Annan - an elusive seaman

[Fear na mara]

Thank you Pam - the trigger words are "that sounds familiar".  A couple of months ago when I was trying to get some hold on Captain John – I checked the adresses he used in Liverpool. He had given these on his applications for mates and master’s examinations. I thought I might get a clue to his first marriage. Had he married the landlady’s daughter! Now we know better,
Now Pam's comments about half remembered names and recalling the link between Helen Elliot and Edward taking me back over old ground to blacksmiths, George and Thomas, I thought I might put here the occupants of the boarding houses – just in case names ring a bell for anyone.

CENSUS 1861                        
38  Sparling Street, Liverpool, St.Thomas         Ecclesiastical parish  St.Michaels               
   Relationship to   Where Born   Condition    Sex    Age    Profession/Occupation,      
Name     Head of H'hold                      
                        
CAMERON, Hugh    Head    Ireland                              M    M    60   Lodging House Keeper      
CAMERON, Margaret     Wife    Ireland                      M    F    50         
CAMERON, Mary            Daughter                     U       F    19   Domestic Servant      
CAMERON, Esther         Daughter    Liverpool   U     F    13   Domestic Servant      
CAMERON, Annie             Daughter    Liverpool   U    F    9   Scholar      
CAMERON, Hugh             Son               Liverpool      U    M    17   Sailmaker      
MC KENZIE, Donald     Son ‘Law    Scotland   M    M    28   Seaman Merchant Service      
MC KENZIE, Margaret    Daughter    Ireland            M    F    27   Seamans Wife      
MANSON, Daniel               Boarder        Scotland      M    M    31   Seaman Merchant Service      
HUIG, Henry                    Boarder    Holland            U     M    28   Seaman Merchant Service      
BROWN, William                Boarder         Ireland         U        M    30   Lab Sugar W’house      
BARNES, Thomas              Boarder       Bolton      U    M    23   Seaman Merchant Service      

When John qualified as master he moved “up market” to  Kent Square and stayed there during shore time, between Jan '60 - Jan '61. His marriage to Helen is in the Wirral: when I worked in Liverpool that was the posh side of the Mersey. Why did John not stay with his Shennan relatives ? Kent Square is just a couple of minutes from the docks - But . . .

CENSUS 1861                     
13 Kent Square, Liverpool, St Thomas                     
   Ecclestical Parish  St.Marks                  
                     
Name     Relation ‘ to   Where Born    Con’dt   Sex    Age    Profession/Occupat’   
                     
BOWMAN, David    Head    Ireland     M   M    35   Joiner   
BOWMAN, Jane    Wife    Scotland     M   F    33      
BOWMAN, James    Son    Lancaster Walton On The Hill     Un   M    3      
BOWMAN, John    Son    Lancaster Walton On The Hill     Un   M    1      
CASSADY, Daniel    Boarder    Scotland     M   M    50   Master Mariner   
CASSADY, Robert    Boarder    Scotland     M   M    28   Master Mariner   
DUKE, James    Head    Sielly Isles   [sic]   M   M    34   Master Mariner   
DUKE, Mary    Wife    Sielly Isles   [sic]   M   F    30      

I get no results searching for Ann Shennan in the 1841 and 1851 Census. The area of UK with the highest concentration of the name Shennan,  in both 1881 and 1998, is Dumfries. Why does the gravestone list Ann as “Scott” Shennan? Was she really a Scouser ? I think Ann’s family were from “back home” in the Annan area. But I am not going to try to compete with Jo in the intuition department.

[kenjo]

Hi E and so wonderful to hear from you Pam,
It has been a wonderful adventure hasn't it....I have loved every minute..
Got a bit carried away a few times..

I wasn't going to put any of this part on the thread till there was more to go on...but I suppose a discussion about different possiblities is how things can get sorted out..

In the 1841 c .......there is this family...
High Street, Annan.
William Shannan, 35yrs, Shoemaker.
David 13
Joseph 10
Anne Shannan, 7yrs.

