Mrs Jane Herman (née Laver)

Jane Herman in 1913
(Mrs Muriel Harris, courtesy of Michael Findlay & Robert Bracken, USA)

Mrs Samuel Herman (Jane Laver) was born in Taunton 1 in July 1863. She was the daughter of Thomas Laver (cab driver) and Elizabeth Laver, and sister of Sarah, Phoebe, and John. She married Samuel Herman of Castle Cary in Bristol in 1887.

Jane Herman c. 1900
(Judith Kunze, courtesy of Phillip Gowan, USA)

She boarded the Titanic at Southampton as a second class passenger with her husband, Samuel and twin daughters, Alice and Kate and their adopted son and employee of her husband's, George Sweet. They travelled under ticket 220845, cost £65 and were bound for her brother who was living in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Mrs Herman survived the sinking, her husband died. She was rescued by the Carpathia in lifeboat 9.

On the Carpathia she sent a telegram to her brother on 18 April:

A LAVER Somerset Hills Country Club Bernardsville New Jersey
Arriving this evening
Herman

In New York, she and her family went to her brother, Mr A. Laver, at Somerset Hill Country Club, Bernardsville, New Jersey. She remained in Bernardsville for the rest of her life, passing away 16 January 1937. She was interred in the St Bernards Episcopal Church Cemetery in Bernardsville.

Notes
1. Another source says she was born in India.

References
Contract Ticket List, White Star Line 1912 (National Archives, New York; NRAN-21-SDNYCIVCAS-55[279])
List or Manifest of Alien Passengers for the United States Immigration Officer At Port Of Arrival (Date: 18th-19th June 1912, Ship: Carpathia) - National Archives, NWCTB 85 T715 Vol 4183
John Booth & Sean Coughlan (1993) Titanic Signals of Disaster. White Star Publicatons, Westbury, Wiltshire. ISBN 0 9518190 1 1
United States Senate (62nd Congress), Subcommittee Hearings of the Committee on Commerce, Titanic Disaster, Washington 1912

Contributors
Steve Coombes, UK
Michael A. Findlay, USA
Phillip Gowan, USA
Hermann Söldner, Germany

Travelling Companions (on same ticket)
Mr Samuel Herman
Miss Alice Herman
Miss Kate Herman
Mr George Frederick Sweet