See also

Family of John Evangelist Wurm and Marie Sophie Niggl

Husband: John Evangelist Wurm

  • Name:

  • John Evangelist Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Male

  • Father:

  • -

  • Mother:

  • -

  • Note 1:

  • Professor of music. John Evangelist Wurm and his wife moved from Bavaria to Southampton - between 1857 and 1860 - on the advice of Sophie's sister Josephine, who had married Lorenz Herkomer. Besides teaching German and music peripatetically, John Evangelist Wurm was organist and choirmaster of St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Bugle Street, Southampton, for more than thirty years.

  • Note 2:

  • WURM John Evangelist of 12 Portland Street Southampton professor of music died 19 March 1892; Administration London 6 April to John Lewis Wurm clerk in the Eastern Telegraph Company Limited. Effects £268 1s.

  • Birth:

  • c. 1828

  • Obersdorf, Bavaria

  • Occupation:

  •  

  • Music teacher

  • Census (1):

  • 1861 (age 32-33)

  • Professor of German & Music, 11 Windsor Terrace, Southampton

  • Census (2):

  • 1871 (age 42-43)

  • Professor of German & Music, 12 Portland St, Southampton (wife & children absent at census)

  • Census (3):

  • 1881 (age 52-53)

  • Professor of Music, 12 Portland St, Southampton (wife & children absent at census)

  • Census (4):

  • 1891 (age 62-63)

  • Professor of Music, 12 Portland St, Southampton (widower)

  • Death fact:

  • 1892 (age 63-64)

  • 1892 Mar Qtr, Southampton, 2c/45 (aged 64)

  • Death:

  • 19 Mar 1892 (age 63-64)

  • Southampton, Hampshire

Wife: Marie Sophie Niggl

  • Name:

  • Marie Sophie Niggl

  • Sex:

  • Female

  • Father:

  • Unknown Niggl (c. 1790-1839)

  • Father:

  • -

  • Birth:

  • c. 1833

  • Denklingen, Bavaria

  • Birth fact:

  •  

  • DNB gives birth year as c.1838

  • Census (1):

  • 1861 (age 27-28)

  • Wife in household

  • Occupation:

  • 1878 (age 44-45)

  • Teacher of Languages: Madam Wurm, 17 Palace Road, Upper Norwood (PO Directory, 1878)

  • Census (2):

  • 1881 (age 47-48)

  • 17 Palace Road, Penge (married, husband absent)

  • Death fact:

  • 1882 (age 48-49)

  • 1882 Sep Qtr, Kensington, 1a/76 (aged 49)

  • Death:

  • 1882 (age 48-49)

  • Kensington, Middlesex

Child 1: Mary Josephine Agnes Wurm

  • Name:

  • Mary Josephine Agnes Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Female

  • Note (shared):

  • A noted composer and music teacher, Marie Wurm studied under Clara Schumann among others before making her London debut at the Crystal Palace in 1882. She composed many songs and piano works, a piano concerto, a violin sonata, a cello sonata, a string quartet, works for string orchestra, and a one-act opera. In 1895 she gave a concert at the Queens Hall entirely composed of extempore performances on musical themes suggested by the audience, probably one of the last classical improvisation performances of its kind.

    Thanks to Geoffrey Blyth for pointing out to me the connection between the Wurm, Niggl and Herkomer families.

    See also article on Marie Wurm in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

  • Birth:

  • 18 May 1860

  • 11 Windsor Terrace, Southampton

  • Birth fact:

  • 1860 (age 0)

  • 1860 Jun Qtr, Southampton, 2c/33

  • Census:

  • 1861 (age 0-1)

  • Living with parents (aged 10 months)

  • Death:

  • 21 Jan 1938 (age 77)

  • Munich, Germany

Child 2: Joseph Augustus Wurm

  • Name:

  • Joseph Augustus Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Male

  • Spouse:

  • Lina Hughes (1872-1948)

  • Children:

  • Edith Daisy Wurm (1893-1926)

  • Birth:

  • 1861

  • Southampton, Hampshire

  • Birth fact:

  • 1861 (age 0)

  • 1861 Dec Qtr, Southampton, 2c/10

  • Census (1):

  • 1881 (age 19-20)

  • Pianoforte tuner, living with mother in Penge

  • Census (2):

  • 1891 (age 29-30)

  • Pianoforte tuner, 4 Victoria Road, Camberwell, Surrey

  • Death:

  • 1893 (age 31-32)

  •  

Child 3: Charles John Wurm

  • Name:

  • Charles John Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Male

  • Birth:

  • 1863

  • Southampton, Hampshire

  • Birth fact:

  • 1863 (age 0)

  • 1863 Sep Qtr, Southampton, 2c/13

  • Death:

  • 1869 (age 5-6)

  •  

Child 4: Mathilde Verne

  • Name:

  • Mathilde Verne

  • Sex:

  • Female

  • Note 1:

  • A pianist and piano teacher, Mathilde Verne has her main claim to fame in her discovery of the seven year-old piano prodigy Solomon (Cutner), whom she managed for five years from 1910 to 1915.

