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Ennever & Enever family history & ancestry. Click here to return to the home page WJ Ennever (1869-1947). From the portrait by J Seymour R.A., exhibited in the Royal Academy.

William Joseph ENNEVER
Male 1869 - 1947


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  • Birth  26 Mar 1869  115 Queens Crescent, Kentish Town, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender  Male 
    Census  1 Apr 1871  12 St Thomas's Gardens, St Pancras, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Occupation  1881 
    Scholar 
    Census  1 Apr 1881  1 Elm Villa, Stroud Green North Side, Greenham, Berkshire Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Travel  1884  New York City, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Misc  Between 1887 and 1890  Ran away to sea Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • As recorded in forward notes to "Your Mind and How to Use It". Dates not given, however.
    Occupation  1891 
    Journalist Author 
    Census  1 Apr 1891  103 Islep Street, St Pancras, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Living  16 Oct 1895  27 Montague Street, Russell Square, St Giles, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Occupation  16 Oct 1895 
    Journalist 
    Misc  1898  London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    founded the Pelman Institute 
    • Founder of the Pelman Institute and subsequently visited and organised branches in India, Australia, S Africa, Canada, France and America. Added the new word Pelmanism to the English language.

      Extract from pdf file found on Harvard University Press website (see sources).

      The early correspondence schools of writing bore signs of the
      heritage of self-improvement schemes with which correspondence
      courses had been associated. Courses in the short story appeared
      alongside courses in 'Mental Training' and 'Mental Culture' at
      what would become the longest-running such school, which was
      founded in 1909 by T. P. O'Connor as the London Correspondence
      College.20 W. J. Ennever, who took over from O’Connor,
      remained involved in the Pelman Institute, which taught an eponymous
      system of 'memory training' by correspondence.21 Despite
      Ennever’s links with Pelmanism, the courses on mental
      training were allowed to lapse after O'Connor gave up the college,
      and the school focused on the teaching of writing. Ennever
      remained the majority shareholder, though he moved to the
      United States on Pelman business.22
      Ennever went west to promote the British system of
      Pelmanism to Americans, but the Pelman Institute’s correspondence
      education was itself modeled on American practice. Correspondence
      courses were an American invention that quickly became
      popular in Britain. The United States was also the capital of
      writing instruction, both by correspondence and through textbooks
      and magazines.

