User:Richardwebber2004/The Connors and the Conrads: An Acrobatic and Comical Victorian Circus Family

''Family research led to the discovery of a Victorian circus family. Henry Connor was a noted vaulter, also known as Herr Conrad, active in England and the Continent until 1862. His sons, Richard and William, became famous high wire artists, known as the “Conrad Brothers”, active in England and very extensively in Western Europe and Russia until the later decades of the nineteenth century. The article describes the development and content of the acts that father and sons developed, making extensive use of reproduced contemporary press clippings. The article also describes the training that Richard, William and two apprentices underwent under Henry Connor and concludes with a consideration of the earning power of Henry Connor and his sons.''

Introduction and Personal Note
When I was growing up in the 1950s, my mother related that some relatives of her mother had been involved in the circus business and had been presented with a silver bowl by the Emperor of Russia whilst they had been performing there. (Where this bowl was located I do not know and I never saw it.) They had been known as “The Flying Conrads”. She also related that the “old man” of the troupe would bite the legs of the children if they resisted “climbing back on the wire”. As a child I considered these tales as romantic and intriguing but essentially unlikely in view of the largely sedentary members of our family that I knew. However, one piece of confirmatory evidence was the Portuguese guitar which we had inherited from my maternal grandmother. This guitar, with a carved dog’s head at the top of the fretboard, was reputed to have been part of the Conrads’ act. When, at the age of 60, I began to conduct family research, I discovered that in the 1861 Census my great great grandfather was one “Henry Connor” and that all the members of his household, except his wife, were recorded as “Equestrian[s]”, a word for which the OED provides one definition as “one who publicly performs on horseback”. I guessed that this Henry Connor was the “old man” of the “The Flying Conrads” and so subsequent research confirmed.

The Connors and the Conrads: Brief Lives
Henry Connor, also known professionally as “Herr Conrad”, was born around 1821 in Dublin and had a successful circus career as a vaulter and as lead of the Conrad and Sons circus family. During the 1840s, he was based in Manchester. It was in Manchester Cathedral that in 1844 he married, Hannah Bella Williamson, the daughter of the publican of the Carder’s Arms, Gaythorn Street, Salford. It was in Manchester also that his sons were born, William in 1847 and Richard in 1849. . However, the 1861, 1871 and 1881 censuses indicate that, from the age of 40 if not before Henry was based in London with occasional tours to the provinces and overseas. He died at Stratford on 1st August 1887 at the age of 66.

Henry’s sons, William and Richard, known professionally as the “Conrad Brothers”, had a very successful circus career travelling together all over the United Kingdom and Europe, William dying at the age of only 44 at Elbeuf, France. Richard is last heard of living as a widower in retirement in Stratford, West Ham with his son, Alfred, born in 1872, in “Riza”, [Riga?] Russia, and a daughter, Jane, born in 1892 in Angers, France. He also had another daughter who was born on Christmas Day 1874 in Berlin. The 1881 Census record for Henry Connor shows a three year old grandson, born in France but a British Subject, living with his grandparents, in Stratford. This could have been the son of either Richard or William, although William’s will of 17th October 1887 makes no reference to wife or children. Henry Connor’s daughter, Annie B, is probably recorded in the 1861 Census, then at the age of eight (and noted as “deaf”), as an “Equestrian”, and can therefore be presumed to have been part of the family troupe at that time. However, subsequent records regarding the troupe make no specific reference to her and by the 1871 Census entry for Henry Connor her occupation, at the age of 19, is given as “Milliner”. The 1851 Census record may indicate that Henry’s wife, Hannah Bella, was at that time part of the troupe but she is not subsequently referred to as being so. She died at the age of 92 in West Ham, where the 1911 Census indicates that she had been living with a grandson and granddaughter (the author’s maternal grandmother) at 6 Keogh Road, West Ham. Next door, at Number 8, was her daughter, Annie B, living with her husband. Further, at Number 10, was her surviving son, Richard, “Retired Gymnastic Artist”, and his son Alfred, age 39, “No occupation. Late Circus Artist” and daughter, Jane, “No occupation”. It therefore seems that, with the retirement of Richard and his son to live with their relatives in Stratford in the first decade of the twentieth century, the involvement of the Connor family in the circus business, initiated by Henry Connor towards the beginning of the previous century, ceased.

