Family Search and My Heritage Partnership

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter speaks of the new strategic partnership between MyHeritage and FamilySearch which 'will bring billions of global historical records and family tree profiles spanning hundreds of years to MyHeritage - sophisticated search and record matching capabilities will become available on FamilySearch.org, far more effective than anything available previously on that site ...'

Read more at:

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/10/follow-up-myheritages-and-familysearchs-new-strategic-partnership.html

Boy emigrants from Redhill Farm School: Edgell

The Edgell Story: guest post by Peter Bathe

There are occasions when following the trail of an ancestor that another person is encountered who, although not related, was a colleague/friend/acquaintance of that ancestor. It can be both rewarding and revealing to follow this person’s life, not least because sometimes fresh discoveries can be made for the main line of research.

One such case happened while I followed the life of my great grandfather and I encountered John Joseph William Edgell.

Brislington nr Bristol

John Edgell was born in 1850 in a small village on the outskirts of Bristol called Brislington. He was the oldest of six boys born to Joseph Edgell, a labourer, and his wife Susan (nee Tucker).

By the time John was six years old, the family had moved the few miles to Bath. It was here that John started working as an errand boy for an auctioneer, but at the age of 11 he was convicted of larceny of his master’s property.

House of Correction, Coldbath Square

He was sentenced to spend 14 days imprisoned at the Bath House of Correction followed by detention in a reformatory for four years.

Thus it was that on 26 December 1861 John arrived at the Philanthropic Society’s reformatory, the Redhill Farm School in Surrey, where he would have met my great grandfather, George Bathe, for the first time (George had started his own sentence there a couple of months earlier).

Redhill Farm School, Surrey

It was the Farm School’s policy to encourage suitable boys to emigrate to the colonies at the end of their sentences – particularly to Canada, but also to Natal and Cape Colony. John and my grandfather were both deemed good material as colonists and so on 27 October 1865, they sailed together on the brig Lord Clarendon and arrived in Durban on 2 February the following year.

Passenger list of the Lord Clarendon, Natal Mercury 6 February 1866.
3rd line down shows 2 Redhill emigrants Bathe and Edgell - misspelt Bashe and Edgar.

When the boys arrived they were taken into the care of the Society’s agent in Durban, Frederick James Dickinson. He reported back to the School on 8 February: 'Bathe & Edgell are stopping a few days with me on the Berea until I send them to their places – one to a coffee planter 30 miles away, on the coast, the other to a sheep farmer 140 miles away near Grey Town.'

It was John who was sent to the coffee planter – W A Remnant at Shortlands, Verulam. John was to be an overseer of the African and Indian workers on the estate. He worked a 12-hour day and also looked after horses and poultry – all for £1 a month initially.

Bishop Colenso:
 cartoon by Pellegrini

Over the next few years, John often wrote to the School’s chaplain, telling him about his life on the farm and odd snippets of news about other former pupils who were in Natal, one or two of whom appear to have slipped back into criminal ways. He also spoke of events in the colony, such as the gold diggings and the controversy about Bishop Colenso, whom he described as 'a very nice man'.

However, one letter at the end of November 1866 was to Frederick Dickinson in Durban asking how to send some money back to his mother: 'I want to send £5 or 6 to my mother. Father was killed on Sept 11 by a Dray passing over his head. He jumped from the cart he was driving & falling was killed instantly. Mother is very ill & very poor. Tell me how I must send it home. Mr Remnant’s gone up country so cannot send the money until next mail. Am thankful to feel that I have one kind friend in Natal.'

A few months later he was again writing to Mr Dickinson: 'My mother wants to send out one of my younger brothers. Can you get him a place? Another has gone to friends in America.'

In fact, the following year, John’s mother and the other brothers all went to live in the USA, but sadly one of the brothers 'was kicked to death by a young colt near New York' a year later.

Coffee plantation

John’s early years with the Remnants seem to have been happy and prosperous. He was made manager of the estate which in 1868 'had above 30,000 coffee trees & shall have 8 tons of coffee this year & 40 tons next. We are going to plant tobacco.' By 1870, he had an average of 70 men and women to supervise.

The following year he wrote, 'We fielded 12 tons of it last year. I have 100 acres to attend to. I shall get about £50 a year & provide for myself & live in Master’s house.” Then later: “We have picked at the rate of 1 ton an acre of clean coffee for 14 acres. From the remainder, 24 tons clean or above 300 tons in the press, & have to look after nearly 100 hands. For June I paid £52 in wages, some men having 8/-, 9/-, 14/- a mo. I have a furnished house of my own & a horse to ride.'

He was doing so well he was sending donations to the Chapel fund for the Redhill School and offered a half sovereign for the best boy in his old school house, Queen’s.

But in 1872 there seems to have been a downturn in his fortunes and he wrote: 'I am no richer than when I came only get £6 a mo & feed & clothe myself & clothes are very dear.' Then 'I am 22 today I have no increase in my pay and can save nothing, things are dearer than ever. I shall have to look out for another place.'

The following year, 'No increase of pay, tho I have been here 8 years. Only brickmakers & carpenters flourish here,' and finally, 'Crops are very poor, Coffee crop as bad as last year. Nearly all are turning to sugar growing. My wages are very low. My brother in America, 4 years younger, gets far higher wages than mine at ordinary work.'

Unfortunately, I haven't copies of any of his later letters but things may have improved sufficiently for him to marry in 1881 in Verulam. His wife was Lucy Caroline Dawtrey who originally came from Halifax in Yorkshire.

Marriage record: John Joseph William Edgell and Lucy Caroline Dawtrey
at Verulam, Natal,1881 *

John obviously gained a good working knowledge of the Indian languages while working at the Remnants’ farm, because in 1889 he applied for the post of Hindustani and Tamil interpreter to The Supreme Court of Natal. He died in 1907.

And how did John Edgell help in my own family history research? In a few of his letters he mentions my great grandfather and added to my knowledge of him. For example:

2 August 1870: 'I saw Bathe a month since. He has gone with the Regt to the Mauritius. He is a smart looking fellow, the tallest but one in his company. He is lance corporal & earned 30/- for shooting.'

21 April 1871: 'I have heard from Bathe at the Cape.'

All I knew was that after he had left the sheep farmer in Grey Town, he joined the army, went to Mauritius with his regiment sometime in 1870 and then returned to the UK at the beginning of 1872. Now I know more precisely when he went to Mauritius and the fact that for a time his regiment was at the Cape. But it is the personal details of his height, rank and earnings which were particularly fascinating.

George never returned to South Africa but he and John did keep in contact for some while afterwards.

Note: Thanks to Peter Bathe for the series of interesting and informative articles on these Redhill emigrants. For further posts on this topic enter Redhill in the blog search facility at top left of page.


* "South Africa, Natal Province, Civil Marriages, 1845-1955," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.3.1/TH-266-11603-13676-65?cc=2063749&wc=M9WM-PP1:n2003075036 : accessed 13 Oct 2013), 004236412 > image 1 of 762.

Souvenir Saturday: Miss Bell

Of all the most tantalising items there can be nothing to beat an unidentified, or mis-identified, photograph. A handwritten note on the back of the above photo claims that the winsome young lady is Miss Bell, 'a sister of Captain William Bell'. 

This is hardly likely, as her costume tells us she is of a much later generation than Captain Bell's (he was born in 1807). There is, however, some family resemblance, reinforced by a companion photograph showing a Mr Bell who certainly could be a close relative of the Captain, though again of a later date.

For the moment, Miss Bell remains a mystery lady. The 1871 Census for Drumburgh, Bowness-on-Solway, shows Thomas Bell (the Captain's father), a widower aged 87, and blind. The other occupants of the house are Elizabeth, granddaughter, aged 38, unmarried, and a grandson, John. It was tempting to consider this Elizabeth as a contender for the Miss Bell in the photo portrait, but the date and age simply do not fit. Back to the drawing board ...

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 

Natal Witness Deaths 1897

Name, Gender, Age, Date of Event, Date of Advert, Details

Albrechtsem, Alfred August m no age given, no date given, 5-Feb-1897,

The funeral of the late AA Albrechtsem will leave his residence, 313 Berg Street,

PMBurg today at 5.30 pm

Allan, Thomas m 70, 2-Jan-1897, 4-Jan-1897,

at Blanche Villa, Ladysmith after a long and painful illness

Ballenden, William McLeod m  46, 7-Feb-1897, 8-Mar-1897,

at Salisbury, Mashonaland, British South Africa, second son of the late John Ballenden

Esq. of the Hudson Bay Co. (Canadian, Ceylon and Scotch Papers please copy)

Barker, Lancelot Eustace m 18, 24-Jan-1897, 1-Feb-1897

at the Parsonage, Ladysmith youngest son of Archdeacon and Mrs Barker

Bradley, Rachel  f  79, 3-Jan-1897, 4-Jan-1897,

at the residence of her son, 45 Henrietta Street, PMBurg, relict of the late John William

Harries, formerly of Wolverhampton, Engalnd (English papers please copy)

Brereton, Emily Elizabeth  f  37, 10-Feb-1897, 12-Feb-1897,

at the Sanitorium, Berea Durban,  buried in the Cemetery, PMBurg

Buck, R S  f  67yrs 7mnths, 5-Jan-1897, 11-Jan-1897,

Widow of the late CS Buck of Natal, one of Natal's oldest colonists

Burges, Gertrude Travers  f  no age given, 23-Jan-1897, 25-Feb-1897,

at her residence, Keynsham, Somersetshire, England, second daughter of the late

Danield Burges, Clifton, Bristol, England

Burges, Isabel Travers  f  8 years, 2-Mar-1897, 29-Mar-1897,

at Ilfracombe, Devonshire, England, daughter of FT and MH Burges, Howick, Natal

Cartwright, John Webster m 86yrs 11mnths, 4-Jan-1897, 11-Jan-1897,

at the residence of his son

Comins, Joseph m 16, 13-Feb-1897, 23-Feb-1897,

Born 21 November, 1880

Craigie, John Esq. M.D. m no age given, 2-Feb-1897, 6-Feb-1897,

at his residence, "Fair View Tower" PMBurg, the son of David Craigie Esq.

Captain R.N. C.B. and formerly of Knoll House near Honiton, England

Daly, James Martin m 24, 25-Mar-1896, 25-Mar-1897,

In affectionate rememberance of JM Daly who was murdered on the Bubi Matabelelad

25 March 1896

Denhill, Walter m 33yr 5mn 22dys, 15-Feb-1897, 23-Feb-1897,

at Smuts Oog Store, District Ermelo, A.A.R. of diptheria, sixth son of William Denhill,

Sevenfontein, PMBurg, County Natal

Dowsett, James Seby m 2yrs 5mnths, 28-Dec-1896, 1-Jan-1897,

at 508 Prince Alfred Street, only son of A and E Dowsett

Ellerker, Eliza  f  52, 12-Jan-1897, 16-Jan-1897,

at the residence 197 Loop Street, PMBurg, wife of T Ellerker (senior)

Elliott, Bethia Doris  f  18 months, 11-Mar-1897, 25-Mar-1897,

at Nondweni Gold fields, Zululand the infant daughter of FG and Bethia Mary Elliott

Ellis, W F  71, 3-March-1897, 5-Mar-1897,of Ashburton House

Ferguson, Elizabeth Robins  f  no age given, 14-Jan-1897, 21-Jan-1897,

At Ridge Road, Cato Manor, Durban, wife of JF Ferguson of Durban

Firmstone, William Francis m no age given, 16-Feb-1897, 20-Feb-1897,

At Ngoka, near Newcastle, Natal (Justice of the Peace)

Fynney, Doris May  f 1mnth 13days, 13-Mar-1897, 16-Mar-1897,

at Elsdale, Umsindusi the infant daughter of Oswald and Gertrude Fynney

Geddes, James m 32yrs 4mnths, no date given, 1-Jan-1897,

at 473 Church Street PMBurg

Goodeve, Henry Holley m 27, 23-Jan-1897, 26-Jan-1897,

at Grey's Hospital, PMBurg, only son of Col. HH Goodeve R.A. Ivy Tower,

Tenby, South Wales, UK

Grantham, m 3yrs 2dys, 19-Jan-1897, 21-Jan-1897,

at PMBurg by accident the beloved younger son of WL and FS Grantham

Hunter, Peter, (J.P.) m 63yrs 22dys, 21-Dec-1896, 5-Jan-1897,

at the Rest, Seven Mile Bush

Illing, Dirk Cornelius m infant, 10-Jan-1897, 13-Jan-1897,

at Dundee Coalfields, infant son of August Illing

Jardine, Mrs  f  86yrs 10mnth, 11-Mar-1897, 18-Mar-1897,

at Willow Bank, widow of the late Mr John Jardine

Johnson, Herbert Rountree (Bertie) m 25yrs 6 mnths, 13-Mar-1897, 18-Mar-1897,

at PMBurg second son of FW and M Johnson

Kenny, Catherine  f  50yrs 11mnths, 23-Feb-1897, 27-Feb-1897,

at her residence, Lyndhurst, Slang Spruit, widow of the late John Michael Kenny

(Irish papers please copy)

Lamb, Elizabeth  f  66, 12-Feb-1897, 24-Feb-1897,

at Townlands, near PMBurg beloved wife of G Lamb

Language, George m 41, 30-Jan-1897, 4-Feb-1897,

at Boom Street, PMBurg

Proudfoot, Mary  f  no age given, 23-Feb-1897, 8-Mar-1897,

at Troyville, Johannesburg the wife of Thomas Proudfoot and daughter of the late George Ross of Riversdale, Howick, Natal

Sibthorp, William Henry m 85, 7-Nov-1896, 13-Jan-1897,

at Honchurch

Sinfell, Mary Jane  f  30, no date given, 13-Jan-1897,

at the residence of her uncle Mr George H Chick, 7 Railway Street, PMBurg,

eldest daughter of the late Charles and Mary Grace Sinfell of Cornubia, Victoria County

Taylor, CE   f  64, 3-Dec-1896, 13-Jan-1897,

at Greytown, relict of the late Rev Thomas Taylor

Taylor, WR no age given, 21-Jan-1897, 26-Jan-1897,

at PMBurg, late of Fort Salisbury

Tranmer, Leander William m, 2mnth 2dys, 14-Feb-1897, 17-Feb-1897,

at 97 Commercial Road PMBurg, son of JW and JA Tranmer

Van Rooyan, Maria Jacoba  f  79, 17-Dec-1896, 1-Jan-1897,

at Greytown, the widow of the late PH Van Rooyan of Vaalkrans, Umvoti

Von Der Heyde, Leopold m 59, 28-Feb-1897, 6-Mar-1897,

at "Croydon", Harding

Wilkinson, Margaret  f  no age given, 14-Feb-1897, 15-Feb-1897,

The beloved wife of GH Wilkinson of Town Bush Valley

Wright, Elizabeth  f  82, 9-Feb-1897, 13-Feb-1897,

at the residence of her son-in-law Joseph Pascoe, Berea Durban

relict of the late Leonard Wright, PMBurg

Cracknore Hard: Then and Now

Cracknore Hard 1831: James Caithness snr
was ferryman here ca 1815-1820s

Similar view 20 September 2013:
the building with central chimney and white verandah uprights
 was once the Ship Inn

See Ordnance Survey Map 1851 at molegenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/09/caithness-at-eling-marchwood-and-totton.html

Photograph by Tom Sheldon

Souvenir Saturday: St Mary's Churchyard, Totton, Hampshire

St Mary’s, Totton: note the stones facing the same way, towards the east. Somewhere in front of them would be the headstone of the incumbent facing his flock, just as he would have stood before the congregation during church services; he is ready to lead them at the sound of the Last Trump. 

This ties in with Christian belief: Then the man brought me to the gate, even the gate that looketh toward the east and I saw the Glory of God  [Ezek 43:1]

However, the symbolism could be traced much further back than Christianity.

