The mid-nineteenth century Exeter Congregation also had its representatives in Australia. Let us examine one family in detail because its story exemplifies so many of the emigrants. Joseph Marks, an uncle of the Rose Marks just mentioned, was born in Portsea about 1806. He joined the Exeter Congregation in 1832 and within a year married Julia, the Exeter-born daughter of Isaac Solomon who was born in Prussia, and Rosetta Solomon who was born in Rochester, Kent. In 1834, he became a vestry member of the Congregation. In 1838, he was the tenant of a shop in Fore Street Hill, Exeter, with a rateable value of £33 per annum; and in 1844 he is described as a clothier in King Street, Exeter, where he was instrumental in catching a notorious fence. In 1843 and again in 1849 his name appeared on the Voters' Register at 113 Fore Street Hill. In 1853, the Exeter Congregation paid a farewell tribute to him for 'having sat among us for 20 years and filled the office of President and Treasurer'. [JC, 8 July 1853.] The Marks family, twelve of them apparently, left Bristol in the Cotfield on 1 August 1853 and arrived in Adelaide on 30 November 1853, the arrival being noted in the South Australian Register. [Letter from His Honour Mr Justice Marks, Melbourne, 1 February 1990, who also supplied the information about the family in Australia.]
Joseph and Julia Marks had thirteen children. Of these, Solomon born 1837, died a few months later; Samuel died and was buried in Exeter in 1870; [EHC tomb. 33. He was born c.1838 according to a family tree prepared in Australia but more likely to have been born after 1851, because his father writes on the tombstone, 'my youngest son', and he does not appear at home in either the 1841 or 1851 censuses. Possibly the boy had returned to, or perhaps never left, Exeter, and his father had arranged for the stone to be erected.] Isabella (b.c.1845), Alexander (b.c.1849), and Miriam (b.c.1852), were alive in Australia in 1884 but were lost sight of thereafter; Isaac (b.c.1834), Sarah (b.c.1836), Charles (b.c.1839), Josiah (b.c.1841), Ellen (b.c.1842), Rosetta (b.c.1843), Henry (b.c.1847) and Catherine (Kate) (b.c.1850) all died in Australia. Joseph and Julia first settled in South Australia and in Victoria in 1856. There he became a wholesale grocer in Elizabeth Street, where an adjoining clothing shop was apparently run by his wife. Joseph died in Melbourne in 1872. He does not seem to have left very much behind him in the way of worldly goods &emdash; furniture valued at £50 and some parcels of land at £20. Letters of Administration were only taken out in 1889, five years after the death of Julia, by which time the land had probably greatly appreciated in value.
As to their children: Isaac was an accountant, married late in life and died in Melbourne in 1904; Josiah left an estate of some £4,000 when he died in 1902. He, too, was an accountant, the founder of a well-known Melbourne Building Society, an active member of the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation, and a leading Freemason; Alexander had a jeweller's shop in Ballarat; Henry had a successful furniture shop in Melbourne. Their grandchildren included: Julia Marks, a literary figure who wrote poems, novels and songs; Henry and John Harris Marks who dominated the wholesale jewellery trade in Melbourne in the 1920's. One great-grandson, Samuel Clement Leslie (n<130] Lazarus), was a Rhodes scholar who later accompanied Australian Prime Minister Bruce to the 1926 Imperial Conference, and was a U.K. Ministerial adviser during World War II. Another, Ken Marks, is a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, whilst yet another is a County Court judge. Today, the descendants of Joseph and Julia Marks are scattered throughout the length and breadth of Australia, and number in their midst doctors, lawyers and business men, both Jewish and non-Jewish.
