Apologies for the length of my reply to your second question Merv.
When I discovered my grandfather’s entry in the Dublin census of 1901, listing his place of birth as Japan, it was a surprise and a lead. The Consular Returns ( now available on line) showed that there were not very many British babies born in Japan at the start of the Meji period, when the civil war was not quite ended and trade was regulated by the Unequal Treaties, which had forced China and Japan to open their ports to European ships: not least some very heavily armed war ships. Grandfather was there in a very short list and I ordered his birth certificate which cited JW’s father as a Master Mariner.
My next task was to find Captain John in The Index to the Captains Registers of Lloyd’s of London ( Guildhall Library) covering the eighteen fifties to the end of the Edwardian period.
Seventy four Elliot master mariners are listed. Sixteen of these are Elliot with single T – which is roughly the ratio of singles Ts to double Ts in any general index. Three of these single T Elliots are called John, only one is Scots. Born Dumfries 1834, Certificate no. C 15108, awarded in Liverpool in 1861.
So despite the misleading date of birth – which kept me stumped, but not Kenjo – this was the only man to fit the bill. His application form for the examination of Mate listed his sea service and with his certificate number,
I could track in Lloyd’s Shipping Register all the ships he had commanded as Master.
Only he was in Nagasaki at the time of John William Elliot’s birth. The Register of Consular Returns listed one Elliot birth in Nagasaki and two Elliot deaths in the China Seas area – Eliza and Captain John. Those indexes and the good fit of the data were sufficient justification to buy all the certificates and, the rest is history.
I retell this mainly to flag the number of Elliot/ts just in that half century – and just in the Merchant Service. I would be wary about undertaking the search for a link between sea faring Elliots just on the basis of their common vocation. It is, however, tempting to look at the relatioships between the sea faring families in Annan. We know the connection with the Glover, the Shennan and the Irving mariners, and we have more recently seen Anthony Glover’s daughters were married into the Nelsons, the Blacklocks and the Parks – all with seafarers.
I can well understand the urge to find a link with the great Elliot naval commanders – the following is a translation from the Manx Gaelic – and just a few of the many verses
When little Carrickfergus was completely strippéd,
They then meant to arrive in this Island all unknown
But how little did they think who would first meet them there,
Who all their impertinence would bring unto an end.
It was Elliot that they met, who made an attack on them,
And with a most daring front openéd fire on them.
Right ahead went great Thurot, with all his wonted pride,
But he had to surrender on board of the "Belleisle."
When they all came together, and were firing the guns,
And the top-masts were flying, going east and going west,
The Frenchmen's blood like water most freely was spilling,
And Thurot's great ship "Belleisle" was riddled like a sie
There were six score fully of the choicest French guns
Against Elliot's cannons, which were five score and four;
Three ships of battle against three, they fought very fiercely,
Till Thurot he discovered his heels up in the air.
The Frenchmen had good reason to lament bitterly,
For the business that was done in three halves of an hour
Of the sailors three hundred were wounded sore or dead,
And a dozen of hundreds going into the hold.
There were five of the English, who were dead there also,
And thirty-one more wounded severely in the fray;
But many a one would have felt wounded at that same time,
Had not the gallant Elliot won the fight on that day.
The inhabitants of Mannin on the Island's west side,
Even Bishop Mark Hildesley, and all his household too,
Were observing most keenly, and seeing and hearing,
From beginning unto end, how the big fight was played.
They were called their best friends by landsmen and sailors,
Much was made of the sailors, who had won on that day; ,
And never since King William had sailed unto Ireland,
"ere there such bright days shining over Ramsey.
Just a fraction - it does go on and on.