      When Ennever moved to America, he left the running of the
      London Correspondence College to the new minority shareholder,
      the novelist Max Pemberton.25 It was renamed the London
      School of Journalism, and under Pemberton it prospered and
      became the least distrusted institution of its kind.26 After graduating
      from Cambridge with no profession in mind, Pemberton did
      some freelance journalism in the 1880s. This experience convinced
      him that there was a living to be had in catering to “the
      reading tastes of the masses.” He secured the editorship of the
      boys’ paper Chums, then Cassell’s Magazine, a competitor of the
      24 TO EXERCISE OUR TALENTS
      Strand, and then moved into writing unabashedly derivative
      novels—initially imitations of Robert Louis Stevenson and Rider
      Haggard. His work sold but did not give him the security he
      wanted. Like many later writers, Pemberton sought to capitalize
      on his measure of literary success by going into the literary advice
      business.27
      To this end he sought the help of the press magnate Lord
      Northcliffe. The two men were old friends, and were on 'Max'
      and 'Alf' terms, though Pemberton sometimes, like others
      around the great man, called Northcliffe 'Chief.' Pemberton
      had played sidekick to the rising Alfred Harmsworth and became
      a long-term client of his. From the correspondence that remains
      it is not clear whether Northcliffe lent Pemberton the money he
      asked for as he moved into the writing-school business, but he at
      least handled the negotiations with Ennever and his deputy Neil
      MacLaren that were needed to set Pemberton up at the college.
      Pemberton was installed with a one-third stake in it and a salary of
      £1000 a year, a figure that testifies to the commercial viability of
      instruction in writing (an annual income of £250 was often cited
      as the threshold of the middle class, and a doctor or solicitor earning
      £1000 would have been doing substantially better than the
      average for their professions). Northcliffe drew the line at being
      identified in the college’s promotional material as its sovereign
      patron, though he was happy to be one of a number of people
      designated as patrons. The college’s letterhead accordingly listed
      him as just one member of a pantheon of patrons. After he died,
      the letterhead was changed to read: “Founded under the direct
      patronage of the late Viscount NORTHCLIFFE.”28
    Your Mind and How to Use It (Forces Edition)    		 Your Mind and How to Use It (Forces Edition)
    Pelman Institute, Limited    		 Pelman Institute, Limited
    8% Cumulative Preference Share certicate
    Pelmanism part 1    		 Pelmanism part 1
    Copyright
    Psychological Subjects: Identity, Culture, and Health in Twentieth-century Britain
    By Mathew Thomson
    Published by Oxford University Press, 2006
    Pelmanism part 2    		 Pelmanism part 2
    Copyright
    Psychological Subjects: Identity, Culture, and Health in Twentieth-century Britain
    By Mathew Thomson
    Published by Oxford University Press, 2006
    Travel  5 Jun 1902  Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on Wilson& Furness-Leyland Line SS Caledonian sailing from London 
    Travel  30 Oct 1903  Chicago, Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    leaving Liverpool on 21/10/1903 on boad SS Cedric 
    William Joseph Ennever arrival Ellis Island 1903    		 William Joseph Ennever arrival Ellis Island 1903
    Living  27 Sep 1904  2 Lennard Place, St Marylebone, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Occupation  27 Sep 1904 
    of Independent Means 
    Living  6 Nov 1904  2 Lennard Place, St Marylebone, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Occupation  6 Nov 1904 
    Gentleman 
    Travel  2 Feb 1905  USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    William Joseph Ennever arrival Ellis Island 1905    		 William Joseph Ennever arrival Ellis Island 1905
    Living  12 Sep 1906  4 Bloomsbury Street, Bloomsbury, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Occupation  12 Sep 1906 
    of independent means 
    Occupation  1911 
    Director of School of Memory Training 
    Census  1 Apr 1911  4 Bloomsbury Street, London W C Find all individuals with events at this location 
    William Joseph Ennever & family    		 William Joseph Ennever & family
    1911 census
    Education  Private schools. 
    Living  30 Nov 1912  National Liberal Club (c/o), London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Travel  9 Dec 1912  New York City, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on board SS Caronia sailing from Liverpool on 30/11/1912 
    Misc  28 Sep 1918 
    Article in Daily News re Pelmanism 
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		 William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Daily News Article (28/9/1918).
    Courtesy of British Library.
    Living  4 May 1919  4 Bloomsbury Street, London W C Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Travel  25 Sep 1919  New York City, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on board SS Lapland, leaving Southampton 16/9/1919. 
    Emmy Elvira Christina Jacobson (1884/5-?)    		 William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Ellis Island Passenger Manifest Line 9
    Occupation  29 Dec 1921 
    Resumes control of Pelman Institute 
    Travel  Jan 1928  California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on board SS Tahiti leaving Sydney Australia 29/12/1927 
    • Age recorded as 60.
    Occupation  8 Jun 1928 
    Gentleman 
    Travel  4 Mar 1930  New York City, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on board SS Berengaria leaving Southampton on 26/2/1930 
    Travel  14 Apr 1930  New York City, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on board SS California leaving Havana, Cuba on 11/4/1930, accompanied by a Jane Ennever. 
    Travel  29 Oct 1937  New York City, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    on board SS Manhattan, leaving Southampton on 22/10/1937. 
    Misc  Between 1940 and 50  The Ennever Foundation, Vernon House, Sicilian Avenue, London W.C.1. Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Address for The Ennever Foundation Postal Course, costing £1.10.0
    Living  13 Sep 1940  18 Caroline Terrace, Sloane Square, London SW1 Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Misc  16 Sep 1940 
    Announcement of bankruptcy in The Times 
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		 William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Announcement of bankruptcy in The Times
    Misc  24 Apr 1941 
    Application at The Bankruptcy Court for an order of discharge 
    • The Times 24/4/1941.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		 William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Application at The Bankruptcy Court for an order of discharge.
    Buried  Aug 1947  Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Road, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Living  16 Aug 1947  18 Caroline Terrace, Sloane Square, London SW1 Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Living  16 Aug 1947  The Devonshire Club, St James', London S.W.1 Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Misc  Hobbies quoted as travel and golf. 
    Occupation  16 Aug 1947 
    Educationalist 
    • See London Gazette announcement re claims on his estate.
    Died  16 Aug 1947  On the way to University College Hospital, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    • Aged 79.
    Misc  19 Aug 1947 
    Obituary in The Times 
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		 William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Obituary in The Times
    Misc  28 Nov 1952 
    London Gazette announcement re claims on his estate. 
    Notice re creditors re William Joseph Ennever    		 Notice re creditors re William Joseph Ennever
    London Gazette 28/11/1952
    Occupation  Joined editorial staff of papers under Thomas Gibson Bowles 
    Will  28 Feb 1954 
    Age  78 years 
    Person ID  I386  1. Essex Ennevers
    Last Modified  04 Nov 2009 

