In praise of Montague Richard Leverson (1830-1925): Part 3
When Leverson fled England in 1967 did he abandon his wife and four young children?
Esther Rantzen on 'Who Do You Think You Are?' 2008 said that “he fled to Paris, and then to the United States, abandoning his wife …. and her four children to fend for themselves….”
It is true that by the winter of 1867-68 Leverson had left Paris for New York. At this time his wife Kate Hyam/Leverson took their four children (aged 8, 7, 4 and 2) to Germany and set up a finishing school for Jewish, English girls, in Göttingen. (Kate’s parents were opposed to her finishing school project and invoked the support of the Chief Rabbi, but he sided with Kate.)
In New York Leverson almost immediately began to publish pamphlets and to work as a volunteer teacher of political economy. He soon returned to Europe to pursue this second career and in 1872 obtained a doctorate in the Faculty of Philosophy at Göttingen, Germany - the exact same town where his wife Kate was running her finishing school.
After graduating in Germany Leverson planned to return to the USA. Applying in 1872 for a U.S. passport he stated that he was “about to travel abroad and to be accompanied by my wife and four minor children”. It was Kate who declined to accompany him back to the USA: when Leverson submitted his application for U.S naturalization the same year the remark “in company of my wife and four children” was crossed out.