Donegani History UK

Born in Foreign Parts - Donegana/Donegani in Scotland

K L Donegani — Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:42:00 GMT

Picture: W. G Herdman, In Edinburgh, the High Street, Leith Wynd and Canongate, dated 1856. . The entrance to Leith Wynd is shown to the right of the painting.

Our previous blogs looked at the early Doneganis in England and Eire. We'll now look at the only Donegana migrant we have found in the historical record, so far, who settled in Scotland.

When starting our search, we were delighted to find that the Register of Aliens for the City of Edinburgh 1794-1825 has survived at the Edinburgh City Archives.. UPDATE 2025 : Images of the original Register are now available via Ancestry [1] , The Register records foreigners registering with local magistrates or whose presence had been reported to the authorities by landlords and boarding house keepers. This registration system was set up across Britain in response to the government’s concerns regarding the number of continental migrants (potential spies and radicals) in Britain after the start of the war with the French Republic in 1793. A series of war-time Aliens Acts [2] required foreigners arriving in Britain to register with customs officials and all masters of ships had to declare the details of the aliens aboard their ships. All new arrivals and those already living in Britain also had to make a declaration before a Magistrate, stating their name, rank, occupation, address and origins. The information collected from these individuals gradually expanded and some entries in the Edinburgh registers include detailed information on place of birth, place of abode in their home country, ports of departure and arrival, date of arrival, the intended duration of their stay and additional comments such as identifying family groups.

The Register contains two references to Andrea Donegana later known as Andrew Donegan of Edinburgh. In the register for 1798, Andrea is said to have been born in Carate, Lombardy [3] around 1772, and had lived in Carate before travelling to Britain, landing in Dover in 1792. He was living in Hanover St Edinburgh and working as a print seller. At the Yorkshire Quarter Sessions held in Wakefield in July 1799 he was charged with offering for sale an "infamous" print on paper ('A Toast for New France' by George Murtatroyd Woodward) but the case was dismissed - it may be that the magistrates understood the cartoon was a mockery of the French, not the English. In the Register of Aliens for Edinburgh in 1803, Andreia Donegan is said to be of Moltrasio, Como, born 1767 but living in Milan prior to travelling to Britain, landing in Dover in 1790. He was living in St Mary Wynd and working as a looking-glass maker.

Andrew Doneghan from Milan married Kitty Anderson of Glasgow at the Roman Catholic Chapel of St Andrew (later the Catholic Cathedral) in Glasgow on 8^th May 1797. [4] Their first child, Andrew, was baptised at the same chapel in December 1798 but the couple were living in Edinburgh by 1802 where their second child, Peter, was baptised in the Roman Catholic Chapel of St Mary (later the Roman Catholic Cathedral). Six more children (Margaret, Antony, Charles, John, Lewis and Catharine) were baptised at St Mary's, the youngest in 1817. [5]

The Post Office Directories for Edinburgh [6] published during the period 1812 to 1828 list Andrew Donegan as a looking-glass maker and a maker of lasts and boot-trees, working from premises in Leith Wynd. Leith Wynd was a steep and narrow street full of workshops and boarding houses which ran from Canongate in the eastern section of the Old Town, to the Leith Docks. It was once the prime route from Edinburgh to Leith but by the nineteenth century the tenements were in poor condition and the Old City wall, which formed the west side of the street. eventually collapsed, killing three children, in 1854. [7] Leith Wynd was replaced by Jeffrey St and Cranston St in the 1890s and later Cranston St was closed and the area cleared to make way for the development of Waverley Station.

We have no trace of Andrew after 1828. Catharine died of Decay of Nature (old age) at the age of 47 and is recorded in the Edinburgh Record of Mortality for 1832 as Catharine Donegani, the wife of Andrew Donegani, Picture Frame Maker, resident in Baillie Fyffes Close. She was buried in the “old ground” in Leith burial ground [8]. Although this entry suggests a change of occupation for Andrew - a picture frame maker rather than a looking-glass maker - this was not an uncommon extension of this trade as both involved the carving and gilding of wooden frames.

Andrew and Catherine’s eldest son, Andrew, was described as a looking glass maker when he married Agnes Wells at St Mary's Catholic Chapel in 1821, but he is recorded as an optician on the 1841 Edinburgh census. His marriage and burial records name him as a “Donegan”, but he appears in the 1841 census as Donegani. Andrew and Agnes had at least four children baptised at the same chapel but we have not yet found any trace of this family after 1841.