William ..I feel is the father...but I think the mother of the 1841c children will be Sarah Irving. who  a   William Married on th 10 Oct 1828 Annan  Batch Number: M118124.
If you put William Shennan in the father box and Sarah Irving in the mother box..
1 child pops up..
Joseph Shennan born 6 DEC 1830  c/ 12 DEC 1830   Annan, Dumfries, Scotland
this should be the Joseph in the 1841c....
now maybe ..why there is no mother ( in the 1841c) is because she has died and then William marries Ann Little..in 1843
I haven't checked Scotlandspeople ..for entries...

William Shennan married Ann Little 14 Jul 1843..Annan.     Batch Number: M118124...( now this is a proper Church record)
BUT.....if you put William Shennan in the father box  '''igi
and Ann Little in the mother box..
you get all submitted names...from well before this marriage of 1843 and after..so take note....but be very careful for if it was up to the submitter....then Ann Little would be the mother of Sarah Irving's children as well.....so the submissions have come from the 1851c..it also adds the address...Green Croft Lane....from the 1851c
these submissions have put 2 families together...Oh I do ramble on don't I....

So 'E' if you want to know who the father was..then the marriage is needed from England.
Only the father will be revealed sadly but maybe......
Ana.....
is there any chance of you seeing if there are any MI for Shennan....
Also
In the 1871c
If you remember that the Sea Captain's daughter Sarah Margaret Elliot was not with her Aunt Isabella ...but I think I have her boarding with a family in Annan...but badly mistranscribed..
{this still may not be her though}

1871c
Johnston St, Annan.
Christopher Richardson, 52yrs, Shemaker, Annan.
Janet wife, 52yrs, Annan.
Ann dau, 20yrs, Annan.
Christina Richardson, granddau, 5yrs, Annan.
Margaret Richardson, granddau, 6mths, Annan.
Mary Irving, 8yrs, boarder.
Annie Turnbull, 7yrs, boarder.
Sarah Ellwood, 7yrs, boarder, Annan.
William Ferguson, 4yrs, boarder,

I have no idea how this family fits ..

modified..

I thought I would delve further....
looking for a marriage of a Joseph Shennan....maybe brother to our Ann..
Joseph Shannan married Margaret Jeffery 11/12/1854 Annan....M118124
they had Sarah Shennan 26/1/1858 Annan..
in the
1861 Census
Hairs den St, Annan.
Adam Jeffery, 54yrs,  Tailor, Annan.
Mary Jeffery, wife, 60yrs, Annan.
Richard, son, 23.
Margaret Shannen, dau, 30,
Sarah Shannen, granddau, 3yrs..

not sure if Joseph is alive....

[Fear na mara]

Jo is really into her stroke now and this boat is skimmin. The marriage certificate is on order.

The scene in  1871
Joseph and Andrew are living and working down in Egremont in Cumberland.
Their brother, Captain John, is now in the China Seas with his second wife, Eliza, who is in the last months of her life and baby John William ( my grandfather) is just months old.
John’s children by his first marriage are back in Annan, his first wife is now deceased ( and we are waiting for the death certificate). His children, Ellen [Helen, 7yrs]  and young Joseph (9 yrs) are living with Auntie Isabella and Uncle Andrew Irving at Lodge Wynd (?). Sarah Margaret (6) but listed in this census as 7 is boarding with the Richardsons. So are other young children. Are Richardsons running a mini-orphanage?
Once again, I wonder is Isabella the “bursar” handling payments from John for the care of the children? She had brother and sister living with her – why not Sarah Margaret?

Captain John did not declare his wife Eliza in the Log of the Rifle but all the crew had to be listed and checked by the Consul at each port of call. His Crew List for 1871 is here.

