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Welcome news from New Zealand

Dear Dan (26-11-2021), In 2003 I contacted you briefly, regarding the family of my fifth great grandfather, Duncan Campbell (1726-1803), after reading your remarkable web material pertaining to this family. Since 2003 I have been researching and writing about my Campbell forebears.
I have made several visits to The State library of New South Wales, The Mitchell Library, to peruse Duncan's Letter Books, and have researched in Scotland. I plan to publish my work, “WITH GRACE Her Story and Place in Campbell History 1642-1856” (My manuscript centres around my third great grandmother, Duncan's granddaughter, Grace) It is a family story, memoir and source book, primarily for family, extended family, and any other interested parties. It is in four parts, with a section on Duncan, and Rebecca. (An appendix relates to my forebear who came to NZ). I have focused on the family life where possible and the women, and I have used some material from your works, generally one-few words per subject, in the section on Duncan and Rebecca - all of which which is referenced to you.
e.g. The names of some of the ships Duncan sailed in. “First stick of furniture” - for Rebecca. Warehouse site in London, Duncan's business with Landon Carter. MI for John SaltSpring and his matriculation date, family rumour re Lord Selkirk and Molly, suggested patronage for brother, Neil, (Duke Argyll), the Thomas Jefferson link and DC as chairman of British Creditors, Blackheath and golf, Duncan's view of abolition of slavery. Bligh's personality.
I am writing to advise you of this - and and to enquire if you may have a digital copy of the photo's of Duncan, Rebecca and (Principal) Neil, that I may use?
Kind Regards, Yours sincerely, Evelyn A McIver-Keeley,
Christchurch, New Zealand.

Dear Dan, Given your notice of closing down some websites, I hope you are doing okay with the coronavirus yourself.
I found your reference to the ship Tryal and the January 1767 date in The Blackheath Connections, Chapter 12 online. The Tryal was under command of Captain Sommervell or Sommerville, which conforms to the oral tradition that runs through our family about the name of the captain.
In that same section, you cite the ship Thornton sailing to the colonies in May 1767, on which purportedly Samuel's brother Joshua sailed after him, this time as a crewman.
How do I cite you as a source, and where your original source data came from?
Cheers, Vince -- (Herman Vincent Moses, PhD CEO & Principal VinCate & Associates Museum and Historic Preservation Consultants, 18-5-2020)
Answer: Dear Vince, and very good. Glad matters pan out ok. Pls read Coldham's books as a backcheck on ship's names. Otherwise, I used the Duncan Campbell Letterbooks (Held at Mitchell Library, Sydney) as a major source for The Blackheath Connection (which was placed on the Net in 2000); These Letterbooks proceed 1758-c.1810, so the ship name Thornton came from them. If the notes to Ch. 12 are awry, we are both in trouble. But I think I got the ship name Tryal from Coldham's excellent research. Just cite something like: The Blackheath Connection website book by Dan Byrnes, at: http://www.danbyrnes.com/au/blackheath (adding the individual chapter in question if desired). And tks for asking. - DB

Blackheath in Kent

List (Updated February 2012) of names being notable residents of Blackheath, London, from 1760++ (alphabetical not chronological).
Blackheath here may as well be regarded as something like a Stockbroker Belt - Compiled by Dan Byrnes):

slaver Francis Abbatt active 1776, alleged founder of Blackheath Golf Club.
Calcutta merchant (possibly) Henry Alexius Abbot (1764-1819) and/or his son General Sir James Abbot Bengal Artillery (1807-1896) of The Paragon, Blackheath.
Benjamin Aislabie of Lee Place Kent, (1774-1842 wine merchant supplying Horatio Nelson, partner with William Eade) son of contractor Rawson Aislabie (1732-1806).
RN Captain Charles Allen (born Blackheath 1779), a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital and see re his father William Allen of the Stamp Office.
Lloyd´s underwriter John Julius Angerstein, notable figure at Lloyd´s of London, resided on the border of Greenwich/Blackheath, had a Norfolk Pine in his backyard, a souvenir of Australasia.
General India George Elliot Ashburner active 1821.
Banker Francis Baring (d.1810) once of Lee, Lewisham, near Blackheath.
Whaler and convict contractor Daniel Bennett (d.1826) and son William (d. 1844.
Samuel Bicknell (1723-1811 died at Blackheath) kept Senegal and African Coffee House in Cornhill, later a trader in spirits, retired to Morden College Blackheath.
John St Barbe, whaling investor, Lloyd´s Underwriter, noting that there remains much to find (and little on the Net) on his partners William Bignell [who might have married one Catharine St Barbe?] and Green.
NSW Commissioner John Thomas Bigge (see Hazel King, Colonial Expatriates saying Bigge had a house at Blackheath) wrote his report on NSW when staying at the Enderby house at Blackheath.
William Bligh doubtless knew much of Duncan Campbell at Blackheath, as Bligh´s wife was friends with Campbell´s second wife Mary Mumford.
Isabella Susanna Boyd (died 1876 Blackheath) daughter of banker Walter Boyd (1753-1837 who died ruined, of Boyd Benfield and Co which did secret service work.
Nathaniel Brassey (1752-1798 died Blackheath) son of Lombard Street banker Nathaniel Brassey.
Charles John Brome of Blackheath married Cecilia Bythesea daughter of William Bythesea of Blackheath.
Shipbuilder Peter Bronsden of Blackheath.
UK historian Henry Thomas Buckle (died 1862 lived sometime at Blackheath) was a relative of John William Buckle (who married Sarah Boyd) of Hither Green near Blackheath of the convict contractor firm Buckle, Buckle, Bagster and Buchanan.
Charles James Busk of Cape Town was also of Blackheath.
Oil cooper Charles Buxton was of Croom Hill Blackheath, and had a descendant Charles Buxton who married Mary Enderby (1757-1829) of the Blackheath family (not forgetting that Gordon of Khartoum came from a family connected to the Enderbys).
Duncan Campbell (1726-1803) hulks overseer.
Denmark merchant Thomas Chapman (1766-1844) lived at Blackheath, of the Chapman family of convict contractors.
Edward Collingwood of Blackheath had a daughter Julia Grieve Collingwood who in 1878 married Henry Stinton Smith of Sydney, son of NSW MLA and banker Henry Gilbert Smith.
Susannah Collingwood (1748-1818) daughter of an Edward married Thomas Larkins of the Blackheath Larkins, and she had a grandmother Mary Bigge daughter of William Bigge, but these Collingwoods are not necessarily of the noted Collingwood naval family.
Sir James Creed of Blackheath (had a white lead works, that is paint factory and an EICo director) died 1762, was married to a Hankey of the banker Hankeys family.
James Beveridge Duncan of Blackheath had a daughter Elizabeth 1791-1865) born at Blackheath who married Warwick Gerard Lake Viscount3 of Delhi and Laswari.
There are some Elliotts of Blackheath.
Samuel Enderby Snr. the whaler (died 1797).
One-time Governor Newfoundland Edward Falkingham was of Crooms Hill Blackheath.
General Sir Bart Anthony Farrington (d 1823) married Elizabeth Colden an American (Loyalist) who was vaguely related to Henry Colden Antill (later of Picton NSW), Henry being a distant relative of both the Campbell and Bligh families.
Major-General John Field CB (nd) of Blackheath is noted in Mowle´s [NSW] Genealogy for Cox since his son married a Cox.
Simon Fraser (d.1807/1810) an EICo director was of Blackheath.
Joseph Fletcher Green of RH Green shipping firm died 1923 was of Blackheath, Greens as connected with the Australia trade.
Glyn´s banker Thomas II Hallifax (d.1850) son of a banker Lord Mayor of London was of Blackheath.
Sir Andrew Snape Hammond (d.1828) had a shipowner father Robert of Blackheath.
Of the bankers Hankey, John Alers Hankey (1803-1872) a partner in the bank was of Blackheath and he had a brother who emigrated to South Australia. Richard Hulse (1727-1805 unmarried) of Hudson´s Bay Co was of Blackheath.
William Innes (1719-1795) MP and slaver was of Blackheath, there is a painting of him in golfing clothes re Blackheath Golf Club.
Ship insurance agent Herbert Goddard Jones of Blackheath married Harriett Cattley of the Cattleys who had a strong family presence at Lloyd´s of London.
London shipbroker John Kettlewell was of Blackheath (his mother was a Cattley), married Margaret Mason Sutherland daughter of a Colonial Broker of Mincing Lane, Charles Sutherland.
Thomas King of the slaving firm Camden Calvert and King was of Blackheath.
Larkins (a family in service of EICo maybe split into 2-3 branches all with EICo service), are still mysterious. One Larkins was a senior account for Warren Hastings in India, information on his life tends to be chewed up in the nonsense-ways the Warren Hastings trial has been written-up across the centuries).
Francis Lucas of Blackheath had a daughter Sarah married to the Tooth family of NSW who had begun as Kent hop merchants.
Father (a wharfinger) and son Knill, both Lords Mayor of London, were of Blackheath, and said to have occupied the former Enderby home just down from St Barbe´s old place (both houses still standing, the Enderby home is now a reception house for weddings etc).
George Marsh (1722-1800) an official at Chatam Docks and of Blackheath had a son William a banker/army agent.
Economist/Philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was of Blackheath.
Captain Alexander Strachan Molison died 1878 who sailed ships for convict contractor Duncan Dunbar II (as his brother James did) wrote his Will when at Morant Cottage Blackheath Road Greenwich,and James Molison (1816-1869) married Isabella Anne Forsyth daughter of convict contractor Osbert Forsyth (died 1853).
Alderman George M. Macaulay of Blackheath, quite near St Barbe and Enderby, we must note that dangerously too little is known of Macaulay´s partners Turnbull and Gregory, and re Turnbull, least of all.
Sir Gregory Page (1685-1775) of what is now Blackheath Park, said to have been an English Medici, very wealthy, East India Company director and son of an EICO director.
John Penn (1770-1843), engineer and millwright, and his son, had a works for making mills for corn and flour at junction of Blackheath and Lewisham roads.
John Kirkby Picard, from Hull, partner with Joshua Haworth Jnr of Hull – into paint (white lead) manufacturing. Joshua had married one of the Larkins girls from Blackheath, and Picard and Haworth moved to London. It is possible that they had some links to the Enderby whalers, or Enderby associates, as paint in those days had whale product as one ingredient.
Scott and Pringle of Threadneedle Street London. Links with John Pringle MP (died 1792), Robert Scott of Blackheath and a John Scott. Scott, Pringle , Cheap and Co. of Madeira are on the list of pre-1775 correspondents of Willing and (Robert) Morris (the financier of the American Revolution).
Commissioner of Excise Henry Reveley (1737-1798) of Blackheath, married Jane Champion de Crespigny, their daughter Henrietta Reveley married Admiral Matthew II Buckle (1770-1855).
London Lord Mayor Thomas Sainsbury (1730-1795) had a house at Blackheath.
Baron3 Gardner, Alan (1810 born Blackheath-1883) (Legge) Gardner was a Lord of Royal Bedchamber.
EICo surveyor of shipping Gabriel Snodgrass lived at Blackheath.
John St Barbe of Blackheath - see above.
Thomas Stokes an investor in the Australian Agricultural Company (according to Pennie Pemberton), was of Blackheath, and possibly connected to other Stokes who also were investors in the AACo.
Grandfather of the writer Lytton Strachey, Edward Strachey (1774-1832) was of Shooters Hill Blackheath and of the Bengal Establishment.
Rear-Admiral Samuel Thornton (b 1797) was of Blackheath Park, son of MP, Russia Company Merchant and Director of EICo Samuel Thornton (1754-1838) who was son of Clapham Sect (abolitionist) Russia Company merchant John Thornton (1720-1790).
The old Enderby house at Blackheath between 1844 and 1850 was occupied by Australian Agricultural Company investor, banker (a family bank), tea man, Richard II Twining (1772-1857).
William Walton (1805-1884 died Blackheath) was son of Captain Francis Walton (1758-1839) of the ship Friendship in the First Fleet, later dockmaster of London Docks.
Abraham Wells (?) of the shipbuilding family was of Blackheath.
Sydney convict Darcy Wentworth (1762-1827) as a highwayman once held up alderman William Curtis at Blackheath (see p. 12 of Ritchie on Wentworths).
An aunt of William Wilberforce the Abolitionist, possibly Judith W. married to silk merchant John Bird, is uncertain here.
(Ends the list).