Andrew and Catharine’s second child, Peter was also described as a looking glass maker at the time of his marriage to Elizabeth Boyd in 1821 at St Mary's Catholic Chapel, where their sons, Andrew and Peter, were later baptised. However, by 1837, Peter was in Aberdeen where he married Martha McLachland, presumably after the death of his first wife. Peter and Martha moved to Dundee and several of their children appeared in civil and court records, press articles and military records, using the name Donegani. Some of their grandchildren emigrated to New York in the 1890s, appearing on passenger lists under the name Donegani.

Margaret, the eldest daughter of Andrew and Catharine, married Peter Reva (or Riva) at St Mary's Catholic Chapel in 1824. Peter Riva was a looking-glass maker of Nether Barn and a member of the extended Riva family of barometer and looking-glass makers, carvers and gilders, and printers living in Edinburgh and Glasgow. One of Margaret’s nephews (the son of Peter and Elizabeth) was baptised Peter Riva Donegani in 1828, possibly presumably out of respect for his uncle or because of a familial or other connection to the Riva family.

Andrew and Catharine’s fourth child, Antony, died as an infant and we cannot find any trace of their younger children - Charles, John, Lewis and Catharine – other than their baptism records.

Returning to the Edinburgh Registers of Aliens, this historical source provides clear evidence of a community of migrants from Como living in the Canongate area of the city in the 1790s and 1800s. Of the 108 Italians shown on the registers, 36 came from Como, 13 from Milan and a further 7 from other areas of Lombardy. In contrast to those from Rome, Venice and other more southerly regions, many of whom were musicians and music teachers, performers and artists, the Como emigrants carried on the traditional crafts of their home land – making or selling barometers, looking glasses, picture frames, framed prints and fancy goods such as plaster figures. Only three described themselves more generally as “merchants”. Although most of them had arrived in Britain in the 1790s and early 1800s a few had been in the country since the 1770s. They lived close together in the side-streets off Canongate, often sharing a tenement flat with others from their home towns - three living at 8 Hanover St, three at Candlemakers Row, four in a property “at foot of Leith Wynd”, five in Leith Wynd, four in St Davids St and three on St Margaret Wynd.

The baptismal records of their children suggest that Andrew and Catharine were fully integrated into this community and had close links with fellow Lombardians. The sponsors chosen for their children include Felix Zappi, Mrs Pirotti, Charles Galleti, Benedict Ghery, Peter Masino and the reliable Mrs Stampa who was god-mother to five of their children. From the Post Office directories of the 1810s and 1820s we can see that these individuals were also occupied in the traditional Como crafts – for example, Mr Zappe was a maker of artificial flowers; John Pirotti was a figure-maker at Fountain-well; Mr Stampa was a carver and gilder of Leith Street and, in partnership with Mr Galletti, sold art prints in Shore St.

These baptismal sponsors also include one “Joseph Donagon”, sponsor to Andrew and Catharine’s son Antony in 1806. We do not know for certain if this Joseph was a Donegani or whether he was born in Italy or in Scotland but we do have a fleeting glance of a Joseph Donegani in two Post Office directories over thirty years later (1838-39 and 1839-40) where a spirits dealer of that name is listed at Jock’s Lodge, Edinburgh. [9] As we have no further sightings of any Joseph Donegani in Scotland, we will keep an open mind on this!

[1] Edinburgh City Archives. Registers of Aliens <www.ancestry.co.uk>.

[2] The registration requirements of the 1793 Regulations of Aliens Act were expanded by an act of 1798. A centralised registration system was established by the Acts of 1816 and 1826 but dismantled by the 1836 Aliens Act.

[3] There are two villages named Carate village in Lombardy - Carate Urio in Como and Carate Brianza in the neighbouring province of Monza and Brianza.

[4] All marriage records are taken from Find My Past, Scotland, Roman Catholic Parish Marriages

[5] All baptism records are taken from Find My Past, Scotland, Roman Catholic Parish Baptisms

[6] Scottish Post Office Directories

[7] The Times (London, England) 25 February 1854, Issue 21674, p.12.

[8] Scotland’s People. Old Parish Registers Deaths 692/2, 340/105, Leith South, Record of Mortality, 8 July 1832,

[9] Scottish Post Office Directories, Edinburgh,1839-40 and 1840-41

1921 Census records

K L Donegani — Thu, 06 Jan 2022 15:54:00 GMT

The 1921 Census of England and Wales is now available via Find My Past. As with previous census records, finding the Donegani families requires both initiative and imagination. Here are some examples for our Donegani family:

-Ernest Thomas Donegani (b.1877) and his family were living in Heworth, York. They appear in the census database as the Donegam family.

- Lewis Thomas Donegani (b.1852) and his family were living in Morecambe. He appears as Lews T. Donegan.

