Category: Persons – Surname beginning with P

Tuesday 15th December 2015

Tim McConnell writes ~

I recently stumbled across one of your websites regarding the name Joseph Primavesi of Warminster, of which you were expressing an interest. He was my Great, Great, Great Uncle. He was born in Casnate in Italy, near Lake Como in 1803. I had only recently become aware that he had a clockmaker’s business in Warminster and had been in partnership with a Mr Belloni. Thanks to your site I now know he was Frederick Belloni. Why they split I do not know, but Joseph Primavesi is on the 1851 Census, living in Clerkenwell, London with his wife Elizabeth. He was joined there (in 1850 I believe) by my Great Grandfather, Archidoro Pompeo Primavesi, age 15 (also from Casnate, Italy) to learn the watch making business. The family were later joined by Archidoro’s younger brother Guilio Cesare Primavesi, and later still by another younger brother Antonio Carlo. By 1861 they had all moved to Poole in Dorset, and Joseph traded from the High Street as a clockmaker there as Joseph W Primavesi and from 24 West Street, Wareham, as Primavesi & Co. After Joseph retired the name was changed to Primavesi Bros. The youngest brother Antonio Carlo went his own way and moved round the country for many years as a journeyman watchmaker eventually opening his own shop in Wareham in the 1890s.   In the mid 1870s Primavesi Bros moved to much more prestigious premises at 31/33 Old Christchurch Road, Bournemouth, from where the family traded until the Second World War.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to trace Joseph and his wife Elizabeth after retirement. What happened to Frederick Belloni or why they split up in Warminster, I do not know! Did you find any further trace of him? While none of this information will be that useful to you, I hope it is still of some peripheral interest.

Danny Howell replies ~

Thank you Tim McConnell for these details of your ancestor Joseph Primavesi. Contrary to what you presume, the information is indeed useful as I am always happy to add to the historical record especially when it concerns Warninster or has a Warminster connection. Most of what we do know in Warminster about Primavesi and Belloni has been published by Tom Tribe and Philip Whatmoor in the book Dorset Clockmakers, and by David Pollard in The Astronomical Clockmaker Edward Cockey And Other Warminster Horologists. I don’t think I can tell you much more about Joseph Primavesi, with regard what happened to him after he retired, without further research. 

It is worth noting though that the 1841 Census for Warminster lists Joseph Primavesi as a silversmith in the Market Place, and among the members of his household is recorded a Joseph Belloni, aged 13, and a Teresa Primavesi, aged 14. The Commercial Directory 1842 and Pigot & Co.’s Directory of 1844 both record Joseph Primavesi, watch and clockmaker, trading as Primovesi & Co., in the Market Place, Warminster. Note the different spelling of the surname. In the Post Office Directory 1848 he is listed simply as Joseph Primavesi, watch and clockmaker. He is not recorded in the 1851 Census at Warminster or in the Warminster entries of Slater’s Directory 1852. As you say, he had moved to Clerkenwell, London, by that time. 

With regard Frederick Belloni, he appears in Hunt’s Trade Directory for Shaftesbury & District, 1851, as a watch and clock maker in business at High Street, Shaftesbury, Dorset. It seems, from items sold in auctions during recent years, he was also a gunsmith and a maker/retailer of barometers. The 1851 Census for Shaftesbury records Frederick and his family living at High Street, Shaftesbury. He was then aged 50 and listed as a clockmaker. His place of birth was recorded as Switzerland. The Census includes Frederick’s wife, Mary A. Belloni, also aged 50, and her place of birth is given as Portchester, Hampshire. Living with Frederick and Mary are four of their children: Joseph Belloni, age 23, unmarried, watchmaker, born Shaftesbury [presumably the same Joseph Belloni who was living in Joseph Primavesi’s household in Warminster ten years earlier in 1841]; Louisa Belloni, age 16, unmarried, born Shaftesbury; Angialena Belloni, age 11, scholar, born Shaftesbury; and Agnes Belloni, age 3, born Shaftesbury. It seems that  Frederick’s wife was before marriage Mary Ann Russell and they married at Holy Trinity Church, Shaftesbury, in 1825. I have a reference to the death of a Frederick Belloni, age 72, registered during the quarter April, May, June, 1872, at Southampton, Hampshire, but cannot say for certain this is the same Frederick Belloni who traded at Shaftesbury and was connected with Joseph Primavesi.