No pictures of Henry Connor or his family appear to have survived. However, one of his apprentices has recorded Henry as being a “brawny red-faced man”, “a giant in strength” and that he caused the apprentice, Jules Tourner, then at the age of six, to shiver when he first met him. Further, Henry’s elder son William was apparently very good looking, being described in a newspaper advertisement at the age of only eleven, as “the young Adonis”.

Training with the Conrads
In 1859 Henry Connor took on two apprentices and one of these was one Jules Tourner (styled “Julius Turner” in the Census and elsewhere). Jules Tourner was to become a very famous clown with Ringling Brothers Circus in the US and in the early twentieth century recounted his circus reminiscences in a book entitled “Autobiography of a Clown”. Ten small pages of this volume deal with Jules’ apprenticeship with “the Conrads”, as the Connor troupe was to become known. The apprenticeship was of ten years duration from 1859, when Jules was only six years old, to 1869. Jules describes his arduous and often painful training during which “Every day one of the Conrads took me by the arms and another took me by the feet and bent me back and forth”. He records that “It was very painful and I often cried” and that “one of my teachers would jeer at me.”  During this period Jules retained “a vivid memory of cold, half-fed nights and long days of relentless practising” for which he received no pay. He regarded the Conrads as “hard taskmasters” and the period of his apprenticeship as a period of “slavery”. The Conrads wanted him to stay with them after the term of his apprenticeship ended, doubtless because of the money they were making then from the very successful “Demon Act” that Jules performed but he felt that he had “too many scars on [his] back” and left the troupe, although Jules did feel that he had learnt a lot from his time with them. However, Jules’ training and work with the Conrads may well have caused the physical collapse that followed shortly thereafter and which necessitated his switch from contortionism to clowning. Henry’s sons, Richard and William, would presumably have had to undergo the same kind of training as Jules, being trained as contortionists and gymnasts able to do back and forward somersaults.

The bleak picture that emerges from Jules’ account of his time with the Conrads fits in well with my mother’s family recollection of “the old man” biting the legs of the children if they resisted returning to the wire. The conditions under which Henry Connor’s children and apprentices worked and lived would today be regarded as unacceptable. However, in the context of the time, long before such concepts as the Rights of the Child had gained currency, these conditions, although deeply regrettable to such social reformers as those promoting the Factory Acts, were very much the order of the day. Further, even today, the very painful “extreme stretching”, which Jules Tourner records, is still part of the training of very young children for the circus in some countries.

Henry Connor: Vaulting Ambition
At the time of his marriage in 1844, at the age of 23, and throughout his life, Henry Connor described his occupation as “Equestrian”. As noted above, this term can be defined as “one who publicly performs on horseback”. Indeed, the mainstay of the circus at that time was performances using horses, including trick riding and “hippodramas”, which might be glossed as “spectacular plays on horseback.” It is therefore, very probable that Henry performed on horseback and, indeed, there are surviving records of this. However, in researching this article, especially in reading through the advertisements for work in the Era Newspaper, I have come to the opinion that the word “Equestrian” came to mean a “circus performer but not necessarily a performer on horseback”. Indeed, it was as a vaulter and not as a horseman that Henry made his mark.