-William Henry Donegani (b.1860) and his family were living in Lilleshall, Shropshire. They are listed as the Donejane family. William Clive Donegani appears as William Olive Donejane.

Please get in touch if you come across any other potentially confusing variants !

Moltrasio, Lake Como

K L Donegani — Sat, 02 Jan 2021 13:18:00 GMT

Our header photo shows the shoreline of Moltrasio but this does not convey the sheer scale of the mountains surrounding the town or the expanse of Lake Como. With many thanks to Josh Donegani, this blog looks at the home-town of some of the Donegani migrants to the UK.

Moltrasio, Lake Como. Copyright: Josh Donegani, 2017

Moltrasio, Lake Como. Copyright Josh Donegani, 2017.

Lake Como looks idyllic in the summer sunshine but the winter months can be harsh, more so in the 1790s and the early ninetenth century when there were few made roads and little income for the farmers. Whole families turned to the manufacture of goods (such as barometers, thermometers, picture and looking glass frames, jewellry) which could be carried by the young men who set off in the spring to sell their wares across Europe. The most common route out of the area was north via the small and treacherous mountain paths as the much improved Splügen Pass, designed by road engineer Carlo Donegani of Brescia, was not opened until 1823 and was still a difficult crossing in the winter.

Historical depiction of crossng the Splügen Pass in winter. Unknown artist. Undated.

The parish church of San Martino and Sant'Agata may be of interest to those looking for the spiritual home and parish records of their Moltrasio-born Donegani ancestors. (Please note that some early-nineteenth century records are are missing from the registers held by the church). The earliest historical reference to what was then the small parish church is from the beginning of the thirteenth century. The church was significantly restored and extended during the 16th and 17th centuries and enhanced by a number of frescoes, paintings and relics.

Moltrasio Church. Copyright Josh Donegani, 2017

Moltrasio Church Interior. Copyright Josh Donegani, 2017.

Memorial Plaque to Benefactors c. 1935, Copyright Josh Donegani, 2017.

In 1935 the church was further expanded and the external facade was rebuilt using local Moltrasio limestone. There is a plaque inside the church commemorating the benefactors who contributed to the cost of those works which includes "On. Guido Donegani", the CEO of the Montecatini chemical company and fascist supporter who was at that time a member of the Chamber of Deputies (On. being the abbreviation for Onorevole - Honourable in English). Guido Donegani had family in Moltrasio, though he was born in Livorno, and owned Villa La Rose which is located to the north-east of Moltrasio town and was used as a holiday home by Winston Churchill in 1945.

The plaque also lists an Andrea Donegana and the Donegana name is seen in the parish records for the town and in the street name, Via Paolo Donegana. The names Donegani and Donegana seen in Moltrasio are most likely to be toponymic surnames (family names derived from a place name) relating to the frazione (civil parish or ward) of Donegano in the comune of Moltrasio. {1}

1. We do not yet have an academic source for this but the site www.cognomix.it/origine-cognome/donegani.php

provides text found on several Italian Internet sites. This site offers Cadoneghe near Padua and Valdoneghe, Lake Garda as other potential locations linked to these family names.

Born in Foreign Parts - Lewis Donegani of Dublin and Livorno

K L Donegani — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:14:00 GMT

Photo: Custom House, Dublin. Courtsey of the National Library of Ireland.

It is no surprise that the Irish genealogical sources for the early ninteenth century contain many Donegan, Donagon and Doneghan (etc) families, as this is not an unusual family name in Ireland. However, one Donegani does appear regularly in the Dublin trade directories from the 1830s to the late 1870s - the business of Lewis Donegani, later Donegani and Hickey. In the earlier years this company was a wholesaler of imported Italian marble with offices in Lower Fleet Street but in the 1840s, the firm moved to 200 Great Brunswick Street (now Pearse Street) and expanded its business activities to include the sale of marble statuary and plaster mouldings as well as a wide range of imported Italian goods.

Surprisingly, despite this enduring presence in the city, there appears to be only one reference to Lewis Donegani in Irish genealogical sources – that of his marriage to Marcella Reilly (or O’Reilly) in Dublin in 1843.[1] Luckily it did not take long to spot a clue to the reason for this dearth of local records - the description of Lewis Donegani in Thom’s Irish Almanac [2] as ‘a merchant of Dublin and Leghorn’, Leghorn being the name then used by the British for the port and city of Livorno in Tuscany. In this blog we’ll take a brief look at the business and family life of the only early, foreign born Donegani we have found in Ireland. To avoid confusion, we will refer to him by his birth name, Luigi.

