Sea Stories from Master Mariners - Sepia Saturday

Water is the theme of this  week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph.  So here I  take a look at my husband's  Donaldson, White and Moffet ancestors who were master mariners, sailing out into the North Sea from  South Shields in north east England.  Extended family members were in related occupations as a caulker, seaman, river policemen, shipwright, roper, ship's carpenter and marine engine fitter.

To me "snow" was the white stuff falling in winter and a "smack" was a slap to a recalcitrant child. But that all changed as I began researching my husband's maritime ancestors and learnt about the different names for ships in the 19th century - barque or bark or barc, brig, sloop. smack and snow - an illustration of the diverse routes that family history can take you.  

Great Great Great Grandfather - Robert Donaldson, Master Mariner  (1801-1878)
Mariner records at the National Archives at Kew  showed that Robert Donaldson was  registered as a mariner on 20th July 1852.

 

Image - Courtesy of  Pixabay

Tyne and Wear Archives provided invaluable  information on the sea-going  life of Robert Donaldson and the ships he sailed on, listed in "“A Dictionary of Tyne Sailing Ships: a record of merchant sailing ships owned, registered and built at the Port of Tyne 1830-1930”, compiled by Richard Keys. This is a complete A-Z of Ships, master mariners and owners, detailing ships, voyages, disasters and share-ownerships, and much more - an  absolute  must for anyone  researching  maritime ancestors in this region.

The entries make fascinating reading, with all six ships on which Robert Donaldson sailed, having an eventful history and coming to a sad end  - though not under his charge.  

• The Thetis became a wreck after sinking off the Yorkshire coast in 1869.

• The John was stranded in 1861 and became a wreck during a severe easterly gale. Twenty-eight other Tyne ships went ashore in the same area during the same gale.

• The Emerald, in December 1855, when on passage from the Tyne to London, foundered in five fathoms on the Dough Sand (Long Sand) Thames estuary. Three survivors were brought ashore by two Bridlington smacks. Eleven others were unaccounted for, including some of the crew of the rescuing smack who were in a small boat, which disappeared.

• The Hebe was wrecked in Robin Hood’s Bay, along with other vessels on 27 January 1861. The Ann & Elizabeth disappeared after leaving the Tyne in November 1863, with her captain' wife left a widow with six children.  

• The William Metcalfe was Robert Donaldson's largest ship.  On her maiden voyage, it transported 240 male convicts from Portsmouth to Hobart,Tasmania  on a passage that took 102 days. In January 1855 eight of her crew were sent to goal for three months each by the North Shields magistrates for refusing duty. In October 1858 her master and one man were washed overboard. Nine days later, the ship was abandoned, with the crew taken off.

These incidents were by no means unusual and bring home the hazards our mariner ancestors faced in their daily lives.

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Great Great Grandfather John Robert Moffet (1814-1881)   

John Robert Moffet in a Napoleonic pose - the only photograph I have of my husband's mariner ancestors - shared with me by internet contact who was also a descendant of John.  

 

John's family originated from Tynmouuth, north of the river Tyne,  with his father Robert and brother William both mariners. Two puzzles about the family  remain unanswered.   John was born in Chatham, the site of the Royal Navy dockyard on the River Medway on the south  of England.  What had brought his family there?    

John's   wife Frances Dunn Thomas, daughter  and widow of a mariner,   had three children, with two, according to the census entr,    born in the USA.   It would be wonderful to find the background to that, but nigh impossible without any indication of which state.  The family first settled in the London docklands area before returning to South Shields.  

In the 1861 Census,  John  was listed as master of "The Brotherly Love" sailing off Flamborough Head in the North Sea.     The crew of eight included three young apprentices, four seamen, and a mate, with most born in South Shields.

The caption  reads"The Brotherly Love" model. made for her  master Captain  Moffet."    

Illustration  supplied by a Moffet descendant. 

In South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, there is  a portrait  " The Brig "Brotherly Love" and the Tug "William" painted by  John Scott (1802-1885).

 Other mariner ancestors of my husband included, on his mother's side:

Great Great Grandfather  Matthew White (1821-187 ).   

The 1861 census listed Matthew  as master mariner on board the brig "Caroline" off South Shields.  Lloyd’s Captains’ Register,  recorded the ships Matthew sailed on, travelling as far as the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Baltic ports.

 

From: the National Archives at  Kew, London 

 

Sadly Matthew was,with  others,   drowned at sea  on 10th January 1872,  whilst master mariner of the brig "Caroline" - as recorded in    "Births, Marriages and Deaths at Sea",  online on Find May Past.   

 

 Great Grandfather  Matthew Iley White. (1849-1901)

On his marriage to young widow Louisa Moffet Pierce in 1884 at South Shields, Matthew was described as a mariner.  However he had a change of occupation and was next found as a member of the Tyne River Police, along with his brother Henry.

