Wouldhaves in North Shields Part 2

Richard Wouldhave (RI051), a mariner who settled in the area after returning from the ship HMS Pandora (see blog October 2015) married Anne and then Eleanor Whately.  His first wife Anne died soon after their second son, Mason, died in infancy.  There is an inscription in Christchurch (see modern photo below) that reads “Sacred to the memory of Anne, the wife of Richard Wouldhave of North Shields, mariner, who departed this life Nov 17^th 1796 aged 21 years. Also one of their children who died in infancy”.

Richard had the following children who survived into adulthood

v  Richard b 1794 from the first marriage

v  John b 1805, Jane b 1808 and Mary b 1810 from the second marriage.

Richard (RI101)

Richard was born on 30^th November 1794 and christened at Christchurch on 4^th October 1795.  He married Isabella Arkle in 1819.  In the 1841 census he is living in Milburn St and his occupation is Shoemaker.  Four of his children are living in the same dwelling, Jane, Richard, George and Eleanor. Richard’s 80 year old widowed mother-in-law, Hannah Arkell nee Hallowell, was also living in Milburn Place at this time with two of his daughters, Ann and Isabella, living with her. Milburn Place was a complex of streets in the west of the North Shields which formed one of the earliest expansions of the town. The larger houses had views of the harbour and the south. 

Richard died in 1844 and is buried in Tynemouth General Cemetery. His death certificate states that he died of Dropsy of the Heart which we would now probably describe as Congestive Heart Failure.  His address at the time of his death was given as Dotwick St.  Dotwick Street was named after the Durtwick Sand.  It connected to the Bull Ring and Milburn Place.  There were a chain of Temperance cafes in this area.  Richard’s wife, Isabella (IS102), was a Chapel keeper, although there is no evidence that Richard was a Methodist or ‘took the pledge’.

Jane (JA051)

Jane was born on 18^th October 1807 and christened at Christchurch on 8^th May 1808.  She married Robert Richardson on 15^th August 1830.  There are two Robert Richardsons with wife Jane in the 1841 census for North Shields;  since one of these families is in the same dwelling as  Eleanor Wouldhave (mother of Jane) and her granddaughter, Elizabeth (daughter of John), it would seem likely that this is the correct family.  They are living Behind Collingwood St with their children William, Eleanor and Jane.  Robert’s occupation is given as Custom House Officer.

John (JO104)

John was born on 16^th November 1805 and christened at Christchurch on 26^th January 1806. He married Isabella Heslop on September 19^th 1824 in St Hilda’s, South Shields.  Witnesses were his sister Jane and Thomas Heslop. They had the following children who survived childhood.

Elizabeth 1825, Richard 1826 and Eleanor 1830

From the census information:

In 1841 he was living in Church Street and occupation was Common Tiler.

In 1851 and 1861 he was living in 64 Clive Street, occupation was Violin Maker and he was reported as being deaf.  Isabella’s occupation was Straw Bonnet maker.

In 1871 John and Isabella were living in 115 Bedford Street with William Oliver, their grandson, aged 15, occupation labourer.(We haven’t found the connection between William Oliver and the Wouldhaves at this point.)  John is still listed as a violin maker and Isabella as a straw bonnet maker.

His death was recorded in 1877 in Tynemouth District. Isabella is in the 1881 census, she is an inmate of the Tynemouth Workhouse with her occupation given as Charwoman. Her death was recorded in Tynemouth district in 1888 aged 78 years.

There appear to be some of John’s creations as a violin maker still in existence.  Some have been offered for sale on various websites and date from around 1868.

Mary (MA052)

Mary was born 13^th October 1809 and christened at Christchurch on 8^th July 1810.  The only other information recorded in the registers is a Mary Wouldhave marrying William Murray, a Blacksmith, in Christchurch in 1837.  The census information is inconclusive as to this being the correct Mary.

Wouldhaves in North Shields Part 1

North Shields was originally a small fishing village.  Christchurch served people from Whitley Bay to Wallsend and was known as the parish church of Tynemouth.  It is situated in the centre of North Shields. The first recordings of Wouldhaves in the church registers of Christchurch are for the period 1642-1680.  They include Nicholas Wouldhave, James Wouldhave (who married Mary Bell) and Mr Robert Wouldhave of Shields.  So far we have not been able to bring them into one of the family trees.

From the late eighteenth century onwards, North Shields grew from a few houses, farms and cottages to a manufacturing town, port and retail centre.  It is probably for this reason that Thomas Wouldhave (TH041) moved from Newcastle to this area.

Thomas Wouldhave (TH041) married Elizabeth Heart (EL052) in South Shields in 1746.  They were living in North Shields from at least April 1751 when his son, William (the inventor WI050, see blog April 2015), was christened at Christchurch.  The photograph below shows a commemorative window in the church, which was designed for the anniversary of the RNLI; it shows the first boat designed by William.  (Christchurch is currently raising funds to preserve its historic windows and information about donations can be found on their website.)

Thomas’s other children were also christened at Christchurch; Luke John, Mary and Charlotte.  Thomas was a Freeman of Newcastle and a Ropemaker.  His occupation in North Shields was later given as Painter.  His son Luke John (LU050) was also a Freeman of Newcastle,  a Ropemaker and he was also a Painter.  Thomas, William and Luke John are listed in the Newcastle Poll books.

With the exception of William who moved to South Shields after his marriage to Hannah Crow in 1775, we have not been able to find that any of the other members of this part of the family had descendants called Wouldhave.

Richard Wouldhave (RI051), Thomas’ nephew settled in North Shields and married Anne and then Eleanor Whately (see blog October 2015). Richard, a mariner,  was living in the Bull Ring at the time of his death in 1838. The Bull Ring, said to be the home of bull-baiting in the seventeenth century, was the nineteenth century coach terminus.

He had the following children who survived into childhood

Richard b 1794 from the first marriage

John b 1805, Jane b 1808 and Mary b 1810 from the second marriage.

Further generations of this family lived in North Shields and will be detailed in subsequent blogs.

Richard Wouldhave - Mariner (RI051) Part 3

Richard was discharged from the Royal Navy on 3^rd September 1792 (National Archives ADM 36/11231) and next appears in the records of Christchurch, Tynemouth, which was the main church of North Shields at the time.  His father Richard (RI050) had died in 1783 and was buried in Hull.  His widowed mother, Mary remarried in 1787 to William Mouatt.  All three of Richard’s sisters had died young and he had no brothers.  Therefore it seems that he had no strong family ties to Hull where he was born.

Richard’s family came originally from Newcastle and his father’s uncle, Thomas (TH050), had moved to North Shields with his family.  Although Thomas died in 1747 there were a number of his children and their families settled in North Shields. This may have been the reason why Richard settled in this area.

However, another reason could be that one of the Bounty crewmembers, Thomas McIntosh, who sailed back to England as a prisoner from the Pandora, was born in North Shields (in 1759).  Thomas signed on the Bounty as a carpenters mate; he was an unwilling mutineer, kept on the Bounty for his carpentry skills and remained on Tahiti when the mutineers split up.  He settled in Tahiti taking a wife and fathering a child.  He was captured when the Pandora arrived.  He was acquitted of all charges at the court-martial of the Bounty’s crew. However there is no detail of where he went after the court-martial. Information about the Bounty mutineers can be found on the Fateful Voyage website.

Although North Shields originated around 1225, it wasn’t until the mid to late 1770s that it became a large and ever increasing sea port.  It had a large community of seamen and a reputation for skilled boatmen. Therefore it would be an appropriate place for Richard to settle.