Luigi Donegani was born in Moltrasio in Lombardy around 1800 but, like many other young comaschi [3], he left home as a young man to travel around Europe working as a hawker. We do not know what he sold but as he reportedly made regular trips home, it is possible that he stocked up with the traditional craft products of the Como region, such as barometers, thermometers, looking-glass and picture frames and jewellery to sell abroad.

We also know that Luigi visited members of his family who were living in Livorno, at that time a flourishing free-port in Tuscany and, after the death of his cousin Giuseppe Donegani in March 1842, he moved to Livorno to take over the family’s trinkets and costume jewellery shop.[4] Luigi appears to have been an energetic and ambitious business man. He turned the trinket shop into an office for his expanding business activities which included shipping, the dismantling of ships and exporting a range of Italian products, including those sent to Dublin.

Before we take a closer look at Luigi’s business interests and explore his family connections, let us enjoy a rare treat for a family historian – a contemporary description of our subject:

'Of mediocre stature, rather fat, Donegani walked upright, with a steady step, although not fast due to his body weight. He had the habit of keeping his head tilted, while his changing gaze wandered, acutely uneasy. In his work he was tenacious, to the point of showing impatience in the face of doubtful lingering. He took care of his own affairs directly and only those who had his trust allowed to intervene. The man's character was sober, reserved, modest; he did not like licentious ways nevertheless he blamed them with indulgent good-naturedness.' [5]

Luigi appears in the records of arrivals at the ports of Dover and London showing that he made regular visits from Livorno during the period 1835-1852.[6] As we have no record of him having any business activities in England, we presume he was en route to Dublin. Although passport details were not recorded for every landing, we can see that in December 1835 he travelled on a Tuscan passport whilst in August 1852 he is described as a native of Italy travelling with an Austrian passport (the Italian states, including Tuscany, were under the control of the Austrian Empire at this time). We do not know how long he stayed in Dublin but as his family and the centre of his business was in Livorno, we assume these were relatively short visits.

in order to run a successful business in Ireland, he must have had ‘those who had his trust’ to help him manage his affairs in Dublin. Our findings suggest that he had the support of a small but close-knit group of Irish-Italian families which made it possible to run a successful business without being resident in the country. It has been suggested that Luigi had a sister who married an Irishman and lived in Dublin [7] though we have not yet been able to identify her, she may have provided Luigi with a family and social network. However, the records do suggest that Luigi had a small but essential network of immigrant families from Lombardy helping him to establish and run his business in Dublin.

Luigi first appears, as 'Lewis Donegani, Merchant', in the Dublin Post Office Directory of 1838, located at 58 Lower Fleet Street, but later moving to 200 Great Brunswick Street. A closer look at the records for these premises shows links between the Del Vecchio and Donegani families of Como, just as they were in England, Canada and the USA (see Born in Foreign Parts). The Del Vecchio family from Como were in business in Dublin before 1802, with James Del Vecchio selling prints in South Great George Street before moving to Westmorland Street in 1805, where he established a very successful art gallery and auction house. The Del Vecchio family also ran a grocery store at 58 Lower Fleet Street, the address of Luigi’s first office, and manufacturing looking glasses and plaster of Paris. The company expanded in to the manufacture of statues and plaster mouldings at 200 Brunswick Street, where Luigi sold imported marble from around 1847. Luigi also bought-up the remaining stock of the Del Vecchio's plaster and statuary business when James Del Vecchio died and employed James's son Francis and his long-serving Italian warehouseman to run the business in his absence. [8]

Freeman’s Journal, Wed 22 Nov 1865, p.2. Copyright: The British Library Board, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

During the 1860s, Luigi expanded the range of his imports, which were usually listed in the Shipping Intelligence reports in the local press, showing how much duty he had to pay on the goods. The Dublin Daily Express listed his imports that had arrived from Leghorn on Saturday 7th February 1863, showing he amount of duty he had to pay:

IMPORTS, - Leghorn – 3 cases, 18 boxes macaroni, L. Donegani 6s.5d; 19 blocks, 259 slabs marble, 25 bales rags, 3 bales hemp, 188 half chests, 59 boxes olive oil, 1 case furniture and 33 tons linseed oilcake. L. Donegani, free.
Dublin Daily Express, Mon 9 Feb 1863, p.4,

From the mid-1860s, the new business partnership of Donegani and Hickey marketed the ‘scientifically-tested’ Italian Linseed Cake to Irish farmers, but as their advert in the Freeman’s Journal shows, they were now selling a range of Italian goods - Indian Corn, Languedoc Flour, Italian Hemp, Olive Oil, Paste, Pumice Stone and Carrara Marble - from their office at 200 Great Brunswick Street.

