the brothers of my 
2x great grandmother Clara Hogg

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Thomas Taskes Hogg was born in 1841 in Tynemouth. He followed his father into the marine profession. At the time of the 1861 Census he was serving as Second Mate of the ship Grantham Hall, moored off West Hartlepool. He moved to Gravesend in Kent soon afterwards where he married Hannah Harrison Freeman (b 1844, Gravesend) in around 1864. They lived at 37 Albion Terrace, Gravesend, in a house close to Hannah's parents, William and Mary (at 1 Albion Terrace). William was a ship's pilot  for the Port of London, and Thomas also took up this career, under license from the Corporation of Trinity House. Thomas and Hannah had at least 8 children: Thomas Taskes Hogg II (b 1865), Maude Catherine Hogg (b 1868), William Freeman Hogg (b 1869), Edith Hannah Hogg (b 1871), Stanley Hogg (b 1872), Cuthbert Hogg (b 1875), Margaret Hogg (b 1877), Charles D Hogg (b 1881). Between 1891 and 1901 they moved to 12 Park Place, Gravesend (apparently a well-to-do neighbourhood, since they lived next door to the actual Port Master for Gravesend). At the time of the 1901 census, Thomas Jr was employed as an accountant's clerk, Cuthbert as a master mariner, and Charles as apprentice to a civil engineer, and all were living at home, along with Edith and Margaret. Maude had married Walter Bradley Dowsett, a stationer, in 1895, and was living in Prittlewell in Essex.

Cuthbert Hogg was born in 1843 in Tynemouth. A master mariner, he was captain of the screw steamer Amazon in the late 1860s, followed by the Greatham Hall from around 1872. In 1875, he was called to provide a character reference at an inquest on the wreck of another steamer, the La Plata, which had been sunk in a storm in the Bay of Biscay in what appeared to be mysterious circumstances. (There were allegations that the crew were drunk). By an odd coincidence, the third engineer onboard the La Plata was also named Cuthbert Hogg, but was no relation, as our Cuthbert Hogg was obliged to point out to the court when he was called to evidence. Subsequently, Cuthbert also moved to London, becoming Dockmaster at Wapping Docks by 1881. He married Margaret Elizabeth Freeman (b 1846, Gravesend), the sister of his brother's wife. They lived at 9 Pier Head, Wapping in 1881. Later they moved to Canning Town. He died in 1893. There were no children.

George Joseph Henry Hogg (known as Joseph or Joe) was born in 1847 in Stepney, London, and was schooled at the District Hospital Schools in Greenwich (according to the 1861 census). By 1871 he had moved to Hartlepool, and was a manager in steam ship insurance, lodging with the Fleming family in Scarborough Street. Later he was the founder of the Well Deck Iron Steam Ship Mutual Insurance Association. He married Ada Allison (b 1852, Hartlepool) in around 1874, and they took up residence at 29 Victoria Road, Stranton, West Hartlepool; and by 1891 in "The Gables", Station Road, Seaton Carew, West Hartlepool. Joseph Hogg died in 1930.

There were at least six children: Sydney Hogg (b 1875), Cecil Hogg (b 1875), Lilian Hogg (b 1878), Ada Hogg (known as Daisy, b 1881), Clara Hogg (b 1883) and Dorothy Hogg (b 1893). At the time of the 1901 census, only Daisy and Dorothy were still at home with Joseph. 

Sydney Hogg became a steamship owner in his own right, also in West Hartlepool. In 1898, he married Katherine Coverdale (b 1879) and they settled at 16 Victoria Road, just two doors along from Mary Ann Pyman (widow of Thomas E Pyman) and her daughter Lillie. There were at least two children: Robert Coverdale Hogg (b 1900) and Clarissa Ann Share Hogg (dates unknown). Sydney Hogg died in 1937, and his wife in 1961. Robert Coverdale Hogg married Violet Sanderson and lived until 1980. Clarissa married Ernest Hyslop Bell in 1933.

I know very little about Cecil Hogg, but he does not appear to have married. He was still alive in 1921, when he attended the memorial service for Viscountess Furness (of whom more below), but I have no further information. Lilian Hogg is equally mysterious, although she appears to have married one Desmond Appleby in around 1900, and died in 1934. Clara Hogg was a boarder at Hendon Hall Ladies School outside London in 1901, and appears to have married Cyril Stranaghan, a doctor, and also a member of the family behind Stranaghan & Stephens, a substantial grocery business in Cardiff. Latterly Dr & Mrs Clara Stranaghan lived in Bournemouth. He died in 1938; she in 1965.