In 1793 Richard married Anne Whately in Christchurch, Tynemouth on December 23^rd.  The witnesses to the marriage were Mary Chapman and Luke John Wouldhave (the son of Thomas (TH050), and therefore Richard’s second cousin).  Luke John was born in North Shields in 1753, the brother of William Wouldhave the inventor of the self-righting life boat – see blog April 2015.  Both were apprenticed as ropemakers (Apprenticeship cards Tyne and Wear Archives) and were Freemen of Newcastle.

Richard and Anne’s first child, Richard (RI101), was christened on 30^th November 1794 and a second child Mason was born in November 1796.  However Anne died following the birth of Mason and was buried on November 18^th 1796. The inscription in Christchurch Tynemouth is given below;

“Sacred to the memory of Anne, the wife of Richard Wouldhave of North Shields, mariner, who departed this life Nov 17 1796 aged 21 years. Also one of their children who died in infancy.”

After a couple of years, Richard married Eleanor Whately in Wallsend on July 4^th 1799, witnesses were Margret Cunningham and Cath Ireland.  Information from the parish records gives;

“The banns of marriage between Richard Wouldhave and Eleanor Whately, both of the chapelry of Wallsend were published in the said chapel June 9th, 16th and 23rd and no objections alleged.  Richard Wouldhave and Eleanor Whately, both of the chapelry of Wallsend were married in the said chapel.  Richard signed and Eleanor made her mark . “

This does provide a puzzle;

·         Richard was clearly living in North Shields while married to Anne, and it would appear that her parents were, or she was closely related to, Mason and Jane Whatley since their second son was named Mason.

·         We have not yet found the birth/christening of Anne Whately in the registers of Christchurch, Tynemouth. 

·         Eleanor Whately was christened in Christchurch, on April 28^th 1771, the daughter of Jane and Mason Whately, a mariner. 

·         According to the inscription on her burial, Anne was born in 1775 or thereabouts.

·         Were Anne and Eleanor sisters or cousins, and did this lead to the second marriage in a nearby parish where the previous marriage was not known?

Further information on the Wouldhave families in North Shields will follow in a later post.

Richard Wouldhave - Mariner (RI051) Part 2

Richard may have been apprenticed or he served as a mariner since he was on a boat near Spithead when he was pressganged onto the Superbe Tender of the Royal William at Spithead October 21^st 1790, aged 18. 

Impressment was the compulsory recruitment of men to the Navy by parties of seamen commanded by officers, known as a 'press gang'. It was legally based on the royal right to call all men for military service.  Richard did not take the “Kings Shilling” which would have classified him as a Royal Navy Volunteer and was therefore not entitled to a bounty.

He was transferred to the Pandora (a 24-gun "Porcupine Class" frigate) on 26^th October 1790, joining the crew as an Ordinary Seaman. He was promoted to Able Seaman April 1791. (Information from the National Archives ADM 36/11136)

The Pandora

HMS Bounty was sent to Tahiti on a special mission to collect breadfruit plants, and to nurse them until they were resilient enough to transport across the sea to the West Indies where they could be cultivated as a staple food source for slaves working on sugar plantations. A mutiny that took place in 1789 which had resulted in the ship being taken over by the mutineers led by Christian Fletcher; the captain and 18 ‘loyal’ crew members were set to sea in an open boat with minimal rations.   Captain Bligh’s report of the mutiny was hand-delivered to the Admiralty in March 1790.

The Admiralty took a very dim view of the mutiny and in November 1790 the Pandora, captained by Edward Edwards with a crew of 135, sailed in search of HMS Bounty and the mutineers, with the express purpose of reclaiming the ship and bringing back the mutineers to stand trial.  Although the ship located some of the mutineers, several of whom surrendered, neither Fletcher Christian nor the Bounty (which had been scuttled by this time) were found.  The captured mutineers were manacled and locked away in a makeshift prison on the ship, referred to as "Pandora's Box".

