My great, great grandfather, Jeremiah Taylor, 1790-1853 was described over generations as an ‘East India Man’, possibly also a Ship’s Captain! However, was he really?
My sister has a coin which was minted by the British East India Company in 1837. When our grandfather gave it to her, he told her it “belonged to Nanna’s grandfather”, our great, great grandfather, Jeremiah Taylor, 1790-1853. I called my sister to ask her about the coin. Researching it some years ago, she found it to be the coin be a ‘Half Anna’ minted in 1837 by the British East India Company. (Museums Victoria – Bombay Mint, Medal & Coin Makers, India https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/articles/1873) My sister then commented that, while she had heard Jeremiah described as an ‘East India Man’, she’d never heard him described as a ship’s captain as I had done. On reflection, I have found no clear evidence of his being a ship’s captain, so have needed to rethink this. My sister mentioned meeting another of Jeremiah’s descendants, Dean Taylor, who appeared to have a deep understanding of the patriarchal line of his family and who clearly described Jeremiah and his son, Port Phillip Bay ship’s pilot, Henry Taylor, as ‘East India Men’. Interestingly, the term ‘East Indiaman’ was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers (Austria, Denmark, Holland, England, France, Portugal, Sweden) of the 17th through the 19th centuries. ‘East Indiamen’ carried both passengers and goods, and were large, galleon like ships armed, often heavily, to defend themselves against pirates and privateers. The British East India company maintained a monopoly on trade with initially India, then later other Eastern countries, from 1600 until 1834, with the company’s power, and its larger galleon vessels, being phased out over the coming decades. In terms of his age, Jeremiah is likely to have worked with the during the period between 1810 and 1840 when he was twenty to fifty years old. Although Jeremiah was born and spent his childhood in a farming hamlet, Tattershall Thorpe, in Lincolnshire, family records relating to his adult life, including his marriage, births, baptisms, marriages and deaths, list the busy port and market town of Boston, Lincolnshire, as his place of residence during his twenties and thirties. Jeremiah appears most likely to have been employed as an experienced mariner who presented himself to the East India Company for work on voyages as they became available. The ‘half anna’ coin suggests that he was employed by the British East India Company c 1837, when he was in his mid to late forties. He is likely to have done this for periods of time, eventually retiring to Lincolnshire to farm. When his youngest daughter, my great grandmother, was born in 1847, he was 57 and listed on her baptism record as ’farmer’. I need to find records from the 1820’s and 30’s which clearly record that Jeremiah was a mariner. The first available UK census –1841 - appears to contain no record for Jeremiah or his son Henry. Perhaps they were at sea for an extended period? Sea faring mariners and apprentice mariners are likely to be difficult to find in Census. I am certain I have seen records described Jeremiah as a mariner in the St Botolph’s Boston baptism records for his children in the 1820’s and 1830’s – I just need to access them again! I’ve also found that Ancestry.com now has a listing of employees of the British East India Company which I am thinking of pursuing – however there are two hundred or more ‘J Taylors’! Overall, I haven’t fully ‘busted’ the original myth. I have firmed up my hypotheses surrounding Jeremiah having been ‘an East India Man’ and rejected the notion that he was a Ship’s Captain. I’m still looking for more concrete evidence of Jeremiah having been an East Indiaman and have at least two avenues still to pursue! Bev Lee June 2022 Henry Taylor, a Port Phillip Pilot who guided ships through the Heads into Port Phillip Bay, was my great grand uncle, an older half-brother of my great grandmother, Emma Taylor (1847-1931). Henry was born in Boston, Lincolnshire, England in 1823 to Jeremiah Taylor and Hannah Padlay. Family stories abound that his father Jeremiah was also a seaman, perhaps a ship’s captain, certainly an ‘East India Man’. Henry had three siblings, and a half-sister, my grandmother, Emma Taylor, whose mother Emma Jane Jackson, was buried in Boston on the day of Emma’s christening in 1847. Henry appears to have been an adventurous, risk-taking young man, arriving in Melbourne in his twenties if not before. In the 1941 NSW census for Port Phillip/Bourke, a Henry Taylor, ‘Twenty one and under’, is listed as having arrived in the colony ‘free’, religion ‘Church of England’. Henry married boatman’s daughter Mary Colina Cannon in 1852. They had five children, James Henry (1850–1934), Eliza Colina (1851–1907), Charles (1853–1922), Hannah Esther (1853–1891) and Mary (1856–1918). 