    After studying for four years under Clara Schumann in Frankfurt, she became established as a concert pianist in 1887, as well as launching a career as music teacher. She taught briefly at the Royal College of Music, and later made regular appearances under Henry Wood at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts from 1903 to 1907, and the Sunday afternoon concerts from 1908 to 1912.

    Along with most of her other sisters, Mathilde changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.

    In 1909 the Mathilde Verne School of Pianoforte Playing opened at 194 Cromwell Road, South Kensington, and quickly gained attention with its student performances. Among numerous notable students, she taught Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

    The novel "Madame Sousatzka" by Bernice Rubens (1962), made into a film in 1988 is partly based on Mathilde Verne's career.

    Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

     

    For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/

  • Note 2:

  • VERNE Mathilde Sophie of 2 Mansfield Street Portland Place Middlesex spinster died 4 June 1936 at Savoy Hotel Strand Middlesex; Administration London 13 July to Alice Barbara Bredt (wife of William Bredt). Effects £262 19s. 5d.

  • Birth:

  • 25 May 1865

  • 12 Portland Street, Southampton

  • Birth fact:

  • 1865 (age 0)

  • 1865 Jun Q, Southampton, 2c/34 (registered as Matilda Sophia Wurm)

  • Census (1):

  • 1881 (age 15-16)

  • Living with mother in Penge

  • Census (2):

  • 1901 (age 35-36)

  • Piano teacher, 19 St Loo Avenue, Chelsea (unmarried)

  • Census (3):

  • 1911 (age 45-46)

  • Pianist & piano teacher, 194 Cromwell Road, London S W

  • Residence:

  • 1920 (age 54-55)

  • 12 Montagu Street, Paddington (Elect. Reg.)

  • Death:

  • 4 Jun 1936 (age 71)

  • Savoy Hotel, Strand, London

Child 5: John Lewis Verne

  • Name:

  • John Lewis Verne

  • Sex:

  • Male

  • Spouse:

  • Ethel Maude Hackney (1872-1947)

  • Children:

  • Dennis Batigan Lewis Verne (1903-2000)

  •  

  • Margaret Adela Verne (1904-2004)

  •  

  • Angela Alice Verne (1906-1994)

  •  

  • Madeleine Sophie Verne (1910-1935)

  • Note:

  • Wurm, John Lewis, 2 son of John Evangelist, of Southampton, gent. Hertford Coll., matric. 22 Oct., 1886, aged 20.

    Source: Ancestry.com. Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

  • Birth:

  • 1866

  • Southampton, Hampshire

  • Birth fact:

  • 1866 (age 0)

  • 1866 Sep Q, Southampton, 2c/25 (registered as John Lewis Wurm)

  • Education:

  •  

  • Dulwich College & Hertford Coll, Oxford, matric. 1886

  • Census (1):

  • 1881 (age 14-15)

  • Living with mother in Penge

  • Census (2):

  • 1891 (age 24-25)

  • Lithographic clerk, living with brother Joseph in Camberwell

  • Census (3):

  • 1901 (age 34-35)

  • Western Telegraph Company, Thrale Hall, 38 Mitcham Lane (boarder, unmarried)

  • Census (4):

  • 1911 (age 44-45)

  • Stores superintendent, 92 Mayfield Road, Sanderstead, Surrey

  • Residence:

  • 1920 (age 53-54)

  • Brathay, Thornton Road, Clapham Park, London S.W.12 (Elect Reg.)

  • Death:

  • 1936 (age 69-70)

  • East London, South Africa

Child 6: Alice Barbara Verne

  • Name:

  • Alice Barbara Verne

  • Sex:

  • Female

  • Spouse:

  • William Bredt (c. 1873- )

  • Children:

  • Arthur William Adolphus Bredt (1905- )

  • Note (shared):

  • A music teacher and composer, Alice Verne sang and played the violin and hoped for a career as a singer of light opera but, partly through serious illness, turned to the piano, taking lessons from Marie

    Schumann in London. After accompanying her sisters on concert tours, Alice organized the junior department of Mathilde's piano school.

    Her compositions included a Mass, a Phantasy Trio (which won a prize in 1910), the Toy Suite, and an Adaggio for Strings (1947).

    Along with most of her other sisters, Alice changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.

    Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

     

     

    For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/

  • Birth:

  • 9 Aug 1868

  • 12 Portland Street, Southampton

  • Birth fact:

  • 1868 (age 0)

  • 1868 Sep Q, Southampton, 2c/27 (registered as Alice Barbara Wurm)

  • Census:

  • 1881 (age 12-13)

  • Living with mother in Penge

  • Death:

  • 12 Apr 1958 (age 89)

  • Fulham Hospital, Fulham, Middlesex

Child 7: Ellen Emma Wurm

  • Name:

  • Ellen Emma Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Female

  • Birth:

  • 1872

  • Southampton, Hampshire

  • Birth fact:

  • 1872 (age 0)

  • 1872 Jun Q, Southampton, 2c/19

  • Death fact:

  • 1877 (age 4-5)

  • 1877 Jun Q, Southampton, 2c/7 (aged 5, Helena Emma Wurm)

  • Death:

  • 1877 (age 4-5)

  • Southampton, Hampshire

Child 8: Frederick Maximillian Wurm

  • Name:

  • Frederick Maximillian Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Male

  • Birth:

  • 1874

  • Southampton, Hampshire

  • Birth fact:

  • 1874 (age 0)

  • 1874 Jun Qtr, Southampton, 2c/12

  • Census:

  • 1881 (age 6-7)

  • Living with mother in Penge

Child 9: Arthur William Wurm

  • Name:

  • Arthur William Wurm

  • Sex:

  • Male

  • Birth:

  • 1875

  • Southampton, Hampshire

  • Birth fact:

  • 1875 (age 0)

  • 1875 Jun Qtr, Southampton, 2c/12

  • Census (1):

  • 1881 (age 5-6)

  • Living with mother in Penge

  • Census (2):

  • 1891 (age 15-16)

  • Lithographer, living with brother Joseph in Camberwell

Child 10: Adela Verne

  • Name:

  • Adela Verne

  • Sex:

  • Female

  • Spouse:

  • Jean Vallier (1864-1942)

  • Children:

  • John Vallier (1920-1991)

  • Note 1:

  • The concert pianist Adela Verne was the most celebrated of the musical Verne (Wurm) sisters. She made her London concert debut at the age of fourteen in 1891, and shortly afterwards she embarked on concert tours to Canada and Australia. A favourite of Henry Wood, she performed frequently at the Promenade Concerts at the Queens Hall. Subsequently she resumed her career of foreign concert tours which continued until after the First World War.

    In the 1920s she was based in Chicago, before returning to England in 1932.

    Adela Verne made a number of recordings, and in 1938 she wrote a march for the queen (Queen Elizabeth's March, recorded by the band of the Grenadier Guards).

    Along with most of her other sisters, Adela changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.

    Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

  • Note 2:

  • Adela Verne was the youngest of the 3 Verne pianists. She studied with her sister Mathilde perhaps Clara Schumann's greatest pupil as she was too young to go to Germany and study with Clara. Later she became a pupil and lifelong friend of Paderewski who called her the woman who plays like a man. After Carreno's death she was the greatest woman pianist of her time. Tchaikowsky wanted to meet the 13 year old who played his B flat minor Concerto with such success at the Cyrstal Palace. Her career was very long lasting till shortly before her death in 1952 before she could play the recital scheduled for the opening of the Royal Festival Hall d/s 1915.

    http://www.rgrossmusicautograph.com/instrumental80.html (accessed 13.6.2011)

     

    For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/

  • Birth:

  • 27 Feb 1877

  • 12 Portland Street, Southampton

  • Birth fact:

  • 1877 (age 0)

  • 1877 Mar Qtr, Southampton, 2c/42 (registered as Adeline Victorine Pauline Wurm)

  • Census (1):

  • 1881 (age 3-4)

  • Living with mother in Penge

  • Census (2):

  • 1891 (age 13-14)

  • Living with father in Southampton

  • Residence:

  • 12 Apr 1897 (age 20)

  • 207 Camberwell Grove, Denmark Hill, London SE (Source: http://www.richardfordmanuscripts.co.uk/catalogue/10803)

  • Census (3):

  • 1901 (age 23-24)

  • Professional pianist, living with sister Mathilde in Chelsea, unmarried

  • Census (4):

  • 1911 (age 33-34)

  • Pianist, living with sister Mathilde Verne

  • Death:

  • 4 Feb 1952 (age 74)

  • 67 Earls Court Square, London

Note on Husband: John Evangelist Wurm (1)

Professor of music. John Evangelist Wurm and his wife moved from Bavaria to Southampton - between 1857 and 1860 - on the advice of Sophie's sister Josephine, who had married Lorenz Herkomer. Besides teaching German and music peripatetically, John Evangelist Wurm was organist and choirmaster of St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Bugle Street, Southampton, for more than thirty years.