More on the origins of grave orientation at

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_are_graves_always_facing_east_in_cemeteries

Photograph by Peter Hay

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

Mariners: First Rung of the Ladder 3

Considering Bell’s Narrative of Conch, admittedly written much later in life, his level of general education is evidently good. Some historians have questioned whether he could have related the story to someone else to write down, but I don’t subscribe to that view. 

Bell's signature on a Port Office document, Natal 1861

As a merchant master having dealings with crew and cargo, he had responsibilities: he would have had some commercial grasp of proceedings. 

When Bell became Port Captain at Natal he had to write and sign passenger lists and other port documents; he made written reports on harbour matters, shipwrecks and survey expeditions along the coast. His handwriting on original documents dating to the 1850s and 60s is well-formed and there are many examples of his vigorous signature.

He was certainly literate and more than merely that. This isn’t quite what one might expect of the son of a labourer. Could he have attended school while he was working his indenture at Maryport? There’s no way of knowing whether Ritson was sufficiently motivated to nurture young mariners and craftsmen but he may well have been forward-looking and encouraged them to pursue their studies during apprenticeship. William had an enterprising nature and no doubt took opportunities for self-education.

There’s the possibility that he went to a nautical school. Such establishments provided training in aspects of seamanship and could be state-aided, or private charitable institutions often endowed by wealthy philanthropists. Whitehaven, not a million miles from Maryport, offers an example in this regard.

Whitehaven ca 1854

Matthew Piper, a Quaker, lived frugally and was thus able when he died at the age of 91 to leave a generous bequest for the founding of a school ‘for the education of sixty poor boys resident in the town of Whitehaven, or the neighbourhood, in reading, writing, arithmetic, gauging, navigation and book-keeping.’ The school, in the High Street, was built in 1818 and opened in 1822. Before being admitted every boy had to be able to read the New Testament and be above eight years of age, none being allowed to remain more than five years.

‘Although this school is intended to convey such nautical instruction as shall qualify its pupils to act as mates and masters of vessels, they are not placed under any obligation to go to sea, as the name of the institution may be supposed to imply.’

However, many did become mariners on completion of their time at Piper’s Marine School. As well as the school Piper also left a £1000 bequest, from which the £50 interest created a fund used to provide soup twice per week (from the soup kitchen in Mill Street) to many families in dire need of such nourishment; this continued for over 150 years.

Pipers Court, Whitehaven, on the site of Matthew Piper's Marine School

There were probably similar nautical schools in other Cumbrian ports such as Workington and Maryport. William Bell may have been the beneficiary of a Charitable Trust like Piper's.

With the large-scale opening up of the seas for imperial trade, merchant mariners required a higher level of education in navigation, nautical astronomy and associated subjects. A coastal mariner could scrape by with slightly less formal training. It wasn’t until 1845 that a system of examination for Competency and Service was introduced for all mariners.

By then Ritson, Bell’s mentor, was dead: ‘…1844, John Ritson Esq., late ship builder, after several years’ affliction of paralysis, which he bore with great resignation, aged 67 years.’*

Ship approaching Whitehaven harbour 1847
 by Robert Salmon

* http://www.cumberlandarchives.co.uk/content/view/159/30/

Note: Merchant seamen service records from 1835 to 1857 are available to view online at findmypast.co.uk

Mariners: The First Rung of the Ladder 2

The Solway with its sand banks and shallow waters was always a difficult stretch of water to navigate. A flag was hoisted when it was safe for sailing vessels to enter port, and in later years steam tugs aided vessels in and out of the harbour and along navigable channels. This is an appropriate analogy for the career of the mariner apprentice, navigating the shoals and hazards as he started out on his voyage and requiring an experienced pilot to guide him through the channel ahead and reach safe anchorage.

A view of Ritson's shipyard, showing a ship under construction on a slipway. The town of Maryport progressed as an industrial centre throughout the 19th century. The port developed and shipyards such as Wood's, Peat's and Ritson's yard were established. Ritson's was famous for launching ships broadside into the River Ellen as it wasn't wide enough for ships to be launched in the usual way.  