Freeman’s Journal, Wed 9 September 1868, p.1. The British Library Board, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

We have not yet been able to establish how Luigi came to set up the partnership with Mr Hickey but we do know that a Maria Hickey was a witness to Luigi and Marcella’s marriage in 1843, suggesting a potential social or family connection. Court records and press reports also tell us that Mr John Hickey was connected to the Del Vecchio family, as he was the plaintiff in a series of court hearings relating to “leases for life” held by members of the Del Vecchio family for property in Dublin, including 26 Westmorland Street, [9]

At the meeting of the Loyal National Repeal Association in Dublin in August 1843, two members of the audience, Peter Mackey and Lewis Donegani, declared themselves to be looking-glass manufacturers and natives of Italy who had paid their £1 subscriptions and wished to be members of the Association.[10] We do not know if Luigi ever worked in the looking-glass trade, though it would not be surprising to learn that it was his original trade or that he hawked looking-glasses around Europe as a young man. Peter Mackey was a well-established looking-glass maker in Dublin, appearing in directories as early as 1814.[11] In October 1843, Johanne Mackey was the second witness to Luigi and Marcella’s wedding which suggests Luigi had more than a political or business relationship with the Mackey family. There are examples elsewhere which suggest that Mackey was adopted as an Anglicised version of the Italian (and possibly French) family name Mache [12] and that at least one Mache family originated from Como, so it may be that the Mackey family were also part of a Lombardian community in Dublin.

These few examples from the available historical records suggest that Luigi had a close-knit Irish-Italian network in Dublin - trusted individuals who worked to run his business affairs.

To find out about his family life and the fate of his business empire, we have to look to Livorno.

Luigi and Marcella had four sons and reportedly, two daughters who died young. Two of their sons, Giovan Battista Donegani and Guilio Donegani took on the business of Luigi Donegani Co. after Luigi’s death in 1877. By the late 1890s, they had turned it into a substantial commercial and financial enterprise which included a small copper mine run by the Montecatini Mining Company. After Giovan Battista’s death in 1910, his son Guido Donegani (1877-1947) took control of Montecatini, relocated its headquarters to Milan and led the expansion and diversification of the company, which became the largest producer of agro-chemicals in Italy as well as operating power stations and manufacturing explosives and munitions. Guido Donegani was a member of Parliament, later a Senator, a supporter of the Italian National Fascist Party and an emissary of Mussolini.

[1] Ancestry. Ireland Catholic Parish Registers. St Nicholas’ (Without) Dublin City, Parish Registers 1822-1863, p.81v.,1843, October 9, Loudovicus Donnegani et Marcella Reilly.

Also see: Weekly Freeman’s Journal, Saturday 14^th October 1843, p.8, ‘On the 9^th instant, by the Very Rev. Gerald Doyle, Catholic Rector of Naas, Signore Suigi (sic) Donegani, of Leghorn, to Marcella, youngest daughter of the late Michael O’Reilly, Esq., of this city.’

[2] Thom’s Irish Almanac and Official Directory, 1864, p.1313 “Donegani, Lewis, merchant, figure, vase and ornament manufacturer, and Leghorn”.

[3] Young men of Como

[4] F. Crimeni, ‘I Donegani. Una famiglia del primo capitalism italiano’, Studi Storici, vol. 38, no. 2 (1997), p.390.

[5] F. Crimeni, ‘I Donegani’, (1997), p.392. Crimeni cites the 1877 publication of Targioni Tozzetti, who gave the eulogy at Luigi’s funeral. He also reports that Luigi’s gravestone bears the memorial ‘Blessed is the rich man who is found without fault: he could do harm and did not’. Translated from Italian using Google Translator.

[6] The National Archives, HO 3: Home Office: Aliens Act 1836: Returns and papers. July 1836-December 1869.

[7] F. Crimeni, ‘I Donegani’, (1997), p.390.

[8] Further information on the marble works is to be found in the University of Glasgow project site, Mapping the practice and profession of sculpture in Britain and Ireland, 1851-1951

[9] Warder and Dublin Weekly Mail, 24 March 1849, p.1

[10] Freeman’s Journal, 8 August 1843, p. 3. John Hickey was also listed as a subscriber to the Association. The Association sought legislative independence for Ireland under the British Crown

[11] John Watson Stewart, The Gentleman’s and Citizen’s Almanack for the Year 1814, p.72. Entry reads: Mackey (P. and G.) Carvers and Gilders, 34 Skinner-row. Later directories described the company as looking glass manufacturers of 35 Pill Lane.