Note on Husband: John Evangelist Wurm (2)

WURM John Evangelist of 12 Portland Street Southampton professor of music died 19 March 1892; Administration London 6 April to John Lewis Wurm clerk in the Eastern Telegraph Company Limited. Effects £268 1s.

Note on Child 1: Mary Josephine Agnes Wurm - shared note

A noted composer and music teacher, Marie Wurm studied under Clara Schumann among others before making her London debut at the Crystal Palace in 1882. She composed many songs and piano works, a piano concerto, a violin sonata, a cello sonata, a string quartet, works for string orchestra, and a one-act opera. In 1895 she gave a concert at the Queens Hall entirely composed of extempore performances on musical themes suggested by the audience, probably one of the last classical improvisation performances of its kind.

Thanks to Geoffrey Blyth for pointing out to me the connection between the Wurm, Niggl and Herkomer families.

See also article on Marie Wurm in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Note on Child 4: Mathilde Verne (1)

A pianist and piano teacher, Mathilde Verne has her main claim to fame in her discovery of the seven year-old piano prodigy Solomon (Cutner), whom she managed for five years from 1910 to 1915.

After studying for four years under Clara Schumann in Frankfurt, she became established as a concert pianist in 1887, as well as launching a career as music teacher. She taught briefly at the Royal College of Music, and later made regular appearances under Henry Wood at the Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts from 1903 to 1907, and the Sunday afternoon concerts from 1908 to 1912.

Along with most of her other sisters, Mathilde changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.

In 1909 the Mathilde Verne School of Pianoforte Playing opened at 194 Cromwell Road, South Kensington, and quickly gained attention with its student performances. Among numerous notable students, she taught Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, later Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

The novel "Madame Sousatzka" by Bernice Rubens (1962), made into a film in 1988 is partly based on Mathilde Verne's career.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

 

For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/

Note on Child 4: Mathilde Verne (2)

VERNE Mathilde Sophie of 2 Mansfield Street Portland Place Middlesex spinster died 4 June 1936 at Savoy Hotel Strand Middlesex; Administration London 13 July to Alice Barbara Bredt (wife of William Bredt). Effects £262 19s. 5d.

Note on Child 5: John Lewis Verne

Wurm, John Lewis, 2 son of John Evangelist, of Southampton, gent. Hertford Coll., matric. 22 Oct., 1886, aged 20.

Source: Ancestry.com. Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Note on Child 6: Alice Barbara Verne - shared note

A music teacher and composer, Alice Verne sang and played the violin and hoped for a career as a singer of light opera but, partly through serious illness, turned to the piano, taking lessons from Marie

Schumann in London. After accompanying her sisters on concert tours, Alice organized the junior department of Mathilde's piano school.

Her compositions included a Mass, a Phantasy Trio (which won a prize in 1910), the Toy Suite, and an Adaggio for Strings (1947).

Along with most of her other sisters, Alice changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

 

 

For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/

Note on Child 10: Adela Verne (1)

The concert pianist Adela Verne was the most celebrated of the musical Verne (Wurm) sisters. She made her London concert debut at the age of fourteen in 1891, and shortly afterwards she embarked on concert tours to Canada and Australia. A favourite of Henry Wood, she performed frequently at the Promenade Concerts at the Queens Hall. Subsequently she resumed her career of foreign concert tours which continued until after the First World War.

In the 1920s she was based in Chicago, before returning to England in 1932.

Adela Verne made a number of recordings, and in 1938 she wrote a march for the queen (Queen Elizabeth's March, recorded by the band of the Grenadier Guards).

Along with most of her other sisters, Adela changed her name to Verne in 1893 after the death of their father John Wurm.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Note on Child 10: Adela Verne (2)

Adela Verne was the youngest of the 3 Verne pianists. She studied with her sister Mathilde perhaps Clara Schumann's greatest pupil as she was too young to go to Germany and study with Clara. Later she became a pupil and lifelong friend of Paderewski who called her the woman who plays like a man. After Carreno's death she was the greatest woman pianist of her time. Tchaikowsky wanted to meet the 13 year old who played his B flat minor Concerto with such success at the Cyrstal Palace. Her career was very long lasting till shortly before her death in 1952 before she could play the recital scheduled for the opening of the Royal Festival Hall d/s 1915.

http://www.rgrossmusicautograph.com/instrumental80.html (accessed 13.6.2011)

 

For more information on the Verne sisters and John Vallier, see the family website: http://www.keyboardgiants.com/