The earliest surviving records show him appearing at Edwin Hughes Great Mammoth Equestrian Establishment, Derby, 1845 to 1846, and in a vaulting act with Arthur Barnes in Pablo Fanque’s Circus, Leeds in 1846 at the age of around 25. How Henry got into the circus business remains an open question but vaulting was what he personally became most famous for. By 1848 at the Royal Amphitheatre, Norwich - proprietor Pablo Fanque - it appears that Henry Connor was beating Arthur Barnes and Mr Fenner in a vaulting competition, as the following press clipping records : Pablo Fanque’s Circus is featured in the Beatles Song “Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite” on the “Sergeant Pepper” Album, the lyrics being adapted from a poster of 1843 which John Lennon purchased. The poster promises that “Mr. HENDERSON will undertake the arduous Task of THROWING TWENTY-ONE SOMERSETS, ON THE SOLID GROUND” which the lyrics of the song paraphrase as “And Mr. H. will demonstrate/Ten somersets he'll undertake on solid ground.” It therefore appears that Henry Connor, performing five years after the Circus celebrated in the Beatles’ song, was able greatly to exceed the 21 somersualts performed by Mr Henderson by executing sixty seven and thereby beating the competition. On the 1th May 1848, at the age of twenty seven,, Henry Connor was “Presented by William Batty, lessee of Astley’s, with a massive gold medal proclaiming him “Champion Leaper of the World”, on which occasion he executed 68 somersaults”. This seems to have been a highpoint in Henry’s career in that he makes prominent reference to it in his advertisement for work in the Era Newspaper of 28th December 1858 (see Figure 9 below). Perhaps the “Champion Leaper of the World” title had been earned after a long run of performances with Astley’s: one presumes that a proprietor would not go to such expense for a single appearance. Indeed, an article in the Era Newspaper of 26th June 1897, ten years after Henry’s death, still refers to Henry’s “many years with William Batty in the good old days of Astley’s”. A good idea of the context in which Henry was performing can be gleaned from the following two contemporary programme advertisements for Batty’s and Cooke’s Circuses. Note, that amidst much hose action, both programmes contain leaping/vaulting acts such as Henry would have taken part in. Figure 3: Batty's Circus 1841 Figure 4: Cooke's Circus in Manchester

Henry Connor probably continued his vaulting career as part of the “family” performances with his two sons William and Richard, his two apprentices and others. Indeed, the Era Newspaper 8th July  1855 reports that “Mr Conner and Sons” are appearing daily at the Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen, Denmark in a programme which includes somersaulting and Henry’s old companion and rival in vaulting, Arthur Barnes. However, in April 1861 Arthur Barnes and Henry Connor are appearing at the Royal Alhambra Music Hall, Leicester Square, where they “Will throw upwards of fifty somersaults” and in May 1861, the Era Newspaper, reports that “the astounding Arthur Barnes and Henry Connor, the champion Vaulters and Somersault Throwers” are appearing at the Knightsbridge Music Hall London. Both of these reports are without reference to “The Conrads” and suggest that Henry may well have maintained a professional identity as a competitive vaulter independent of the “Conrad Brothers” brand that was to prove so successful. The report in the Era Newspaper of 30th November 1862 of Herr Conrad performing at the Knightsbridge Hall, London in November 1862, without any reference to the Conrads, may be further proof of this.

In addition to being a great vaulter, Henry was, as noted above, an equestrian and the record relating to the earliest part of his career refers to this (see note 14). Further, the following press advertisement shows Henry in the roles of equestrian, riding a charger, and of leader of a troupe performing the hippodrama “Mazeppa” at the Britannia Theatre, London.

Figure 5: The Era Newspaper 7th March 1858

Henry is also noted as an “acrobatic clown” with Cooke’s circus in 1851, perhaps resembling one of the clowns in the following print. Figure 6: "Five Celebrated Clowns", Joseph Morse, 1856

Henry would also necessarily have taken on the role of “understander” as explained by Jules Tourner: ”The head of the “family” is always the biggest man of the lot. In circus or acrobatic speak he is known as the “understander” because literally he stands at the bottom of the act, as for example in the human pyramid, and holds up all the rest. He must be broad, strong and powerful in every way. He makes all the contracts, receives all moneys and is the general manager of the combination.”

Conrad and Sons
The Era Newspaper of 13th October 1854 ran the following advertisement for work: - “Mr. Henry Connor, the original Champion Vaulter and his sons William Henry and Richard have recently returned to England from a continental tour and are prepared to receive engagements for the ensuing winter. Letters post paid to Mr Henry Connor, Mr Williamson’s, Bridgewater Hotel, Great Bridgewater-street, Manchester, will be promptly attended to.” William would have been about seven years of age at this time and Richard five. Where the troupe has been performing on the Continent and for how long is not clear. This advertisement is the first reference to Henry Connor’s sons performing with him.

