Royal Navy Surgeon early 1800s - what records are available?

[familydar]

For many years I've been trying to find out more about John McFAYDEN (all sorts of variants on the surname), believed to have been born sometime around 1780.  This post sort of ties in with one I made a week ago, but it's to do with a different man, the father of the 1840s military one.

After many years of not knowing, thanks to something I've found on FindMyPast I now believe John may have been from Glasgow.  He was in the Royal Navy at some point, apparently as a Surgeon.  He was still alive in 1829 (but family were destitute) but dead by 1842.  I believe he might have died in 1834, being buried at Bunhill Fields (London).  I've never found baptisms for any of his children, the first one I know about was Maria who died in infancy in 1818, buried Bunhill Fields.

If he was an RN surgeon would that have made him an officer?

What records should I target when I go to Kew if I want to try to track his Naval service?

Jane :-)

[Skoosh]

Possibly at Glasgow or Edinburgh universities?

Skoosh.

[Bookbox]

If he was an RN surgeon would that have made him an officer?

Most likely a warrant officer (non-commissioned).

What records should I target when I go to Kew if I want to try to track his Naval service?

Have you read the standard research guide?
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-navy-warrant-officers/
"Records for warrant officers in the Royal Navy before 1830 are incomplete and patchy as there were no central service registers for personnel."

I think he is more likely to have served an apprenticeship with another surgeon than to have attended university.

Do you have the name of any ship on which he served?

[StevieSteve]

From Amanda Bevan' s book on TNA:

All with the caveat that records are liable to be incomplete

Until 1796 surgeons qualified by certificate  from the Barber-Surgeons

Certs from 1790-1800 in ADM  106/2952-2963

Service Registers 1774-1886 indexed in ADM 104/11

Separate Pay Registers for Surgeons 1797-1858 in ADM 24/1-92

Correspondence on merits of individual officers 1829-1873 in ADM  104/31-40

Questions on Pay, promotions of surgeons 1817-1833 ADM 105/1-9

Memos and reports on surgeons ADM 195/10-19

Surgeons Medical Journals for Naval Ships and Hospitals ADM 101

[familydar]

Thanks Bookbox, I found the TNA research guide after my post but before I saw your reply.  I've also noted all likely datasets listed on their "further research" guide and searched any that have online indices.

And thanks also StevieSteve, that's exactly the sort of info I was hoping for.

RN medical journals on ancestry have John FADEN aboard the Daphne presenting with what sounds like flu on 25th May 1819.

Except for the above possibility, I don't have names of ships on which he might have served.  Are there pay lists for vessels, or crew lists giving details of a seaman's previous engagement so you can work them back?

I don't get a "hit" on the ADM29 dataset on ancestry so I presume he didn't apply for a pension.  He isn't listed on the ADM171 medal rolls so evidently didn't distinguish himself.  In fact he seems to have been so good at preserving his anonymity I wonder if perhaps he wasn't a warrant officer at all and was actually just the rating who wielded the saw!

Jane :-)

[Tyrannosaurus]

From the Asiatic Annual Register, 1809, page 204.
October, 1806, Penang. - “Mr. McFaden, surgeon of the Harrier, to be surgeon of the Macasser.”
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=WyMoAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA204

The Macasser was the Dutch frigate Pallas, which had been captured by the British in July, 1806, and renamed. The circumstances of the capture and the transfer of the surgeon, are described under “A Forgotten Naval Battle” at the end of this document.
http://myrepositori.pnm.gov.my/bitstream/123456789/4315/1/JB1867_KLIN.pdf

Rex

[familydar]

 

Thanks Rex, so glad I posted here.

I shall look into this in more detail when I'm less pooled in perspiration (last day of the heatwave we're told, phew).  It seems I now have two vessels and dates to take with me to TNA, so a proper starting point at last.

 Jane

[Joe Root]

yeh nice post
hr@ dissertation proposal writing

[HughC]

It may not include surgeons, but if you live near a good reference library try
Syrett, David; DiNardo, R.L.: The Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815 (Aldershot, 1994).