News in July 2006: The history websites on this domain now have a companion website, and an updating website as well, on a new domain, at Merchant Networks Project, produced by Dan Byrnes and Ken Cozens (of London). This new website (it is hoped) will become a major exercise in economic and maritime history, with much attention to London/British Empire and some attention to Sydney, Australia.

In January 2009 - From: jim brennan

You make a suggestion, Blackheath Connection (Chapter 8) that Graham and Johnson of South Carolina might be connected to Graham and Clark of Billiter Square. Graham in the case of Billiter Square may have been a kinsman of the Graham (born Pyott) who arrived in Georgia in the 1750s and became Lieutenant-Governor during the War of Independence. James Clark, if this is so, probably came from Petty, near Inverness, and had merchant kin in that burgh, as well as Daniel Clark, also from Petty, who was a member of the fur-trading company Brown Rae, which effectively launched Augusta, Georgia. Graham and Clark were close to and involved with Lachlan "Lia: MacGillivray and his cousin John. The elder Macgillivray co-owned with Clark and Graham a vessel called Inverness, which was destroyed by American action in Savannah Roads in 1777, and before the war at least, Henry Laurens was a correspondent of Clark in Billiter Square. Graham and Johnson don't figure in such Georgia history as far as I know, but that isn't much. A James Clark owned the Shelburne, which made one slaving voyage to South Carolina in 1758, but James Clark isn't an uncommon name. -- Message Ends --

On 17 March 2008 from Rod Dickson (WA)

Dear Sir,
I have just been introduced to your website and I congratulate you on its content.
I thought I would let you know of my own research. I have recently had two books on early whaling published, the first being "to King George the Third Sound for whales" being taken from the log book of the London whaler KINGSTON, 1800 - 1802 and her consort the ELLIGOOD.
Then came the "History of Whaling on the South Coast of New Holland from 1800 - 1888." 640 A4 pages detailing more than 720 voyages by American, French, British and Colonial whalers, log book enties, crew lists and etc.
I have just finished the next book, "the Voyage of the ASIA and ALLIANCE from Nantucket on their voyage, 1791 - 1794."
I have just retired from the sea after 48 years in the Merchant and Royal Navies.
These books and others are published by Hesperian Press, here in Perth, Western Australia.
Cheers for now,
Rod Dickson, 239 Manning Road, Waterford, 6152, Perth WA

On 16 March 2008 From: Maxwell Tucker <deecpfl@yahoo.com>

Hello Mr. Dan Byrnes. Do you have any information on John Tucker the slave trader who arrived in Sierra Leone in 1665 in the service of the Gambia Adventurers? I believe this Tucker was a contemporary of Zachary Rogers who also arrived in the service of the Gambia Adventurers in 1665. Both men later on switched to the newly emerging Royal African family. This man is my direct ancestor. I am not sure if you are aware but his descendants are a well known clan in  Sierra Leone. Tucker married an African princess and his descendants prospered from the slave trade (unfortunately). Any information you have on him please contact me.

From Erica Rush on 5 August, 2006 ...
Dear Mr Byrnes, You seem to think that Australians have sensitivities about convict ancestry or that period of our history. Your stated evidence is spurious - or nonsense. There is a great deal of tangible history as well as mines of info for Australians that is heavily used and trafficked.

Such data is not available to overseas researchers, so they may find your difficult website of value, whereas locals have little need to use your files. I have found little of use on your site so far. And I have no pretensions about either revisionist history or conservative interpretations, as there is abundance of documents here as well as physical plant and cemetery records and family and station journals to satisfy.

A reading of Tom Keneally, The Commonwealth of Thieves, for example should allow you to understand that your aspersions are not valid for Australians at all. Whether hearing H. Reynolds or K. Windschuttle on Aboriginal v. European conflict, neither has any sensitivities about our history though they hold philosophically-opposite positions.

Just for your information, I and 10000+ relatives are all descended from multiple First Fleet convicts, later convicts, Norfolk Island's First Fleeters, Van Dieman's Land, Troopers, Squatters, Eora/Dharug Aboriginal gins who were taken as "comfort women" (or maybe even raped although that does not appear to be the case), and free settlers. And we are ok about our identity, history and commitment to ongoing reconciliation work and historical research and story telling.

I'd have to ask that your imputations in the opener of your website be amended. You are simply using a false academic argument. Such an introduction indicates that your collection may not be worthy of those who are genuinely open to reliving our unglorious history. - Erica Rush

The following details were collected by e-mail system about the user agent: IP Addr: deleted, Browser: MSIE 6.0, OS: Windows XP, Referer: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/ships1.htm

Reply to Erica Rush from Byrnes (6 Aug 2006): The Blackheath Connection has been on the Internet since mid-2000. So it looks as though the above indignation has taken more than six years to generate. This can't really be called, quick on the uptake! Besides which, Keneally's book, Commonwealth of Thieves, cites this website with a suitable appreciation. I'm just hoping to hear from the 10000++ relatives as well, bring it on! Let's see their rather large family history written-up soon, maybe placed lucidly on the Internet. Let's have some more soon, of The Great Australian History Wars on a wider front!
Erica Rush by the way is not the first matriarch of family history in Australia to quite huffedly, emotionally, take enormous umbrage with this website. The webmaster merely guesses that these ladies miss the wider points to be made by the contents of the website, which are about history, not about "Australian-ness". Que sera sera, c'est la vie, etc.

Received: 29 Sep 2005 From: Linda (UK)
Hi Dan, In my own genealogy research in India from c.1775 I keep coming back to your website. I am trying to comprehend the links between some of the people I am coming across and I realise there is a lot of reading to do. Do you know the name Thomas ALLPORT at all, or any ALLPORT? Apparently there was a Thomas ALLPORT, part of Dent & Co. The Thomas ALLPORT I am looking for married 1815 Bombay my GGG Aunt Julia Wilkinson BROWN, the daughter of Murdoch BROWN b. Edinburgh 1754 whom resided in Tellicherry, India where he died 1828. Thomas Wilkinson was the Agent in London for [plantation manager] Murdoch BROWN. Look forward to hearing from you.
Linda - UK

Received: 22 Sep 2005 From: Ian Crown
Hello, I am doing research on the mangosteen and noted that you make mention of Joseph Banks and this fruit. Any idea what happened to the mangosteen trees once Banks put them on another ship? Did they go back to the UK? And then what happened? Any resource you could direct me to would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Ian
No idea, Ian and more than BTW the question is very good indded. What did happen with the mangosteens?

Received: 12 Sep 2005 From: Kate
Hi, My name is Kate, I'm writing an essay on 'The social problems in australia caused by the use of rum as a currency in the late 1790s, early 1800s. I was wondering if you could help me track down some info I can read regarding this please!!!!

Received: 9 Sep 2005 From: Evelyn McIver-Keeley
Hello Dan, I am fascinated with your account of Duncan Campbell (1726-1803). I am descended from Grace, daughter of Henrietta, Duncan's eldest daughter. I am particularly interested to learn more about their family matters and in particular the letter where Grace is cared for by her paternal aunt, Susanna Campbell Chapter 45 ref (28) and also the account of Henrietta's death to her brother. I wonder also if the Rebecca who visited Duncan may have been daughter of Henrietta? My records show that Henrietta's second daughter was Rebecca. Do you have any further references to Henrietta's marriage to colin Campbell, Holland Park Jamiaca/ merchant Glasgow? or of their divorce and any subsequent marriage? I wonder where you sourced this material?? Is it possible to access D.C. letters at the Mitchell Library Sydney, and if so are you able to provide me with a contact? I look forward to your response. I may have some additional material that will be of interest to you.
Regards, Evelyn McIver-Keeley

Message from Andrew Way - Date: 19 Aug 2005
Hello, Wondering if any of the account books of John and George Buchanan (also known as John Buchanan & Co.) have survived? I'm trying to learn the first names of a Mr. Chisholm and Mr. Fraser who contracted the ship Glasgow, which sailed from Fort William for New York 3 September, 1775, Solomon Townsend, Master. Two other ships that may have been in their books were "The Pearl" which sailed from the same place 1 Sep., 1773, for New York and lastly The MacDonald, or Sandaig which sailed from Glasgow for Quebec about 1 July (or late June) of 1786. Best, Andrew.