It is likely that Henry was performing an act with his sons and apprentices similar to that described by Jules Tourner in his account of his apprenticeship to Henry Connor. This involved him being “used as a sort of baseball ... being tossed from shoulder to shoulder”. He further recounts that “One of the Conrads would lie on his back, lift me to the soles of his feet and then whirl me around”. This is confirmed as being part of the Conrad and Sons act by a report that “Herr Conrad and family [performed]“a la Risley””, a “Risley” being a circus term for foot juggling of people or things (also referred to as “Jeux Icariens” or the act of “Icarists”). Henry’s children would presumably also have been trained, like Jules Tourner, as contortionists and backward and forward somersault throwers and would have performed accordingly in the Conrad and Sons act. The sons, William and Richard, may also have joined the apprentice, Jules Tourner, in the colourful contortionist “Demon Act” which Jules Tourner describes himself performing, wearing red tights, reddened face and a little tail. The following advertisement gives further insight into the Conrad act at that time:- Figure 8: The Era Newspaper 8th July 1855

This report of Conrad and Sons at the Tivoli Gardens, Denmark, indicates that Henry was still performing his famous vaulting act in the company of his professional rival and personal friend (see Section 7 re Henry Connor’s will), Arthur Barnes. It also indicates the beginning of the career of William (then aged eight) and Richard (then aged six) in feats of balance and skill on aerial equipment, “la Perche” referring to balancing tricks at the top of a pole or suchlike and “la Trapez” referring to the static or swinging trapeze (rather than the flying trapeze that Jules Leotard developed around 1859 in France and first presented in England in 1861). The newspaper report of 1858 refers to the performance of a pantomime at the Royal Britannia, Hoxton with “Sprites by Herr Conrad and his sons”. The sons William and Richard, the apprentices Jules Tourner and Walter Dean and, perhaps, daughter Annie B, would almost certainly have been the “Sprites” and may have looked something like the following picture.

Figure 9: Victorian Pantomime Sprite

It seems that by 1858, Henry Connor had added more acts to the Conrad and Sons performances. The Morning Herald of 6th April 1858 refers to “The Conrad Brothers in their unparalleled performance on the tightrope” at the Crystal Palace, London. This was an act on the tightwire (as opposed to slackwire) as indicated in the description of the Conrad act at the period contained in the following advertisement for work. Figure 10: The Era Newspaper 28th February 1858

The acts mentioned in the above advertisement are “Le Grand Voltege”, “Les Poses Gymnastiques”, “les Jeux Icariens”, “the Tight Rope” and clowning. “Le Grand Voltege” referred to acrobatic and trick horse riding; “les Poses Gymnastiques” referred to contortionism performed by Jules Tourner and perhaps the other children and apprentices; “les Jeux Icariens” referred to foot juggling, probably of Henry with his children and apprentices (see following Figure 11); the Tight Rope performer and “Young Adonis” would have been William Connor, and the “Juvenile Clown” would have been Richard Connor. It is also likely that Henry Connor was taking an equestrian part in the advertised production of the hippodrama Mazeppa as he had done in March the same year at the Britannia Theatre, London. To this range of skills of the Conrad troupe at this period can be added the playing of violins whilst performing on the tightrope which was first recorded in a performance in 1861 at the Crystal Palace, London. This last was to become a major attraction for the Conrad Brothers as they became increasingly famous in their own right.

Figure 11: A “Risley” Act aka "Jeux Icariens"

