Peter Paul John ("Paul") Zohrab

In 1795, two Zohrab brothers and their families escaped from Persia to Turkey. Their children were (probably) Constantine, Sophie, and Peter Paul John ("Paul") Zohrab. According to his son Peter's manuscript, Paul and Constantine were educated in England. Paul married Elizabeth Hitchins on 17 Sep 1807 in Saint Pancras Old Church, London, England.

He spoke Armenian, Farsi, Turkish, English, and probably French, as well, and he apparently worked as an interpreter at times. He spent some years in Erzerum, north-eastern Turkey, sharing accomodation with the British Consul, James Brant (see below). Paul and Constantine imported the first cargo of dried figs from Smyrna (Turkey) to London. His son's manuscript states:

"... But when the first war (Napoleonic War? -- PDZ) broke out, and Turkey was against England, my father was appointed secret English Minister to Constantinople & was sent to Malta by the English frigate 'Isis', & thence secretly in a foreign merchant ship. After this he settled down in Malta as a merchant."

The second Napoleonic War ended in 1815, so that is presumably how he met his second wife, Frances (Fanny) Williams, whom he married in Malta in 1816. He died in Malta in 1852. Frances died in Malta and her tomb (below) was damaged by a World War II bomb.

Frances Williams or (possibly) Kate Archer Williams
(Clothing apparently not contemporaneous with person named on back of picture)

 

Tomb of Frances Zohrab, Ta'braxia Cemetery, Malta (photograph courtesy of Dr. John Zorab)	Undamaged tomb, similar to that of Frances Zohrab, Ta'braxia Cemetery, Malta (photograph courtesy of Dr. John Zorab)

 

James Ernest Napoleon Zohrab (born 1830) was a son of Peter Paul John Zohrab. James and his sons, Percy Fenwick Cuthbert Zohrab (born 1859) and Reginald Ernest Zohrab (born 1861), were all at some time British diplomats in Eastern Europe , the Caribbean, and/or the Near/Middle East. Before that, James had worked as an interpreter for the British army in the Crimean War, and is depicted in a painting "Maj Gen Williams and his Staff Leaving Kars 28 Nov 1855", by Thomas J. Barker, which hangs in the National Army Museum, Chelsea, London.

These Zohrabs were so active as British diplomats that one might speculate that they contributed to the Turkish resentment against Armenians that culminated in the Genocide of 1915 . (See also the webpage http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/features98/saud1.htm and Karpat, Kemal H. 2001: "The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State." Oxford University Press). James married Emily Holmes in 1858. He and his family seem to have emigrated to Canada.

 

Three Zohrab sisters on a picnic in the Cave of Ferhad, "2 hours from" Erzerum, Turkey in 1843

Sir William Holmes & Lady Adela Holmes (nee Zohrab). (Photos courtesy of Lady Mary Holmes and Dr. John Zorab. These photographs remain the property of the Holmes family.)	Mrs Evelina Brant (nee Zohrab), with her youngest child, Richard.

One descendant of Lady Adela Holmes (nee Zohrab) (her great-grandson) was Sir Peter Fenwick Holmes MC (born September 27 1932; died March 8 2002), Chairman of Shell Oil. See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,667502,00.html

 

An interesting aspect of the Zohrab family (which may be quite common, for all I know) is the number of pairs of siblings that married each other:

1. William Holmes married Adela Zohrab and William's sister Emily Holmes married James Zohrab, Adela's brother.
2. Edward ("Fort") Zohrab married Blanche Mabin, and Fort's sister Nura Zohrab married Blanche's brother Francis Bevin.
3. Fort's son Edward ("Ted") Zohrab married Margaret Miller, and Ted's brother Balfour ("Doug") Zohrab married Margaret's sister Rosemary Miller.

For convenience, I divide the descendants of Peter as follows: