Tracing a Master Mariner 3

Calcutta port with shipping

In the 1840s George Caithness was master of various ships as listed in his Claim for his Master’s Certificate. These voyages were all for the ‘foreign trade’,taking him as far afield as South America as well as slightly nearer home to the Mediterranean. By 1849 he was sailing to Calcutta in the barque Nizam, built in 1847 by J Mearns’s yard; her home port was Sunderland. She is listed in the North of England Maritime Directory and Shipping Register 1848.*

During these years George was away from his family for extended periods of time. He had married Caroline Miller, though so far no record of this event has been found. 

Their first child, Caroline Ann, was born in Southampton in 1843, followed by another daughter, Eleanor, at Hartlepool in 1845 and a son George John whose baptism was recorded on 13 November 1850 at Monkwearmouth ‘to George and Caroline Caithness of Monkwearmouth Shore’, George is described as Master Mariner.

Caithness family entry 1851 Census Monkwearmouth. Click to zoom.

The children and their mother appear in the 1851 Census at North Quay, Monkwearmouth, with Caroline as Master Mariner’s wife ‘and Victualler’. George is absent, though probably not on the high seas.

'George Caithness, late of the Quay-side, Monkwearmouth, Durham, Mariner and Publican - In the Gaol of Durham'

A news report shows that George had got into financial difficulties and was consigned to Durham gaol for debt; he appeared in court on 9 August 1850. The details given below indicate how much George had moved around and that he had frequently been ‘out of employment’. This was not uncommon for Master Mariners.

It seems George had tried to make a living ashore as a publican, given the vicissitudes of life as a merchant captain. These must have been hard times for his wife and family.

George's name appeared in Perry's Bankrupt Gazette 27 July 1850

However, this downturn passed. George received his Master’s Certificate in June 1851 and continued at sea in the Merchant Service.

What is a Master Mariner?

A master mariner is a man judged to be qualified to be in charge of a vessel, and is frequently referred to in non-official sources as a captain. Master mariners were issued with a certificate, many of which have survived, but these records are not complete and only cover service between 1845 and 1927

Examinations for Masters were introduced in 1845, but did not become compulsory for the foreign trade until 1850, and the home trade (i.e. those trading in UK coastal waters and with north European ports) until 1854.

Research guide C2: The Merchant Navy: Tracing people: Master-mariners, mates and engineers:

www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/library/research-guides/the-merchant-navy/tracing-people-master-mariners-mates-engineers

*Source: The Sunderland Site: vessels built at Sunderland 1847
http://www.searlecanada.org/sunderland/sunderland122.html

Acknowledgement

Tom Sheldon

Tracing a Master Mariner 2

Trinity House Brig; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich*

From March to December 1848, George Caithness was master of the 191 ton brig Fortitude sailing to Rio. She is listed in Lloyd’s Register for that year:

By February 1848 he was master of Nizam, trading to Calcutta. Not long afterwards George submitted his claim for his Master’s Certificate, the latter being issued on 20 June 1851.

The Master's Certificate gives name, estimated age, birth date, birth place, issue date, issue port and certificate number: George Caithness, 34, 5 Jul 1817, Ealing Hants, 20 Jan 1851, Sunderland, 36461. His actual birth year was 1818 and he was born in Eling, Hampshire, not Ealing. [From www.ancestry.co.uk All UK and Ireland Masters and Mates Certificates 1850-1927]  

Merchant Navy Captain

Merchant Seamen’s Records

The majority of records relating to merchant seamen are held at The National Archives, Kew. These include the First, Second and Third Registers of Merchant Seamen's service, 1835–1856.

At findmypast search 1.6 million records of Merchant Navy Seamen 1835-1857. From 1835, the central government began to monitor a potential reserve of sailors for the Royal Navy, resulting in the creation of thousands of records that identify individual seamen. The main series are the ships' agreements and crew lists, from which the registers of service were created. These are volumes from The National Archives' record series BT112, BT113, BT114, BT115, BT116, BT119 and BT120.

www.findmypast.co.uk/search/merchant-navy-seamen

* This unsigned ship portrait probably dates to the 1830s or early 1840s at latest. The rig is rather unusual, since while essentially that of a brig it includes a gaff to the foremast rather than a fore-staysail.
www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-trinity-house-brig-172879

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon

Tracing a Master Mariner's career

Gradually adding events to an ancestor’s chronology is a satisfying indication of progress made, gaps filled and increased understanding of what made him/her tick. This is happening now in the case of George Henry Caithness, brother of James Ramsay Caithness.

They were both mariners who began their careers at the Lower School, Royal Hospital, Greenwich after the early death of their father, James Caithness. One of the documents pertaining to George’s acceptance at Greenwich is a declaration sworn by his mother, Ann Caithness nee Scorey, in October 1827, stating his birth date to be 5 July 1818.

  

George’s birth year is given as 1817 on his Master’s Certificate issued in January 1851. He was baptised at St Mary’s, Eling, Hampshire on 9 August 1818 and although baptisms were not always immediate it seems Ann’s statement giving 1818 as the year George was born is more likely to be correct.

So George was only about 9 years of age when he was admitted to the Lower School and boys were expected to remain ‘as long as the Directors thereof shall think proper’ - usually till they were 14. They were then ‘at the disposal of the Directors to serve ‘in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, or Merchant Sea Service’: George like his elder brother James was destined for the latter.

Fortunately, details of George’s career after Greenwich are revealed on his Master’s Claim for Certificate of Service, listing names of the ships he served in and the relevant dates. It’s stated that he served as ‘apprentice, seaman and mate from 1830 to 1840 and since that period as master’. Two of the ships he was with in the early years were the Leonidas (home port Southampton), as apprentice, and Comet (home port London), as mate.

As master, his ships from 1843 to 1849 were Rosebud, Schiedam, Victoria, Fortitude and Nizam, with destinations as diverse as America, the Mediterranean, Brazil and Calcutta.

The unusually-named Schiedam is listed in Lloyd’s Register.* The latter is a valuable source when tracing a master’s career, bearing in mind that there may be unexpected variations of a surname: George’s name is given as Cockness, Cartness and Catness, none of these an obvious choice when searching.

The Victoria is also listed in Lloyd’s Register – ‘Catness’ master – and the abbreviation ‘Sw’ indicates she was a Snow, a square-rigged ship similar to a brig but with a trysail mast added. It was in this ship that George experienced the volcanic phenomenon in 1845.

*www.lr.org/about_us/shipping_information/Lloyds_Register_of_Ships_online.aspx

Acknowledgement

Tom Sheldon

Captain George Caithness and the Undersea Volcanic Eruption

Brig in a Storm

Great Balls of Fire

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on Thursday 17 November 1845, under the heading ‘Marine Phenomena’, ‘a circumstance of singular interest … similar to what has been experienced by other mariners in various parts of the world.’

Captain Caithness, of the brig Victoria, reports that on the 18^th instant (June) at nine o’clock p.m., a heavy squall took both top-gallant and royal masts over the side; at the same time no appearance of a squall. 

At eleven o’clock called all hands to reef the topsail; then blowing hard at S.S.E. to S.E.  All hands proceeded aloft to reef the main-topsail: in a moment it fell calm, and all hands complained of being so hot, and so much sulphur and dust, they could hardly remain up aloft, and it was worse on deck, the ship at the same time labouring. 

Half a mile from the ship saw three balls of fire come out of the sea; this lasted about ten minutes. Another heavy squall from S.S.E., and then the ship soon ran into the cool atmosphere. The position of the ship, as well as he could judge from observations taken at noon was – latitude 30 deg., 40 min., 56 sec., longitude 13 deg., 44 min., 36 sec., by two chronometers.*

  

Despite the lack of a forename in the news report this was certainly Captain George Caithness (1818-1895). That he was master of the Victoria at the relevant date is confirmed in his Master’s Claim for Certificate of Service. This document, dated September 1850 and listing the vessels in which George served, provides vital details of his career. 

To be continued

* Interpreting the coordinates in the newspaper article as 30° 41’ north and 13° 45’ west as the only logical location, puts the observation about 200 km north east of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. Google maps show undersea mountains and the Canaries still have a few active volcanos.

Acknowlegements

Tom Sheldon

Peter Hay

The Marquis and the Mariner's Daughter 2

The marriage entry, 9 December 1875, for Caroline Anne Caithness and John Henry Wellington Graham Loftus gives the groom's residence as Ely Lodge, Enniskillen in the County of Fermanagh, Ireland. 

This house dates back to the 1830s when the 2nd Marquis, lacking a seat in County Fermanagh (they had estates there as well as in County Wexford), built Ely Lodge on a promontory beside Lough Erne. Stone for its construction came from another family home, Castle Hume not far away, which had been demolished. 

'Ely Lodge was a large classical house ...The main front was a five-bay, two storey, stuccoed block with Tuscan pilasters and a central, columned porch. On either side were single-storeyed bowed wings.' This residence lasted for thirty years. In 1870, for a series of possible reasons described as '(1) an unwelcome visit from Queen Victoria, (2) the discovery of the agent's fiddling and (3) the building of a bigger and better house, Ely Lodge was blown up as the climax of the festivities that marked the coming-of-age of the 4th Marquis.'

The proposed new house was never built, probably because the 4th Marquis overspent on rebuilding his other seat, Loftus Hall, County Wexford. However, from his will made in 1884 it seems that the stable block at Ely Lodge was converted to domestic use and became in time the seat of the family until sold in 1947.