Professor Conrad?
The latest date at which Henry Connor is specifically mentioned as performing with his sons is from December 1859 to March 1860. Henry is mentioned as vaulting with Arthur Barnes at the Royal Alhambra Music Hall in April 1861 and in May at the Knightsbridge Music Hall but with no reference to his sons, the Conrad Brothers. Further, there is no mention at all of Henry Connor/Herr Conrad after his apparently solo performance at the Knightsbridge Music Hall in November 1862 until the announcement of his death in 1887. It therefore appears that the “Conrad and Sons” brand had ceased to have currency after March 1860 and that the “Conrad Brothers” brand, first mentioned without any reference to Henry Connor/Herr Conrad in April 1858, had succeeded  and supplanted it. In view of the silence in the newspapers regarding Henry Connor’s activities after 1862 it is difficult to surmise what he may have been doing between 1862, at the age of 41, and his retirement, sometime before 1881, at the age of 60, when, according to the 1881 census he was, by that date, a “Retired Equestrian Artist.” So, what was Henry doing and how was he earning his money between 1862 and 1880? Were his two sons sending sufficient remittances to their parents in London? Or was Henry still earning his own money in the circus business? Other writers have assumed that the “Professor Conrad and Sons” was Henry Connor and sons. But there are problems with this assumption. The Era Newspaper of 9th April 1876 ran the following advertisement for work: “Professor Charles Conrad, American [sic] Acrobats and his talented sons, Master Harry, Louis and Wallace after a sixteen month’s engagement with Mr C Hengler will be at Liberty 25th Instant with their drawing room entertainment (a la Risley) and Dancing Barrel and Tranca. Address, Professor C Conrad, 66, Mortimer Street, Cavendish-Square, W, EGG.” It appears from this that the period of attachment to Hengler’s Grande Cirque was therefore from 24th December 1874 to 24th April 1876. Nearly all of the references to Professor Conrad and his sons in the Era Newspaper refer to this period. This does not look like Henry Connor and his sons William and Richard. It does not seem probable that Henry would have changed his own forename and changed the name and number of his children when the “Henry Connor”, “Herr Conrad”, “Conrad and Sons” and “Conrad Brothers” brands had been so successful in obtaining employment to that date. Further, there does not seem to be any marketing advantage in assuming an American nationality. In addition, no mention is made of the trapeze work for which William and Henry had become famous. Finally it is remarkable that there are no references to Professor Conrad and Sons in the Era Newspaper after 1876.

On balance it seems most likely that “Professor Conrad and sons” were not Henry Connor and his sons. In fact, it is more probable that Professor Conrad was indeed of American nationality and obtained work with Hengler’s Grand Cirque for a one off contract in England. The numerous performances by “Conrads” noted by William Slout in the US at dates when Henry Connor and William and Richard were definitely in England is further confirmatory evidence.

So, if “Professor Conrad” was not Henry Connor, the question as to what Henry Connor was doing between 1862, then aged forty one, and 1880, then aged 60, still remains open. Perhaps Henry lived on the earnings of his children and apprentices until the children achieved their majorities, William in 1868 and Richard in 1870 and until the end of the term of apprenticeship for Jules Tourner, and, possibly Walter Dean, in 1869. After 1870, Henry may have been living on capital and property accrued, perhaps supplemented by subventions from his, by this date, high-earning sons (See Section 7).

Les Frères Conrad
As noted in the previous section the “Conrad Brothers” brand supplanted the “Conrad and Sons” brand by about the end of 1860. According to A. Maynard, Agent to the Conrad Brothers, for the first half of 1861 the Conrad Brothers were contracted to appear at the London venues of Canterbury Hall, Evans’s Music Hall and the Royal Britannia Theatre. During this period they also performed at Wilton’s New Music Hall and the Oxford Music Hall. In February and March 1861 they also performed at the Crystal Palace, London and, as recorded in the Morning Chronicle of 4th February 1861, “The varied amusements in the centre transept [included] the Conrad Brothers (two astonishing vaulters on the tightrope and violinists and a juvenile clown), who add classic acrobatic feats to their other performances, elicited continuous applause.” (Perhaps the “juvenile clown” was Jules Tourner.) The autumn of 1861 saw the Conrad Brothers still working at Wilton’s Music Hall but their most noted performance of that year was to be at the Royal Alhambra Palace in December.