    Father  William Joseph ENNEVER,   Born:  24 Feb 1830, Marylebone, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location,   Died:  3 Sep 1917, 'Tiverton', 23 Inverness Avenue, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex Find all individuals with events at this location   (87 years)  
    Mother  Teresa Ann SHERROTT,   Born:  1 Oct 1842, Langley, Buckinghamshire Find all individuals with events at this location,   Died:  25 Jan 1930, 19 Norfolk Road, Brighton, Sussex Find all individuals with events at this location   (87 years) 
    Married  2 Feb 1865  St Patrick's Chapel, Sutton Street, Strand, Middlesex Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family histories
    The French Connection    		The French Connection
    A collection of early and more recent family connections with France.
    The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism    		The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism
    Details of W J Ennever's Mind Training courses.
    W. J. Ennever & Son and Ennever & Steedman, pianoforte manufacturers in London and the related Nunns family, pianoforte manufacturers of New York.    		W. J. Ennever & Son and Ennever & Steedman, pianoforte manufacturers in London and the related Nunns family, pianoforte manufacturers of New York.

    A short history of the Ennever and Nunns pianoforte makers.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    An outstanding biography by John Karp of the man who founded The Pelman Institute and invented Pelmanism, the mind training course that was popular in the early 20th century.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947), founder of The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947), founder of The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism
    A brief summary of his life and career.
    Family ID  F44  Family Group Sheet

    Family 1  Mary Margaret Oldacres LAWSON,   Born:  1874, Brixton, Surrey Find all individuals with events at this location,   Died:  8 Nov 1904, 2 Lennard Place, St Marylebone, London Find all individuals with events at this location   (30 years) 
    Married  16 Oct 1895  St Patrick's Chapel, Westminster, London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
    +1. Kathleen ENNEVER,  Born:  27 Sep 1904, 2 Lennard Place, St Marylebone, London ,  Died:  2 Jun 1994, Australia   (89 years)
    Family histories
    The French Connection    		The French Connection
    A collection of early and more recent family connections with France.
    The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism    		The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism
    Details of W J Ennever's Mind Training courses.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    An outstanding biography by John Karp of the man who founded The Pelman Institute and invented Pelmanism, the mind training course that was popular in the early 20th century.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947), founder of The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947), founder of The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism
    A brief summary of his life and career.
    Family ID  F220  Family Group Sheet

