Sailor circa 1830 (c) V&A Museum
Wardell Jacques– A Brief Introduction
Another post – this time Levi’s great great great grandfather, Wardell Jacques,
who from the age of 13 was in the British Merchant Services in the
Sunderland area and later captain of at least two vessels in the 1840s.
His unusual name can be found as Wardell, Wardill, Wardile and Wardale,
as well as his surname being spelt Jaques, Jacques and Jakes
respectively. For clarity’s sake I have decided to stick with Wardell
Jacques in this blog post which seems to be the most common spelling on
the records.
Victorian child sailor
Early beginnings
The
rather fabulously named Wardell Jacques has been highly interesting in
terms of research. Born around 1809 in the little village of Goathland
in Yorkshire, he already came from a family of mariners. His father,
Thomas Jacques (born about 1781 in next door Pickering) had also been a
mariner, as seen in the 1841 and 1851 censuses respectively. His mother,
Esther Wardale (born about 1778, also in Goathland) provided her son’s
rather unusual moniker. He had four older sisters: Jane (b.1798), Esther
(b.1800), Elizabeth (b.1802) and Ann (b.1804). Thomas and Esther
applied to the Trinity House Calendar twice in their old age for
financial assistance, in both 1841 and 1849 again providing further
evidence that Thomas had been a seaman.
Trinity House in Tower Hill, serving the Mariner since 1514
The
family clearly relocated to the bustling port of Sunderland at some
point between Wardell’s birth around 1809 and the 1820s (where his
sister Ann married William Ruddock in Monkswearmouth in 1823). In the
period 1822-3, when he was 13 years old, Wardell signed up to the
Merchant Service evidenced by his Master’s Certificate of Service from
1851, which states he had been a mariner with them for 29 years.
Starting one's apprenticeship in the Merchant Service at the age of
13-14 years old was not uncommon at this time.
Wardell's
Master's Certificate of Service from 1851. It says he was born in
Sunderland, when that wasn't the case. I suspect based on this, he made
the move there with his parents as a very small child.
British Merchant Service Career: From Apprentice to Captain
Wardell
himself can be first found in the Merchant Service records in 1835. At
this point he was 26 years old and had worked his way up the ranks to
become ship’s mate on the ‘Integrity of Sunderland’ which returned to
port in September 1836.
His records from 1835
Further
research indicates that there was indeed a ship called ‘Integrity’
owned by Helmsley of Shields, built in Sunderland. It was ‘snow’, a
handy and fast sailing vessel with two masts, a loose fitting gaff sail
and a characteristic sharp bow at the front. In the period 1841-2 the
Integrity was being used to travel to St Petersburg. Sadly, I can’t find
concrete evidence of the ship from 1835, but there is evidence that
suggests Wardell captained other ‘snows’ later in his career, suggesting
that his ‘Integrity of Sunderland’ and this ‘Integrity’ were one and
the same. If so, it opens the possibility that Wardell cut his teeth as a
merchant mariner by transporting cargo to the Baltic.
A 'snow' or 'snauw' from around this period
Wardell
next turns up in 1841 as a ship’s captain. The writing is very hard to
read, but with a little help from my friend, Jo Shortt Butler, it seems
that his ship was the ‘Undaunted.’ This tallies up with a contemporary
ship of the same name, owned by Hillyards of Portsmouth. It was another
‘snow’ which is the same type of ship as the Integrity, which I think
was the ship he was on back in 1836 and the little record numbers
‘80/390’ on his merchant records, suggest that the ship he had captained
had Portsmouth as its port of registry. Again, this is slight
conjecture, but seems quite likely these two ‘Undaunteds’ are one and
the same. What I can tell for sure from the record is that he was not
travelling abroad at this time. His merchant shipping duties were all
domestic.