Figure 12: Royal Alhambra Music Hall 1874

The year 1861 was noteworthy for the arrival in England of two very famous French aerial performers, Jules Leotard and Charles Blondin. Jules Leotard “on November 12, 1859 made his first public appearance as a trapeze artist, becoming the first to turn a somersault in mid-air and the first to jump from one trapeze to the next. The act lasted twelve minutes, with Léotard leaping between three trapezes, finally somersaulting to his carpet covered safety mat ... In May 1861 he made his Music hall début at the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square, London with his flying trapeze act. The act was performed above the heads of diners.” Charles Blondin made his name in 1855 by crossing Niagara Falls on a tightrope  and “In 1861, ...  first appeared in London, at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched across the central transept, 70 feet (20 m) from the ground. In 1862 he again gave a series of performances at the Crystal Palace, and elsewhere in England, and on the continent.” These acts were evidently a source of inspiration to the Conrad Brothers who were very soon in the same year imitating if not rivalling the great men as described in the following report. Figure 13: The Era Newspaper 28th December 1861

The article notes that Richard Conrad “uses the same trapeze that Leotard worked upon.” This must have been the actual trapeze that Leotard used at the same theatre, the Alhambra Music Hall, for his May 1861 London performance. Remarkably, only seven months later, Richard Conrad, at the age of twelve, was performing a very similar act. Richard must have watched Leotard’s act at the Alhambra and might have picked up techniques directly from him, as Leotard was working in London through to January 1862 and mostly at the Royal Alhambra. And in imitation of Charles Blondin it was reported that in December 1862 “The Brothers Conrad fairly emulate M. Blondin on the low rope” at the Royal Alhambra.

Figure 14: Victorian Trapeze Artists

After their Leotard-inspired trapeze work at the Royal Alhambra in autumn 1861, the Conrad Brothers secured employment at the Cirque Imperatrice, Paris, where they performed “before the Emperor and Empress of the French and the King and Queen of Holland.” Their next recorded engagement was in October 1862 back at the Royal Alhambra, London, where they performed three times “every evening in three separate representations.”  It appears that their act was athletic, comic and musical, it being reported that the “Conrad Brothers go through their inimitable tumbling scenes during which they both play a violin accompaniment with the utmost rapidity and in every variety of position and contortion. There is something exquisitely grotesque in this and the effect is highly exciting on the comic nerves.”

The first time that the Brothers Conrad are recorded as being referred to as “Les Frères Conrad “ is in the Era Newspaper of 26th June 1863, where they are advertised as performing a “New Entertainment” at the   Britannia Great Theatre, Hoxton, London. Perhaps this adoption of a French language title for their act indicates that they undertook another assignment in France in the first half of 1863. They are next recorded as performing as the “Conrad Brothers” on the “Double Corde Tension” (i.e. Double Tight Rope) at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London between December 1863 and February 1864.

April 1864 sees the Conrad Brothers with the “Circo de Price” in Spain where “The Clowns are the Conrad Brothers. Their performance on the double rope [also] their acrobatic entertainment with the two violins, are great features”.

The following report of January 1867 describes William Conrad performing at the Royal Alhambra Theatres an act not previously recorded.

Figure 15: The Era Newspaper 1st January 1867

The inspiration for this act seems to have been the work of a certain Signor Perez who “lay on his back, and juggled a nine-foot long wooden beam, turning it, throwing it up, catching it, all with his feet. The turn was referred to as a “tranca” act, “tranca” being the Spanish word for cross-bar. In that same program, at Castle Garden in New York, Perez lay on a horse’s back as it circled the ring and juggled an eighteen-inch wooden ball.” (The mention of “Charles Conrad” is presumably an error for “Richard”.) In September 1866 the Brothers were reported to be performing in Poland and were to perform in St Petersburg shortly thereafter. From 1866, perhaps including the appearances in Poland and Russia, to 1st June 1869  they had a three year engagement with Circus Renz, Erfurt, Germany on completion of which they advertised themselves for future work as “Gymnastic and musical clowns, double and single tightrope and flying trapeze performers”. Their next advertisement for work is in August 1874 on completion of a five year engagement with Circus Cinniselli, Danzig, Prussia on 15th September 1874. The Brothers next appeared at Salamonsky’s Theatre, Moscow, for the winter season of 1874 and spring season of 1875, where they “were enthusiastically applauded and had to appear several times” and “Richard Conrad’s flying trapeze act” was considered “marvellous”. This Moscow engagement may also have been the occasion when the Conrads were, according to the unproven oral traditions of my family, presented with a silver bowl by the Emperor of Russia.

