Category Archives: Royal Navy

Portsmouth Dockyard employees

Posted on June 10, 2012 | 3 comments

My great-grandfather worked at Portsmouth Dockyard around 1911 according to the 1911 census. I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find out more information about his occupation.

The Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust hold the original Dockyard Registers of Employment (Rate Books) which contain details of all employees who worked in the Dockyard itself, or in one of the other Admiralty Establishments in the Portsmouth area, during the period from the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century.

You can request a search of these records on your behalf. Here are the details I submitted:

  • Surname of Dockyard Employee that you are researching
    Young
  • First name of Employee Mansel
  • Relationship to Enquirer Great-grand father
  • Approximate year of birth 1854/1855
  • Occupation or Trade Dockyard Labourer, Naval Store
    Department
  • Approximate date or dates in Dockyard 1911 (from census
  • record)

 

Unfortunately they didn’t have a record of his service. The index is still in progress, so he may appear at some time. Currently there are about 120,000 names in this index so it is definitely worth an email.

 

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Royal Navy record of George Benger

Posted on June 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

Service record for George Benger – ADM/188/23 Admiralty: Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services

Names in full – George Benger

Date of Birth 7 May 1838

Place of Birth St Thomas, Portsmouth

Personal Description:

  • Height 5’11”
  • Hair Dark Brown
  • Eyes Grey
  • Complexion Fair
  • Wounds, Scars, or Marks – None
  • Trade – Musician

1) Ships served in – Duke of Wellington

Ships’ Books List 2 No. 3

Rating Bandsmen

Good Conduct Badges worn 3

Period of Service 1 Jan 1873 to 13 Oct 1873

Character V Good

 

2) Ships served in – Active

Ships’ Books List 5 No. 224

Rating Bandsmen

Good Conduct Badges worn 3

Period of Service 14 Oct 1873 to 14 Oct 1874

Character V Good

 

If Discharged. Whither and for what cause –

CS Martin. pass to England – Invalided

To do – find out more about Good Conduct badges and records and see if I can find a record of his injury.

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Caswell, Selina Cleopatra Ann (1842-1907)

Posted on May 11, 2012 | 3 comments

Some times the internet scares me. I was having an idle google of some of my family names and found a search result for Selina Cleopatra Ann Caswell. This lady had an unusual name so always sticks in my mind. Her father was a Captain in the Royal Navy and the last ship he had served on was the Cleopatra around the time his only daughter was born, hence the name.

I will add a separate post about the details of her life but I must post the results of today’s search:

From: Paul Cutmore
Subject: Shalfleet Registers
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 01:00 +0100 (BST)
I was recently poring over a microfilm of the Shalfleet Registers when
unusually I came across a letter. It starts:

"Sir, Will you kindly tell me the fees for searching your register of
baptism in your parish?"

So I immediately thought that here was someone involved in Family History
research!

The letter was written on 2 Nov 1886 by Miss Selina Cleopatra Ann CASWELL
in Bitterne?, Southampton. It carries on:

"I fancy the register of baptism of my Grandfather the late Commander
Benjamin LEIGH, R.N. may be found in your church as Bouldner is in the
Parish of Shalfleet. He was the 2nd son of Benjamin LEIGH Esq. of Thorley,
by his 2nd wife Miss DRAPER. The register of Thorley has been searched
unsuccessfully. My grandfather died in the month of February 1846, age 74
which would give for date of birth 1772".

Funnily enough I tentatively have Benjamin LEIGH b. 1773 Shalfleet in my
family tree, although I have his father's (Benjamin) second wife as Sarah
STRICKLAND.

Ring any bells for anybody?

I wonder if Rootsweb will preserve this message for 100+ years!

Paul Cutmore in Cambridge

Not only is this my relative but it seems she was researching her own family tree when she was in her 40s. She never married and I couldn’t find any Will so I wonder what happened to her research.

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Trying to find old addresses

Posted on April 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

I haven’t had much time for any family history research lately. It’s going to be a hobby which I dip in and out of when I have time.

I thought I would use this blog to make a note of queries I have, perhaps someone will read and be able to help 🙂

What do you do when you would like to trace an old address? I have relatives living on the Isle of Wight according to the 1841 census and I would love to try and trace the house they were living in.

In 1841 George Caswell was recorded as living at Hawthorn Cottage, Northwood, Isle of Wight, Hampshire. I’m from the Isle of Wight so I often think about tracking down this property. Last time we visited we even went to Cowes/Northwood and it was so frustrating to be in the area and not know where this property was. I admit I was on my iPhone googling like mad but unable to find anything.