Message from F. Williams [England] Date: 29 May 2005 - Hello again Dan, The ref to John St Barbe as being captain of the Ceres is in the book, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson by Sarah N. Randolph. There is also mention of Capt. St Barbe in the Virginia Gazette, page 2, column 2 ,1768-09-08, and page 1, column 1, 1777-01-03. I hope this will be quite helpful to you, Regards FW.
This re an earlier e-mail as below...
Hello, Dan, Did you know that John St Barbe was part of the syndicate of London brokers that consigned the ship Sandown to transport slaves from Sierra Leone in 1794. He was also captain of the ship Ceres which brought Thomas Jefferson to Europe in 1784. Maybe this was because he had had a niece married to Jefferson's cousin, James Randolph? Regards, F. Williams.

Received: 9 August 2005 From: Bill Russell
In a message dated 8/9/2005 5:57:34 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, dan@danbyrnes.com.au writes: I feel you are correct, but I have little on the Culpepers except a few notes to get onto them - one day. Which has not happened. But I do have a note from Sayers' book on bankers Lloyds, indicating that a banker handling business for Culpepers, and other players like them, re the West Indies, was Willis, Percival and Co. of Lombard St. Is that any help? Kind regards, Dan Byrnes.
In fact, that is a great help. If I find anything that may look like information of use to you in your areas of interest, I will pass it along. Thank you, Bill Russell.

5 August 2005 From: Chris Maxworthy in Sydney
Subject: Barnabas Gardner, Hero, Nantucket and Australian History
Hi Dan, Thanks for replying so promptly. I have found some websites that point to Gardners. Also, in the 1870's the local Nantucket newspaper publishers pushed out a little booklet that is = very interesting. It listed by name all the various Nantucketois that went over to the British/French whaling industry. I found the copy in the library of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Authors = Hussey & Robinson; Title: Catalogue of Nantucket Whalers and their Voyages from 1815 to 1870. Towards the rear of the text is a section: "Names of Nantucket men who commanded ships engaged in the whale fishery from French and English ports to 1812". I never did get a full copy of this booklet, but well worth putting on your website, methinks. There were several Barnabas Gardners - part of the extended Nantucket family of Quakers. In fact there were two born on the island in the one decade. My person of interest paid several visits to the Pacific, and all on British ships. In particular:
Year --- Ship (Tonnage) ------ Owner
1791-92 Lord Hawkesbury (219t) Champion
1793 Loyalist (100t) T. Yorke
1794-96 Friends (260t) Champion
1798 Beaver (287t) Champion
1800-06 Venus (296t) Champion
1807-09 Hero (266t) T. Ayles / Jacobs & Co.
1811-14 Governor Dodswell (306t) Crosbie & Co.
1814-17 Inspector (320t) Bennett
1818 Sir Charles Price (282t) Bennett
1819-29 Marianna (255t) Bennett
[Most of this detail is reconstructed from AGE Jones' tomes on Southern Whale Fishery].
Could I ask a favour, can you put me in contact with George English; his email details perhaps? From memory, he's following the Delano line. I think that my person of interest and his chap may well have been colleagues/friends.
Totally agree about the puzzles bit. My current puzzle is the large number of whalers that were captured and held in prison in Lima in the period 1797-1801. I'm learning Spanish so that I can cope with the documents.
Cheers for now, Chris
From: Dan Byrnes on 5-Aug-05
Dear Chris, That's really interesting, I'll go into it. Your email happens to arrive just as I am doing more genealogy on mariners of Nantucket and US eastern seaboard generally, and just now I have a Barnabas Garnder died 1768 (from a website on the surname Peabody, it's hard to find a website on Gardners), but I've found no Barnabas up around 1808. There's a syndrome going on here, I have by now a small collection of names of US captains getting about Australia who all seem to have one thing in common, they have gone AWOL from their family histories, and one wonders if the US folk (for a long time now) have not been editing their family histories to obliterate the boys who would not scruple to truck with those damned Brits. I've had email lately from one George 20 English in the UK who has been looking entertainingly into another captain of a Nantucket family who had the audacity to go marry an English girl and stay in England - who'se been taken out of his family history. By 1805 I think (from memory) was a US captain getting about Kangaroo Island, south off South Aust, who remains unfindable in his family history. I'll keep looking around and get back to you about you info. One reason I like this maritime history work, it's full of puzzles. Best regards, Dan Byrnes.
Chris Maxworthy wrote earlier: Dan, Hi Dan, Can I offer a suggestion re some of your content. On page 'Merchants9a', there is a reference to Micajah Gardner being the master of the Hero of 1808. This is not correct. The ship was commanded by Barnabas Gardner, a former Nantucket whaleman, who was employed by John & William Jacob. The ship was British-registered, and was not a whaler, but was smuggling contraband goods, mainly fabrics into the Spanish colonies. The Thomas Dunbabin article of 1950, and restated in Cumpston's Ship Arrivals Departures was wrong. In fact Tom Dunbabin corrected the item in the following issue of American Neptune. The ship sailed from Port Jackson in September 1808 and was captured on the coast of Chile by the Spanish corsair La Flecha on 28 January 1809. I have acquired the above information in the process of compiling my book on the Jacobs and Gardner. I will be in London next month, at which stage I hope to put some more flesh on the bones. Anyway, keep up the good work.
Cheers Chris Maxworthy

From Bill Russell 9 Aug 2005
Dan, I am researching the Culpeper/Culpepper family in the 17th century with an eye towards reconstructing what I believe was a merchant-trading family with world-wide connections through their bases of operaions in Barbados, Surinam, Virginia, New Jersey, and other locals. I was wondering if you had come across any information with regard to their commercial activities. Obviously, they were a significant and poltically powerful family in England and Virginia in the 17th Century, but I believe that their economic base has been entirely overlooked. --

From: "marion melen" Subject: duncan campbell Date: 07 Aug 2005 **** Hi Dan,
After reading a bit more of your Blackheath Connection, you seem to be well supported in your research but with a bit of "surfing" ....
The reason I contacted you was after doing some research into Margaret Lucy Simson nee Campbell, I find she is mentioned in The Will of Miss Lucie Campbell
'Heather Macfarlane Kintyre Mag Mar 2000 Ed 39' should find it, I contacted Heather and found that Lucie inherited money from Campbells in the West Indies, she had to prove her connection to this branch of the family. In the will she lists a lot of people but does not include relationships, just a side track in my research but it could connect with yours (?).
What part of Australia are you from ? Maryborough Victoria is my home town

Message from John Starr 6 Aug 2005 12:40:50 +1000 (EST) Dear Dan Byrnes, In connection with family research I would be grateful if you could point me in directions where I may find information concerning Thomas Brooks of 5 Great George Street, Westminster, in the early 1800s. He was described as a "merchant". His daughter married Christopher Rawson of Halifax who was a prominent banker there and who occupied a position on the Board of the South Australian Company in the 1830s. Any references I've found have only the above information. I know he was a friend/business contact of Lord Montague of Beaulieu, so I expect he was of sufficient prominence for there to be a more productive record somewhere. A quick word from you will be appreciated. Kind regards, John Starr.

On 4 August 2005 - Subject: Message from Chris Maxworthy (historian in Sydney, Australia) Dan, The following message has been received by the PGTS postmaster. -- Message Follows -- Hi Dan, Can I offer a suggestion re some of your content. On 'Merchants9a' page there is a reference to Micajah Gardner being the master of the Hero of 1808. This is not correct. The ship was commanded by Barnabas Gardner, a former Nantucket whaleman, who was employed by John & William Jacob. The ship was british registered, and was not a whaler, but was smuggling contraband goods, mainly fabrics into the Spanish colonies. The Thomas Dunbabin article of 1950, and restated in Cumpston's Ship Arrivals and Departures was wrong. In fact Tom Dunbabin corrected the item in the following issue of American Neptune. The ship sailed from Port Jackson in Sep 1808 and was captured on the coast of Chile by the spanish corsair "La Flecha" on 28 January 1809. I have acquired the above information in the process of compiling my book on the Jacobs and Gardner. I will be in London next month, at which stage I hope to put some more flesh on the bones. Anyway, keep up the good work. Cheers, Chris Maxworthy

Received: 8 Aug 2005 From: John Starr
Dear Dan. I'm glad I've perhaps made a bit of a contribution to your knowledge, it's better than always getting and never giving. The Rawson you mention was Admiral Sir Harry Rawson, governor of NSW early last century. Christopher Rawson's father was John Rawson, a banker of Halifax and John was Sir Harry's great-grandfather. The Montague I was referring to was the one who owned the home that is now the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu., here was another friend, associate of Thomas Brooks, Drummond, a banker, who lived on the coast looking across the Solent at the Isle of Wight. I visited the home, where I was told by neighbours that modern-day Drummonds still live, but they weren't home. What I'm relying on here is a diary, now kept in the Mortlock Library in Adelaide but previously in the original Penfold cottage at Magill (the winemaker's) written in 1787 by Christopher Rawson Penfold's mother (and my great-great aunt) describing a trip she made with her father, Thomas Brooks, to the Isle of Wight, visiting along the way the people mentioned above.

I was wondering about Robert Brooks and obtained a copy of Frank Broeze's book. There is no connection between the two Brooks' that I can find and I was told, when I rang the University of WA to ask Broeze his advice, that he is dead. Christopher Rawson and Mary (nee Brooks) had no issue. Mary's sister, Charlotte, Thomas Brooks' other daughter, married John Penfold, vicar of Steyning from 1790-odd to 1840, and Christopher Rawson Penfold's father. It was all these high level contacts of Thomas Brooks, his business address in London and the fact that he lived in Bedford Square that made me sure there must be some useful record of him somewhere. Ah, well. Kind regards, John.
From: "Dan Byrnes", Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 Subject: Re: Message from John Starr,
Dear John, Sorry, can't help you, and you've given me a mystery here, since with the name Rawson appears a governor for colonial Australia, and Lord Montagu, etc, if it is Sir Edward Hussey-Montagu, died 1802, has a connection (is father-in-law) to a gov-general of Australia, Baron1 Forster, Henry William Forster (?). You seem to have a set of intervening connections here on which I have no info. But the name Brooks might connect with the merchant and convict contractor Robert Brooks, in which case, the book by Frank Broeze on Robert Brooks. Hussey-Montagu here has a father of Dublin, which is another unclear connection. Kind regards, Dan Byrnes.
John Starr wrote: Dear Dan Byrnes. In connection with family research I would be grateful if you could point me in directions where I may find information concerning Thomas Brooks of 5 Great George Street, Westminster, in the early 1800s. He was described as a "merchant". His daughter married Christopher Rawson of Halifax who was a prominent banker and who occupied a position on the Board of the South Australian Company in the 1830s. Any references I've found have only the above information. I know he was a friend/business contact of Lord Montague of Beaulieu, so I expect he was of sufficient prominence for there to be a more productive record somewhere. A quick word from you will be appreciated. Kind regards, John Starr.

