James Wetherall (1833-1918) and Rhoda Brown (1839-1904).
My 3rd great-grand uncle and aunt.
James Wetherall was one of the children of my 4th great-grandmother Rebecca Frances Wetherall, and like his siblings he was born illegitimately in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.
I’ve yet to find a baptism record for him but surviving census returns estimate his year of birth as falling between 1833 and 1839. The likelihood is that James’s age moved about, partly to suit his needs at a given time. The 1841 Census suggested he was born in 1833, and this is likely to be reasonably accurate.
The 1851 Census recorded him living with his mother and siblings and working as a bricklayer’s labourer but he then volunteered for service in the Navy on 1 July 1853. He gave his date of birth as 1 May 1835 and the papers recorded that he had brown hair, blue eyes, stood 5ft 6ins tall and had a dark complexion. Although the name of the ship he was due to join as an Ordinary Seaman was HMS Resistance (June 1853-April 1854) – an 1805-vintage vessel that had been converted to take British soldiers to the four corners of the empire – the records suggested he may have served for a few months as a Boy 1st Class on the Fisgard before then. This was a shore-based vessel at Woolwich in London, used to train navy engineers and support those working onshore.
James went on to serve on HMS Scourge (April 1854-February 1856), sailing to Ascension, the Accra Roads and the island of Fernando Po off the west coast of Africa. They’d been sent to the island to deal with the troublesome trading centre and kingdom of Bonny in the Niger Delta, which had descended into conflict in the early 1850s following the death of its ruler. James was then assigned to HMS Magnet (March 1856-September 1856), the Edinburgh (September 1856-May 1857) while it served as a guard ship at Sheerness off the Kent coast, the Terror (June 1857-June 1860 when it was the base ship in Bermuda) and the Gorgon (June-August 1860, pictured top). He spent much of the 1860s as an able seaman but his other ratings are difficult to decipher. However, he received a good conduct badge in June 1859.
James, who sported a ship tattoo on one arm, signed on for a further period of 10 years’ service from 10 August 1860. This time his date of birth was given as 10 March 1836! He further extended his service in 1870 in order to qualify for a naval pension, signing while serving as a quarter master on board the HMS Pandora. After 1860 he served on HMS Asia (August 1860-March 1862) while it was stationed as a guard ship in Portsmouth, the Osborne (June 1862-January 1868), HMS Pandora (January 1868-July 1872) off the west coast of Africa and in the Mediterranean and HMS Ganges (July 1872-1874), a training ship for boys that was mostly moored near Falmouth in Cornwall during his time on board. Throughout his time with the navy – 20 years and 350 days up until 1874 – his character was consistently rated as good or very good and he received two further good conduct badges in 1861 and 1866. Another Navy record stated that he was also a sailmaker.
HMY Osborne, which he served on for almost six years, was a paddle steamer and one of the royal yachts, originally launched in 1843 as the HMY Victoria & Albert. It was renamed the Osborne when a new royal yacht was introduced in 1855 and in its new guise would often ferry the royal family from the mainland to their estate of the same name across the Solent on the Isle of Wight.
While he was serving a stint on the Osborne, on 26 March 1863, James married Rhoda Brown at St Mary’s in Portsea, Hampshire. She was born in Bradford, Wiltshire, on 10 November 1839 to parents William, a cloth dresser, and Rhoda. Curiously, the marriage record listed coal dealer Benjamin Wetherall as James’s father but was this a fiction designed to hide his illegitimacy from his wife and her family? Rhoda, like other naval wives, would have seen her husband rarely and at the time of the 1871 Census was living with her mother in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and working as a domestic servant. Ten years later, having left the navy, James was described as a sailor living at Cardigan Villas, Islington, Middlesex. The record is a little unclear but it may be that he was serving in the merchant navy at this point. However, later in the 1880s the couple were in the Wiltshire town of Hilperton and the Kelly’s Directories of Wiltshire for 1889, 1895 and 1898 suggested he was landlord of the Three Horseshoes pub there. By 1901 the couple were living in a cottage in the village, James described as a naval pensioner.
Rhoda died on 19 October 1904, her address given as Lower Studley, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and was buried on 22 October, leaving effects worth £123. I’m unsure about James’ death. He was alive at the time of the 1911 Census, which showed him living in one room in Chapter Road, Willesden Green, Middlesex, as a naval pensioner. This record also confirmed that the couple hadn’t had any children. He is most likely the James Wetherall whose death was registered in Portsmouth, Hampshire, in 1918. Perhaps, as an old sea dog, he’d returned to the coast to see out his last days.
Sources: Birth, marriage, death, burial, census, probate and other records at Ancestry.co.uk, Findmypast.co.uk and Norfolk Family History Society.
Royal Navy records from National Archives – ADM 188/28/54114, ADM 139/89/8882, ADM 139/517/11632.
Kingdom of Bonny information.
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