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Wales (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Glamorganshire Lookup Requests => Glamorganshire => Wales => Glamorganshire Completed Lookups => Topic started by: Bellou on Wednesday 01 February 12 16:00 GMT (UK)

Title: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Bellou on Wednesday 01 February 12 16:00 GMT (UK)
John Hixson, one of my ancestors , was (as were a number of my forbears) an oyster dredger in the Mumbles, Glamorgan. I have found reference in  to him having been drowned in September 1871 , following an incident between his  skiff (The Oyster)  with another boat (The Aurore).  Does anyone know whee I could find out more about this incident?  Are there any newspaper records about the incident ?

Are there any records about Oyster Dredgers and their  boats  in the area?

Many thanks

Bellou  :) :)
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: KGarrad on Wednesday 01 February 12 16:07 GMT (UK)
Just googled and found this:

https://sites.google.com/site/ahistoryofmumbles/dredging-for-oysters
or
http://www.welshwales.co.uk/oyster_harvesting.htm

and this (which might explain the incident?)


http://www.rootschat.com/links/0k2l/

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Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: osprey on Wednesday 01 February 12 19:56 GMT (UK)
you can get a copy of the newspaper report from the Cambrian online index. Surname is spelt Hickson.

http://www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5673

 ;)
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Morganllan on Wednesday 01 February 12 22:08 GMT (UK)
Hello  :)

There are some Hixson records on the Swansea Mariners site:

http://www.swanseamariners.org.uk/swanseamariners.php

They could be related to John.

Kind Regards
Morgan
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Bellou on Wednesday 01 February 12 23:37 GMT (UK)
What great information! Spending time now looking at them all!

Many thanks

bellou  :) :)
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Bellou on Wednesday 01 February 12 23:59 GMT (UK)
Hello  :)

There are some Hixson records on the Swansea Mariners site:

http://www.swanseamariners.org.uk/swanseamariners.php

They could be related to John.

Kind Regards
Morgan

I can see from the dobs that the mariners in these records , Joseph and Solomen are John's sons.  Thank you for the link.

bellou  :) :)
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Cell on Thursday 02 February 12 02:52 GMT (UK)
Hi,
Do you have access to 19th century British library newspapers? You can view the newspaper article of the inquest  that is in the Western Mail online  . You may be able to access the papers through your library for free on your home computer - For instance here in Aus we get access  through our national library, some  British libraries also have this service .

Where did you get the name  Aurore from, as according to the newspaper's report of the inquest  the dredger that the" Oyster" collided with was called "Hurrah" (the name is mentioned  three times throughout  the article ). The Hurrah  ran up against them  sinking the Oyster and throwing John, his brother and nephew into the sea . The verdict of the inquest was accidental death.  John's nephew managed to grab onto the stern of the Hurrah and get aboard the boat, whilst John's brother was saved by a boat that came to help. John was the only one to drown.

If you would like to know more about Oyster dredging in Mumbles, I can recommend the book" The Mumbles - past and Present" by Norman L. Thomas. It has a whole chapter about the subject. It  is a good read for anyone who has family in  Mumbles. You should be able to pick up one very cheaply for just 3 or 4 pounds, I paid  10 pounds for my one from Dylans book shop ,but it's signed


Hope that helps
Kind regards :)
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Bellou on Friday 24 August 12 13:21 BST (UK)
you can get a copy of the newspaper report from the Cambrian online index. Surname is spelt Hickson.

http://www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5673

 ;)

Just to update I ordered the articles on the incident and inquest . It was fascinating and answered a number of questions . Thanks

bellou
Title: Re: John Hixson drowned at Mumbles 1871.
Post by: Morganllan on Friday 24 August 12 16:52 BST (UK)
Good news Bellou  :)

The Cambrian index is a great resource, and the National Library of Wales Newspapers and Journals Digitisation Project will be fantastic when it complete:

http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=4723