Fair Rosamund ( -1832- )

The daughter of Isaac & Judy Cohen, the patriarchs of Old Coventry Jewry, was known by her stage name “Fair Rosamund”.  She was reported as being 'tall and of fair appearance, and eventually married Mr. Jacobs'.

She was the leading actress in Loew’s Dancing Show at Coventry’s Great Fair. The Great Fair took place in June each year, it's charter having been granted by Henry II in 1217. The Great Fair had included the Godiva pageant procession since 1678. Fair Rosamund was no stranger to pageant - In 1832, when her parents were 102 & 100 years old!, she played the part of Britannia in a procession in Coventry in celebration of the Reform Act. The Act had introduced major changes to the electoral system giving representation to cities, and the vote to small landowners, tenant farmers, shopkeepers, and some householders lodgers. People from all walks of life came out to celebrate.

1825 Coventry Great Fair Godiva Procession - Public Domain, from image at HAGAM

Intriguingly, sixty years later, on 10th Feb 1893, the Coventry Herald and Free Press records Coventry’s great star of the theatre, Ellen Terry, as playing “Fair Rosamund” in Mr. Henry Irving’s production of Lord Tennyson’s play “Becket” - The article is immediately followed by a defence against antisemitism by the new Chief Rabbi Dr. Herman Adler, son of Reverend Nathan Marcus Adler, who had dedicated Coventry Synagogue:

See these Links for further information:  (Note: These are external links for which we have no responsibility for the content)

• Article on the life of Fair Rosamund and the Cohen family on page 31 of the Jewish Chronicle on 5th June 1936 (Subscription required)

• Wikipedia article on the Coventry Great Fair and the Godiva Procession

• The Great Fair at Pool Meadow, Coventry. Circa 1920