Received: from Tony Edwards: Date: 31 Jul 2005
Hi Dan, I am researching the voyage of Keying a Guangdong junk bought by Douglas Lapraik, S. Revett, T. A. Lane and her captain Charles Alfred Auckland Kellet in Canton, August 1846. Keying visited New York, Boston London and Liverpool, with Mandarin Hee sing as passenger. Keying was a principal vistor attraction on the Thames and Hee Sing the only Chinese dignitary to be presented to Queen victoria at The Great Exhibition of 1851. Keying was dismantled close to Tranmere Ferry on the Mersey, Liverpool at an unknown date after 1853. Have you come across the names of S. Revett and T. A. Lane, ref. Hong Kong history? A strange mystery is what became of the Chinese crew and Hee Sing who was with the junk through to Liverpool, I have checked with liverpool museums and record offices; they can find nothing of Keying in spite of her being on public display from 14 May 1853 until late October. Any help you can give will be most appreciated ...
I have been in touch with Charles Kellets' family descendant Susan Simmons who lives in Auckland NZ who has sent me the information she has with family links to Austrailia and India 1828 to 1899, though little is known about Charles kellet, if you would like this info I will send it to you regards, Tony

Received: Wed, 6 Jul 2005 From: susanahern
Fascinated by your web page(s), I am looking for George Wilkinson, signed papers as an Ensign in Sydney early 1800s pleading not to be returned to England to fight against French. He had been with East India Company late 1700s and I have documentation on that. Have you come across him in your research please?
Susan Ahern susanahern@optusnet.com.au

Received: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 From: Avice R. Wilson
See my comments in capitals below your paragraphs, we are truly delighted to hear from you. AN AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHER CHRISTINE MAHER IS DOING A PROJECT (I BELIEVE INITIALLY FOR A THESIS, BUT NOW FOR HER OWN SATISFACTION) ON CAPTAIN RICHARD BROOKS (RB), AND BECAUSE OF MY PAPER I AM IN TOUCH WITH HER. SHE SAYS SHE HOPES TO GO TO ENGLAND TO EXETER TO TRACK RICHARD BROOK'S 'MYSTERIOUS' CHILDHOOD. AS FAR AS THE FAMILY KNOWS AT PRESENT HE IS LINKED TO THE UNKNOWN REV. BROOKS, BUT THERE IS NO OFFICIAL RECORD OF HIS BIRTH. COULD HE HAVE BEEN A NATURAL SON? IS THE FACT THAT PASSMORES ARE RECORDED FROM THE 1600s ONWARDS AS COMING FROM BUCKLAND, DEVON, (NOT FAR FROM THE WHERE THE REV. BROOKS IS RECORDED)AND WERE STILL THRIVING THERE IN THE EARLY 1800S ONWARDS MIGHT MAKE PERHAPS SOME KIND OF A LINK - THAT AREA SENT MANY MEN TO SEA. THERE IS A WEBSITE ENTITLED EAST INDIA COMPANY SHIPS. THE CREATOR IS SLOWLY COMPILING INFORMATION, BUT SO FAR HAS ONLY PUBLISHED AN ALPHABETICAL LIST OF THE SHIPS EMPLOYED BY THE COMPANY, ALPHABETICAL LISTS OF SEAFARERS ARE TO FOLLOW. TO FIND OUT THE NAMES OF THE CAPTAINS AND REGISTRATION, OWNERSHIP, ETC., ONE FIRST HAS TO TRACK DOWN THE NAME OF THE SHIP. THERE ARE SO MANY, IT'S A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK SEARCH AT PRESENT. PERHAPS YOU MIGHT LOOK AT THE SITE AND KNOW HOW TO GLEAN MORE!
MY HUSBAND IS GEORGE FENWICK WILSON AND WILL BE REFERRED TO AS FEN FROM HERE ON. THE NAME FENWICK COMES DOWN IN THE FAMILY FROM A BUSINESS PARTNER OR PROMOTER OF RB, CONNECTED TO THE ATLAS AND THE ALEXANDER I BELIEVE. DOES FENWICK RING ANY BELLS WITH YOU REGARDING THE BLACKHEATH CONNECTION, THOUGH IT WOULD BE IN WHAT YOU TERM PHASE TWO.
I AM AWARE OF HUGHES' REPUTATION. IT ALWAYS INFURIATES ME AS A HISTORICAL RESEARCHER AND PUBLISHED WRITER THAT ONE SPENDS HOURS TRYING TO GET THINGS RIGHT, AND YET THERE ARE WRITERS LIKE HUGHES WHO GET MONEY FROM PUBLISHERS TO PUT OUT BOOKS THAT ARE NOT ACCURATE.
FEN SAYS HE CANNOT REMEMBER SEEING THE NAME PASSMORE PASSED DOWN THROUGH THE FAMILY AS A NAME. WORK DONE BY MEMBERS OF THE FAMILY BRANCHES (COMING DOWN FROM EACH BROOKS DAUGHTER) HAVE NEVER CONSOLIDATED THEIR EFFORTS, AND WE ARE THE FIRST OF OUR GENERATION TO EVEN USE THE COMPUTER! BUT THE YOUNGSTERS WILL PROBABLY GET GOING AS THEY ARE INTERESTED. FEN'S ELDER SISTER JOAN, AGE 83 HAS DONE SOME RESEARCH AT MITCHELL LIBRARY, BUT ITS SPOTTY. SHE HOLDS ALL THE DOCUMENTS OUR BRANCH OF THE FAMILY HAS, HER SON IS PUTTING IT ON HIS COMPUTER AND WE HAVE SOME COPIES OF HER STUFF. WE'LL DIG INTO THEM ASAP AND EXTRACT WHAT WE CAN TO SEND YOU. IN FEBRUARY FEN VISITED JOAN IN SYDNEY (WE LIVE IN THE USA) AND THEY WENT OUT TO DENHAM COURT CHAPEL AT CAMPBELL TOWN WHICH YOU MAY KNOW FROM GEOFF BLOMFIELD. CHRISTIANA BUILT IT AFTER RICHARD BROOKS HAD DIED, AND IT IS NOW CONSECRATED AGAIN AND THRIVING.
Over the past few months I have spent several hours on your website and am amazed at your energy and the number of channels of information you are exploring, weaving them into one big carpet. I've been reading at your website for two reasons. My husband is a descendant of one of Captain Richard Brooks' daughters. He brought the infamous convict ship ATLAS to Aussie in 1803, and we are trying to figure out what sort of a person he was, and I am writing a 20-minute paper on his career and subsequent activities in the colony. What is puzzling at present is how an orphan, (we think) from Devonshire, came to be a 2nd Officer on an East India ship, married the Captain's daughter (a Passmore), then captained several convict ships. Obviously he was part of The Blackheath Connection, and we are wondering if he got money from Passmore, to buy in or whether Passmore created the link to Duncan Campbell. You mentioned another relative Geoff Blomfield an author from Armidale. The Blomfields descend from another daughter of Brooks, and because one or two cousins married, the family is somewhat mixed up! Were you at Armidale university at one time? I've just re-read Fatal Shore in which Hughes makes the same complaint, that Australians don't want to face up to their past. But in visits to Australia, the last 15 years or so, we have noticed a gradual interest and more understanding by the younger generation of what made up their country, and when they have the leisure time to get interested in genealogy I think their abundance of education will mitigate the previous social problems their parents and grandparents had understanding how and why Australia evolved as it has.
Very sincerely, Avice.

Received: 9 Jun 2005 From: Graeme Green
Re More genealogical queries: I have been researching the Cunliffe family for some 20 years now and have some information about an Ellis Cunliffe who was my GGG Grandfather. He was a Surgeon who lived in Bury Lancs, and died there 21 Dec 1820. I think he was born about 1759. In 1783 he married Jennet Anlezarke in Bury. He had a Grandson who was also named Ellis who served in India in the Army and later became a Magistrate in Lytham Lancs. I have been mystified by Ellis and have been unable to graft him onto any of the Cunliffe Trees either in Lancs or Yorshire. In the course of my research I have accumulated lists of all persons with the name Ellis Cunliffe and would be happy to share any of my research with you. Cheers, Graeme Green

From: Brian Crawford 9 Jun 2005
Hello, I found the following item in your "Merchants and Bankers" list: 1805-1806: US merchants Hussey and Co. in 1805 and 1806 have sealer and trader Criterion from Nantucket, Capt. Peter Chase, to Sydney and Hobart, then Fiji, Canton and Nantucket; (Item extracted from Wace and Lovett). I am interested in Capt Chase, but an unfamiliar with the source. What is "Wace and Lovett?" Thanks.

Subject: Message from Tom Keneally
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2005 10:09:49 +1000 (EST) Dear Mr Byrnes, I have written a layman's new look at the early fleets and was fascinated by your website and the extraordinary and imagination-liberating material in it. Do you mind if I refer to it in my book and include it in the bibliography? All the best, Tom Keneally
Book is published by early October 2005:
October 2005: Major new citation of The Blackheath Connection: In Tom Keneally, The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Sydney Experiment. Milson's Point, NSW, Random House, 2005. ISBN: 1740513371.

Received: 29 May 2005 From: Lindsay Campbell
- I have read your treatment of Duncan Campbell and enjoyed it very much. As you tell from my address, I am a New Zealander, but I am not related to Duncan (1726-1803), as far as I know, although you do have a reference to a William Dugald Campbell, which name just happens to be that of my great-great uncle. However, I would like to know from where in Scotland Duncan [1726-1803] originated. My reading of the story does not seem to indicate it. There is reference to his relation and I assume that both Duncan and his cousin were of the landed gentry by virtue of their respective positions. I would like to hear from you on the above point. Yours sincerely, Lindsay Campbell (Mr.)