 

A  long-held story in my husband's family recollected a photograph (sadly lost) of a White ancestor in a top hat in the uniform of the River Tyne police.   A silver uniform button  (below) is  still held by the family.   

 

 

 

Tyne and Wear Archives again provided some answers. The Nominal Roll of the Tyne River Police gave details that  two sons of Matthew Iley White  (senior),   had been  members of the river police force – but both with rather a chequered career. Henry White  joined 9^th January 1882 and brother Matthew June 1896.  

 

The Police Defaulters Book recorded on 11^th June 1889 their  misconduct in the same incident -  "for assaulting a seaman A. W. Hanson and other irregularities, whilst off duty".   
 

Matthew was fined 2/6 and transferred to the Newcastle Division at his own expense.  However he resigned a few months later. Henry was fined 2/6 and transferred to Walker Division at his own expense.  The Nominal Roll of 1904 noted his age as 42 and that he had 22 years of service, with a wage of 29/6. 

 

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Storms off South Shields
 "The Shields Gazette" on  (FindMyPast Newspaper Archive)  abounds with  headlines and reports on disasters at sea, storms and gales;  the lifeboat responses. and the ensuing work of the Mariners' benevolent societies in helping families in distress.  Below is one typical  instance of what mariners faced. 

 

 

  

 

 Image Courtesy of  Pixabay 

 

 

A Fascinating Fact  - one of the first purpose built lifeboats  was constructed in South Shields in 1789, prompted by a tragedy  when a ship with all its crew was  lost  at sea just off shore.  

 

To Conclude -  

My husband's maritime ancestors (Donaldson, White & Moffet)  must have had a streak of Adventure  in them to venture out from South Shields  into the North Sea in all weathers, as they plied their trade as master mariners. They faced storms at sea  as part of their daily lives - as evidenced by local newspaper reports of shipping disasters.  I was pleased to find such detail of their  experiences in the course of my research. 

 

 

 

Here is an aerial view taken as we were coming into land at Newcastle Airport, with a clear picture of the River Tyne, its north and south piers. and on the left South Shields, the home of my husband's ancestors.  

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs. 

Click HERE to  see more watery stories  from other Sepia Saturday  bloggers

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An Island Family Home -Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt image shows a primitive cottage . I turned to  my cousin's family history  with memories of his Smith crofter ancestors from the most northerly island of the British Isles - Unst  in the Shetland Islands of Scotland -

Using  primarily  www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk  &  ancestry.co.uk   the  Smith family was traced back to Great, Great, Great Grandfather - John Smith. (1759- c.1840.)  John's  youngest son Gilbert was born in 1802 at Snarbrough - the ruins of this family home still visitble today. 

 

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Gilbert Smith married Catherine Mouat in 1829,  with the ceremony performed  by the Rev James Ingram - the first clue to the Ingram name that featured   in the Smith family down to the present day. Gilbert and Catherine made their home at Gardin (below)

 

 But by the 1871 census the Smith family had made a major move, leaving Unst behind to live on the Scottish  mainland. Youngest son John was the last member of the family to be born on the island.  He followed a varied career  as a butler, a pub landlord,    a move to England in 1883  as a hotel manager in Leeds and finally around 1885 a move to the north west seaside resort of Blackpool, Lancashire. 

 

There was a family story that John became Catering Manager at the Winter Gardens entertainment complex in Blackpool.   and in  the photograph below  he looks the part.  But I have been unable to find any detailed documentary evidence to support this.   In 1900 he appeared in court d  on a charge of undischsrged  bankruptcy   where he was then described as a "waiter";  in the 1901 census as a caterer;    in  the 1911 census  as a furniture dealer;   and in the 1921 census  as a "retired caterer". He died in 1925 aged 78.

 

  John Ingram Smith  was the last of the immediate Smith family to be born on the island of Unst, But  the Rev. John Ingram must have had an influence on the family, with so many Smith descendants christened with  the middle name of Ingram down to the present day.    The connection with Unst lived on.

 

The Shetland  Isles - Photograph courtesy of Pixabay 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

 to share their family history through photographs. 

  

Click HERE to  see favourite family photos from other Sepia Saturday  bloggers.

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It's Time to Relax - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph  features a young womam  enjoying lounging around in the sunshine.  I have the ideal match,  

 

The year is 1966; the place Nantucket Island  in New England; the occasion my year long spell  in the USA when I was on an exchange programme,  working in the Radcliffe Library in Cambridge Massachusetts.  With a friend we bussed from Boston  to Woods Hole on the tip of Cape Cod  to take  the ferry for a break on the island.  I loved New England - its history, its architecture,  its seascapes and landscapes.  It took me 30 years before I was able to return and renew my memories.  