[12] As an example: John Mackey, who was born in Como, Lombardy around 1816, appears in successive English census returns (in London and Liverpool) from 1861 and 1871 as John Mackey but on his 1845 marriage certificate and in the 1841, 1851, and 1881 censuses he appears as John Mache, even though his sons are shown as Mackey. His early occupation was a looking-glass journeyman. He is described as a wire worker in later census returns.

Born in Foreign Parts- early Doneganis in England

K L Donegani — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 16:40:00 GMT

This month we take a look at those Doneganis "Born in Foreign Parts”, focussing on those who settled in England. (We’ll look at Scotland later).

Two things emerged from this mini-study. Firstly, that where historical records are available, they indicate that most of these Doneganis came from the Como area of Lombardy, close to the Swiss border. Secondly, that many were employed in the crafts and trades common to the Como region – the manufacture of barometers, thermometers, optical instruments and carved, gilded picture and looking glass frames. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, these crafts were an economic lifeline for the inhabitants of the Como region of Lombardy, most of whom were farmers who earned a basic income from farms which required little work in the winter months. Many families spent the winters producing goods which were taken over the border into Switzerland and onwards, to be finished and sold direct to retail customers or to drapers and other retailers.[1] The range of skills required to make these goods also stood individuals in good stead to branch into other trades such as cabinet maker and optician.

We start with Anthony Donegany, a victualler, who in 1792 took out a fire insurance policy with the Sun Insurance Office for The Ship (Tavern), Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields in Holborn, London.[2] The pub is still there on the corner of Gate Street and Little Turnstile, though the current building was heavily renovated in the 1920s.[3] Although he was an innkeeper, we also have evidence that Anthony was involved in the barometer trade in the form of a 10” wheel barometer. made in 1795, marked ‘Anthony Donegan, Ship, Turnstile, Holborn’ which sold at auction in 2010. This does not mean that Anthony made it, as it was not uncommon for instrument dials to be engraved with the name of the retailer rather than the maker and indeed this barometer is signed on the inside by the maker, Pietro Del Vecchio of Lewes. So it is more likely that Anthony was a retailer, perhaps displaying the instruments on his pub walls. It is notable that this connection between members of the Donegani and Del Vecchio families was also evident in New York, Montreal and Dublin in the early nineteenth century.[4] We do not know if Anthony had family members in the Holborn area but barometers marked Peter Donegan, P Donegan, P Donevan, L Donegan and Donegan & Co were made in London at this time, [5] but we do not know if these are an anglicised version of Donegani or a Donegan family of Irish origin.

Anthony’s involvement with the barometer trade is also suggested by the record of the discharge of Charles Pitsalla from Fleet Prison (a debtor prison in London) in 1805 as this names Anthoni Donegani as a party in the case.[6] Pitsalla (or Pizzala) was a barometer maker in London during the period 1800-1820, residing at 221 High Holborn, round the corner from The Ship.[7]

Another early English Donegani was Joseph Donegani who married Mary Anouge in Dorchester in 1791. Their first child was baptised in Bath but in 1794 and 1796 they had sons baptised in the Sardinian Chapel at Lincoln’s Inn, just a few minutes’ walk from The Ship. There is a possibility that Joseph was related to Anthony but we must remember that many newly-arrived Italians initially stayed in Holborn and that Mary was also from an Italian émigré family which had settled in Holborn. Joseph was later described on his son’s marriage certificate as an optician which would have involved making as well as dispensing spectacles. Joseph and Mary moved to Hull in the early 1800s and had two more sons baptised in the same Roman Catholic Chapel, and around the same time, as the children of James Pioty (or Piotti) an optician, carver, gilder and looking glass maker of Hull,[8] They later moved to Somerset, settling in Bath.

A second Joseph Donegani was described at his daughter’s baptism in Birmingham in 1818 as being “prope Mediolanum” or from near Milan. Whether he was born there or was en route from Como we do not know. He was a silversmith and jeweller, initially in Birmingham and then in Northampton where he ran a jewellery shop in Gold Street, later moving to George Row and then to Drapery. He also ran jewellery stalls at markets in nearby towns such as Daventry. In newspaper reports of a burglary at his shop in 1826 it was noted that stock to the value of £200 was stolen [9], the equivilant of around £20,000 today, so we may assume this was a substantial business. However, in the 1841 census he is listed as a looking-glass maker, perhaps using craft skills learnt earlier in Como, with assistance from his eldest son Austin. Austin later left the trade and became a fishmonger in Oundle but Joseph’s second son, William became a gilder and framer (of picture frames) in Birmingham. (See our Notes and Queries item at the end of this blog for more on Joseph Donegani of Northampton).

Northampton Mercury, 28 January 1826,p.3. C The British Library Board.