John Elliot      42   Annan      Master         
John Runcie      26   Aberdeen   Mate    £7.00    
William Mearns      25   Banff      Carpter & Bosun    £6.00       
William Simon      32   Singapore   ABS   $16.00         
Ambrose Rigaso   31   Manila      ABS   $16.00      Swatow discharged
Gindah         23   Singapore   ABS   $16.00      Shanghai deserted
Hassan         29   Malacca   ABS   $16.00      Swatow w. consent
Seedim         28   Singapore   ABS   $16.00      Shanghai deserted
Ahmat         27   Singapore   ABS   $16.00      Shanghai deserted
Ah sos         26   Swatow      ABS   $16.00      w. consent
Ko sin         25   Swatow      ABS   $16.00      w. consent
T'ai sing      27   Swatow      ABS   $16.00      w. consent
Peter Fletcher         Mauritius   ABS   $16.00      w. consent
Alli  ? ?         30   singapore   ABS   $16.00      w. consent
Dora            singapore   ABS   $ 5      w. consent
Matteo         ??         ABS   $5      w. consent

The itinerary is Singapore, Hong Kong, Osaka, Cheefoo, Hong Kong, Nagasaki, Osaka, Saigon, Nagasaki, etc.
John Runcie was appointed Master after John’s death the following year.

[Fear na mara]

The marriage certificate was disappointing – addresses for the pair were given simply as Birkenhead and Liverpool, respectively. But there was a helpful snippet – her father was a Cordwainer. Now that confirmed Kenjo’s discovery of William Shannan in the High Street in Annan, with his two sons and daughter, Ann. William pops up with his shoemaking business in Green Croft Wynd/Lane – with his wife and subsequent children. Census 51/61/71. Strangely, there was an Ann Shannan and her daughters in Green Croft Wynd in the ’41 census. But as our Ann’s family moved from the High Street to Green Croft Wynd after ’41, the older Mrs Ann Shannan and her daughters moved to the High Street. It looks almost as if the addresses had been transposed for the ’41 census.

As for cordwainers and shoemakers, my good lady, Bean na |Mara, comes from an unbroken line of Lancastrian shoemakers and leather workers. Her clan brings a new meaning to endogamy. For them a skeleton in the cupboard is a spouse who was deficient in leather skills.

The marriage certificate yielded another small piece in the jigsaw. The first witness was Robert Elliot Henderson, Master Tailor of Duke Street, Liverpool, employing four men. (England Census 1871 – 1901). Robert was born in Annan where his father, John, had been a Master Tailor in the High Street. Not a native of Annan, John was born just over the border in the Cumbrian, Longtown. He was the son of a ship’s cook and his mother Margaret joined her son and his family in Annan after she was widowed.  They were neighbours of the Shannans on the High Street close to James Irving's Inn (census 1841).

John moved the family south to Liverpool (Census 1861) first to Toxteth and modest premises. Robert met and married a Liverpool Tailoress – not seamstress, (which surprised me) and then expanded the business, employing four men in the Duke Street premises.

Robert, witness at the wedding of John and Ann, was not just a childhood neighbour.
Though Ann’s father was a shoemaker, her uncle William was a tailor who was a fellow apprenticeship with David Gardiner in the shop of master Tailor, James Irving.  There are links here that need more investigation but they are relegated to a later phase as there are more immediate matters to be investigated.

John and Ann were married a the parish church in Birkenhead, according to the rites of the Established Church, i.e. the Cof E. The 1901 census entry for Robert Elliot Henderson details his guest as a minister of the Reformed Church (Cof E no longer spoken of as the reformed church at this time) with his wife and three children. I reckon it is was not common for people to have a minister and his family as house guests. Kenjo has emphasised the long service of John's sister Isabella and later, the long service of his daughter Sarah, as servants at the manse in Annan. I have been to the British Library to follow up another reference dug up by Kenjo - Journeys in North China, Manchuria and Eastern Mongolia, by Alexander Williamson (pub. 1870). This eminent Presbyterian missionary spent the later part of his life as a linguist with the Chinese Customs Service [ there is a special project dedicated to their work at Bristol University]. He describes the end of the first phase of the mission and the start of the second phase: "On Sept 9th 1867, we went on board the good ship the Rifle, Capt. Elliot of Annan, who kindly gave us and our books a free passage." There is a very brief description of "the tedious journey" to Newchwang, but no further mention of Captain Elliot or the ship. The thread I see here is the involvement with the Church. Am I reading too much into these events.

