Tag Archives: Cornwall

Joseph Henry Burt 1828-1913

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Joseph is linked to my Ellis ancestors through his sister Elizabeth Small Burt (1812-1894) and her husband George Brown (1811-1897), who are my three times great grandparents. Their daughter Elizabeth Small Brown (1844-1916) married my two times great grandfather Francis Ellis (1839-1925) in Portsea, Hampshire, where he was serving in the Coastguard service. The following OS map has been annotated with a number of locations where George and Elizabeth lived with their family in the 19th century.

Joseph, according to his naval record, was born on 14 January 1828 in Torpoint, Cornwall to parents Jacob Burt (1781-1873) and Elizabeth Small (1782-1845). In the 1841 census the family are living in Antony in Cornwall and Jacob is a ropemaker. At the age of 22 Joseph joined the navy on 23 October 1849 and was described as a cooper. This was just over a year after he had married his wife Emma Betty in Q2 1848 in East Stonehouse, Devon. Their daughter Emma Jane Burt (1848-1925) was born not long after in Devonport.

Joseph’s naval service record paints a picture of his physical features. He was 5ft 5in tall with light brown hair, a fair complexion and light hazel eyes with no distinguishing marks. It also gives an interesting insight into his career in the Royal Navy. From 23 October 1849 until 4 June 1852, Joseph served on HMS Conflict, a wooden sloop, based in south east America until it returned to Portsmouth. He then served on HMS Hogue, an unarmoured wooden screw vessel, from 1 September 1852 until 23 May 1856. Initially it was a guard ship in Devonport, before it went to the Baltic in 1854 during the Russian war. It was reported in the Times of 6 March 1854 that it was one of several ships which had been victualled at Spithead (near Portsmouth) for six months foreign service.

On 24 May 1856 Joseph joined HMS Vulture. It was damaged at the Bombardment of Sveaborg and the illustration is a sketch by James Wilson Carmichael of Captain Glasse and his Chief Engineer supervising its repairs. While Joseph served on HMS Vulture it saw service in the Mediterranean and frequently spent time in Malta and Gibraltar, as well as places like Serpents’ Island in the Black Sea, Sevastopol and then the Bosphorus. The last three places were reported by an officer on HMS Vulture in a letter reproduced in the Glasgow Courier, 27 November 1856, p4.

When HMS Vulture returned to Spithead in 1860 it was inspected and then steamed into Portsmouth. Joseph would have been one of the crew who subsequently boarded the Pigmy steamer bound for Devonport and the chance to be reunited with his family (report in the Naval and Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the Service, 7 April 1860, p3.)

Joseph’s last ship, before he joined the coastguard service, was HMS Impregnable, from 6 April 1860 to 22 May 1860. His first posting as a coastguard was as a boatman and in 1861, he is living with his wife and daughter in Victoria Terrace, Ventnor and described as a coastguard and retired cooper. The coastguard station was to the west of Ventnor as shown on the following OS map (Hampshire and Isle of Wight Sheet C, published 1866). It no longer exists.

Joseph’s record of his coastguard service updates his physical appearance. He is still 5ft 5in tall and with a fair complexion. However, his hair is now described as brown and his eyes grey and he has scars on his right knee and right elbow. On 27 April 1868, while still at Ventnor coastguard station, Joseph was promoted to commissioned boatman; a position he held until 30 April 1873. He was appointed chief boatman on 1 May 1873 and on 6 May 1873 he moved to the coastguard station at Ryde.

Joseph moved back to Ventnor coastguard station on 16 June 1874 was promoted to chief boatman in charge on 7 June 1877. His next move, as chief boatman in charge, was to Crowlink, Sussex on 20 June 1877. He stayed there a couple of years before moving to Cuckmere Haven, Sussex on 5 October 1879.

Joseph was granted a pension on 19 December 1882 and by the 1891 census had returned to the Isle of Wight, where he lived at Bettesworth Rd, Ryde until he died on 5 July 1913. He left effects to the value of £359 1s 7d to his widow Emma. Emma (1826-1915) died at the age of 88 on 15 December 1915. She left effects to the value of £192 15s 6d to her daughter Emma Jane.

Do let me know if you have any stories about them which you are willing to share with me.

Note: the maps used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography:

Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

Bombardment of Sveaborg. https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-12128 : accessed February 2025.

Carmichael, James Wilson. Captain Glasse, and his Chief Engineer, H.M.S. “Vulture,” superintending the Repairs of the Mortars during the Bombardment of Sveaborg. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 5 April 1856. James Wilson Carmichael, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

England and Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

Glasgow Courier. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/home : accessed February 2025.

Naval and Military Gazette and Weekly Chronicle of the Service. https://www.findmypast.co.uk/home : accessed February 2025.

OS Maps. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

Probate records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

Victorian Royal Navy. https://www.pdavis.nl/index.htm : accessed February 2025.

