I am not sure where to post this as it is a general enquiry but will start on this board as the evidence so far relates to Middlesex. I am sorry it is so long!
I am researching William Pratt who emigrated to New Zealand on the Indus in early 1843. I have quite a lot of information on William in New Zealand including a book of his recollections of life in New Zealand and various press reports including an obituary. His name also appears in various articles about Christchurch because he owned Dunstable House which later became Ballantynes.
My problem is finding out about him before he went to New Zealand. I suspect that some of the information published about him is not based on fact.
The facts are:
He was on the Indus in 1843 and a Shipwrights apprentice
He married Sarah Fowler in 1851
He died in 1905.
Main Information from his death Certificate is:
Age at death: 82
Occupation: Gentleman
Parents: William Pratt Clerk in Holy Orders. Mother’s forename and maiden name blank
Born: London 62 years in NZ
Married: at age 26 in Lyttelton to Sarah Fowler
8 children living at death
Informant: His son WH Pratt of Nelson
William’s book of reminiscences does not refer to his life before he went to NZ other than that the main reason for emigrating was that the Edwards family was going to New Zealand and he was intending/hoping to marry their daughter. The Edwards family is on the Indus passenger list and the father is John Edwards a shipwright.
William’s obituary says that he was educated at a private boarding school in Durham and several other reports indicate that he was in the drapery business in England. The latter seems to be borne out by the contents of a letter written by William in 1904, just before his death. In this he says:
“In January 1838, at the age of 14, I was apprenticed to the drapery business – for the next six years I had to submit to the Prison like regime then prevailing in the London Drapery Shops, and have always attributed my stunted stature to that six years experience”.
I realise this does not quite match with him leaving England in early 1843. I have found a William Pratt, aged 20, not born in County, as a porter in the 1841 census. He seems to be part of a large drapery business in St Pauls’s Churchyard. Ref HO107/721/3 f14
I also contacted Durham Record office a few years ago about records of Durham School and this is an extract from their reply:
“The publication, Durham School Register to 1912, includes names of scholars up to 1912. In 1840 the school transferred to its present site but all the records, except those that were kept by the Dean and Chapter, disappeared or were destroyed, so that no complete lists of entrants exist before that year. The pre 1840 lists have been compiled from isolated facts and individual memories. I am afraid a search of these lists for the 1820s and 1830s for the name William Pratt was unsuccessful.”
I have searched the apprenticeship records for the Drapers Company and several others using this site
http://www.londonroll.org/search but his name does not appear.
I have not been able to find a suitable William Pratt Clerk in the 1841 census, the Clergy database
http://db.theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/search/index.jsp (I realise this is a work in progress), nor as a graduate of Cambridge or Oxford universities.
My questions are:
Can anyone enlighten me on the drapery business shown in the 1841 census – the area seems to have a large number of warehouses?
Is it likely that an apprentice draper would be a porter?
Is it likely that someone privately educated and whose father was a Vicar would be an apprentice draper or a porter?
Grateful for any suggestions as to how I can follow this up.
Barbara
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Topic: William Pratt (Read 3684 times)