HO 1/95/3191 (1860); HO 144/304/B4804 (1888); and HO 334/71/310 (1860 and 1888)
Ovannes Agopian was born in Constantinople and, based on his claim to having resided in Manchester for six years, probably immigrated to England around 1854.
Agopian was a merchant. He applied for naturalization out of an “earnest wish to obtain the rights and capacities of a natural born British subject.” He applied at least three times, twice at the age of 28, in March 1860, when he was still single, and once when he was 54, in 1888. Towards the end of March 1860, his agent informed the Home Office that Agopian had gone “abroad on business & will not be back within the 60 days required.” His agent hoped that the certificate of naturalization could be redated or reissued, but the Home Office instructed Ovannes to begin a fresh application. On October 13 of that year, Agopian’s agent informed the Home Offiec that his client had “just now returned from a long tour on the continent.” His certificate was finally granted on December 10, 1860. For some reason, Agopian reapplied for naturalization on July 24, 1888 and was naturalized for a second time the following month. Collectively, his referees were a calico printer, an agent and manufacturer, a dry salter, a bookkeeper, a hosier, a cashier, a warehouse man, a merchant, and two salesmen.
According to a census, Agopian was 45 years of age in 1881, was born in Constantinople around 1836, worked as a merchant shipper, and resided at 337 Oxford Street, Manchester. Living with him at the time were his wife Eranouhi Agopian (36), their son Marderos L. Agopian, 18, and two servants: Mary Queen (28) and Anne Ricardson (36). A directory from 1895 lists “O. Agopian & Son” as shipping merchants trading on 16 Queen Street, Manchester, in cotton and yarns with Constantinople and Persia.[1]
His naturalization file was classified until 1989.
[1] England Census for Ovannes, Agopian of Manchester, 1881; Slater’s Director of Shipping, Etc., Merchants in Manchester and Salford (1895), 214.