Ninette Daviso School of Dancing

[Hogarthr]

Trevor C, I am not sure if you are still active in this forum. _______ I thought I would add to your story in that Hercules Daviso was married to Elizabeth Gibb Donald (probably in Portugal). She was one of the famous Tiller Girls, and they probably met when performing somewhere. She was the mother of Armando, Oscar & Marie Antoinette, hence Marie's attraction to dancing, following in her mother's footsteps. _____ Elizabeth's mother was Ann Hogarth from Newcastle, who is a distant relative of mine, hence the interest. _____ As a new member to this forum, I cannot DM you, but perhaps you could message me? Thanks, Richard

[chrisdonald]

Hi Richard (Hogarthr) 

Ann Hogarth was my great great grandmother (Ann Donald, nee Hogarth, 1856-1939).  She was married to James Donald (a grocer) in April 1876. They had four daughters: Lily (b.1878), Ann (b.1880), Elizabeth Gibb (b.1884) and Margaret (b. 1886).  Lily is my great grandmother, although her son Fred (my granddad) was born illegitimately and raised by his grandmother Ann. 

Ann's husband James Donald died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1894.  His father was John Lockhart Donald (1829-1859) a Newcastle clockmaker whose wife was born Elizabeth Gibb Robertson (1830-1883.)  John Lockhart Donald's father, also James Donald, was serving a clockmaking apprenticeship in Edinburgh in 1815 under a well known clockmaker called Robert Bryson. James moved to Newcastle and had set up his own business by 1827.  He had four sons, Adam Elphinston Donald, John Lockhart Donald, Robert Peel Donald and George Marshall Steel Donald- all named after notable figures of the day, I think.  (John Lockhart was Walter Scott's biographer, and editor of the satirical magazine Blackwoods in Edinburgh.)  As a footnote, I was editor of the satirical magazine Viz in Newcastle (1979 to 1999).

My late father Hugh Ernest James Donald (1926-2010) recalled being taken by his father Fred to visit Ann (who I think may have been referred to as Mrs Hogarth at the time) during the 1930s. She had been landlady of a pub in Byker known locally as 'Dues Bar' and she lived above the pub with her youngest daughter Margaret. 

Hope this might be of some interest.

Chris Donald