Received: 28 May 2005 From: F. Williams
Hello Dan, Did you Know that John St Barbe was part of the syndicate of London brokers that consigned the ship Sandown to transport Slaves from Sierra Leone in 1794. He was also captain of the ship Ceres which brought Thomas Jefferson to Europe in 1784. Maybe this was because his [John St Barbe's] niece was married to jefferson's cousin James Randolph.
Regards F. Williams.

Received: 11 May 2005 Fro: Barry C. Holdstock
Dear Mr Byrnes, I realise that you have loads of files, but I am hoping you can provide me with some date re. Admiral William Holstock, Comptroller of the Queen;s Navie. I have found references to him on websites bearing your name [The English Business of Slavery], but nothing concrete. It is known that he was wealthy, but not where his riches came from. Was it slavery? In the family we have our ideas, but as yet unproven. William's mansion still stands, occupied, in Essex. It is known that he was twice married & was buried in a vault below St Mary-at-Hill, in the City of London. No trace of his resting place exists today. We also have notes that link him to Benjamin Gonson & others, but nothing about what he actually did, apart from "Victalling Drake's ships." I hope you can assist.
Kind regards, Barry C. Holdstock

Received: 14 Jun 2005 From: Jenny Fawcett
Hello Dan, and thanks for replying to my email. I have long been entranced by your work on the early merchants, bankers and mariners as it corresponds with my belief that most of the early succeeders in those endeavours where well connected at the top, and the roots out here were spread into all ports. My interests mainly stem with Griffiths, Connolly, Reibey, Penny, Brookes, Marmaduke and James Smith, and the Robert Campbell mob. These are all tied up with the formative european settlement of Port Fairy, of which I am writing a history. I have been researching these men for nearly ten years (unfunded, and a fair distance from archives, hence the slow process). But aside from them I am also researching the Mahogany Ship, which I have also been working on for the last ten years. The Donnolly article on the web is just a minute part of my work, most of which will not be going online at this point in time. I also run Genseek, which has over 800 indexes online relating to newspapers, convicts, passengers etc. So yes.. I am the Fawcett person debunking local history myths... It is not a 'Captain' Dunlop that I am now researching, not as far as I am aware yet. Just starting on this particular bloke. It was Robert Glasgow Dunlop, he was a merchant in Bligh Street Sydney in the early 1840's but went bankrupt (I have ordered his paperwork relating to this). I think he will be the Dunlop with 'Dunlop and McNab" of Melbourne in the early 1840's.(working on this at the moment). Dunlop went broke again in Sydney in 1884 (have sent for this also). I will keep working on them , but I appreciate your reply. best wishes Jenny Fawcett Genseek
From: "Dan Byrnes" Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 10:52 PM Subject: Re: Message from Jenny Fawcett Dear Jenny, Would you be connected at all with the Fawcett person a local historian in your area, who has a few Net pages mounted re Mahogany ship mystery by way of debunking old testimony of one of the early local mariners commentinging on ye Mahogany Ship after 1836? Item I found while researching for my recent article in New Dawn Magazine on Gavin Menzies (alleged Chinese ships) and various Warrnambool mysteries? Whatever, solid stuff, I thought. Otherwise, I find from my genealogy database I have no info on any Capt Dunlop as you have mentioned below. You raise an issue here, re any so-called "Sydney merchant" who is NOT mentioned in the general literature, which is why I can't comment at all on Dunlop here. I tend to base my research around what is so far well-known about Sydney situations and work outward from there for any new researches. Results from this approach tend be patchy and you have made a nice incursion here. (I worry if I find info on a name I really don't know.) Can't help you at all. Kind regards, and tks for any complimentrs there, the Blackheath Connection wbesite has been getting rather better attention lately from Australians, which is very pleasing indeed. Dan Byrnes/Blackheath Connectioon website
Jenny Fawcett wrote: Dear Mr Byrnes I very much admire your Blackheath pages, and visit them regularly.I was wondering if had ever covered Robert Glasgow Dunlop (Sydney merchant) in your research, as I am currently researching a wreck which was conveying some cargo to him. best wishes Jenny Fawcett, Warrnambool

Received: 8 May 2005 05 From: Steven
Hi, I am trying to find some information on the [ship] Star of India. Percival Wakefield was captain and was related to me, aparently he got the Star of India medal, I have read up on the Star of India in the navy and I know it was a boat, I was thinking mabe you would know somthing? I am sending this because I have to go soon and I don't have time to carry on reading. This information is vital to some family members, they say he is from Plymouth if you have any information or some usefull notes Please get into contact with stevennicholas11@aol.com, thank you.

Received: 3 May 2005 From: Liz-Anne Gresham
I just have to tell you how much I enjoy your site. I am researching the Gresham name and so many times I turn back up on your site - and really REALLY get lots out of it. Thank you

Received: 26 Apr 2005 From: Harry Moses
Hello, Am seeking info on Hon. Henry Moses MLC, my great-great-grandfather if you have any. We have much information on him, however, as is usually the case, much to learn. Thanks in advance, Harry Moses

On 14 April 2005 from Suzanne Davis, London...
Subject: Thank you! - Sue Davis - Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 18:39:56 +0100
Dear Dan, Lovely to exchange maritime ideas - even across the world! I have just got back from the Greenwich Maritime Institute - known to us as the GMI. So much easier to say! If you are ever in London, do let us know and we will give you the guided tour. We are located in the Old Royal Naval College, in front of the Queen's House at Greenwich. We have the most amazing view up both sides of the U-shape in the Thames. Not many academic institutions have such a great location. Do let us know if you need anything check out at this end - that is what networks are for! Thank you again for your splendid site.
Sue Davis

From - Fri Apr 08 11:12:00 2005
From <garton@acenet.com.au>
From: Gary Garton
Dear Dan, Re;Major JG Semple (Semple-Lisle) - Fraudster - Lady Shore
I am researching the life of this interesting rogue but have hit a wall regarding where he was from 1799 when he wrote his book from prison in London and when he died sometime after 1814. In Blackheath Connection you refer under the Lady Shore that he... “later ended in Australia as a convict". According to the published records there was only one Semple transported to Aust. a Jennet Semple in 1798 and there were no Lisles. After 1799 I can only find two references to him, the UK Times 1807 and in Court UK in 1814. Any thoughts? Mob 041 626 1877

Dear Sir/Madam, I would be grateful if you can help me find information on a Dutch merchant by the name of Peter Carrera Fisher who traded along the Gold Coast [West Africa] around 1625? Any information regarding his life, work, etc... will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Thomas Hansen-Quao. [On 18-2-05 per file: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/merchants/merchants7.htm 

Dear Dan, This [The English Business of Slavery website] is one of the most interesting books I've ever read on this subject. I was up until 3am "caught" in the history. Thank you. Is there a way I can obtain the end of the book? 
Thank you again for all the work you've put into this
Regards,
Gail Selinger (writer on history of piracy, 29 January 2005)

Dear Dan, Could you please advise me if John Marshall (emigration agent) left any records in regards to people he recruited for Australia? If records are available how can I access them. Thanking you in anticipation, Don Body (31-12-2004 and answer: no idea).

On 17 October, 2004 - From Pat Glass in UK,

You are a revelation. I am astonished to find the names of the owners of estates in 19th C Ireland connected so intimately with the City and Australian enterprises.

(Referer: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/index.html)

From Kevin Campbell re a Campbell DNA project (30-12-2004)
Dan, The Blackheath Connection is a very impressive document. Kudos! I will make sure that I read (skim? ) the whole thing! am the Campbell DNA coordinator for a Campbell DNA project. This project is attempting to get DNA samples (via cheek scrapings from living Campbells. See: http://www.waltier.com/dna.htm or http://www.ftdna.com/surname_sum.asp?let=C&projecttype=S
I think that getting a reference sample from old Duncan's line would be quite intriguing! Do you know of any direct male heirs (i.e., male Campbells) who are living and who have a documented lineage to Duncan? We don't have a definitive sample from the Argyll line yet, but potentially such testing might lead to proving Duncan's lineage. Please forward this e-mail to any Campbell males who you think might be interested in DNA testing.
THANKS, - Kevin Campbell, Campbell DNA Coordinator

From Helen Nolan in December 2004
Dear Dan, Has The Blackheath Connection been published or is there a CD I can purchase? Whilst reading your pages I came across a mention of one of my ancesters, William Cockerell, Liverpool part owner in the slaveship Bloom and wish to find out more about the period and subject.
What a marvellous web site! Regards Helen

Refurbishing for the old Enderby house at Blackheath, London

Follows information while tracking on e-mail from George English in UK...

Samuel Enderby's house at 14 Westgrove Greenwich is now Hamilton House Hotel (your Source No. 51). The Enderby information is on their website http://www.hamiltonhousehotel.co.uk/

From website of Hamilton House Hotel now occupying the old Enderby home at Blackheath Local Sites of Interests - The Hamilton House Hotel was built between 1734 and 1740. The land was purchased from a yeoman, John Hatch, who farmed this land and owned a few smallholdings. He had to pay a fine to the local parish for encroaching onto the common land which is now Blackheath. Blackheath is famous for the gathering of people, who in 1381, marched to London and challenged the power structure of feudal England. The ensuing clashes were termed The Peasants Revolt and the original gathering was on the land in front of the hotel.

The house itself was built by Peter Bronsden, a famous shipbuilder whose monument is in St. Nicholas Churchyard. The Bronsden family was in partnershipwith the Wells', and each was considered a respectable country family. West Grove was popular at the time, for no.6 was flourishing as "His Majesty's Chocolate House"; for King George would visit as a place in which to drink the newly - fashionable beverage of hot chocolate. In 1778 the influential Enderby family acquired the building and Samuel Enderby [Snr.] lived here until 1797. They were a famous family for they owned a whole fleet of ships. In 1773 at The Boston Tea party tea was thrown into Boston Harbour as an act of defiance towards the English. It was the Enderby family who part-owned one of the four ships. [Which is actually not true as far as I have been able to establish - Dan Byrnes]

Their ships were also used to transport convicts to Australia and we presume the dungeon in the basement with the steel door was originally used as overnight accommodation. However the Enderbys are usually remembered for their involvement in the whaling industry and in Moby Dick Herman Melville writes, "All honour to the Enderbys." Between 1844 and 1850 Richard Twining of Twining' s tea fame lived here. One of the wooden floors, which is still to be restored, was made from the cases used to transport tea. In 1851 the house was purchased by a family who was to stay for the next 60 years: the Knills; Sir Stuart Knill (1824-1898) and his son, Sir John (1856-1934), who were both to become Lord Mayor of London in their time.