 

 

 1965  and  the back garden of our home in Edinburgh .  Posing for a family photograph  before I headed off for my year in the USA.  My aunt Edith seated, with Mum on the grass, Dad on the lounger, plus my brother oblivious to it all! 

 

Onto the 1990s , and my husband taking a breaka from sightseeing  and walking.  Here outside our hotel in the Austrian Tyrol.
 

 

 

Here is my husband's father John Robert Donaldson taking a break from his work as a painter and sign writer, with an example of his work below.

 

A bill board in South Shields, County Durham, painted just after the Second World War with son Ian (right hand corner) who went into  the family business  by the side. The story went that because of a shortage of paper, it was painted directly onto the board.  Nowadays, amidst anti-smoking campaigns, this advert would be banned.  

 

And finally  - our pet cocker spaniel resting her short legs after all those walks.  

 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history through photographs. 

  

Click HERE see favourite family photos 

from other Sepia Saturday  bloggers 

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A Church, A Footall Team & the Search for Lost Photographs - Sepia Saturday.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt image shows a barge on a river with, in the background,   a large church building.    

Cue for me to featured a church linked with my father’s childhood in Broseley, Shropshire in England’s West Midlands.  Situated on  the banks of the River Severn, Broseley lies across the river  from its more famous neighbour Ironbridge, noted as the birthplace of England’s 18th century Industrial Revolution. 

 All Saints Parish Church in Broseley  was built  in 1845, replacing a previous structure.   It has been described as "the finest early Victorian church in Shropshire".    The tower rises to over 93 feet amd can be visible from  along the Ironbridge gorge.  

I’m,

 

 

River Severn flowing between Broseley and Ironbridge
Photograph by my brother Chris Weston

 

 

 

The famous 100 feet span of the Ironbridge, linking Broseley  and Ironbridge, was completed in 1779.   My grandfather Albert Ernest Weston had a 35 minute walk (one way), crossing the bridge to Coalbrookdale where he worked in the Power House.  Photograph by my brother Chris Weston. 

 

This was the church where my father sang in the choir from the age of seven.  My father John Percy Weston was born in Bilston, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire  on 15th April 1912 -  a momentous date in many ways  as that was the night the "Titanic" sank on its  maiden voyage.   Dad was the second son of Albert Ernest Weston and Mary Barbara Matthews with siblings Fred, Madge and Charles.   

Dad was named after his mother’s brother who had died two year’s earlier.  But Dad rated his middle name of Percy, or even worse when corrupted to “Perce”, whcih he seemed to be known as locally  He almost made me believe as a child that his middle name was actually Philip,  the name of the late Queen's husband.  

At the age of seven the Weston family moved to the neighbouring county of Shropshire and to the small town of Broseley, across the River Severn from Ironbridge. Dad always regarded Broseley as his spiritual home  and had written down for me memories of his life there.  

 

 

 

He recalled in Broseley,

 Dad wrote : "We lived in a a house that was unique since it had an indoor flush toilet..... Our house was next door to the Wesleyan chapel, and when we were in bed, we could hear the church choir practising.  

We had a "palace" organ double keyboard.  Mum was very musical and Dad, who,  as far as i know  had never had a music lesson,  played in Coalbrookdale Brass Band and could also play the violin.  Mum would play the organ on a Sunday night, and Dad the violin  and we sandf hymns along with them". 

 

 Dad worked at Coalbrookdale, in the power house. It was 35 minutes walk, no buses.  On a Sunday if Dad was working on what he called “grinding the vales in”, I came home from church at noon and had to set off to the works with his dinner, come back for mine and the go to Sunday school and church at night."

 

In Broseley Dad with his older brother Fred joined the  church choir at the age of seven and remained a choir member wherever he lived, with a love of hymns and sacred  music.  Listening to Sunday Half Hour (hymn singing on the radio) was part of our Sunday evening ritual when I was growing up - as was TV's "Songs of Praise". 

 

Dad' brother Fred Weston, but sadly there is no similar photograph for my father John Percy  Weston. 

 

 My father often mentioned that a photograph had been taken of him as a choir boy and also as a member of his school winning football team (his great passion). But these were unfortunately thrown out on the death of a relative. Dad felt quite bitter about that, soI set out to see what I could find.    

Through Google I established there was a Broseley Local History Society  and  I contacted it o see if they held any pictures of the church choir and the football team   in the 1920s.  I met with Immediate  success! 

 

 

 

Dad is the first figure on the  third row from the back.  

 

 

  

 

The Society website featured transcriptions from the local newspaper at the time the Weston family lived  in Broseley.  The frequent reports on church activities presented a picture of what Dad could have well been involved in,  with singing in  Stainer's "Crucifixion" his favourite memory,  

 

 

 The inscription written in the prayer book presented to my father, here named as Percy Weston.

