A bit more of the family tree

Elizabeth "Bessie" Nathan

Samuel and Hannah lived in Southwark (pronounced Suth -ick, the "th" being hard as in then) which is south of the Thames (pronounced Temms) in London. I am putting the pronounciation in for all our cousins who were not born and raised in the UK. We like to keep people on their toes when they are trying to read our language :) Now where was I?
Their address when Samuel died was 1 Borough Road, Southwark. As far as I can see they had showrooms on London Road and as the children grew up some of the boys opened their own showrooms and began to build their own business. On the 1841 census John is still living at 1 Borough Road along with Sarah, Jane, Samuel, Nancy, Rachel, Anna, Fanny and Henry.
I have found an Aaron of the right age in Birmingham as a shopman with another Nathan family. Nathan Nathan age 25 Mary Nathan 25 Samuel 2, Aaron 30 (remember that ages of adults were rounded down to the nearest five years on the 1841 census so the adults could be up to four years older).
Wherever they all were in 1841 they were all going to get a traumatic shock the following year when their father, Samuel, was "Feloniously Killed and Slayed". He was attacked in an auction room on Pall Mall by three men, one of whom alleged that Samuel had "...used some expression that no man could bear". Samuel died two weeks later and the coroner gave the cause of death as "effect of blow to his head". You can see a full transcript of the trial here
Hannah continued to run the business and she is on the 1851 census on London road doing just that.
The three men who were indicted were found guilty of feloniously killing and slaying Samuel Nathan and sentenced to six months hard labour - because of provocation.
I wonder if that was the full reason or whether the fact that Samuel was a Jew had anything to do with it. I probably shouldn't even think this, but I just can't help feeling that a society that would sentence a child to transportation for stealing a loaf of bread or hang a person for stealing a handkerchief, would not give six months for killing someone unless the victim was in someway not worthy of full justice. I am keeing in mind that Charles Dickens had written Oliver Twist only four years previously and he had captured the socialmores of the time perfectly so...