Loftus Hall: near Fethard-on-Sea, Co. Wexford, 'a gaunt three-storey mansion of 1871 with rows of plate-glass windows and a parapet, incorporating parts of a previous late 17th c house. The house, (which was built by the 4th Marquis of Ely after he turned 21) stands near the tip of Hook Head, an extremely windswept spot bereft of trees and shelter.' The coastal view above gives an impression of the starkness of the place.

Whether Lady Caroline Anne ever spent any time at either Ely Lodge or Loftus Hall history doesn't relate. If she did, perhaps Kearsney Abbey in the softer countryside of Kent, the 4th Marquis's English residence by the 1880s, was more to her liking.

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon 

The Marquis and the Mariner's Daughter

Lady Caroline Anne

For Caithness family researchers, the importance of the 4th Marquis of Ely rests on his marriage to Caroline Anne Caithness, daughter of George Caithness, which event took place on 9 December 1875 and was announced in the London Standard's Marriages column of Monday 13 December: 

According to an account in an American newspaper (see previous post on this blog) the 4th Marquis had at one time prior to his marriage been in the running as a suitor to Princess Beatrice but this did not eventuate and 'the Marquis was seen no more at court'. 

In fact it appears that the Marquis was rarely seen in England at all, spending most of his time 'abroad' and becoming well-known as 'a yachtsman'. The circumstances of his meeting with Caroline Anne Caithness remain conjecture. As the daughter of a mariner - even a respectable Master Mariner - Caroline was unlikely to have moved in the same circles as the Marquis, yet meet they did and presumably fell in love. 

John Henry Wellington Graham Loftus, Caroline's husband, was the only son of John Henry, 3rd Marquis, and was educated at Harrow and Oxford, succeeding to the marquisate at the age of eight on the death of his father in July 1857. Though the 4th Marquis was described prior to his marriage as 'young, rich and handsome and a favourite at court', by the time he died in 1889 things had changed.

The 'two jointures' mentioned would have been those to the Dowager Marchioness, the 4th Marquis's mother, Jane (who died a year after her son), and to his widow, Caroline Anne. The latter's will shows that Caroline was left fairly well-off. She survived her husband by 28 years, dying in 1917. There is a reference in the London Gazette to her attendance as one of the Dowagers at the coronation of King George V on 11 June 1911, perhaps Caroline's last public appearance.

Kearsney Abbey, Dover, Kent, residence of the 4th Marquis
at the time of his death in 1889

Built by the Dover banker John Minet Fector in 1820-22, Kearsney Abbey was described as 'a charming residence, in extensive grounds, in which the two branches of the Dour unite, forming a lake, in which there are ornamental fountains'. A manor house rather than an Abbey (it had never been a monastic building) materials from the ancient town walls and demolished churches were used in its construction. 

To be continued 

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon

Caithness family: Death of a Marquis 1889

John Henry Wellington Graham Loftus, fourth Marquis of Ely, died in Nice in the South of France on 3 April 1889 at the age of forty. The Hampshire Advertiser of 6 April reported his demise thus:

The report refers to Caroline Anne, wife of the deceased and daughter of George Caithness, and mentions the Caithness family association with Totton, Hampshire.

Extract from the Nice Death Register re the Marquis of Ely,
'marie a Caithness, Caroline Anne'.

John Henry Wellington Graham Loftus (1848-1889),
 fourth Marquis of Ely, with his mother Jane, third Marchioness of Ely.
 This picture was probably made when John succeeded to the title
 at the age of eight on the death of his father, the third Marquis. 
Portrait by John and Charles Watkins published by Mason and Co.

Jane, 3rd Marchioness of Ely, (3 December 1821 – 11 June 1890) was a Lady of the Bedchamber and an intimate friend of Queen Victoria. Her parents were James Hope-Vere and Lady Elizabeth Hay; through her mother she was a cousin of Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington. After her marriage to John Loftus, the third Marquis of Ely, Jane developed friendships with Queen Sophie of the Netherlands and the Empress Eugénie. Jane arrived at court as a Lady of the Bedchamber in 1851 continuing to serve until April 1889 when after the death of her only son (see above) she wrote the Queen tendering her resignation, reporting that ‘this last blow has quite crushed’ her. Jane died on 1 June 1890 and is buried at Kensal Green cemetery, London.