During the Second World War the railings were used for armaments and the house lapsed into disrepair. Recently a large amount of time, money and love has restored the building to its original elegance. Unfortunately to this date we are unable to secure a link with Lady Hamilton from whom the hotel derived its name. However as with the whole of Greenwich and the Greenwich park area the house's history is entwined with the admiralty and the historical roots of London. To conclude, now may be the time to introduce you to our resident ghost. From the contact so far, it appears she is a rather charming young woman with an amusing sense of humour. If you could help us with any more information we would love to solve the mystery as to who she may be !!!!

Website here was: Designed and developed by Magnet Internet Solutions Ltd. at: http://www.hamiltonhousehotel.co.uk/

Thank you

"I was planning to send a message congratulating you on your wonderful website. What a goldmine of information it is! Being a researcher myself, I appreciate the time and effort that have gone into creating such an extensive website. So thank you!"
Dorothy Turcotte, e-mail of 3 August 2004.

The atrocity ship, 'Neptune'

Re: e-mail of 12-5-2004
Dear Dan Byrnes, I am trying to find some details regarding the Neptune. I am writing a thesis which involves the quarrels that involved Trail, Gilbert, Hill, Macarthur and Nepean. I have been unable to locate a plan of the Neptune to try to make sense of the accommodation of Nepean and the Macarthurs in the great cabin. I would also like to see the actual charter agreement, I note your mention of the office of the Clerk of Arraign at the Old Bailey. would it be possible for you to tell me this have to go about getting copies or details? Thanks, Eric S.
Answer: Dear Eric, I have just re-checked the original pencil notes I made at the Public Record Office, Kew, London, re inspection of Shelton's Contracts (as I call them in my article in the Net, "The Blackheath Connection - London Local History", and which I recommend you print out in order to get all the footnotes). Shelton's Contracts are filed at PRO as AO/291 (check the article's notes), which are Audit Office papers, and the reasons (very complicated) the set of Shelton's Contracts was audited is given in the article. In Shelton's series, there is NO finished contract for the First Fleet (what that contract ought to be is not much more than notes that Shelton never got around to finishing). Shelton's Contract No. 1 (quite proper) is for HM Guardian, Contract No. 2 (quite proper) is for George Whitlock for ships Neptune, Scarborough and Surprise, Whitlock being agent (as the HRA or HRNSW indicate but recheck) for Camden, Calvert and King (CC+K). Probably the best treatment in print of Camden, Calvert and King is in Michael Flynn's book on the Second Fleet, with which I imagine you are familiar. Despite trying, I have been unable to get any more reliable genealogical information on CC+K than Michael has ever found. I've never heard of the existence of a plan of the ship Neptune. I suppose for a fee the PRO could arrange to get you some kind of copy of the contract (No. 2) for Fleet 2. E-mail the PRO, I imagine.
Kind regards, Dan Byrnes, to estras@bigpond.net.au

On names Campbell and Malcolm on Jamaica

Re e-mail of 6-7 May 2004 and later from Scott Malcolm of New Zealand who would be glad to hear from anyone with any contributing information - at mailto: scott.malcolm@xtra.co.nz
Preamble: Dan Byrnes at this point explains that Scott Malcolm has been inspecting The Blackheath Connection website. Scott Malcolm here may have information which will lead to better solution of problems relating to the First Campbells on Jamaica, who were related to Duncan Campbell (1726-1803), the overseer of the Thames Prison Hulks. It appears from Scott Malcolm's own ancestry that Dugald, the eldest son of the said Duncan (d. 1803) by Duncan's first wife, Rebecca Campbell of Saltspring plantation, Jamaica, once he (Dugald 1760-1813) was managing Saltspring for his father, took up with a mulatto woman on Jamaica named Susannah Mary Johnson (1755-1813) and had children with her. If so, this has been formerly unknown with this Campbell genealogy - and the liason may explain much, which is now being looked into. I have a note, unverified, that Dugald (d.1813) died at sea, but had not been aware his lady died the same year - perhaps for the same reason? (There is no clue available yet as to how this coloured woman came by the English/Scottish surname, Johnson.)

E-mail from scott.malcolm@xtra.co.nz - on 6-5-2004
Dear Mr. Byrnes, Thanks a lot for the wonderful Blackheath Connection website. I am a descendent of George Malcolm, brother of Donald Malcolm as mentioned in your webpages and I wonder if you may be able to assist me in my family research? George Malcolm had two sons John and James. Our family comes from John Malcolm, of Argyll, Hanover, Jamaica, who in his PCC will at PRO lists his housekeeper Mary Johnson, as the mother of his children, hence my GGG grandmother.
The Hanover Parish records list Mary as the daughter of Susannah Mary Johnson, mulatto, and Dugald Campbell Esq.; who would seem to be son of Duncan. Later Parish records show Dugald and Susanna had children George and Mary Ricketts Campbell. Do you have any confirmation of this union?
I am also curious to know why Burke's Peerage, which lists [Colonel] John Campbell, of Blackriver, to have had siblings Dugald, Colin, Duncan, Elizabeth, yet no Bessie.
I have recently visited Poltalloch, Scotland and the 19th Laird of Malcolm, Robin Malcolm, seems to know very little about the Malcolms in Jamaica, though the Jamaican Almancs are helpful with listing military, judiciary and property details of my forebears, but nothing more intimate. Can you offer any more insight on their activites during the 18th and 19th centuries?
One reference I've found is to a letter in the Carnegie Museum from the Company of Malcolm and Dennison, who were apparently complaining to their American backers of having difficulty selling the number of slaves on recent shipments, but I am unable to get a copy of said letter. Another reference is to George Malcolm on 1795 founding the first coloured unit in Lucea, Jamiaca, called Malcolm's Corps or Troops.
Can you offer any more detail that Poltalloch was enriched by American trade as mentioned in your web page? Enough questions for now. I would appreciate any light you may be able to shed. Thanks, Scott Malcolm.
Referer: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/letters.htm

Now below is message two from Scott Malcolm
Hi Dan, Thanks for the prompt reply. I'm fine with being added into your feedback file.
I seem mistaken in using the word "spouse", as I have no marriage entry for Susanna and Dugald, as I have only birth entries for their offspring and Susanna did not take the Campbell name. Follows some more bones about the Johnsons which I've found in the Hanover Almanacs: 1810 Susanna Johnson, of Cave Valley 46/31, whose property would seem to pass to her son, 1815 George Johnson, Cave Valley, 37/27.
On a different tack, the close locality of the properties that are listed in the Almanacs is interesting, as the Campbells at Salt Spring (some 6km north-east of Cave Valley) was adjacent to the Malcolm's plantation / sugarworks at Pell River, which along with other Malcolm properties, Paradise and Blenheim, surrounded Haughton Tower Estate, which was sided to the north-east by Cousins Cove, previously known as Crooks Sugar Plantation. (See page 279 of "Jamaica Surveyed", by B. W. Higman and Jamaican ordinate survey maps).
Otherwise, I find that Neil Malcolm married Mary Haughton, widow of Philip Haughton, daughter of John Brisset; while George Malcolm married Sarah Crooks, daughter of James and Sarah Crooks.
The Malcolm family we find are massively interconnected with the Campbells of Argyll, having received their original land charter of Poltalloch from Duncan Campbell by 1562. Donald, Neil and George Malcolm's father (and brother of Dugald Malcolm), John III Malcolm of Knockalva, Argyll, Scotland (which was a distillery, drover stopover and the namesake of another Malcolm plantation in Hanover Parish, Jamaica) married in 1725 to Margaret, daughter of Alexander Campbell in Glenborrodale. In 1792 the Malcolms brought Duntroon Castle, near Poltalloch, from the Campbells. John III Malcolm of Knockalva saw his daughter Margaret married to yet another Dugald (or Angus) Campbell of Ardlararh, Argyll, Scotland, to mention just a touch of the two clan's connection.
Meanwhile John's III of Knockalva's son, Alexander, had a daughter Anna, who married Donald Ruthven, a vinter of Dumbarton. Ruthven being a surname which I find appears as a financial backer of the Darien expedition [of the 1690s] and also a Capt. Ruthven from your Blackheath connection.
These Malcolms also had several addresses in London, appropriately around Hanover Square, in Mary Le Bone. John Malcolm of Argyll, Hanover, Jamaica and son Neil were both barristers through colleges at the Inner Temple. I wonder if there any Malcolms on the Blackheath Golf Club membership? Glad to exchange any more info and thank you very much for the advice about Susanna Johnson as I'm very interested in tracking down her lineage, if Anita Johnson in Jamaica [an archivist or librarian], the source apparently, can help with further information? Regards, Scott Malcolm.

Note: Regarding the above, per the Duncan Campbell Letterbooks, Donald Malcolm as a correspondent of Duncan (died 1803) was probably a planter on Jamaica; Duncan Campbell in London wrote to this Donald Malcolm in February 1782, but no more information is forthcoming from Campbell's Letterbooks - Dan Byrnes.

Enderbys and the South Whale Fishery

Just one e-mail of late April 2004 from Debbie Shaw in New Zealand re Enderby whalers...
Hello Dan, I am doing some research of my own into the Enderby family and I have found the references on your website enormously helpful. However, I am looking for more in terms of the descendants of Samuel Enderby Jnr. and I am really struggling to find any further information about them, what they did, who married who, and who their children were?
I note that you state your sources include: Entries in Australian Dictionary of Biography. A. G. E. Jones, Ships employed in the South Seas Trade, 1775-1861 [Parts 1 and 2]: plus A Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen, transcripts of Registers of Shipping, 1787-1862 [Part 3] Canberra, Roebuck, 1986.
Have you quoted all the Enderby lineage from those books on your website or is there more? If so, do you know where I might source these books from? Can you help me? With thanks, Debbie

A connection to Evan Nepean?