 

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In Dad's own words  "When my school team entered a cup competition. I was vice-captain and we got to the final - and won the cup, the first ever for Broseley.   One of the supporters took a carrier pigeon along with us and set it loose at the end to let Broseley know the result and to prepare a welcome, as we were bringing home the cup! " 

 

Broseley Historical  Society  put my enquiry on their online newsletter.   I was delighted to hear  from three members of the society with more personal memories of the pigeon story  - and even better  a photograph of the  football team itself with my father identified as Perce Weston. Vice Captain  on the right of the middle row - the team is identified on the reverse with Dad named as Perce Wes.  The date 1926. 

 

 This is the  earliest photograph I have of my father and I was so grateful  to the Society for filling this gap in my family history.   My father retained his love of football all his life and was an avid watcher of matches on television,  right up to his death at the age of 91.   

 

And  an important lesson from this - don't forget the value that can be gained from contacting local societies. 

 

 

 My father John P. Wesston (1912-2003)

 

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history through photographs

 

Click HERE to see posts  from other Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

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Girls Together - SepiaSaturday

 

 This week's prompt photograph from the Sepia Saturday website  features a group of young women and girls, many in white dresses and with the elaborate hairstyle of the times c. 1900. 

  

A photograph from the collection of my local heritage group Auld Earlston.  The occasion -  an outing by members of the parish church choir, c.1907, with the women at the front relaxing with hats off, once they. Ǐdthey reached their destination. 

  

My paternal grandmother Mary  Barbara  Matthews(1876--1959)  with a similar hairstyle, c.1900.  She was the  3rd  child out of ten, born to John Matthews and Matilda Such of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire in the  English Midlands and masried my grandfather Alvert Ernest Weston. 

Did you spot in the prompt picture the young girl with the long loose hair sitting at the front ?

She  reminded me of my great aunt Jennie Danson, (1897-1976)  of Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire.   Jennie was the last born child, and only daughter born to my grandparents William Danson and Maria Rawcliffe.  By all accounts she was a feisty  individual who held her own in a household with eight older brothers.  This photograph was taken  c.1909  when Jennie was would be around 12 years old.  

 

 

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From  early 20th century hairstyles  to more groups of women and girls,  all similarly dressed. 

 

Land Girls gathering in Earlston for work on local farms  

during the Second World War, replacing men now in the armed services. 

 

 

 

 

Members of Earlston Girls Training Corps   

The first Girls Training Corps units were formed in 1941.with the aim  to prepare young people aged 14 to 20 (too young for official war work)   for service in their community and to support the war effort upon reaching adulthood.  

Activities included learning to act as bicycle couriers, learning morse code and airforce recognition, gymnastics, homemaking, craft-work, public affairs, land navigation, learning first aid and marksmanship,  firefighting, and assisting with air warden duties.Within a year of forming, over 120,000 girls had joined a GTC company.  The GTS was disbanded  in 1948.  (Source:  Wikipedia) 

 

On a happier note,   - below are Earlston's Girls' Club in  their production of  "Simple Simon" , staged with orchestra in February 1939 in the Corn Exchange, Earlston,   The large chorus took the part of villagers, sailors and native girls.    A  local newspaper noted that "all the players acquitted themselves in a very creditable manner, fully deserving the warm appreciation of the audience." 

 

 

 

 

 

 Below more dressing up here  by the Junior dancers in Staining Gala Day, Lancashire. c.1952, and I am the little girl kneeling on the left of the front row, with us wearing apple green satin dresses.     

 

The Village Gala was the focal event of the calendar where we lived.   All the surrounding  villages had the their annual gala day, when the  band led the Rose Queen in procession with her maids of honour and retinue to a field where she was crowned Queen by some local worthy, followed by dancing displays  games, stalls, craft competitions, refreshment tents - and sports.  A great community event that raised spirits after the war years.  

 

 

  

And finally my school photograph c.1955   at Devonshire Road Junior School, Blackpool.   I moved on from Infants to Juniors, where the boys and girls were in separate classes - When I was  there   boys were on the ground floor,  with playground to the back, whilst girls were upstairs with our own assembly hall, and our playground was at the front of the red brick building - and "never the twain should meet"!   I think we were the last council junior school to go co-d in Blackpool, following the death of the headmistress.

 Here I am the prim little girl second from the right on the front row of seats.   Uniform was not compulsory. but see the popularity of peter pan collars, and ribbons in our hair.  We are all very regimented with hands  in our laps and crossed ankles in our Clarks sandals.   The class here numbers 43 today the maximum class side for older primary school pupils is 33.  

 

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share their family history through photographs. 

 

Click HERE to see favourite family photos from other Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

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