1856 records list Henry as “Occupation Pilot, living in Queenscliff”. Henry and Mary played a role in bringing up my great grandmother, Emma Taylor, who Jeremiah brought out to Australia before his death in 1853. Emma was only six years old when Jeremiah died. Evidence of Henry’s involvement as a ship’s pilot guiding vessels through the Heads into Port Phillip Bay is recorded many places including in the Port Phillip Government Gazette in 1851. There are many articles relating to his experiences and capacity as a ship’s pilot in Trove, including one featuring his report on the Wreck of the ship Sea in 1853. Rapid tidal currents meet an underwater reef at Port Phillip Heads causing complex turbulence and eddies. Sailing ships required smaller pilot boats with experienced crews to navigate the narrow channels, which were especially dangerous at ebb tide when many wrecks occurred. The 1850’s were also the ‘Gold Rush’ years in Victoria, with many people arriving through Port Phillip Heads in search of gold. Henry died on the 21 November 1858, at 35 years of age, when the wheel of the carriage he was driving hit a rock or rut and he was thrown out, hitting his head and dying instantly. His adventurous nature and bravery is clearly reflected in this letter to the Editor of the Argus newspaper on Thursday 25 November 1858. ‘The Late Captain Henry Taylor’. Sir,—I regretted much to read in your issue of today (November 23) the sudden death, by accident, of Captain Henry Taylor, pilot of Queenscliff. His loss must not only be severely felt by his immediate family and friends, but his memory must he held in grateful remembrance by a large number whom he on more times than one risked his life to serve. I for one cannot forget how gallantly Captain Taylor, in 1852, swam the river Barwon twice unsuccessfully, and a third time only reaching the shore nearly exhausted, to assist the 450 unfortunately shipwrecked passengers and crew of the Earl of Charlemont…. WM. ED. COOK, M.D., Late Surgeon of the Earl of Charlemont. Captain Henry Taylor (1823 - 1858) is buried in the Queenscliff Cemetery. Postscript - 'This was written for the topic 'Obituary' presented at a Family Research class in late May 2022 - it caused lots of discussion,, particularly as one of this group had ancestors who were shipwrecked on the Earl of Charlemont! There were lots of questions relating to what happened to the family after his death - something for another time!' BL
Sometimes during family history we hold things our parents have told us in our minds, to look at at some future time. My mother believed her grandparents may have travelled as passengers to New York to see relatives before continuing the trip to Australia and spoke of family connections in America. For a time we thought she must have been referring to her Hooper side grandfather, however we also had a suspicion that perhaps her widower maternal great grandparent Jeremiah Taylor may have visited relatives there with his little daughter. her grandmother Emma Jane Taylor, before coming to Australia.
We haven't been able to find Jeremia or Emma on the shipping lists at all, so in the name of 'cluster research', I opened up Jeremiah's family branch on ancestry.comto see if in fact any evidence of his siblings or children migrating to the United States. I revisited the valued work on the Taylor family by Keith Taylor, who had corresponded with me and encouraged me, through his research, to locate Jeremiah with his family in Tattershall and Boston localities in Lincolnshire. Keith already had Jeremiah living in Australia when I found his tree and had used old church records for St Botolph's and other BDM records to develop the list of Jeremiah's siblings as well as his 'families of procreation' to spouses Hannah Padlay and Jane Jackson. I remembered that some of his latest work has involved putting 'flags' for destinations of relatives, with a David Taylor, younger brother of Jeremiah, having a USA flag with a destination state listed as Illinois, and Jeremiah's son Charles, also having a USA flag, with a destination state listed as Indiana. It seemed it was time to look into brother Jeremiah and son Charles a little more closely. Perhaps this would throw some light on Jeremiah and Emma's 'passage to Australia'...as we have kept having 'black holes' when searchng passenger and migration lists. To be continued.... |
The Journey ...An 'occasional blog' recording elements of my renewed family history journey. This is the second wave in my 'family history' journey. The first lasted from 2010 to 2014. with intermittent bursts since then. It's time to revisit, to share more stories, to edit, to tackle uncertainties... Categories
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