There was a second certificate just before Christmas. Ann’s death. As next of kin have now been briefed, I can now reveal that Ann took her own life, leaving three orphans, the youngest not yet a year old. Here indeed is the more pressing task.

[Fear na mara]

Had a bad day today. Started at the London Metropolitan  Archive. Three boxes of Inquest reports covering the period 1866, were delivered to the desk.  Unlike other archives you do not get to explore unsupervised. The archivist opened the first box and fingered through the folds of grey paper, each one like a take-away menu, four or five folds. Some of the papers had to be eased apart and the rim of rust at the edges of the paper darkened to black and it was clear that dampness had encouraged a mould growth. She came to a block wrapped in paper and tied with string. My anticipation was growing. She undid the wrapping and the ends of the bundle of papers dissolved into a fine ash. The mood changed and I had the feeling one gets when visiting a very sick patient in hospital. I was no longer addressed. A conservator was summoned. He arrived wearing gloves and a cotton face mask tucked under his chin. She pointed, he peered, raised his mask, touched and promptly rewrapped the bundle. Without a word to me, he departed with all three boxes. The archivist gave me a form to fill out details of the documents and the object of my search. When I returned it, she said, “we may be in contact with you”. I left with a very strong feeling that they might not.  I have no doubt that despite the presence of these trained specialists, the deterioration of these papers is due to being too tightly packed and stored in conditions of high humidity. I think the gloves and mask owed more to an excess of “Health and Safety” than it did to preservation.
Lunch was very good in an old City of London pub and there was no sign of the hysteria about today’s tumbling share prices. Perhaps because almost everybody else in the dining room was French; come to the Walrus to gather intelligence on the British sausage – the speciality of the house. I walked past the Tower and the Lutyens memorial to the 32,000 merchant seamen lost in two World Wars. Directly opposite is the Minories. This is where Ann was staying when she took her life.  I had a chat with a cabbie who assured me that Circus Minories used to be at the Aldgate end and “was bombed by Jerry”. He rattled off London Circuses - Ludgate, Piccadilly, Finsbury, Cambridge, Holborn, St.Giles, Lismore  . . . Only one very elegant building of the period remains on the Circus and the church of St Botolph is still standing due only to constant restoration. I have, therefore only the entry on the death certificate: Female, 33 years, Wife of John Elliot a Captain in the Merchant Service. Suicide by swallowing a large quantity of Laudanum about 3 hours. Temporary Insanity. P.M.  Information received from Wm. Payne, Coroner for London and Southwark. Inquest held 3 October 1866. Registered 5th October 1866.
I should have recognised that this was not an auspicious day, but walked to the Guildhall Library to inspect Lloyds Shipping movements around the time of Ann’s death. Did John take her body to Annan within four days – or was he still at sea? My last examination of five years worth of registers had thrown up a few indistinct entries so I was not prepared for the frames on the microfilm when I reached the October 1866. Four frames marked “pages lost”. I left sucking my thumb and blubbering, “I want Kenjo”.

[kenjo]

Oh  'E',


I was only thinking today, I have to write to 'E'....I have been toooo rude.

I have had fairies and goblines playing havoc with me..re: 2 other trees.....they are continually partying and there is a carnaval on at this very minute....pleasuring over their disruptiveness

My angels have stood back and chosen not to help..
so please forgive my absence....

also

I have been merging one lady's tree......she had created 4 trees on 3 programs... enough to send a sane person off the edge..

So enough of my miseries..

I was devastated by dear Ann's suicide...
I can't bring myself back to the Shannon's...because of my previous distractions...and I need peace and things to go my way to concentrate on the problem.....but I have had none of theses things and I don't think I will for at least another 2 weeks...

Questions to be pondered...