E-mail of 26-4-2003 from Roger Kelly in Scotland
Dear Dan Byrnes, I'm very very interested in your work on Darien, Transportation, West Indies, Campbell and Evan Nepean from a historical and Scots point of view. I descend from a liason 200 years ago between a Jamaica Island Secretary and a Haitian mulatto, and the house I live in here in Scotland was built by the Naval Board of Transportation. It later became the works residence of Alexander Cowan, Scots papermaker and philanthropist. Colin Gubbins, who led Britain's Special Operations Executive in the 2nd WW, was great-great-grandson of Evan Nepean (1752-1822, under-secretary at Home Office in the 1780s) and great-grandson of Alexander Cowan (1755-1859). I'd be very glad to hear from you, Roger Kelly
http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=kosmoid
See book on activities here by the Board: The Prisoners of Penicuik by Ian MacDougall.

On timber industry in Tasmania

E-mail of 23-4-2004 from Mark James Harris in Australia - marcus50@netspace.net.au
Dear Dan, My great-great grandmother came out to Tasmania under the London Emigration Committee scheme (Eliza Harper was her name) and she married Henry Harris. I am trying to find out on which ship she arrived on and I think Henry also may have come out to Tasmania as well, under some sponsorship, as he was a master carpenter. He was employed by The Gunn family who are a large firm in Tasmania involved in hardware and the timber industry. I would appreciate some assistance in gaining information about my relatives and hope you can help me further. Thanks.
Anyone knowing anything on the above people can feel free to e-mail Mark Harris here - I have no information myself - Dan Byrnes.

On the name Shakespear

E-mail of 20-4-2004 from Steve Pearson in UK
Dear Dan, I run the 'Shakespeare Family History' website: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~shakespeare/
Would you give me permission to reproduce a large part of the page on your site (Genealogy Page 2 - the Blackheath Connection) which can be found at: http://www.danbyrnes.com.au/blackheath/geneal2.htm
We have a lot of information on the 'Stepney Shakespeares' on the website, but I found your site fascinating and found myself reading much outside the Shakespeare interest! Some of the details you include have enabled me to add a few details on the genealogy of this family. I presume some of the information you include is derived from a gedcom file: Would it be possible to have a copy of this to compare details: I could in return, send you what I have, or combine the information from both and send a revised version.
I would, of course, include an acknowledgement, and a link to your site.
Thank you for your time, Steve
Answer, yes, and by the way, this e-mail is a model of courtesy - and so very enjoyable! (Unlike some e-mail I receive.)

E-mail of 13 April from Robert L. Hardgrave in Texas -
Dear Dan, Per our earlier e-mail... Re Blackheath ref to Solvyns book--
I am pleased to advise you that the book on the Flemish artist Balthazar Solvyns, who worked in Calcutta in the late 18th century, has been published -- A PORTRAIT OF THE HINDUS: BALTHAZAR SOLVYNS & THE EUROPEAN IMAGE OF INDIA 1760-1824 (Oxford University Press and Mapin Publishing, 2004).
I have a webpage for the book, with links to webpages on the Solvyns Project and to Solvyns Etchings Online, which will include, when completed, all of the Solvyns etchings from both the Calcutta (1799) and Paris (1808-1812) editions and the Orme pirated copies from The Costume of Indostan.
Here are the URLs for the websites:
For the book: http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/hardgrave/solvynsbook.html/
For the Solvyns Project: http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/hardgrave/SolvynsProject.html/
For Solvyns Etchings Online: http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/hardgrave/solvynsonline/pages/Solvyns-Etchings.htm/
An article on Solvyns that appeared in the IIAS Newsletter (International Institute of Asian Studies, Leiden) may be seen online at: http://www.iias.nl/iiasn/28/IIASN28_15.pdf/

E-mail of 24 March 2004 from Shane Coulson
Dear Dan, You speak about a London ship-owning family of Whitcombes... of Whitcombe and Tombs in Greenwich between 1770-1830. Do you have any further information about them? Where they in the maritime fur trade? Do you have any other details? Thank you.

E-mail of 23 March 2004
Dear Dan, Do you have sources for the Liverpool Co. (Miles Barber) at Isle de los, Guinea, who maintained factories for the slave trade at that site? Sincerely, R. Chaney.

On 'the first Campbells on Jamaica'

E-mail on 15-3-204 from M. Waldren in Australia -
Dear Dan, I am intrigued by the scant references to a Mr Brisco in The Blackheath Connection. I strongly suspect he is an ancestor [of mine], Wastel Brisco (b. Dec 1711 in Cumberland, d. December 1796 in London). Wastel was sent/went to Jamaica as a settler and was associated with the sugar industry. He married first a Mrs Barsnett [Barnett?] (b. in 1717, daughter of Colonel Thomas Beckford (1682-1731) and Mary Ballard (dau. and heir of Thomas Ballard, Esq), m. first to John Barsnett, Esq. and secondly, to Wastell Briscoe, Esq. sixth son of John Briscoe , esq. of Crofton , in Cumberland.) He (Wastel) later married Deborah Campbell, the widow of Peter Campbell (with whom Wastel was obviously involved commercially and socially). Deborah Campbell was born Deborah Woodstock, and her brother was Barnard Andries Woodstock who owned property around Montsalvat, Jamaica (according to Deborah's will below). Wastel himself left a complicated will, mentioning the disposal of Woodstock's plantations and his own to "Peter Campbell, son of my wife Deborah and her late husband Peter Campbell" ... Any use to you? And, of course, any information you have on Brisco et al would be most appreciated.
Extract from Will of Deborah Briscoe 1797 - All the residue to my said son Peter Campbell. By virtue of the last will and testament of my late husband Wastel Brisco of Wimpole St esquire I am entitled to diverse sums of money which were due and owing to my said late husband from the estates of my brother Barnard Andries Woodstock deceased in Jamaica around Montsalvet and other debts or encumbrances affecting the said estates which my late husband discharged in his lifetime with his own proper money ... I do hereby bequeath all lands, money and personal estate in Jamiaca to my son Peter Campbell. And I name my son Peter Campbell, James Scarlet and my grandson Peter Campbell (provided he has not embarked on a commercial concern) as executors. (13 December 1796, Proved 19 September 1797.)

E-mail from Barbados

E-mail of 15-3-2004 from Kevyn Arthur of Barbados
Dear Dan, I am fascinated by, impressed with, your website book on the English Business of Slavery. I am a (Black) Barbadian teacher/writer doing some research on the Fowkes in Barbados and wonder if you can point me to more information on the John Fowke/William Courteen connection. I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you, and keep up the excellent work, Kevyn Arthur

From descendants of slaves...

E-mail of 12 March 2004 from LaVerne Hardman McKenzie of USA -
Dear Dan, I have been searching everywhere, trying to locate information on a slave ship Lula D during 1750-1790. My great-great aunt had told me the story of her cousin, when he was a young boy with his brother and baby sister was taken from their family and homeland in Africa. Once aboard the ship, the older brother jumped ship and drowned to keep from being chained. In Alabama where he and his sister were separated forever and he was named John, later his descendants ended up in Northwest Louisiana, passing on this bit of family history. I am just trying to locate information of the slave ship, Lula D, that dropped my ancestors in Alabama to be sold into slavery. I am also going to check out the references that you listed at the end of your article, maybe I will have luck there. Thank you!

E-mail of 12 March 2004 from Lauraine = Imartinus@ozemail.com.au
Dear Dan, I am looking for information re Edward Steane Harley who migrated from UK to Melbourne with his family in 1852. He left for Sri Lanka c1866 possibly as a tea broker. He lived in Galle Would you know which ships sailed via Sri Lanka around that time. He returned c.1896 to the goldfields of Ballarat only to die a pauper at Snake Valley - Lauraine

E-mail of 6 March 2004 from Jane Keyes = ejkeyes@hotmail.com
Dear Dan, Your websites are magnificent! So much excellent information. You probably know of this source already, but if not, I thought it might be interesting. It's A.N.Rigg, Cumbria, slavery, and the textile industrial revolution. Penrith, 1994. If you're able to get a copy, please let me know. It appears to be hard to come by. I'm tracking Dixons, Fergusons and Littledales. - Jane

E-mail of 20 February 2004 from Michael B.
Dear Dan, I am looking for a book about the finance figure of England, Herries, who helped to make the Rothschilds who they became. Thanks, Mike.

Sanitized history?

E-mail of 17 February 2004 from Terence Hotston =enkison@alphalink.com.au
Dear Dan, I must congratulate you on the material on your website (blackheath/phantom.htm). An absolute mine of information, and yes I have bookmarked it for further study. I discovered your pages while researching a relative of my maternal grandmother, William Brown, gardener, who assisted the botanist on the Bounty and who threw in his lot with the mutineers. The only other account of the Bounty I have read was Bligh's log. It is good to read an alternative history of these events and the settlement of convicts in Australia. Quite different from the sanitized versions. Good work. Terence Hotston

On Capt. Michael Hogan

E-mail of 14 January 2004
Dear Dan, I was a frequent user of your Blackheath Connection when researching a non-fiction book now published as "Captain Hogan: Sailor, Merchant, Diplomat on Six Continents."
It tells the true story of Michael Hogan (1766-1833) who traveled the world's oceans and lived in and traded with all six continents. Among other things, it tells the full story of his carriage of Irish convicts to New South Wales on his ship, the Marquis Cornwallis, in 1796. Full details are at (Error 400 not found):
http://SixContinents.home.att.net
Kind regards, Michael H. Styles, 7004 Sylvan Glen Lane, Fairfax Station, VA 22039 USA
Follows some detail on the book: Captain Hogan: Sailor, Merchant, Diplomat on Six Continents, by Michael H. Styles - The true story of Michael Hogan, an adventurous "seaman, merchant and diplomat" who traveled the world's oceans and lived on six continents during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Set in the rich historical context of the times, the action takes place in Ireland, London, Bombay, Calcutta, Canton, New South Wales, Cape of Good Hope, New York, Havana, Valparaiso and Washington, D.C.
Critically acclaimed - ISBN 0-9744347-0-1 * 434 pages * Bibliography/Index Biography/18th & 19th Century History * Paper * US$22.95
Also by Michael H. Styles - Michael Hogan: A Family Addendum: A companion booklet with additional background about the book, Capt. Michael Hogan's children and grandchildren through about 1900, and a genealogical record of all his descendants. Of principal interest to Hogan family descendants. ISBN 0-9744347-2-8 * 71 pages * Second Edition * Paper * US$6.00 JUST PUBLISHED! (January 2004). Email to Six Continent Horizons, at: SixContinents@att.net

From Pat Connelly in Warrnambool, Vic

E-mail from Pat Connelly in Warrnambool, Victoria (home of Australia's famed/mysterious "mahogany ship") of 22 December 2003

Season's greetings to my correspondents on matters historical and thanks for your inputs on a wide range of topics during 2003.

