Lt Col. Caesar Colclough Armett

[HughC]

In the admissions register of the Manchester Grammar School, the entry for one of his brothers says that he sailed to Cork in early 1819, en route for Canada where the 35th regiment had been posted, but the ship was lost in a storm.

I found a history of that regiment (later the Royal Sussex, but then probably the Belfast Regiment) which says that it arrived in Cork in the first week of 1819 and then proceeded to Canada.  No mention of a shipwreck.

Wikipedia has a list of shipwrecks in 1819.  Most mentions of Cork in January or February are for ships leaving there.  That leaves us with the Berwickshire Packet which disappeared between Bristol and Cork on 24 Jan.  But why would Armett be travelling about three weeks after the rest of the regiment?  There appears to be no mention of him on the web site of the National Archives.

Can anyone help me sort this out?

[rosie99]

An entry on FindMyPast has this, the record is available from Lancashire archives
Caesar Colclough Armett
Archive reference 1488/4
Year 1822
Source Lancashire Archives Probate Index Archdeaconry of Chester (infra wills 1600-1824)
Date 20 Dec 1822
Occupation Widower
Record set Lancashire Wills & Probate 1457-1858
Place Lieutenant Colonel in His Majesty's Thirty Fifty Regiment of Foot
Archdeaconry Chester
Subcategory Wills & Probate

ADDED
Link on Lancat

https://archivecat.lancashire.gov.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=W%2fCW%2fInfra%2fC1488%2f4&pos=1

[rosie99]

FindMyPast also has a card that states he and his wife and children died on a Packet from Bristol to Cork which foundered (May 1819)

[hanes teulu]

The April 1819 newspapers confirm he caught the Bristol to Cork packet to join his regiment - accompanied by wife and 4 children.
The earliest report is Tue 6 April 1819 - the Manchester Mercury

[ShaunJ]

Does this help?

From https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/An_Historical_Memoir_of_the_35th_Royal_S/EZ0qq7S32sAC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=caesar+colclough+arnett&printsec=frontcover

[hanes teulu]

The Bristol Mercury, 1 Feb 1819, reported "Sailed - The Berwickshire Packet, Day and Hibernia, Rees, for Cork"

By 13th Feb the Bristol Mirror reported " ... serious apprehensions being entertained for the safety of the Berwickshire Packet, Day which sailed from hence 24th January and has not since been heard of"

[HughC]

Thank you all for your replies, which I missed yesterday but discovered this morning.

Strange variation in dates: 24 Feb. / 24 Jan. and that it took until May for some newspapers to report the loss.
However Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_shipwrecks_in_1819
tells us that the Berwickshire left Bristol on 24 Jan. and didn't arrive in Cork,
so it seems my guess was right.  I'm glad to have confirmation.

Also odd that the Lancashire archives record his "occupation" as widower,
when his wife and children were with him on the boat that sank!
If we assume that he had been previously married, and made his will after the death of the first wife, it would have been rendered invalid by his subsequent marriage to Ann Satterthwaite.
Isn't that the rule with wills?

[hanes teulu]

The regular packets for Cork were advertised as sailing every Saturday. The 24th Jan 1819 was a Sunday.

Liverpool Mercury, 19 Feb 1819
NAVAL INTELLIGENCE
We are requested to contradict a statement which appeared in the Bristol Mirror of Saturday (20 Feb)**, respecting the brig Berwickshire having on board forty passengers, when she left this port on the 24th ult. The cabin passengers consisted of two gentlemen, a lady, four children and a servant. The Berwickshire was not a regular packet, but owing to the non arrivals of the commercial packets, was put on the birth by the proprietors of those vessels, to facilitate the trade between this port and Cork. Bristol Mercury

** that statement had the Berwickshire sailing 24th Jan.

[HughC]

I don't see how the Liverpool Mercury of 19 Feb. can contradict a statement that appeared in the Bristol Mercury the following day!  But at least they agree that 24 Jan. was the date of sailing, though "this port" appears to have been taken verbatim from the Bristol report.

Presumably one of the gentlemen, the lady, and the four children were the Armetts.
The servant may have been theirs.
And "birth" appears to mean berth: not the first time I've come across that old variant, though the Shorter Oxford Dictionary doesn't say when the modern spelling became established.