UK, Royal Naval Seamen Index, 1853 -1872. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

UK, Royal Navy Registers of Seamen’s Services, 1848-1939. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed February 2025.

George Brown (1811-1879) – 3rd great grandfather

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I have recently become interested in my Cornish/Devon ancestors; a group I’d largely neglected as they have the surname Brown. There is now a page for them on my website and over time I intend to write blog posts about various members of the family. This post is about George, my 3rd great grandfather, who was born in Cornwall to parents Ambrose Brown (1787-1862) and Thomasin Friendship. He was baptised on 24 February 1811 in Maker, Cornwall. The following OS map (OS sheet 348 Plymouth d ca. 1892) has been annotated with a number of locations where he lived with his family in the 19th century.

George married Elizabeth Small Burt (1812-1894) on 21 March 1832 in Stoke Damerel, Devon. George and Elizabeth had at least six children although not all of them reached their teens. A combination of baptism, birth, census and death records revealed a number of locations where the family lived, as well as George’s occupation:

  • 25 July 1833 – daughter Thomasin Elizabeth Brown baptised in the Wesleyan chapel, Morice St, Devonport. George and Elizabeth were both named on the record; George was a ropemaker from Millbrook, Cornwall.
  • 5 April 1835 – daughter Eliza Jane Brown baptised in Millbrook, Cornwall. George and Elizabeth were from Maker, Cornwall.
  • 2 April 1838 – son George William Burt Brown born at 12 Portland Place in the parish of Stoke Damerel; father George a ropemaker. Son George died on 6 June 1839 of disease of the brain. The family were living at 26 Garden St in the parish of Stoke Damerel. Father George was described as a ropemaker in Her Majesty’s dockyard.
  • October 1840 – son George William Brown born at 26 Garden St in the parish of Stoke Damerel. Father George a ropemaker.
  • 6 June 1841 census – George, a ropemaker, Elizabeth and three children living in Garden St, Devonport.
  • 6 March 1842 marks the death of son George William Brown of inflammation. The family were living at 32 Navy Row, Morice Town and father George was described as a ropemaker.
  • 30 October 1842 – son John Edwin Small Brown born at 32 Navy Row, Morice Town. Father George a ropemaker.
  • 30 December 1844 – daughter Elizabeth Small Brown born at 7 York Place, Stoke Damerel. Father George a ropemaker in the Devonport dockyard.
  • 30 March 1851 census – George, Elizabeth and four children living in Harvey St, Antony, Cornwall with George described as a ropemaker.

Until at least 1851 George worked in the Devonport dockyard, probably in the East Rope house. It was completely open plan and comprised 57 bays with cellars and three stories. Ropemaking involved taking hemp fibres and twisting them into strands and then twisting the strands into ropes. This was achieved by using a machine to rotate the hemp fibres as the men walked backwards along a ropewalk while releasing their supply of hemp. (The following OS map Devonshire sheet CXXXIII date 1867 shows the location of the dockyard as well as other places linked to the Brown family).

By the 1861 census George, Elizabeth, daughter Elizabeth and grandson William Turner (1854-1922) were living at 39 Princes St, Portsea, Hampshire, where George was described as a sawyer. This is no doubt where Elizabeth met and married my 2nd great grandfather Francis Ellis (1839-1925).

In the 1871 census George and Elizabeth had moved back to Cornwall. They were living in St Andrew St or Back St in Maker and George was a ropemaker pensioner. George died on 14 August 1879 at St Andrews St, Millbrook Maker. He had been suffering from Phthisis Pulmonalis (tuberculosis) for four years and exhaustion for six months. It is possible that the 1861 census record of George’s occupation is incorrect as, when his death was registered by his daughter Elizabeth, he was described as formerly a ropemaker at HM Dockyard Portsmouth.

Do let me know if you have any stories about them which you are willing to share with me.

Note: the maps used in this blog has been reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland under the following creative commons licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ and sourced from the NLS maps site https://maps.nls.uk/.

Bibliography:

Bennett, George. (2017) Dockyard, Naval Base and Town: The Social and Political Dynamics of Plymouth 1800-1950. http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/10135 : accessed June 2023.

Births, marriages and deaths. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Census records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Cornwall On-line Parish Clerks. https://www.opc-cornwall.org/ : accessed June 2023.

Devonport naval dockyard. https://navaldockyards.org/devonport-dockyard/ : accessed June 2023.

East Rope House, Devonport. http://www.olddevonport.uk/Royal%20Dockyard-South%20Yard-East%20Rope%20House%20S%20132.htm : accessed June 2023.

England and Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Lewis, Samuel ed. (1848) A Topological Directory of England. London: Lewis. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england : accessed June 2023.

Maker. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CON/Maker : accessed June 2023.

OS Maps. https://maps.nls.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Probate records. https://www.ancestry.co.uk/ : accessed June 2023.

Rame. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/CON/Rame : accessed June 2023.

Stoke Damerel. https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DEV/StokeDamerel : accessed June 2023.