8 Vermont Road 1893-1898
Joel Herbert Seaverns, born in Boston and educated at Harvard University, spent much of his life in the United Kingdom. He was a partner in the firm of Messrs Henry W Peabody & Co, foreign and colonial merchants, and moved to England in 1884 to run the company’s office at Eastcheap in the City of London. On 30 April 1892 Seaverns married Helen Gertrude Brown, daughter of artist Harrison Bird Brown in Portland, Maine.
While living at Harold Road in 1902, Joel Herbert Seaverns obtained a UK certificate of naturalisation and was unanimously adopted by the Brixton liberal association as candidate for Brixton. He was elected Liberal Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Brixton on 12 January 1906 with a majority of 286. During his term in parliament, Joel Seaverns asked a number of question.
In May 1906, he asked whether in view of the low market rent paid by the National Zoological Society for the use of Government land, there could be a nominal or no charge for the public at the weekend, preferably Sundays, “so that the educational benefits of the garden could be more generally enjoyed than at present”
As M.P. he was involved in a number of local activities.
The Times reported that on 28 November 1907, the Brixton Liberal Festival and Bazaar took place at Brixton Hall which Mrs Seaverns opened, and to which the Liberal prime minister, Henry Campbell-Bannerman, had been invited. Unable to attend, the prime minister wrote to Mr Seaverns as follows:
“Your victory in Brixton – the first Liberal victory in the history of the constituency – was indeed a remarkable one.”
At this festival, Mr Mckenna M.P., President of the Board of Trade and principal speaker at this event, “was continually interrupted by well-dressed ladies who protested against the refusal to enfranchise women”. These ladies indicated that they had worked for and had supported the Liberal cause and that they were most disappointed that they still did not have the right to vote.
The Times also reported that on 25 June 1908, Mr Seaverns was to preside over the annual juvenile (Band of Hope) demonstrations arranged by the London United Temperance Council at Brockwell Park where 21 societies attended:
“At Brockwell Park, the children from parish schools will perform Morris and May-Pole dances, and teams of girls as well as boys will take part in a tug-of-war competition”. It was said that there was higher attendance than usual at the various demonstrations in London. The temperance councils attributed this “to the interest taken in the demand for greater restriction being included in the Government Licencing bill with regard to the sale of drink to children.”
On the same day Mr Seaverns spoke at the Hyde Park demonstration in favour of Asquith’s licensing bill that aimed to close a large number of public houses, reduce Sunday opening hours and to ban the employment of women in Public Houses. This Bill was passed by the Commons but was defeated in the Lords. Nevertheless, the Children’s Act 1908 received Royal Assent in December 1908, making it “…an offence to give intoxicants to children under the age of five except in an emergency or upon the orders of the doctor.” Children under 14 were not allowed in licensed bars during opening hours.
Joel Herbert Seaverns lost his seat to the Conservatives in the January 1910 General Election.
Joel Harrison Seaverns, Joel’s and Helen’s only son, was born at 8 Vermont Road on 25 January 1893 and was killed in action during the First World War in May 1915.
https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/fallen-alumni/lieutenant-joel-harrison-seaverns
In his entry in De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour, Lieutenant Colonel E. G. Mercer, C.M.G., 1st City of London (Royal Fusiliers), wrote: ” He was a keen Officer and loved by the men of his Platoon, and their advance into a storm of shot and shell, after he had fallen at their head, was the finest testimony that could be paid him.”
Joel Herbert Seaverns died in 1923 and a charity, the Joel Seaverns Trust, was set up in his will. Its objects are “The education, care, maintenance, support or benefit of such young people of any class of society whether infants or adults and being either poor orphans or the children of poor people as the Trustees may from time to time select.”. On November 11 1973 the Times published the following memorial notice:
“In grateful memory for the life of Joel Herbert Seaverns, one time Member of Parliament, Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant, for some forty years a merchant in the City of London and who died on November 11 1923. And in gratitude for the help which the terms of his will have given to so many young men and young women.”