Austin Donegani is also recorded in the 1841 census for Northampton and is shown as born in Foreign Parts and aged between 30 to 34, [10] We have no direct evidence that he was related to Joseph the jewellery store owner but Joseph's naming of his son Austin may indicate a family connection. Austin’s occupation was that of a hawker. We have no clues as to what he sold but he appears in historical records in Little Bowden, near Market Harborough in Leicestershire and in Kettering and may be responsible for a barometer marked 'Donegan, Leicester' which is listed by Banfield. [11]

Another early Donegani was Francis Donegan (Donegani) of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. Francis married in Newcastle in 1811, had at least one son, Joseph, and ran a draper's shop in the Ironmarket. He also sold barometers signed in a variety of styles including: Donegan & Co of Newcastle; Donegan & Co of Stafford; F Donegan, Joseph Donegani, Newcastle-under-Lyme and other variations, along with thermometers, looking glasses and frames. The range of his goods is well illustrated by this advertisement in the Staffordshire Advertiser in 1821.

Staffordshire Advertiser, 12th May 1821, p.4.

We may not have recognised Francis as a Donegani but for the press notice shown below, which appeared in the same paper some twelve years later. A few weeks later, Francis sold the substantial contents of his house at auction and, it has been suggested, moved to Canada, though we have not seen any evidence of this. His son Joseph, appears to be the source of the barometers and thermometers sold by Francis. He did not take over the drapery business but continued in his own trade from premises in Lads Lane (off Ironmarket) until around 1840. He then appears, as Joseph Donegani, in census returns for various locations across the Midlands, as a hawker and travelling salesman, possibly selling what he had made.

Staffordshire Advertiser, 26th October 1833 p.1.

Our own 'Born in Foreign Parts' ancestor – Mark Donegani - was born in Moltrasio, Como in 1809 during the time of the French occupation of Lombardy (1796 to 1814). The earliest historical record we have found for him in England is from 1833 when he donated a guinea to a collection for a monument to be erected to the late Duke of Sutherland overlooking Trentham Hall (now Trentham Gardens). As Trentham is located very close to Newcastle-under-Lyme, there may be a family connection to Francis Donegani (above). We have as yet found no firm evidence for this but note that Mark's father is named as John Donegani on Mark's marriage certificate and a Johannes Donagan was the sponsor for Francis' son Joseph at his baptism in 1814. Mark was notable in that he was not occupied in the trades and crafts followed by the other Doneganis from Italy and in the 1841 census he appears as a manservant at the Sutherlands' newly renovated Lilleshall Hall, Shropshire. From 1851 he was a tenant farmer on the Lilleshall Estate and was also the brewer and Usher of the Hall, earning £21 per annum. Post-pandemic, we hope to spend some time exploring the Sutherland archives further to try find out more about Mark’s early days.

J. Loch, Memoir of George Granville, late Duke of Sutherland, K.G, (London, 1834), Appendix. Amount donated is in £ s. d.

Finally, arriving in England a little later, was a family group from the Como area who settled in Rochdale. Anthony Donegani was born in Moltrasio in 1829 but migrated to England in 1847 at the age of 17. [12] After arriving in Liverpool, he moved to Manchester for a few years and then moved to Rochdale. Anthony's occupation was that of a cabinet maker and, later, a looking glass and picture frame maker and gilder. Two of his brothers (or possibly half-brothers given the age difference between them) followed. Santino Donegani, born in Lombardy in 1847, arrived in England from the USA around 1869 (his nephew later said that his uncle had “travelled twice around the world”). After a brief stay in London, he moved to Rochdale to run a jewellery stall on the market for several years before opening a wholesale and retail tobacconist business. His brother Diego Donegani, born in Italy in 1859, arrived England in time for the 1881 census and worked initially as a cabinet maker and then as a picture dealer and frame maker living next door to Santino and his family in Spotland, Rochdale.

Notes & Queries

The 1841 Census for England and Wales records two familes headed by Joseph Donegani in Northampton. The entries are remarkably similar and we have taken the view that they refer to the same family. We have found no evidence of a second family in civil registration records or later censuses. Joseph's wife Sarah died just a few weeks before the census.

HO 107/814/11 Folio 16 p. 25 Bearward Street, Northampton, the household of William Hunt.
Joseph Donegani, 50, no occupation, born in Foreign Parts
William Donegani, 10, born Northamptonshire
John Donegani, 3, born Northamptonshire

HO 107/814/12 Folio 27 p.7 Crispin Street, Northampton, the household of Joseph Donegani
Joseph Donegani, 53, Looking glass maker, born in Foreign Parts
William Donegani, 12, born Northamptonshire
John Donegani,3, born Northamptonshire.

