Cornwall to Scotland

[Neale1961]

19 Mar 1844 Redruth – BURIAL
George Facey STEVENS age 54 (Parish Clerk)
Abode - Trevingey

1851 census
Honour Stephens is a widow living with her children, although William is not with her.

[Rfarace]

Ooh, thank you so much for that, Neale! I was out running errands and it was nice to come home to find this.

[Rena]

To give you an idea about the length of the journey.

Somewhere in my files, I have a 19th century advert by a sailing ship's owner.   The journey from Aberdeen to London was six hours by sea.  The North Sea down the east coast of the UK is quite a treacherous ocean.   

From Glasgow through the Irish Sea down to Cornwall could probably take the same amount of time or a bit longer with a fair wind.

Roughly 500 miles port to port? Average speed 80mph or 70 knots an hour?

I wouldn't know about speed - I found this pertaining to a large sailing ship with about 12 sails.:

"..If you ask how many nautical miles can you sail in a day, you should know that on average, sailboats can sail up to 100NM (that is 115 miles or 185km) in one day when they run downwind..."

[softly softly]

Quote

So, I’m thinking that I should endeavor to dig deep and try harder to locate William in the 1851 census, most likely either in Cornwall or Scotland.

In the absence of seemingly any suitable William Stevens on 1851 census there are 3 possible record's on Findmypast re military service,for William Stevens/Stephens born c1826 in Cornwall I do not have subscription to check out details.

Caution, there is a tree on Anc* that has him in 1851 in London with occupation Tailor". This is NOT him. This man can be found in 1861 census as a Tailor and now married.

John

[Davedrave]

The St Ives army record is a William Stevens (who was 42) in 1810.

[softly softly]

Davedrave, thanks for that, I have amended my last post as there are other Stevens/Stephens/Stevenson in Cornwall born around that time who could be our man .

John

[softly softly]

Long shot post, on FindMyPast.

William
Stevens
No. 1293
Private
32nd (The Cornwall) Regiment Of Foot

[hanes teulu]

To give you an idea about the length of the journey.

Somewhere in my files, I have a 19th century advert by a sailing ship's owner.   The journey from Aberdeen to London was six hours by sea.  The North Sea down the east coast of the UK is quite a treacherous ocean.   

From Glasgow through the Irish Sea down to Cornwall could probably take the same amount of time or a bit longer with a fair wind.

Roughly 500 miles port to port? Average speed 80mph or 70 knots an hour?

I wouldn't know about speed - I found this pertaining to a large sailing ship with about 12 sails.:

"..If you ask how many nautical miles can you sail in a day, you should know that on average, sailboats can sail up to 100NM (that is 115 miles or 185km) in one day when they run downwind..."

1 knot = 1 nautical mile. The 19th century ship advert was claiming it would average 70 nautical miles per hour.
Tracking the passage of the steamship coaster City of London it took 3 days Aberdeen to London - year 1849.
Need to track a sailing ship .

[Rfarace]

Thank you to everyone for the information that has been posted, it has let me find ancestors another generation or two back (including another Honour (which sounds odd to modern ears, but if we can have as names Faith and Hope, why not Charity and Honour?)), giving me some firm roots in Cornwall.

I will be heading back up the road to our town library in the next day or two to use their Ancestry subscription again. I’d like the 1851 census image for Honour mentioned above, and I’ll do some more spelunking trying to find William’s whereabouts in 1851. I had not previously considered military service.

I did stumble across one odd record on Ancestry yesterday: apparently Honour had a stay in a workhouse. I didn’t quite understand the reason, but it seemed like she was exhausted and didn’t have the resources to pay for lodging. I’m going to explore that a little further and see if there’s an entry for George as well, as I’d imagine they might have been traveling together.

Thanks again!

Edit: in case it’s of interest, the photo I’m using as my avatar is of my great-grandparents, George Stevens and Mary Fairlie, with their children George and Mary, my grandmother. This was taken in the US, and judging that my grandmother looks maybe three or four years old, probably from about 1914-15. George and Mary arrived as a newly married couple in January 1907.