Ship named LILLIES

[DavidArtShed]

I am very interested in 'Lillies' and have spent some time loooking into its history. One of my ancestors, Thomas Brown worked on the ship and his son, Pacific, was born on board during the 1857 voyage.

I read with interest the comments by 'Seaweed'.

I know that Lillies was built for Hon. Alexander McLauchlan Seely of Saint John, New Brunswick, and was named after Seely's wife, Lillies Ann Hammond (originally of Charleston, Mass., USA). The ship was built by Alexander Sime, who emigrated from Aberdeen, Scotland, to New Brunswick in 1811, and eventually ended up constructing ships at Pleasant Point, opposite Indiantown (now part of Saint John). In October 1863, Lillies was wrecked in Morecambe Bay. The Captain, William Fell Bell, was rescued but died from his injuries several months later.

THE INFORMATION ABOUT "LILLIES" IN THE PREVIOUS PARAGRAPH WAS PROVIDED BY THE ARCHIVES & RESEARCH LIBRARY, NEW BRUNSWICK MUSEUM, SAINT JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK.

Captain Bell was the person who signed the report of my ancestor's birth onboard Lillies.

Does 'Seaweed' have an image of the ship? That would be a really good addition to my family document!

David

[murphy girl]

Hi,

Thanks for the info re the "Lillies" and as far as I know Seaweed does not have a photo of same as he did not indicate that he did, have you tried contacting him to find out ?.  I would be interested in his reply.

The details you advised re her construction all add to the story of my family who emigrated on the 1857 voyage.

Just as an aside, my great great grandmother who sailed on that voyage had the maiden name of BROWN, do you have any Brown's in your family that came from Newcastle in Ireland? Her father's name was Patrick Brown and he was a weaver.

Kind regards,
Murphy Girl.

Kind

[Suzanne4440]

Hi Murphy Girl,
I just wanted to mention that you should check the "Victoria Pioneer Index" which has B/M/Ds for 1836 - 1888, if you haven't already. You'll have to Google it to see where you can access it.
I was lucky enough to access it when it was on line for a short time back in the 1990's. I had a 30 year brick wall , trying to discover the maiden name of my GR GR GR Grandmother from Ireland. On this index I found their son's death, and low and behold, the maiden name of his mother.
I live in Saint John,NB. Who would've thought I could find my answer in Australia ( after 30 years of searching).
Anyway, just wanted to point that source out in case you haven't seen it yet.

Good luck,
Suzanne Carter

[DavidArtShed]

Dear Murphy Girl,

As far as I know, we have/had no family in Ireland - although 'Brown' is not the most unusual of names and my ancestors did get about quite a bit! Most of my lot are from Bangor [the one in north Wales], Wirral or Liverpool.

I'm not sure how much background you want about 'Lillies'. I have a little more if you would like it and more about the Captain on the 1857 journey. If this is of interest, I will post it to this site.

[murphy girl]

Hi David,

Thanks for the offer of more info but we have been able to locate some details of the voyage/arrival from articles in the Argus via a website called TROVE which has a lot of the old Australian Newspapers on it, actually if you have never looked at it it is a fascinating site.
As a matter of fact we have gleaned a lot about our family since they arrived in Australia from items in the newspaper.

By all means if you want to post what you have please do so, will leave that decision up to you as if you have a lot it may take you some time.

Shame about your Browns not being related, it was a long shot but worth asking the question anyway. Good luck with your continued searching.

Kind regards,
Murphy Girl.

[gurd]

Hi seaweed and DavidArtShed,
My interest in the Lillies is because my 3rd great grandmother was on the maiden voyage in 1855 from St. Johns, New Brunswick to Liverpool, England.  It was a particularly rough trip so my ancestor wrote a poem about the trip.  You can see the poem here:
http://scholtz.org/bill/stansas/stansas.htm
The ship was badly damaged and one of the crew was washed overboard.

seaweed,
Would you have any record of this trip?

DavidArtShed,
was your ancestor on the crew for this trip?

[DavidArtShed]

Good to hear from 'gurd'. The poem is fascinating.

My interest in 'Lillies' is because my great great grandfather, Thomas Brown [b. 1817], was a Steward on the ship and, on 24 February 1857, his son, Pacific Brown, was born on board during, I believe, a journey to Australia. Interesting that the wife of the Captain/Master, William Fell Bell, also gave birth to their daughter on board the ship and they named her 'Lillies'.

If your ancestor was on the maiden voyage, it seems likely that Thomas was among the crew at the time. It's a small world!

Later, Thomas settled in Liverpool and Pacific in Bangor, North Wales.

David

[gurd]

Thanks David,
Have you been in contact with The New Brunswick Museum?  Do you think they would have logbooks from that first crossing?  I'd love to find out more about the trip.
The back of the poem has some signatures on it.  Unfortunately they are in pencil and are very hard to see.  I don't know if they are passengers or crew or both.  I have looked over them very carefully but can't find the Thomas Brown.
I've posted the signatures if you want to take a look at them.
http://scholtz.org/bill/stansas/tmp/
Bill