Eleack??? Northumberland

[peter brownlee]

Hello again Margaret.
Do you know that Google books have online copies of Lloyds Register of Shipping. I looked through the 1851 copy. There are two possibilities.
William Sharp or Sharpe owner of;
Ship, Clontarf 957 tons of Liverpool bound Liverpool to Bombay
Ship, Flora Macdonald 674 tons of Liverpool bound Liverpool to Bombay
Ship, Henry Gardner 701 tons of Liverpool bound Liverpool to Bombay
Both these latter were sold and diverted to California.
Ship, Lucy S Parsons 973 tons of Liverpool bound Liverpool to Manila.
The other is a company Sharp & co who seem to have had no regular port for their ships which were mostly smaller;
Snow, 243t Algenoria Hull to Baltic
Barque, 391t Corinthian Hull to America
Snow Dauson 231t Sunderland to America
Brig, Lucy Sharp 262 Liverpool to Rio
Ship Lydia 541t Newcastle to Calcutta
Barque Marquis of Bute London to Sydney
Ship Recorder, 512t Liverpool to Calcutta
Barque, Sharp 328t London to Madras
Sharp & co employed a J Sharp as master.
Hope this provides possible leads.
Peter

[Kappalyn]

Thank you for that Peter, my information seems to indicate that he owned larger ships eg ones that sailed to faraway places like  Australia.  I have found 2 of his sons here.  I will look up the books that you have found for the other years and see what others he has.  Evidently he went bankrupt so then he sold off the ships.
 
Margaret

[peter brownlee]

Hello again Margaret'
Don't worry about the lack of tonnage. The  biggest ship in the first fleet  to Australia was only 440 tons, the smallest 160 tons. The enlargement of the later clippers beyond a thousand tons was effected by using iron and steel instead of wood.
The Clontarf was in New Zealand in 1858 under contract to the Canterbury Provincial govt. The Flora McDonald 674 tons arrived at Portland Bay Victoria 18th Aug 1852 according to the London Times.  The Lucy Sharp was in Wellington in 1841 and the Marquis of Bute in Port Phillip the same year. I got these from the Mariners-L website. I guess the Australian and New Zealand shipping records would be more comprehensive and accessible.  Did you notice that one of the NZ accounts of the talented Alfred identified his father as a captain and another gave his mother's name as Edwards?
Good luck, Peter

[Michael Dixon]

Snippet on EDWARDS.

The surname profiler web site ( National Trust) has North Wales as the densest place in GB for the surname Edawrds !

Michael Dixon

[Kappalyn]

Hi Peter,
I think I may be a bit dim!! But I can only find Lloyds Register of Shipping in Google books for 1820 and then 1865/68.  Where do I look for the others? BUT I did find on the mariners-L site, 2 more ships...the Utopia sailed to Australia in 1854 and the Una sailed to Sierra Leone.  The background to the family and now the connection to the immigration to Australia I find so interesting.   I really cannot thank you enough for your interest and help.
Margaret

[Kappalyn]

Hi Michael,
Thank you for the info re Edwards.  Mary came from Ruabon in Wales.  Someone on the Wales section looked up Mary Edwards but couldn't find her ...at least not in the Church of England parish records so maybe she wasn't Cof E.  I will be visiting Uk in June so I can see that much of my time will be spent poring over parish records in various parts of England and Wales as well as days spent in the UK archives.  Incidently regarding William and his parents....they may have been John and Anne, not William and Hannah.  According to his death record, he would have been born 1797/98, and also at least 2 of his daughters have Anne as a second name.
Margaret
 

[Michael Dixon]

Margaret,

Aren't  Ann Anne Anna Annie Hanna Hannah just variations of the same name ?
 ( ditto Rosanna Rosannah )

Religious denominations... The Church of England was not followed in Wales to the same extent as in England. For example John Wesley had success in Wales in second half of C18th with his Methodism.

Michael Dixon

[peter brownlee]

Hello Margaret,
You have to click on to the phrase more editions in blue.
The John Sharp who was master of the Recorder may have been a brother and the Lucy Sharp who had a ship named after her, a neice. Unfortunately the Lloyds captains list is only on line to M so far.
At the date William and Mary were married, people tended to find partners within a small social circle of business and family contacts. I noticed that Pricilla married a Golborne whose father was from Holt in Denbighshire just the other side of Wrexham from Ruabon.  Bethell would be an easier target than Edwards I guess it would be from a wealthy godparent, but it might be a maternal aunt. Flintshire and that part of Denbighshire are pretty close together. People who were Methodist (Chapel) in poverty often became Anglican (Church) in prosperity!
Peter

[Kappalyn]

Hi Peter, I have been trolling through the registers and looking for anything that relates to W Sharp.  I don't think Sharp & Co is him unless he separated  from them in the late 1840's ( and there is a newspaper entry  around then of a W. Sharp no longer part of the company Sharp & Co who were a merchant company) but I have found some more of his ships...The New Zealander (which was burnt and sunk in Victoria Australia, The Victoria  ( there is an article about this ship being the unlucky one that brought him undone and led to his bankruptcy and premature death), The Reliance and The Briton.  The registers are great because William's daughter Margaret married Charles Smith, son of William ...master mariner in Weymouth.  Now I can find ships that he may have been associated with, although the name Smith is very common so I guess I cannot be certain that Capt W Smith is my W Smith.
Margaret