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Thanks guys.

The details for the John Tulloch I've mentioned above, are a combination of census records and then more detailed info via a consensus of member trees, all on ancestry.

I am researching the Forfarshire disaster and its aftermath, including trying to put together the biographies of all the victims, and the subsequent life stories of the survivors.

Of those, John Tulloch is important, being the de-facto leader of those stuck on the wreck and on the rock, and then rescued by the Darlings. Tulloch stayed in the area as a representative of the Hull Steam Packet Company for a little while, but then effectively disappears from the record.

One or two of those survivors that you've listed, later wrote memoirs for newspaper articles decades later. There was another group of survivors, too, who fled the ship in a lifeboat just before it struck, and again, some of their stories are (at least part-)known, while others just vanish into history.

The John Tulloch in the census records is about the right age, from about the right place, and is the only John Tulloch who identifies himself in the census records as a ship's carpenter - the role and occupation of the Forfarshire survivor.

This is, of course, nowhere near enough to confirm they are one and the same - hence I was hoping that there might be some family legends or other research to identify the man that was rescued by Grace & William Darling, and who rowed out a second time with William to save the others.

It would be a great story to restore to a family, and a notably resourceful and brave man from history could be given his context and biography.

Hi,

you need to talk to my dad!

He's behind this site: http://www.catcheside.com/

There's loads more that he's not put on the page. He is very keen on the Livermore connection, and has a fair bit on Victorian music hall, including some photos of them.

IIRC, they are mentioned in one of James Joyce's novels - the Dubliners, I think.

Robert Marium Catcheside (NOT Marion....  my dad thinks but can't prove that he was born at sea)  is my 2-greats grandfather.



Cheers!

The most likely candidate I've found is:

John Tulloch*
Birth 22 MAR 1808 in Boness, Linlithgowsh
Death 10 APR 1882 in Loues Square Calderbank Eastern Monklands

Son of William Tulloch and Susan Alexander

First wife Naomi Muir (1808 – 1841), by whom has children William(1833-?), John (1835 – 1901), Archibald (1836-?) &  James (1841 – 1889)

Second wife Barbara Addison (1819 – 1883), children Anne (1851)

Reason being this man is listed variously as a ships carpenter and boat-builder in the censuses.

The man above is of about the right age, the right name, and the right profession, in about the right area.... but it doesn't prove its the same person.

Against that, there's a single reference in the Newcastle Guardian and Tyne Mercury, 28 July 1849, to the sudden death of a John Tulloch on a ship. I know nothing else about this person, but it's a salutary reminder that, just because everything else fits, it doesn't mean the first person is the right one.

There’s an interesting twist, here: both Grace, in a drafted letter that she actually crossed out and changed, and her father in a letter that seems to have been sent, mention to the Duke of Northumberland that Grace is constantly finding examples of marriages that have failed (and inconsequence hasn’t given marriage much thought).

It’s pure speculation, but maybe this is one of those bad marriages?!

As a side note, because I can’t remember where I picked this up and there is a very slight chance it was not from a letter as I recall, but from a fiction of which there are several….   But I’ve heard Cathrine senior referred to as Kitty Marsden in at least one place. I’m pretty sure there’s also some passing reference to the Marsden family as hosts to one of the artists or writers that visited the Darlings, but again I need to find this to reference it.

The sad coda is their gravestone St Aiden’s Church in Bamburgh; it commemorates the family of Joseph and Catherine (in the order they died, not the order listed here):

Isabella, d. 30/3/37 aged 10;
Cecilia, d. 14/8/36 aged 23;
Sarah Buck (married name), d 15/12/43 in Carrickfergus, aged 32
Henry Slaugher Buck (her son), d 17/8/36 aged 16 mo.
Catherine (senior), d.13/10/41 aged 59;
Catherine 10/4/44, aged 44
and finally, Joseph Marsden, who buried his wife, four daughters and a grandson, and who died on 28/8/54 aged 77.

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Note: the tombstone spells it ‘Catherine’; the census ‘Cathrine’; I’ve varied the two depending on what I was talking about!

One further note on names: the one Marsden daughter who lived, was christened Elizabeth Darling Marsden; born in Derbyshire in 1809 and living until October 1888 (from Ancestry family trees). The first on the tombstone, Isabella, has the middle name Brooks. This was another relative to the Darling family,

Robert Darling, Grace’s Grandfather, married Elizabeth Clark, and her sister Isabel Clark married the ‘original’ William Brooks, a successful local man of note (the biog. & marriage is from Richard Armstrong’s book, the name Isabel from a single mention of that spousal name without any source, on Ancestry). He’s uncle to Grace’s father (by marriage); and his wife is therefore Isabel Brooks (if the name is accurate).

Grace’s father had sisters named Elizabeth and Isabella – William & Isabella Brooks would be their uncle and aunt. Grace’s younger twin brother was christened William Brooks Darling, (and known as Brooks, as opposed to the eldest sibling William, son of William). That name runs down the later Darling line.

The connections of the names suggest (but don’t prove) that the Darling connection is no further back than Grace’s grandfather (Robert’s) generation: even so, with the marriage details you’ve sourced, and the identical dates on various Darling trees for a similar named person, I’d be pretty confident that Kitty Marsden is Catherine Darling, Grace’s aunt.

This is quite useful for the Darling tree, though it has the mysterious ‘Christian’ Darling, who surely must be Catherine Marsden:

 http://freespace.virgin.net/john.elkin/darling001.htm#grace

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Key books on Grace Darling:

Grace Darling, her true story – ed Daniel Atkinson & Thomasin Darling c 1880
Grace Darling and Her Times – Constance Smedley, 1932
Grace Darling, Maid & Myth – Richard Armstrong, 1965
Grace Darling: Victorian Heroine – Hugh Cunningham, 2007

Hi,

John Tulloch
Birth:  13 Sep 1807 - Stirlingshire, Scotland
Death:  10 Apr 1882

I know he married twice, and had children by both wives. Does anyone know anything more about this man besides what is on the census records of 1851/61/71/81 ?

Cheers