Captain William Sanderson (1795-1842) of South Shields, died in Quebec

[dtcoulson]

In Ancestry:

All Canada, Seafarers of the Atlantic Provinces, 1789-1935

William Sanderson born South Shields 1865, served on the vessel Free Briton which arrived somewhere in 1889.

Unfortunately, I can't read the arrival place.

Strange coincidence that this is the same ship a generation or two later.
Could it be that this was a family business?

-DC

[dtcoulson]

Regarding missing baptisms:

The Sandersons in my family history are all notoriously absent from baptism records on reason of their religious affiliation. Not that I know much about this but they were of a nonconformist denomination which chose not to pass their records to the mainstream church indexes; either that or they were refused.

I see that the ship was registered at Sunderland. This is where my Sandersons were born so if this is where the maritime Sandersons lived, they were also likely a part of this group.

[dtcoulson]

CLIP says of the Free Briton:

"Casualty: sunk, 20/10/1862"

Other remarks give her displacement as 271-291 tons. 

-DC

[AlanBoyd]

25 October 1862: Norfolk Chronicle

The "Free Briton," Ram, of Shields, foundered off Cromer, on Monday afternoon. The crew were rescued by the master and crew of the French boat, " La Volante De Dieu," of Boulogne, and were landed here on Tuesday evening. Capt. Ram begs to return the hearty thanks of himself and crew for the praiseworthy conduct of their kind rescuers who saved them, separately by ropes, and for the kind treatment they received when on board, and the more so as an English schooner and brig passed them without rendering any assistance.

Another, briefer, report in the Newcastle Chronicle names the owner as Mr R H Weightman

[AlanBoyd]

Three records at FindMyPast under British Merchant Seamen 1835-1857

Wm Sanderson, 42, Sunderland, master, Confidence, of S'Land, 13th Sept [18]36

Wm Sanderson, 40, S'land: records 7 voyages from Confidence 9/36 to Endeavour 4/39. Some are illegible.
Several of the men on this page have an annotation which looks like 'Transp^d'

The third record is very sparse in detail, essentially jsu a list of names, but it includes fourteen Wm Sanderson records with different ticket numbers and different places named (including Sunderland and North Shields) — unclear if this is several references to one man.

ADDED: 13 newspaper mentions in 1846 of ‘Endeavour, Sanderson’, all simple arrivals and sailings.

[willsy]

Have found a reference to the Free Briton 11 July 1842

[willsy]

Apologies, got mixed up on the name, wrong Briton!

[dtcoulson]

I spent some time focused on the cemetery itself and its 'residents'.

It is a cemetery within Quebec City, now closed and turned into a park.
It was operational from the 1770s to 1860.
It has more than a thousand graves of which only 314 are named.
It served the protestant community in a predominantly catholic society: Presbyterians and Anglicans.

None of the other named graves are Sandersons.
This suggests he had no family there, either by birth or marriage.

There were burials the day before and the day after Capt William
but they are not seaman.

Looking more broadly I could not find evidence of a spate of burials in July 1842
that would suggest a disaster of any sort.

I think this is telling us that William was not local but he was non-catholic.
This is consistent with a man who could have been born in Sunderland where the ship was built
who practised his faith in a Presbyterian community (Wearmouth was such a place). That is the place where my own Sanderson DNA resided in the 1790s.

DC

[hanes teulu]

At reply#4 the Free Briton arrives Quebec 9 July, Sanderson master and clears 14 Aug, master Preston.
The headstone shows Quebec 18 July which "fits" neatly 'twixt the arrival and departure noted. However, the former shows 1847 while the latter shows 1842. I had taken a good look at the date on the headstone, willing the "2" to be confused with a "7"!! If only ....

2 items snipped from a. Lloyd's Register 1847 b. Morning Herald, 7 Jun 1842
The imports recorded against the Free Briton -
Free Briton, Madras, 249 Chests Indigo, 1,500 bags rice, 500 bales cotton.

Modified - the Morning Herald names the "Free Briton". However, other newspapers refer to the "True Briton" arriving from Madras. The Morning Herald has got it wrong.