    Family 2  Emmy Elvira Christina JACOBSON,   Born:  1884/5, Sweden Find all individuals with events at this location,   Died:  Yes, date unknown 
    Married  12 Sep 1906  Church of the Holy Name, St Georges Terrace, Jesmond, Newcatle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Divorced  4 May 1914  London Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Decree nisi made absolute    		 Decree nisi made absolute
    Family histories
    The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism    		The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism
    Details of W J Ennever's Mind Training courses.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    An outstanding biography by John Karp of the man who founded The Pelman Institute and invented Pelmanism, the mind training course that was popular in the early 20th century.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947), founder of The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947), founder of The Pelman Institute and Pelmanism
    A brief summary of his life and career.
    Family ID  F540  Family Group Sheet

  • Event Map

    (nb pins may represent approximate locations)
    		Event
    Link to Google MapsBirth - 26 Mar 1869 - 115 Queens Crescent, Kentish Town, Middlesex Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 1 Apr 1871 - 12 St Thomas's Gardens, St Pancras, Middlesex Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 1 Apr 1881 - 1 Elm Villa, Stroud Green North Side, Greenham, Berkshire Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - 1884 - New York City, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsCensus - 1 Apr 1891 - 103 Islep Street, St Pancras, London Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on Wilson& Furness-Leyland Line SS Caledonian sailing from London - 5 Jun 1902 - Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - leaving Liverpool on 21/10/1903 on boad SS Cedric - 30 Oct 1903 - Chicago, Illinois, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - 2 Feb 1905 - USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsMarried - 12 Sep 1906 - Church of the Holy Name, St Georges Terrace, Jesmond, Newcatle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on board SS Caronia sailing from Liverpool on 30/11/1912 - 9 Dec 1912 - New York City, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on board SS Lapland, leaving Southampton 16/9/1919. - 25 Sep 1919 - New York City, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on board SS Tahiti leaving Sydney Australia 29/12/1927 - Jan 1928 - California, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on board SS Berengaria leaving Southampton on 26/2/1930 - 4 Mar 1930 - New York City, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on board SS California leaving Havana, Cuba on 11/4/1930, accompanied by a Jane Ennever. - 14 Apr 1930 - New York City, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
    Link to Google MapsTravel - on board SS Manhattan, leaving Southampton on 22/10/1937. - 29 Oct 1937 - New York City, New York, USA Link to Google Earth
     = Link to Google Maps 
     = Link to Google Earth 

  • Documents
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Entry in Who's Who (login required)

    http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/
    U225136/ENNEVER_William_Joseph
    ?index=1&results=QuicksearchResults&query=0

    Family histories
    Well-known family members    		Well-known family members
    All family members who I have found featured in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or its Australian equivalent, Who's Who 2008 or with an obituary in The Times.

    Photographs
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    As pictured on "Your Mind and How to Use It."
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    From the portrait by J Seymour R.A., exhibited in the Royal Academy.
    From "The Efficient Mind" booklet.
    The original painting is believed to have been destroyed in the second World War. An image of it can be seen hanging in the Pelman Institute offices in London at
    http://www.ennever.com/histories/history386.php
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    As a youth.
    Mary Margaret Oldacres Lawson (1874-1904)    		William Joseph Ennever & Margaret Lawson
    In Germany
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    With "wife" June Elvidge.
    Ennever family photo    		Ennever family photo
    Back row, second from left is W.J. Ennever with wife Margaret Lawson in front of him. Tentative identification of two girls at far left as sisters Catherine and Philomena; woman in centre as mother Teresa Ann Sherrott; and elderly woman on right as aunt Catherine. The remaining men are presumed to include brothers Joseph, George and John.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    Indulging in yachting, one of his favourite pastimes.
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    With a bridesmaid at a wedding.
    Your Mind and How to Use It    		Your Mind and How to Use It
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)
    With granddaughter, Mary. (As a living individual is linked to this item, further details have been withheld.)
    William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)    		William Joseph Ennever (1869-1947)

  • Notes 
    • Quote from the 'New Century Cyclopaedia of Names' Vol 2.

      'English journalist who originated the mnemonic training system known as Pelmanism. He founded (1896) the first Pelman Institute at London and opened branches in India, South Africa, Canada, France and the U.S. He published a pamphlet series entitled 'Your Mind and How to Use It.'


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