My Master Mariner's Family Grows

I've not been well I'm afraid - but I'm on the mend now.  Three weeks of being more and more tired, banging headaches for a couple of days, pains when I eat for two weeks, I think I've lost another four pounds because of that.  Now I'm in the pacing myself part of recovery - I can do things, wash the dishes, make the bed, hoover, prepare the OH's tea, if I keep it to about half an hour and then rest for a while.  Today I return to the Drs for the results of the first batch of blood tests - she couldn't fit them all on the form so I expect another set next week.  The stronger painkillers have helped me sleep without the sick thought of too much paracetamol.  It's long past the point of worrying if I'm having too much codeine!  I'm sure that sleeping better is helping the other symptoms subside. 

I've handed on some of my GBBF (Great British Beer Festival) duties to a friend, so I don't have to go dashing off to London for a meeting for a month or so. I've made my apologies to the Cudworth History Group - I know they only meet in the local library, but I've been too ill to get there for several weeks.  I have a talk coming up for the Friends of Barnsley Archives, but I've another two weeks to get well enough to do that.  Cross fingers.

My next OU essay is due in on 28th February, so I have a week to do that - it's not too onerous, the essay plan was approved, it's just a matter of filling in 1500 words of analysis, ie dissecting the course book and pulling in a few bits of the readings as supporting evidence.  So I have a plan - take it easy - do what is necessary and not a jot more!

Today I thought I'd continue the tale of William Satchell Hutton, my 2x great grandfather.  Last time I had covered the years 1862-1870, he's got his Master Mariner's certificate now, two little daughters and another child on the way ...

It's 1871 - a census year - and on the 2nd April William is at home at 18 Bedford Street.

1871 Census for 18 Bedford Street, Bishopwearmouth (from Ancestry)

There are William, a Master Mariner, his wife Ann, the two girls, Annie and Jane, plus two visitors - Hector W Matthewson and Jane S Smith.  I don't know who Hector is (yet!), but Jane S Smith is Ann's sister - look at the details of their place of birth, Haswell in Durham and her age fits with Jane Sarah Smith, last spotted in 1861 with the rest of the Smith family in Walker, Northumberland. 

[I'm just nipping off to look up Jane Sarah Smith on FreeBMD - won't be a mo.
Ah, ha - she marries Hector White Matthewson in the December quarter of 1873 - so he's her fiance in 1871.  Oh dear, cross referencing with the list of burials in Walker I got from the Walker Churchyard Memorial Group she dies in April 1877.  No surviving children. Hector remarries in 1883.]

However the Huttons appear to be sharing the house with two other families headed by a joiner called James Elsdon and a mariner, William Ridling.  From the looks of Bedford Street in my survey of William's homes the houses weren't particularly large. 



Map of Bedford Street in 1857 (from Durham Images)

The houses appear to number from the bottom right of the street, as the Garrick's Head is number 2, then upwards, across to the Turf at number 15 and then back down the left hand side to 23, the last house before the Slate Yard.  That makes number 18 the third house down from the Turf on the left hand side of the street.  It is possible the lines mark subdivisions in the property - maybe the Huttons are living in one section of the house - I wonder how many rooms they had?

Ann's new baby was born on 6th May 1871 - a boy who was named William Satchell Hutton after his father.   William snr does not appear rush back to sea, the next ship I have him on is as the Mate on the City of London (47458), a screw steamer from Glasgow, in 1873, returning from America on 8th May.  I can't find a record of this ship in Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1872 or 1873.  Steam ships appear to be listed at the end of the Register - maybe it is not complete for those years?  Crew lists exist at the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland, but at $40+, at least £25 plus the copying and postage I think that might have to wait until I come into some serious money! 

William's last child, Joseph, is born in December 1873, so he was conceived around March.  This suggests William's trip on the City of London can't have started until after that - provided he's the father of course! 

Birth Certificate for Joseph Bormond Hutton, 1873

As Joseph is my great grandfather I have his birth certificate.  He was born at 18 Bedford Street, the same address as in the 1871 census.  His father's occupation is Seaman, Captain Merchant Service, now Mate on a Screw Steamer.  A good summary of his career so far although I have only found him as Captain of one ship!

William snr takes a position as Mate on the Daisy (58797), another screw steamer on 27th December 1873, so he's waited for the child to be born and then he's off again.  This time he is working nearer to home, in trade with France, Portugal and Spain.  He stays with the Daisy on a voyage to the Baltic until March the following year and then I have another gap as his next entry in the Captain's Register is a discharge in England in January 1875 from the Weardale (58095), a steamer in the Coasting Trade.  I wonder if the entries only show when he is a Mate - so in the missing months he may have signed on as an ordinary seaman? 

William's next post is as Mate on the Moorsley (62647), another screw steamer, from June 1875 to December 1876.  Its home port is Sunderland and it trades mainly in the Baltic and the Coastal Trade.  William is staying close (ish) to home, I have notes for several voyages that only last a few weeks. 

At some point between 1874 and 1881 the family move to Mordey Street, probably number 23 as this is the house number where William is listed in Kelly's Directory in 1883.

A snip of the 1955 map of Bishopwearmouth showing William's houses highlighted.  (from Durham Images)

The family were in Addison Street, upper right on the map above, in 1865, then they had moved to Bedford Street (just less than a mile north of this map) by 1871, by 1881 they were in Mordey Street, over on the left of this map, and by the time of William's death in 1887 they were living in Bramwell Street, to the right, centre.  Also on this map is Ward Terrace, where William was born in 1838, lower centre.  It feels odd to my modern mind that they stay in the same vicinity for so long - but handy for the port and William's work I suppose.

Between 1877 and 1882 William serves as the Mate on the screw steamer, Emerald (62649), home port Sunderland.  In fact he is enumerated on the ship in 1881. 

1881 census for the Emerald, somewhere off Essex (from Ancestry)

William S Hutton is listed as the Chief Officer of the SS Emerald in the 1881 census return pictured above.  The captian is Andrew Scott and searching for the words Emerald and Scott brings back a lot of hits in the old newspapers on Find My Past.  The ship mainly engages in the Baltic and Coasting Trade. 

From December 1882 William moves to the Celsus (62698), again as Mate.  He serves in the Baltic Trade again until July 1883.  The final voyage listed in the Captain's Register is as Mate on the Remembrance (85009) to the Mediterranean in July 1884. 

Did he serve on further vessels as an ordinary seaman, or was he beginning to feel the effects of the stomach cancer that would kill him?  We don't know.  He would have seen his children grow up - Annie the eldest was 24 years old when William died, Joseph the youngest was 13 - so if he'd been going to sea like his father and uncles he'd have been old enough to go by then.  William jnr had probably started working his way up the ranks of the railway, he was a messenger in 1891 and a locomotive fireman in 1901.  Joseph, my great grandad, became a grocer's apprentice. Was neither boy tempted to follow their father to sea?  I wonder why not?  Had the role changed so much since the days of sail, was it not adventure anymore - just a routine slog on a steamer? 

William Satchell Hutton died on the 14th February 1887 at 9 Bramwell Street in Bishopwearmouth - he was only 48 years old.  His wife Ann survived him for 38 years and when she dies in 1925 her occupation is given as "Widow of William Satchell Hutton, a Master Mariner".  I think there's family pride there ... he sailed from Sunderland to Constantinople, to America and the West Indies, he knew sailing ships and the very early steamers ... he left his family settled and reasonably comfortable, a vast improvement on his childhood, leaving home to go to sea at the age of 12 to help support his mother who had been deserted by her soon to be bigamous husband.