It is certain that Bell was apprenticed to John Ritson, who was the founder of the Maryport shipbuilding firm of that name, though Ritson had been manager of the John Peat yard before launching his own business. He might have apprenticed Bell whilst still managing Peat’s. Ritson had been a ship’s carpenter and reputedly could handle every tool from the adze to the caulking tool with great skill. It’s quite feasible that Bell served his apprenticeship as a ship’s carpenter, a shipwright, and went to sea as a fully-fledged ‘chippie’. The average ship’s carpenter made his first voyage at 20 years plus (though it's scarcely credible that Bell waited until 1827).

Most Cumbrian shipbuilding firms were also shipowners – either minority shareholders or Managing Owners. Sometimes vessels were built by the yards speculatively in times of no orders, but shipowners they invariably were and also frequently merchants trading on their own behalf: useful hedges against the ups and downs of shipbuilding to order. 

Perhaps Bell was a Ritson employee on a Ritson built and owned vessel trading to the Cape, liked what he saw, engaged with owners who traded more regularly with the Cape, e.g. the owners of the Thorne, and eventually made the break, remaining in the Colony after that ship was wrecked on Robben Island in 1831.*  

How and why young William made the move from his childhood environs to Maryport is a matter for conjecture. There may have been relatives, either there or in Bowness, who had risen to comparative affluence and were in a position to assist him. Another alternative is that his parents were in difficult circumstances, perhaps on Poor Relief, and that William was placed with John Ritson as a Parish Apprentice.

In the early 1820s the area from Bowness to Carlisle was in a depressed state, many of the working people living under harsh conditions. The weather was particularly bad, the waters of the Firth (or Frith in local parlance) rising to a greater height than had been known for years, with widespread flooding. A native of Carlisle wrote:

Unsound barley meal … sold for as much as four shillings a stone; while wheat flour and butchers meat were wholly beyond the reach of the ordinary workman. It was no uncommon thing for our house to be without bread for weeks together; and I cannot remember to have ever seen in my very early years a joint of meat of any kind on my father’s table, oatmeal porridge and potatoes, with an occasional taste of bacon, being our principal food.**

With such deprivation commonplace, it’s likely that Bell’s parents would encourage him to aim higher than labouring as many men did on the planned Carlisle Canal (opened in March 1823). In time, the Canal would bring improved communications, the building of new ships, increased trade and a measure of prosperity but all this was as yet in the unpredictable future. An apprenticeship for William with a reputable shipyard was a much safer bet.

Maryport by William Daniell

Titanic links: Maryport has a strong affiliation with the White Star Line and its most famous ship the Titanic. Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line, was born 7 January 1836 at Ropery House, Ellenborough Place, a short distance from the southern end of Elizabeth Dock. Married at the age of 22, Ismay had then amassed capital of £2,000 and within a decade was worth nearly £½million. When he died in 1899 his estate was worth £1¼million.

*The Wreck of the Thorne

 http://molegenealogy.blogspot.com/search?q=wreck+of+thorne

**The Carlisle Navigation Canal: David Ramshaw (P3 Publications) p27

Note: Under the Merchant Seamen, etc, Act 1823 (4 Geo IV c 25) Masters of British merchant ships of 80 tons and over were required to carry a given number of indentured apprentices. These had to be duly enrolled with the local Customs Officer. These provisions were extended by the Merchant Seamen Act 1835 (5 & 6 Wm IV c 19) which provided for the registration of these indentures. In London they were registered with the General Register and Record Office of Seamen and in other ports with the Customs officers who were required to submit quarterly lists to the Registrar General. In 1844 it was provided for copies of the indentures to be sent to the Registrar General, and although compulsory apprenticeship was abolished in 1849 the system of registration was maintained. Under the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (57 & 58 Vict c 60) a parallel arrangement was introduced for apprentices on fishing boats.

Reference: BT 150       

Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Index of Apprentices

Description:

This series comprises an index, compiled by the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen and its predecessor, of apprentices indentured in the merchant navy.

The index relates to the copy indentures in BT 151 and BT 152

Date:

1824-1953

Held by:

The National Archives, Kew

Acknowledgement:

Derek Ellwood