John Henry Wellington Graham Loftus was born on 22 November 1849. He was the son of John Henry Loftus, 3rd Marquess of Ely and Jane Hope-Vere. He married Caroline Anne Caithness, daughter of George Caithness, on 9 December 1875. He died on 3 April 1889 at age 39, without issue. He succeeded to the title of 4th Baron Loftus of Long Loftus, co. York on 15 July 1857. He succeeded to the title of 5th Baronet Tottenham on 15 July 1857. He succeeded to the title of 4th Baron Loftus of Loftus Hall, co. Wexfordon 15 July 1857. He succeeded to the title of 4th Marquess of Ely on 15 July 1857. He succeeded to the title of 4th Earl of Ely on 15 July 1857. He succeeded to the title of 4th Viscount Loftus of Ely on 15 July 1857. Source: www.thepeerage.com/p8545.htm#i85449

For more on Caroline Anne Caithness see

molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/07/souvenir-saturday-caithness-scorey.html

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon

Caithness: James and George at Greenwich

In April 1827 Ann Caithness submitted several vital documents to the Clerk of the Check, Royal Hospital, Greenwich, concerning the admittance of her sons James and George to the Lower School. 

She had to provide details of her deceased husband’s service at sea, the record of their marriage, her circumstances as James senior’s widow, and proof of birth and baptism of her two eldest boys, then aged 12 and 9 years.

We’ve seen that Ann enlisted the aid of her local Justice of the Peace, William Sturges Bourne. Others in the community also played their part. The following letter is witnessed by the Curate of Eling, William Wilder.

I Ann Caithness do hereby agree that James Caithness if admitted into the school of the Royal Naval Asylum (i.e. the Royal Hospital) shall remain there as long as the Directors thereof, shall think proper; and that he shall be at the disposal of the said Directors to serve in the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, or the Merchant Service, as they may please to order.

A similar letter was signed in respect of George Caithness. Ann made her mark.

James and George, on being granted admittance to the School by the Board of Directors, were required to present themselves at the Clerk of the Check’s Office on a certain date. Their mother was advised that:

It will be perfectly useless to send the child if he has any impediment of speech, any infirmity of body or mind, or affected with any temporary disease whatever.

James and George were presumably in good health, since they both duly entered the Lower School. This was a turning point in their lives. 

The Prospect of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich 

The London Docks

Perhaps the excitement of going to London outweighed any qualms about the future and their sadness at saying farewell to their mother and siblings at home. They probably didn’t consider that their father had begun his career at sea at about the same age: the difference was that he hadn’t been going to school, but to war.

The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

In the building which now houses the National Maritime Museum, boys from seafaring backgrounds had the privilege of learning arithmetic and navigation. 

The Royal Hospital School Gallery can be visited at Queen's House, The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Acknowledgement

Tom Sheldon 

Mariners: Caithness at Greenwich

A Squall, Southampton Water

The Caithness brothers, James and George, lost their father young. James snr had been discharged from the navy in 1814 after serving during the Napoleonic Wars and by the time his children were born was living in Marchwood, Hampshire earning an income as a waterman and ferryman. His death in 1826 left his widow Ann in an unenviable situation without the family breadwinner and with five children to rear.

However, Ann was a resourceful woman and with the help of influential friends managed to get her two eldest sons James and George into the Lower School at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, with a view to their being educated towards a seafaring career.

The magnificent group of buildings beside the Thames at Greenwich must be one of the most recognisable sights in the world; the National Maritime Museum has been situated there since 1934. Greenwich’s maritime history, though, goes back much earlier. King William III and Queen Mary II founded the Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich in 1694. Its Royal Charter included provision for the 'Maintenance and Education of the Children of [Royal Naval] Seamen happening to be slain or disabled'. The aim was to create a hospital, to provide support for seamen's widows, education for their children and to improve navigation. 

The Hospital – now the Old Royal Naval College – was built from 1696 to 1751.

Greenwich Royal Hospital

The School began when the Hospital took in ten ‘orphans of the sea’ to be educated in navigation for the merchant service. At first housed in Thomas Weston’s Academy in Greenwich, the Hospital built its own school on King William Walk which was replaced by a larger building in 1782.

In 1798 an orphanage school, The British Endeavour, was founded in Paddington for children whose fathers died in the French Revolutionary War. 

This establishment was granted the Queen’s House, Greenwich, in 1806 and renamed the Royal Naval Asylum, which was later extended to house 800 children (boys and girls). 

By 1821 the Asylum and Hospital School amalgamated as the Royal Hospital Schools.

Greenwich Hospital and Royal Naval Asylum 1820, South Aspect; 
engraved by Henry Wallis from painting by Charles Bentley

Ann Caithness made application for her boys James and George to attend the Lower School in 1827 and surviving records offer a glimpse into their world at the time. 

James and George Caithness would have qualified for admittance
to the Lower School as 'boys whose Fathers have fallen in His Majesty's Service,
whose Mothers are living.'

To be continued …

Acknowledgement:

Tom Sheldon for copies of the Lower School documents