If you have any further information, we'd love to hear from you.

_____________

[1] E. Banfield, The Italian influence on English barometers from 1780. (Baros Books, 1993).

[2] London Metropolitan Archives. CLC/B/192/F/001/MS11936/387/602115. Records of the Sun Insurance Office, Policy registers, Fire insurance policy issued 2 July 1792, Anthony Donegany, The Ship, Gate Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

[3] The Ship Tavern, 12 Gate Street, Holborn, London WC2A 3HP http://www.theshiptavern.co.uk/

[4] M.C. Van Cott, 'The Del Vecchios of New York', Furniture History, vol, 25, 1989, pp.221-234. Also, L. Codignola, Blurred nationalities across the North Atlantic (University of Toronto Press, 2019), pp. 74-77. (Extract available on Google Books.)

[5] E. Banfield, Barometer makers and retailers, 1660-1900 (Baros Books, 1991), p.71.

[6] The National Archives. PRIS 10. England.King’s (Queen’s) Bench, Fleet, Marshalsea and Queen’s Prisons : Miscellenea. Record of the King’s Bench, Fleet and Marshalsea prisons, Entry books for Discharges 1793-1805, p. 412.

[7] Advert for a housemaid for the Pitsalla family, Morning Post, 17 Dec 1815, p.4, col. 3.

[8] Hull Advertiser and Exchange Gazette 9 Feb 1805, p.1.

[9] Exeter Flying Post, 2 February 1826, p.4.

[10] In the 1841 census adult ages are rounded down to the nearest 5 year multiple. There are some exceptions where a specific age is shown.

[11] Banfield, Barometer makers and retailers, p.71

[12] The National Archives. HO 1/122/4763. Naturalisation certificate – Anthony Donegani, 15 July 1865.

Miss Lucy Donegani Soprano and Banjo Player

K L Donegani — Wed, 29 Jul 2020 10:21:00 GMT

The Blackburn Standard, 17^th November 1900 p.7, reported that Miss Donegani of Manchester was one of a number of entertainers at the meat tea for the old and infirm men resident in the Blackburn Workhouse on the previous Thursday evening. She played selections on the banjo and mandolin whilst other musicians sang, accompanied by a string band. The Union guardians also provided apples, sweets and tobacco to the old folks, who “enjoyed the treat very much indeed”.

Such charitable teas or treats were relatively common, if not frequent, by the 1900’s and were funded and organised by church congregations, charities, social clubs, local councils and other local groups. A couple of years later, the Wigan Observer and District Advertiser, 10^th Jan 1902, p.8, carried a report of the annual “treat to the old people”, a tradition which commenced in 1876. The old folks were provided with a meat tea provided by the nearby Legh Arms and served by a bevy of volunteer ladies. Some 204 residents over the age of sixty attended and were entertained by “a Manchester party” including Miss Lucy Donegan (soprano) singing “The Toilers” and “Tatters”. The entertainers also included the “Misses Donegan (banjo duettists)” performing “Cromertee March” and “Skipping Rope Dances”. The reporter assures us that the “humorous” element of the event caught on tremendously, and all the other items were performed in first-class style”.

Lucy’s musical talent is further documented by her entry in the 1901 census where her occupation is shown as a Musician and Music Teacher. However, as we have found only two mentions of her work in the newspapers of the day, it is perhaps surprising that she appears, as Lucie Donegani, on card number 78 of Ogden’s Gold Guinea Cigarette Cards, Actresses Series. This Series was issued around 1900 and Lucy is shown with her four-string banjo festooned with ribbons.

A clue to her connection with the music halls is provided in the above press report, as another member of the “Manchester party” was Kendal Thompson. According to the Music Hall and Theatre Review, 2 July 1892, p.17, Thompson was “Manchester’s favourite tenor vocalist” who had a successful career from the late 1870s to the 1900s appearing at music hall venues throughout the north and midlands including the Manchester Palace of Varieties. It may be that Lucy met Thompson through the music halls and maybe had supporting stage roles, unreported by the press reviews.

Biographical note: Lucy Donegani was born in 1879 in Rochdale and was the grand-daughter of Anthony Donegani who was born in Moltrasio in about 1829. She moved with her parents Joshua (a house painter and later a tobacconist) and Sarah to Manchester some time before 1891. In 1902 she married Frank Nixon, a dairyman and went on to have two children, Frank (b. 1904) and Alice (b.1906). We have found no trace of a musical career after her marriage. She appears as Lucie on the Ogden's card but also in a press report relating to the burial of her uncle, Santino Donegani, in the Rochdale Times, 6 Nov 1912, p.3.