Caswell1841censusThe 1841 census was brief but it shows that Hawthorn Cottage was in the Parish of Northwood and surrounded by Mill Hill, Ivy Cottage, Three Gates and Broadfields.

The occupants of the house were

  • George Caswell, age 40 profession Navy
  • Louisa Ann Caswell, age 25
  • Benjamin Leigh, age 70, profession Navy
  • Elizabeth Leigh, age 60
  • Henry Leigh, age 20
  • Selina E C Mansel, age 13
  • Anne Delicate (sp?), age 20, house servant?

I’ve just looked on google maps and Mill Hill still exists so perhaps it’s just a case of driving down the road looking to see if any houses have their original names on them? We’ve done this before and were lucky – which I must write about another time.

Alternatively I could go to the Record Office but I feel they must be too busy to answer this kind of enquiry.

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Young, Mansel (1854-1929)

Posted on September 12, 2011 | Leave a comment

Born 1854/1855 in Dublin. Parents Alfred Young and Selina Elizabeth Courtenay Mansel.

1861 Census – HM Ship Laurel, Ship in Ordinary, Hampshire
age 6

1871 Census – no record found

23 December 1880, witness at wedding of his sister Blanche Young and William St Clair Cole at the Parish Church, Fareham
1881 Census No. 11 East Street, Fareham
Unmarried, 26, no occupation

1891 Census No 17 Broad Street, Portsea
unmarried, age 36, Commission Agent – Collector for a Bookmaker, lodger

Married between 1891 and 1895 (no record found)

31 May 1895 son, Alfred Mansel Young born

5 July 1895, listed on birth certificate of son, occupation Assurance Agent, address 13 Broad Street, Southsea

8 June 1897 son, Henry Harper Young born

16 July 1897, registered birth of son; occupation given as Assurance Agent, address 37 Addison Road, Southsea
1901 Census – 2 Woodland Cottage, Woodland St, Portsmouth
age 47, occupation bricklayers labourer, married

1911 Census 13 Woodland St, Kingston, Portsmouth
age 57, Dockyard Labourer, Naval Store Department, widower,
29 March 1929 died pf ursernia and enlarged prostrate, no post mortem. Occupation: general labourer. Address 265 Milton Road, Portsmouth. Death registered by son Henry Harper Young on 30 March 1929, address 6 Woodland Street, Kingston.

[could not find a Probate Record]

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Mansel, Thomas

Posted on May 31, 2011 | Leave a comment

Thomas Mansel entered the Navy, in 1798, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the HYAENA 24, Capts. Hon. Courtenay Boyle and David Lloyd, stationed at first in the North Sea and afterwards in the Mediterranean. Removing as Midshipman, in 1800, to the ELEPHANT 74, Capts. Thomas Foley and George Dundas, he served in that ship under Lord Nelson at the battle of Copenhagen 2 April, 1801, and on proceeding to the West Indies took part in the operations of 1803 against the French at St. Domingo. Between the summer of 1804, on 16 Sept. in which year he was confirmed a Lieutenant, and the date of his promotion to the rank of Commander, 15 June, 1814, we find him serving, in every quarter of the globe, in the PORTMAHON sloop, Capt. Sam. Chambers, BARRACOUTA schooner, commanded by himself, RACOON 18, capt. Edward Crofton, AVON 18, Capt. Mauritius Adolphus Newton De Starck, DREADNOUGHT 98, Capt. Wm. Lechmere,VOLONTAIRE 38, Capt. Chas. Bullen, HIBERNIA 110, Capt. R.J.Neve, TROUBRIDGE armed ship, under his own orders, DRAGON 74,bearing the flag of Sir Fras. Laforey, and BARHAM 74, Capt.John Wm. Spranger. He was wounded, during that period, in the boats of the RACOON at the recapture of a merchant vessel off Cuba – was present in the AVON (after having escorted a Russian ship of the line to the Baltic, and Mr. Erskine, H. M. Minister, to the United States) in a gallant escape made by that vessel from the French 74-gun ship Regulus – aided, when in the VOLONTAIRE, in conveying the present King of the French to Malta, as also in capturing the island of Pomegue, near Marseilles, and in destroying Fort Rioux, mounting 14 guns, near Cape Croisette- and commanded the TROUBRIDGE at the reduction of the Isle of France. His last appointment was 13 April, 1831, to the Coast Guard, in which service he continued until posted 12 Feb. 1834.
[British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849]

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