I think that the date ..Ann chose to die..is very important.....was she devastated not to go with John...and did he decide never to make this mistake again....only to find his fears to be true...when his beloved 2nd wife died....at sea ..or away from home...

Was Ann..alone? was her little babes with her or safe with their Aunts?
Was Ann dreadfully alone.......and punishing John?


I feel for your unfortunate encounter with the archives......and felt your  every word...



All I can say......I am here......and I want to help.... given time..
Peace to Ann.
JO

[Fear na mara]

Ann - The Inquest.
Thanks to Janice M, Rootschat Aristocrat, I have the Times report of the inquest on Ann's death and attempt to attach it here. More after some sober reflection

[Fear na mara]

Checking on technical fault.

[Fear na mara]

I have returned from my pilgrimage to Annan where I visited Ann’s grave. A fine memorial over six feet high in the “new” cemetery outside the town. Back in the old cemetery, behind the Town Hall, we looked for the memorial stone for Andrew Irving and his wife Isabella Elliot. It was AGA who had passed on the text of both of these memorials, so it was a surprise to find another memorial – the Shennans.  Kenjo and the other serious genealogists will throw up their hands and ask:  why did I not begin by visiting the Family History Centre in Dumfries and get a copy of the MIs. Well, some of us are slow learners. I did go to the Centre – after I had slogged through the graveyards. I was unable to get a photograph of the Shennan memorial, not only because the rain was sheeting down but the wind was threatening to lift me off my feet.

The Shennan memorial was very informative. First - Ann’s mother, Sarah Irving.
Back before Christmas, Kenjo dug up the details of the marriage between Sarah and William on the IGI and also found the family in the 1841 census, but without a wife. Now we know that Sarah died, aged 32, when Ann was 5 years old and just one week after little Robert’s  2nd  birthday. The 1841 Census, gave us William with his three children, David, Joseph and Ann living on the High Street, but Robert did not appear until the 1851 Census, aged 14, I have trawled the ’41 census for him but not been successful. 

And now we know that two of Ann’s brothers were mariners. Ann had lost her mother when she was just five years old, her brother Joseph was lost at sea in the Indian Ocean the year before Ann got married. Joseph was First Officer on the clipper, Mary Cannon, . According to the MI, the vessel left Akyab,  [a port in Burma – or Myanmar, if you prefer] 1st April, 1858 for Port Said and was never seen again. The following year she married John, and she lost her brother Robert who died  in Hong Kong on  the Annandale ( the biggest of the fast clippers built at Annan). And just a reminder, five months after Ann's death, John's mother who had been living with the family, died.

The following year Isabella, John’s eldest sister, then 42 years old, married Andrew Irving who was a monumental mason living in Backlady Street – though his workshop was in Murray Street. They took in the Elliot children and raised them. Kenjo spotted very early in this hunt that Isabella, was a servant at the Manse for 24 years. She went there as a young girl to attend to Rev James Monilaws and his family. In 1863, when Rev Monilaws was 76 years old, he was joined by Rev Dr. James Alexander Crichton, a young man who had already made quite a reputation as a scholar. He had taken a double first in Mathematics and Classics at St. Andrews. In preparation for the exams for the Indian Civil Service he had studied Oriental languages which led him to serious scriptural study: he had already produced Syriac and Ethiopic grammars by the time he got to Annan. He had a European reputation in his field. He did not marry and in his early days in the parish he lodged with Isabella Halliday and her elderly mother, Elizabeth ( I am looking at links with John Shennan’s wife, Margaret Holliday, back in the Georgian period). The Rev Crichton was very popular, he drilled the volunteers and was a good enough shot to compete at Bisley. He was also a director of the Annan Savings Bank. What comes through the account of his life is that he was a very genial man with a remarkable capacity to listen and be helpful. Kenjo had the feel of the kind of ethos that prevailed at the Manse, an environment that Isabella would not have given us easily and one she desired for her niece who also spent many years at the Manse.

But, one more thing - David. Ann's eldest brother was not a sailor, he went to Australia and became a goldminer. Kenjo - time for a small sweet sherry.