The following report gives a detailed description of one of the tricks that the brothers got up to in their act at that time. Figure 16: Reynold's Newspaper 23rd December 1877

In 1878, the Brothers were probably performing in Paris, where “Richard Connor” was born to either Richard or William and who in 1881 was living with his grandparents, Henry and Hannah Bella Connor at 93 Keogh Road, Stratford, West Ham.

In January 1879 the Brothers were performing in St Petersburg, Russia. The Times Newspaper of 27th December 1879, under the heading “Christmas Amusements”, reported that the Conrad brothers gave two perfromances at Hengler’s Grande Cirque in Liverpool and gave an ” extraordinary exhibition on the violin, playing complete pieces while leaping over each other’s heads and turning somersaults.”

From the date of the above Times report until the death of William Connor at Elbeuf, France on 28th September 1891, at the young age of forty four, newspaper reports and advertisements do not give any further insight into the details of the Conrad Brothers act. However, such reports as exist do provide a record of a very active and successful continuing career. From December 1880 they are engaged in Paris, as announced by Rosinsky’s Agency. From April 1881 to end October 1882 they are engaged with the Cirque D’Hiver and Cirque D’Ete in Paris. In 1883 they are in Oporto and Lisbon, Portugal. In 1884 they may have been in Barcelona, Spain. In July 1885 they were with “Circo Teatero de Price” in Madrid, Spain and in October 1885 with Circo Hippodrome, Summer Promenade, Madrid, Spain. In 1885 (with Cirque Rancy, Lyons) and 1886 they were in France and in 1888 in Lisbon, Portugal. The lack of detail provided by the British newspapers during this period regarding the Conrad Brothers performances rather suggests that the Brothers were working continually overseas and not in UK.

After the death of his brother, the last that is heard of Richard Connor in his professional capacity in sources researched so far is in 1897 as  “at the head of the Directors of Amusement” at Cirque D’Ete, Paris.”

Figure 17: Cirque D'Ete, Champs Elysees, Paris. Nineteenth Century

Fame and Fortune
Henry Connor and/or his two sons William and Richard seem to have been in continual demand and employment for the entire second half of the nineteenth century. Although the language of circus advertisement and reporting is endemically hyperbolic, it does indeed seem that the Connors were among the most noted performers of their day, with the sons perhaps more noted than the father. Such fame combined with a steady succession of engagements in UK and throughout Europe and a schedule of twice or thrice nightly performances would indicate a regular income stream. It is therefore interesting to consider how successful the Connors may have been from a financial point of view.

One may guess that Henry’s vaulting career, before the advent of “Conrad and Sons” or the “Conrad Brothers” was in itself a source of income greater than that needed to cover everyday expenses. Of Arthur Barnes, Henry’s vaulting rival, it was said that in 1888 “he was the owner of a considerable house property in Birmingham”, presumably purchased from the proceeds of his apparently one-string vaulting career. If Arthur Barnes could turn such a handsome profit from vaulting why should not Henry Connor also have done so? Indeed, Henry Connor seems to have had a wider range of skills than Arthur Barnes and it might seem reasonable to expect him to have earned more.

With the development of the “Conrad and Sons” act a good income stream would have continued. For instance one can guess that the Conrad Brothers’ highly acclaimed performance on the apparatus that Leotard was using in 1861 at the Alhambra Palace, Leicester Square, must have been very well paid. Leotard received £180 per week, perhaps £8,000 per week in today’s money. Even if Henry Connor was paid only ten per cent of this, it would still have been useful money. Another insight into the fees paid to Henry Connor is given by the apprentice Jules Tourner who claims that “the Conrads ... receive[d] good money for my appearance, especially for the Demon Act”, although he himself received no pay and inadequate food and thus unwillingly increased Henry’s profit margin. The apprenticeship of Jules Tourner (and also possibly Walter Dean) would not have ended until 1869 and his very successful sons would only have gained their majorities, and, presumably, their ability to enter into contracts in their own names, in 1868 and 1870. One might therefore guess that between 1860 and 1870 Henry Connor was making good money from his sons and apprentices and occasionally doing a bit of vaulting on his own account. Whether he was able to take a share of his sons’ income after their majority, when they were very largely in Europe and he, from the evidence of the 1871 and 1881 censuses, remained in London, is difficult to know. Perhaps he was already in semi-retirement enjoying the available attractions of Hackney and Stratford where he lived in this period.

