Tailor, to Messenger - to Packer?

[Missange]

My 3x great grandfather John Nash, originally a Tailor by trade, was listed in the 1851 Census in Lambeth, London, as a "Messenger," aged 41. I have been unable to find him in any later Census listings, but have just obtained the death certificate of a John Nash aged 42 who was found drowned in the River Thames in 1852. However, his occupation on the death certificate is shown as "Packer under the board of Inland Revenue," - does anyone know what this work might have involved? In the absence of any other family names on the death certificate, with the variations in his occupation I am not sure how to go about finding out whether this was indeed the same John Nash.

[PaulineJ]

Does the death certificate give a 'usual address'?

[Missange]

Hello Pauline, thank you for replying. No, there is no address shown - under the date (23 July 1852) it simply says "found dead in the River Thames off Horselydown." The informant column shows the coroner's details: William Payne, Coroner for Southwark, Brunswick Square, Bloomsbury.

In the burial record for this John Nash (in the churchyard of St John Horselydown) under "abode" it says "Coroner's Order." Perhaps his family never even knew he had been found? But if his address or family were not known to the authorities, I wonder how they knew he was John Nash aged 42?

From their general background I don't believe the family would have been too poor to claim his body and bury him; and I have located my John's wife Ann Elizabeth Nash in the 1861 census, where she is described as a widow, "Fundholder," visitor of a (so far seemingly) unrelated family in Ramsgate, Kent.

[Billyblue]

In the burial record for this John Nash (in the churchyard of St John Horselydown) under "abode" it says "Coroner's Order." Perhaps his family never even knew he had been found? But if his address or family were not known to the authorities, I wonder how they knew he was John Nash aged 42?

Well, whoever found him, or someone in the vicinity, may have known who he was but not necessarily where he came from.  Or his employer may have identified him, so had an idea of his age,  but not his background.
How many people that you have worked with, have you known who their parents were?

Dawn M

[Missange]

Thanks Dawn. Yes, that's true, and quite possibly that was the case, which is very sad. These days employers normally record details of next of kin in case of emergencies, but probably not back then, especially if it was casual labour. Which brings me back to his occupation, and what a "Packer under the board of Inland Revenue" might have been: could it be related to "Messenger" duties at all? I guess a Messenger could have been a courier of some kind (probably not a Postman, which I think was more often described as Mail Messenger) - I have read that it could be related to the newspaper industry; most of John Nash's sons and grandsons went into the printing industry in Lambeth.