The Pandora had a futile search lasting more than three months, visiting most of the major Polynesian island groups west of Tahiti. Eventually it began to run short on supplies and at the end of August 1791, while trying to find a channel through to land, the Pandora sailed too close to the Great Barrier Reef and was grounded.  Efforts to free it proved fruitless and the ship sank within 24hours.  Loss of life included four Bounty prisoners and 31 of the crew of the Pandora. 

The survivors, eighty-nine of the crew and ten prisoners,   spent three days on one of the sand cays near the wreck. The day after the wrecking, George Passmore, the Pandora's master, was sent back to the wreck in one of the boats to see if anything useful could be salvaged. He returned with several pieces of the masts, some lightning chain, and the ship's cat - found perched in the main masthead.  Since the cat is not mentioned in any of the published survivors’ accounts, her fate is a mystery.  

While on the sand cays four boats were prepared for the arduous voyage to Timor where the survivors hoped to find passage on ships bound for Europe.   The survivors sailed 1100 nautical mile (2100 km) in open boats to Timor. Eventually 78 of the crew members made it home to England in summer 1792.

Richard is recorded on the crew list of HMS Vengeance from 2^nd August 1792.  He was transferred from ‘the Harwich Smack late belonging to his majesty’s ship the Pandora by Admiralty order’. He was discharged on 3^rd September 1792. (From National Archives ADM 36/11231)

Today the Pandora is one of the most significant shipwrecks in the Southern Hemisphere. The Queensland Museum has been excavating the wreck and piecing together the Pandora puzzle since 1983.  Their website gives a full account of the Pandora’s voyage, its crew and the mutineers. The website Fateful Voyage also provides much information about the Pandora’s voyage as well as that of the Bounty.

The remaining known details of Richard’s career will be given in part 3.

Richard Wouldhave Mariner RI051 Part 1

Richard Wouldhave - Mariner (RI051) 1772-1838 Part 1

Richard Wouldhave(RI051) was born May 1772 in Hull and died in May 1838 in North Shields.

Parents

Richard’s father was Richard Wouldhave (RI050).  He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and was apprenticed to Anthony Stanley, Master Mariner in July 1775, in Hull, document in Hull Archives in the register of person bound apprentice to freemen CBRG/7/1768. His father was given as William Wouldhave, seaman of Newcastle upon Tyne

Richard was a Freemen of Newcastle and voted in elections in 1777 and 1780 (info from Tyne and Wear Archives), where he is described as a Roper. His deposition as a freeman is given below

Richard son of William Wouldhave, ropemaker is aged 20 years and upwards, deposition of Robert Ramshaw, master and mariner ‘Robert Ramshaw of the Town and County of Newcastle upon Tyne Master and mariner maketh oath and saith that Richard son of William Wouldhave Ropemaker is now of the age of twenty years and onwards Sworn 10th Oct 1774 Robert made his mark Witness Francis Forster (Apprenticeship cards – Tyne and Wear Archives). 298/25/223

Richard married Mary Grey at Holy Trinity in Hull in Feb 1769 (information from copies of registers).  They had four children recorded in the registers of Hull St Mary.

·         Jenny born Dec 1769, died in Hull 1783

·         Richard (RI051) born May 1772

·         Elizabeth born Dec 1774, died in Hull 1782

·         Mary born Jun 1777, died in Hull 1778.

He was described as a mariner in the registers. Richard (RI050) died in 1783 and was buried in Hull.  His widow, Mary remarried in 1787 to William Mouatt.

Richard (RI051)

Richard was 11 years old when his father died. It would appear that he was apprenticed or served as a mariner since he was on a boat near Spithead when he was pressganged onto the Superbe Tender of the Royal William at Spithead. 

He was transferred to the Pandora later that month and joined the crew as an Ordinary Seaman, although he did not take the Kings Shilling and therefore was not Royal Navy.  He was promoted to Able Seaman April 1791.

The story of the Pandora will be given in Part 2.