Figure 18: High Street Stratford 1890

Henry Connor’s will of 23rd July 1867, made when he was forty six years old, left all his household effects to his wife, Hannah Bella, and on her death, to his daughter, “Hannah Bella”, (aka “Annie B.”), “absolutely”. He further left a sum of £100 to his wife, to be provided to her within one month of his death. The remainder of the estate was to be administered as a trust in favour of his wife and, on her death, in favour of his “children”, the names of such children not being provided. The trust is charged with the administration of those parts of the estate that were and were not vested in Henry Connor as mortgagee and trustee. The will appointed Arthur Barnes of Lawley Hill, near Birmingham and Edward Barnes Crichton of 100 Shrubland [?] Grove, Dalston as Trustees. However, this trust was revoked along with the will of 23rd July 1867 by a Codicil of 13th February 1878, made when Henry Connor was fifty seven years old. The Codicil appointed Henry’s wife, Hannah Bella, as sole executrix and beneficiary. At his death on 1st August 1887 Henry Connor, according to the Grant of Probate of 24th October 1887, left an estate of £310 11s 11d, a sum equalling £18,600 at today’s prices. Henry Connor’s will of 1867 suggests that his estate at that time consisted of liquid assets to value not less than £100, mortgaged property and assets in trust. The fact that Henry decided to establish a trust in favour of his wife and, on her death, his children, suggests that the value of the estate at that time was sufficiently large that it might produce a more than petty income. However, the simplicity of the provisions of the Codicil of 1878 and the low value of the estate on Henry’s death in 1887 may suggest that the value of the estate declined after 1867. Indeed, as noted above, Henry seems to have ceased earning by performing after 1862 and income to him from his apprentices and sons may have ceased in 1870. Perhaps a fairly substantial estate had simply been defrayed in the quotidian expenses of semi-retirement and retirement.

Henry Connor’s will is also noteworthy for its appointment of Arthur Barnes and Edward Barnes Crichton as trustees. Arthur Barnes was Henry’s vaulting professional rival throughout his recorded career and the appointment of Arthur and his relative as trustees shows that their relationship extended beyond the purely professional to the personal.

William Connor’s will of 27th October 1887, made when he was forty, appointed his mother, Hannah Bella Connor, and his brother, Richard Connor as executors and trustees, his father having died on the 1st of August 1887. The will established a trust, to be invested in real estate, UK government bonds and railway stocks in favour of his mother and, on her death, in favour of his brother and sister equally and their successors. The will indicates that William’s estate comprised real estate and consolidated 3% bank annuities. Subsequent to his death on 28th September 1891, at Elbeuf, France, at the age of only forty four, the Probate Record of 16th October 1891, styling him as a “gymnast”, indicates that this estate totalled £5386.11s 0d, a sum equalling £322,600 at today’s prices. This was a valuable sum which, it appears, William had been carefully building up in safe investments. The considerable talent and hard work that had characterised his career with his brother had evidently been paying well. In the event it was to be his mother rather than himself who was to enjoy the profits of his labour. She lived on for a further nineteen years on her “own means”, or rather on those of her sadly departed son and the small sum that her husband, Henry had left her in 1887. William makes no mention in his will of wife or children. Whether the boy, Richard Connor, born in Paris and living with his grandmother, was his son or that of his brother is not clear. If the boy was William’s son, perhaps he expected his mother to take care of the child with the settlement he made in favour of her... but this is only speculation. If William Connor managed to amass substantial capital it is reasonable to surmise that his brother and performing partner Richard did the same. However, I have unfortunately not been able to locate his will which might have shed light on this.