In 1904, Joseph Hogg's 2nd daughter Daisy Hogg married the Rt Hon Marmaduke Furness, only son of Christopher Furness, later Baron Furness of Grantley (1852-1912). Furness Sr had established a reputation as one of the titans of industry in the North of England. The son of a coal merchant who later moved into the grocery trade, Christopher Furness demonstrated a keen understanding of business while employed by his father as a produce buyer. On a business trip to Sweden at the start the start of the Franco-Prussian war he spotted a remarkable opportunity to make a fortune by transporting food into Prussia by land to bypass the French blockade of the Elbe river. He used the substantial profits from this exercise to establish his own shipping line and later moved into shipbuilding as chairman of Furness Withy & Co, as well as coalmining, iron manufacturing and numerous other enterprises. He became Sir Christopher Furness in 1891, and entered politics as a Liberal MP for the Hartlepool constituency. He was appointed to the peerage in 1910, but died two years later, at which point his son Marmaduke inherited the title, becoming the 2nd Lord Furness, while Daisy became Lady Furness. 

As chairman of his father's iron and steel shipbuilders, Marmaduke Furness added considerably to his fortune during World War I with a series of government contracts to build or supply ships. As a further reward for his services, he was created Viscount Furness in 1918. The family sold its interest in Furness Withy the following year.

Lady Daisy had been active as a Red Cross nurse during the First World War, and they had two children, Averill Furness (b 1908) and Christopher Furness (b 1912). Sadly, the marriage did not last long. Daisy died in 1921 at the age of just 40. According to her obituary in the Times, she had undergone a serious operation at the end of the previous year, and was en route by sea with her husband to join her children and her mother-in-law in the South of France when she suffered a sudden relapse and died onboard their yacht Sapphire. She was buried at sea.

In the years that followed, the widower Viscount Furness was a prominent member of society. He developed a considerable reputation as a playboy, and married twice more. His second wife, whom he married in 1926, was the American socialite and divorcee Thelma Morgan Converse (also the sister of Gloria Vanderbilt), by whom he had a son. He divorced her in 1933 after she had an affair with the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII. His 3rd wife was Australian-born Enid Maude Cavendish, whom he married in 1933, seven years before his death in 1940. 

Sadly, Daisy's two children both died prematurely. Christopher was killed in action in France in 1940 during the Second World War, aged 27. Averill Furness died in Africa in 1936, also just 27, after a brief but romantic marriage to a white hunter, Andrew Rattray. Both children predeceased their father. Averill's story is especially poignant. Here is the summary from The Times:

"The Hon Mrs Rattray (formerly the Hon Averill Furness) died of heart failure at a nursing home in Nairobi after a brief illness at the age of 27. Lord Furness, who is in London, had been in constant communication with his daughter during the past 10 days. Mrs Rattray was the only daughter of Viscount Furness by his first marriage. Her marriage to Mr Andrew Rattray, her father's white hunter, four years ago aroused great interest in Kenya and in England. 

"Mr Rattray was a well-known big game hunter and trainer of zebras and had been employed on several occasions by the Prince of Wales on safari in East Africa. Miss Furness had been with her father on a hunting trip of which Mr Rattray had been in charge. At the time however no one had an inkling of the attachment and when Lord Furness went up to the Masai Reserve, Miss Furness, who had decided to return home, was escorted to the coast by Mr Rattray who was to make the arrangements for her sailing from Mombasa. This was at the end of January 1932. 

"Berths had been booked for Miss Furness and her maid in a boat sailing on the Monday but on the preceding Thursday she announced that she did not intend to leave Africa and next day the marriage took place at the District Commissioner's Office in Nairobi. Lord Furness thereupon issued a notice stating that Mr Rattray was no longer in his employ.

"Mrs Rattray subsequently stated that she and Mr Rattray had fallen in love a year before, when he brought to England various animals, including two zebras, for her father's stable at Melton Mowbray. Their happiness, however, was short for Mr Rattray fell ill of an internal complaint. He was devotedly nursed by his young wife in the wilds of Africa until she was able to charter an aeroplane to take him to Nairobi. There, despite every care, he died on November 13 1933."

Averill Furness was devastated by the death, and remained in Rattray's bush shack until she was herself hospitalised the following year. According to some reports she drank herself to death.

Joseph Hogg's youngest daughter Dorothy Hogg also married into the Furness family. She wed Walter Furness, a cousin to Marmaduke Furness, in 1915. Walter Furness was a shipowner in his own right. They had at least one child, Dorothy Maureen Furness (b 1916), who married Major Douglas Roberts in 1945. Dorothy Hogg died in 1964.