Tom Hart and Jonathan Ling

Two of the stalwarts in the early history of Bible Students in Britain were Tom Hart and Jonathan Ling. Both were based in London and both worked for the railroads.

Both names are mentioned in the 1973 Yearbook history of Britain, and a photograph captioned with Hart’s name is in the 2000 Yearbook history. Using this material along with a reference from Tony Byatt’s book on the history of Bible Students/Witnesses in London, the following two paragraphs were put together in the book Separate Identity volume 2.

The combined information reads:

(quote) Thomas A Hart was born in Calcutta, India, in 1853. At the time of the 1881 Census he had moved his family from the Islington address to 5 Lavinia Grove, Middlesex, London. He was “a carman” for one of the railroads. In another place he called “a railroad shunter.” He and his wife had three children, two sons and one daughter, all under the age of four.

Jonathan Ling was born in Blaxhall, Suffolk, early in 1858. The 1891 census has him as a railway guard at Islington, an occupation he still had in 1901. He was married Elizabeth, maiden name unknown, and they have seven children, ranging in ages from one month to 17 years old. He died June 20, 1922. We lack an exact date for Ling’s conversion, but it appears to be early. Ling’s daughter Ruth remembered that their meetings were held in the common room of the King’s Cross hostel, a layover spot for railway workers. (end of quote)

As a result of contacts via Ancestry, I was eventually able to make contact with one of Ling’s great grand-daughters, Elizabeth. Although the census return referred to above gave Jonathan Ling seven children, it appears he eventually had ten. His wife, Elizabeth, was originally Elizabeth Moody and lived to be 100. The modern Elizabeth’s branch of the family did not remain with the Bible Students.

Great grand daughter Elizabeth (from the line through Jonathan’s son, Lewis Charles Ling) kindly supplied the two photographs below, and gave permission for them to be reproduced.

This leaves one question. The picture of Tom Hart in the 2000 Yearbook (and elsewhere) looks very much like Jonathan Ling. Putting the younger Tom next to the older Jonathan, this is the result.

The reader may come to a different conclusion. Perhaps Tom and Jonathan looked quite alike. Or maybe an old file with both their names on it contained a photograph that somewhere back in history has been miscaptioned.