<\/p>
Nick Hewer has always been his own man, a successful PR executive who first moved to London from his native Wiltshire while in his twenties. But where did Nick\u2019s business acumen come from? Could it be in his genes? Certainly, his episode of Who Do You Think You Are?<\/em><\/a> reveals forebears who took great risks to build their fortunes\u2026<\/p> Nick begins by finding out more about his maternal grandfather, Oswald Jamison, who rose to be Belfast\u2019s High Sheriff. This is especially noteworthy because Oswald was a Catholic. The 1901 census<\/a> describes Oswald, then 25 years old, as a \u201cmaster painter\u201d living with his widowed mother.<\/p> In 1912, he married Jeannie Smith. This was a \u201cmost unusual marriage\u201d because Jeannie was a Presbyterian at a time when relationships that crossed the sectarian divide were frowned upon. There\u2019s an echo here of Nick\u2019s life: his father was Anglican, his mother Catholic, and he attended a Jesuit boarding school.<\/p> Clearly ambitious, Oswald was a councillor who represented The Falls. In the years before the division of Ireland<\/a> in 1920, Oswald supported Home Rule, but opposed republican nationalism and delivered \u201cexcoriating\u201d speeches against Sinn F\u00e9in. This was a dangerous course of action. In 1922, as Belfast descended into violence, his business premises were burnt out.<\/p> Yet despite representing a staunchly nationalist area, Oswald continued to be re-elected. Even as he increasingly mixed with Belfast\u2019s business elite, it seems, he kept the respect of his constituents by demanding better housing, for example. He was also a pragmatist. In 1935, despite his previous rhetoric, he opened a factory in southern Ireland, accepting a grant from the republican government to help get the enterprise going.<\/p> Having started out with a vague impression of his grandfather as dapper and genial, Nick now sees him as \u201ca man of extraordinary courage\u201d who made the most of his opportunities.<\/p> Next, Nick researches his English father\u2019s side of the family. Using previously compiled family trees, he\u2019s able to go back 12 generations to a dispute between two families, the Notts and the Sewsters. While the exact story is indistinct, documents suggest Nick\u2019s 10x great grandfather, Roger Nott, may have used sharp practice to gain control of Wiltshire land that belonged to another 10x great grandfather, Edward Sewster, at a knockdown price.<\/p> A generation closer to our own time, Roger\u2019s son, Edward, lived an eventful life. Despite having a \u201cslight whiff of trade\u201d about him, Edward was a staunch supporter of Charles I during the English Civil War<\/a> in the 17th century<\/a>, a lieutenant colonel who raised a troop of horsemen and fought with great distinction at key battles.<\/p> When Cromwell\u2019s forces prevailed, Edward\u2019s wealth was confiscated and he was forced to \u2018compound\u2019 \u2013 swear loyalty to the Commonwealth and pay a fine \u2013 to get his estates back. However, there\u2019s a twist in the tale. When Charles II was restored to the throne, Edward was richly rewarded for his loyalty.<\/p> Reflecting on his forebears\u2019 experiences, Nick sees parallels between Edward and Oswald. They were \u201cboth winners, but my word did they have to endure some risky times.\u201d<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Rich Marshall Published: Friday, 16 February 2024 at 10:14 AM Nick Hewer has always been his own man, a successful PR executive who first moved to London from his native Wiltshire while in his twenties. But where did Nick\u2019s business acumen come from? Could it be in his genes? Certainly, his episode of Who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":31571,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know.jpg",2560,1707,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/36\/2024\/02\/nick-hewer-on-who-do-you-think-you-are-everything-you-need-to-know-2048x1366.jpg",2048,1366,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Rich Marshall Published: Friday, 16 February 2024 at 10:14 AM Nick Hewer has always been his own man, a successful PR executive who first moved to London from his native Wiltshire while in his twenties. But where did Nick\u2019s business acumen come from? Could it be in his genes? Certainly, his episode of Who…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/31570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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