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Scotland (Counties as in 1851-1901) => Scotland => Banffshire => Topic started by: ryanh315 on Monday 30 March 20 00:24 BST (UK)
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Hi everybody
My 5x great grandfather Joseph ADAMSON was born in 1769 in Whitehills, Banffshire. He was a Sailor in the Merchant Navy. Does anybody know where I could get a service record for him or get any further information regarding his service?
Many thanks :)
Ryan
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There was no such thing as "The Merchant Navy" at that time. He would simply have been a seaman serving on a merchant ship. The designation "Merchant Navy" was given to the merchant fleets of the UK following their service in WWI.
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The National Archives at Kew, England, explain where to find a few records. With a bit of luck the information you need will be included.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/merchant-seamen-serving-up-to-1913/
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That's great - thank you I will take a look now.
Ryan :)
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Sorry to rain on the parade but there is little recorded concerning the registration of merchant seamen before 1845. The Merchant Shipping act of 1835 did make provision for registration of seamen. Masters of ships were required to file Agreements and Crew Lists with the new register office of merchant seamen, the forerunner of the Register General of shipping and Seamen. You have to remember that most merchant seamen would be illiterate and masters would be more concerned with meeting the requirements of the act rather than the accuracy of the contents.
You need to see if there is anything on your man in the Merchant seamans registry index available from FindMyPast. That said you man would have been 66 years old in 1835, so doubtfull if he was still at sea.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/merchant-seamen-registers-1835-1857/
Do you know the names and home ports of any of the ships he sailed on? There are some further records out there but you would need to spend many hours searching in various archives. Who knows you may get lucky.
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I had a look on FindMyPast under both names (Armstrong and Adamson). Nothing found with birth year 1769 plus or minus 10 years.
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Thanks ShaunJ.
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I agree, he probably was not still sailing in 1835 at 66 yrs.
I don't know the names of any ships that he sailed - will need to look in archives for that!
Ryan :)
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There might be a glimmer of hope of finding a record and that is if he had been impressed into the navy during a period when Britain was gearing up for one of its endless wars, e.g. at the end of the 1700s bad blood with Denmark meant there was a call to enlarge our navy.
Surfing will find a few articles on imppressmen but there's an outline on this webpage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressment
There are definitely some records of the in-patients and offspring of Queen Anne's seafarers Greenwich hospital, London. There are supposed to be some records of outpatients too but I've been unable to locate the Edinburgh ones, which should have details of my ancester.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Hospital,_London
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That’s great thank you very much. I will take a look!
Ryan :)