A view of Portsmouth Harbour circa 1840
Interestingly,
1841 was also the year he was initiated into the Free Masons. He was a
member of the St John’s Lodge in Sunderland which was very popular with
local seamen in this period, where they often provided support and
assistance for those in what was considered a somewhat hazardous and
uncertain occupation. Wardell can be found again two years later in
1843 in Lloyd’s Register of Merchant Ships, on the Maid of Kent. Sadly, I
haven’t managed to find any further information on this particular
vessel at the present time.
A freemason from the 1840s
Wardell's Freemason Record
The
last records I have of him in the Merchant Service are from the period
1845-6. He had completed three stints of employment as a mariner during
this time. The first ending in June 1845 when he filed his crew lists (a
legal requirement), shows he was again a captain. The two six month
stints in 1846 suggest he was a seaman. Perhaps, these were bigger
vessels and he was lower down the pecking order as a result. Either way,
frustratingly no name of the vessels are given, though once again, it
is clear that he was on domestic duties (shown by the fact that the
records are written across the two boxes marked ‘out’ and ‘home’) and
that all three ships had a port of registry in Newhaven. Newhaven at
this time, was still a very small harbour. It was not until 1847, when
the railway opened linking it to Lewes, that the port really started to
expand.
Painting of Newhaven Harbour, Sussex in 1848, by Richard Henry Nibbs
Wardell's Merchant Record for the period 1845-6
By
this stage of his career he was 38 years old. In the following fourteen
years he had four daughters and a son: Jane Ann (b.1845), Susannah (b.
1847), Sarah (b.1851), Esther (b.1853) and Frederick (b.1860). All the
children were born in the Sunderland area to his wife Susannah Hardy
(born in Sunderland in 1817). Susannah’s father, Robert (b. 1773 in
Brough, Yorkshire) was a tailor and also a Chelsea pensioner who had
fought in Canada; whilst her mother, Judith Welch (born around 1780)
heralded from Ireland. There is one Judith Welsh that I’ve
managed to find on the Irish baptismal records from Borris, Carlow in
1789. If she’s the same one, it would be a massive coincidence, as my
own maternal grandmother’s family herald from that area. Both of
Susannah’s parents herald further research and possibly a blog post of
their own sometime in the future.
The 'Lizzie Webber' leaving Sunderland port in 1852
Anyhow,
I digress. Going back to Wardell’s children, some of the large gaps
between their births supports his known career as a merchant mariner who
was often away from home. Yet, it also clear, that he did spend time
back with his wife, and Sunderland was still his base in this period. It
is notable, that there are no census records for him before 1871.
Merchant seamen only got recorded in the census if their boat was
docked, so his absence from the records, suggests he was at sea in June
1841, March 1851, and April 1861. So even though I only have merchant
records up to 1846, it is highly likely that he continued his career
with them as a ‘Master Mariner’ until sometime in the 1860s when he
would have been in his fifties.
Susannah Jacques, his wife, heading the household in the 1861 census as 'Master Mariner's Wife'
Swansea and back to Sunderland
In
his first ever census in 1871, at the grand old age of 63(!) he was
living in Swansea and working as an agent. Judging from his neighbours'
occupations (some are mariners wives) and the fact that Morris Street
where they were living is part of the Port Tennant area of the city,
suggests that he was still working for the merchant service, else using
his skills in a related profession, possibly working for another cargo
or shipping company. In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson describes the area
in his Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales as being the terminus of the Swansea and Neath Canal, which could well have been where he plied his trade.
Swansea Harbour around this period
Ships docked at Swansea Harbour in this period
His
second and last census in 1881, has him living back in Sunderland with
his wife Esther in Bishopwearmouth. The pair, now elderly, were living
with their eldest daughter Susannah, her husband and their six sons aged
between 14 and 6. Wardell gives his occupation as a former master
mariner. Rather touchingly, one of these six grandsons, Wardill, is
named after him.* He died in Sunderland four years later aged seventy
seven.
Wearmouth Bridge in the late 19th century
* Indeed, he had a second grandson with his name, Wardell Jacques (b.1896), the son of his son Fred.
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