I had the privilege of meeting Bill Ward and wife Fay during a visit to Brisbane in May. Dr Ward, when an earth scientist employed by CSIRO, discovered a lead fishing weight on Fraser Island in 1976 and had the devil's own job to have a study by him and others accepted by peers and published in a reputable journal. Finally the light of day was seen in an issue of Archaelogy Oceania in February 2000, indicating the lead probably had been mined in France and been deposited at Fraser Island centuries ago. Theorists who argue for Spanish/Portuguese navigation in our region in the 1500s were heartened. They might be cheered further if they knew that a recent follow-up research paper by Dr. Bill and B. L. Gulson has concluded " the weight resembles lead from Beishan and Tonglin in China, but is unlikely to be from either source. Its best match is with lead mined in France."

Henry van Zanden of Sydney is another contact I caught up with. I am sworn to secrecy re his major project but can reveal that it will cause a sensation when it is published. A hint: the ethnic nature of his subject is indicated by his surname.

Old friend Dan Byrnes, a historian I knew in Melbourne around 1990, has established a comprehensive website from his home in Armidale in northern NSW. His forte is the merchants who organised the convict transport shipping to Australia. I've read the material and it's a sight more colorful than it may appear but Dan has not set a precedent in finding publishers elusive.

Like Dan Byrnes, Robin J. Watt of Wellington NZ has delved into Gavin Menzies' book, 1421. A retired forensic scientist and an old pal of Bill Ward (who hailed from Kiwl Land) Robin has intriguing insights into ancient cartography, wonders who beat James Cook into the Southern Ocean and by how many centuries, and has a special interest in the Ruapuke Beach wreck off the South Island. If he had his way, that latter subject would be assessed by the best and brightest at a symposium.

My own pet project, looking into a supposed Dutch wreck near Port Fairy just west of where I live, is nearing completion. It is looking like a "fizzer" but its value is as a cautionary tale about the need to examine a person's background before accepting his word, even if it has been sanctioned by print in old newspapers.

May all your boats--whether Dutch, Portuguese, convict or metaphorical -- come in during 2004.
Cheers, Pat Connelly

American Revolution and 'land development'

E-mail of 2 December 2003

From androlink@mac.com
Dear Dan,
I am addicted to the Blackheath Connection, even though I cannot always understand the significance of the connections. I'm most interested in the way American economic history overlaps with the East India Company and Australian connection. Robert Morris known as the Financier of the American Revolution who made a fortune selling American land to European investors and from selling tobacco to the French, also had heavy trade contacts with the Far East. In fact, he's a sort of spider in the American economic web from 1783 to the last 1790s when he went belly up. Do you have anything on him?
Andro Linklater

Article appears in Armidale Express Extra, 1 October 2003, page 8, on latest research and writing by Dan Byrnes, headlined: "Armidale man trying to solve the riddles of convict transportation to Australia".

E-mail of mid-2003
Hello, I am enjoying your website and work. I will be back in touch after reading through it further but the connections you have made between Australia and across the Pacific are most interesting!
Jim Mockford

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Introspection?

E-mail arriving 11 May 2003
Subject: The Blackheath Connection & Reactions
Hello Dan, Just wondering if your work on the Blackheath Connection has attracted a reaction from the more introspective historians around the place? Like what I have read, is there more to come?
Regards, Bede Ireland

E-mail arriving 27 April 2003.
Dear Mr Byrnes,
Please note that I will be releasing a book in printed form soon about Williamstown in South Australia - there has been very little written about it - but the connections with the East India Company are very strong and gives a lot of clues to the relationships of past East India Company Officers who came to South Australia.
I would like to cite your book as essential background reading for the understanding of the development of the interest in Australia - please advise on how you would like this.
Sincerely
Ingrid Eidam - South Australia

Sent: 08 March 2003

Subject: Information request, common interests, etc.

Dear Mr Byrnes, I've been meaning to write to you for some time to personally thank you for the most excellent information and sources that you make available on your Merchants & Bankers website, which is I might add greatly assisting me with my own research! (Into London as an international maritime trade centre during the eighteenth century). My personal interest centres around the growth of the shipbuilding industry in the London shipyards, and the individuals that ran them, together with in some cases the export of British expertise/skills to other countries, (I've in fact recently been looking at the shipbuilding achievements of two British Shipbuilders, Joseph Noy & Richard Cozens who were instrumental in the building of the Russian Fleet of Peter the Great!) If you can find time do try take a look at the following web pages:

httpa/www.lrss.c®mlmain/index_eng.htm

(The Story af Joseph Noy) and http://www.cousinsfamily.co.uk/(On Richard Cozens, Shipwright).

As you are of course aware the growth of London shipbuilding heavily relied upon the patronage of the Chartered Companies and the investment of many of the merchants that you mention on your website! Again I'm particularly interested to find out more of the Russia Co. merchants, who were also of course involved with many of the other investment opportunities of the day, i.e. in the American colonies, or with the East/West Indies trade etc. This is why I think your concentration on the connections of merchants and families is invaluable in this respect. Recently I've become particularly interested and focussed on the activities of London merchants who were also involved with the slave trade and convict transportation, and in fact have been looking at this whole area of colonization, shipping contractors/brokers, slave traders etc, in general, with a view to perhaps writing something at a later stage. At the present time I'm looking more closely at the London company that you frequently mention, Camden, Calvert and King, for further biographical information on the owners, their associates, and their other business interests. So if you are interested I will let you know how I get on?!! It would be nice to have contact with somebody who has similar historical interests 'Down Under'!

Best wishes & thanks, Kenneth Cozens, (Historical researcher, London, England)

A query on Duncan Campbell (1726-1803)

Dear Dan, (13 October 2002)
I am currently researching on the British convict hulks, not being at all satisfied with the book Intolerable Hulks by Charles Campbell and finding Wilfred Oldham's work an inspiration for digging deeper.
I have been working at the PRO London and in that process I have taken the trouble to do some checks on various references made to Campbell, particularly in your paper, Emptying the Hulks, which I have found very helpful. One problem seems to come to light re the navel career of Campbell, and that is in the navy lists for the appropriate dates ; HMS Dove has not shown up. Without a definite ship, then, there is no muster list, and since that is the only way to find Campbell as a midshipman this fact is hard to verify.
I have no doubt that the information you have quoted is from the Mitchell archive notes of William D. Campbell. And I have no doubts he [Duncan Campbell 1726-1803] went to sea. But I now think that he might have done this in a merchant vessel and not as a midshipman in the RN.
Interested in your comments on this.
Kind regards, Stephen Keates

Hello, I am interested in the families Bogle-Frenches of Jamaica, Bedfordshire and London . Is there a published history of this family of Merchants?
Sincerely G Bare@bigpond.com

December 2001: Item ("Transportation on the Net") on this website in Newswrite, monthly journal of the New South Wales Writers' Centre, No. 111, Dec. 2001/Jan. 2002, p. 9. See their website (now Error 500) at: http://www.nswwriterscentre.org.au/

From November 2001, The Blackheath Connection is linked to the Australian website ConvictCentral at: http://www.convictcentral.com/serendip.html

November 2001: Great site, well done: BUT correction to your link site:
On Arbuthnot families: http://www.arbuthnot.freeserve.co.uk/l.htm should read
On Arbuthnot families: http://www.arbuthnottt.freeserve.co.uk/genealogy.htm/

New from October 2001: now on the Net, Charles Campbell's book, The Intolerable Hulks: http://intolerablehulks.com

Many graphics seen on this website are used courtesy of Joan O'Donovan and her specialty graphics website.

On Lucas and the South Whale Fishery

From Jane Lucas, Canada: Date: 24 September 2001

Dear Mr Byrnes,
The quotation at the bottom below lists a Joseph Lucas (Oct 1805). I am interested in researching this fellow. He died a bachelor in 1807, in London, and is a collateral ancestor of mine. (I'm descended from his brother, Rudd Lucas.) I have patched together a bit of information but it is mainly in the form of leads to follow. I'd like your help, and when I do piece it together you can add it to your website if you wish.

I live in Vancouver and have access to UBC library here, where there are a number of useful publications, including a copy of Lloyd's Register back to the beginning, Palmer's Index to the Times on CDROM, and the Goldman-Kress Library of Economic History on microfilm, indexed and linked to the online catalogue. In addition there are a lot of older historical publications on British history, whaling, and so on. I can search any of these for you if you wish. (I am a librarian by trade.)

There are however, a few gaps! I am curious to know more about The Samuel Enderby Book. According to the manuscripts catalogue at the ANL, this is an eight-page document. Not sure if this refers to the book or to the description. Could you tell me a bit more about this book, how I could search it, etc.

This is the only information I have about Joseph Lucas is from a Lucas Family genealogy compiled about 1920. I still haven't determined who compiled this, and I have found other errors in it so this may not be completely accurate. The Lucas Family was a Quaker family, from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and many but not all of Joseph Lucas' siblings were Quakers. Obviously Joseph Lucas was not as he was buried in a churchyard.

Re: "JOSEPH LUCAS, born 13 October 1737 and died, a bachelor, 2 August 1807. Buried 8 August 1807 at Streatham Church, Surrey, of Irthingborough, Deptford, Upper Tooting, and London. Senior partner in the firm of Lucas & Spencer, Merchants and Ship-owners, engaged (inter alia) in the Northern Whale Fishery. Will dated 30 October 1804. Codicil 24 July 1805, proved by Joseph Lucas, John Lucas (his nephews) and Samuel Hodgson 13 August 1807."

In 1984, in London, I looked at his will on microfilm. In my notes I recorded that it was 21 pages long, and very faint, and did not make a copy of it as I was following other lines at the time. A couple of weeks ago I ordered the film from the Mormon Family History library here and so will have another look at it soon and see if I can puzzle any of it out. If I find out any gems I'll let you know.

From The Blackheath Connection website:
A list of South Whalers, 1775-1790 is found in The Samuel Enderby Book. Including: Enderby; A and B Champion; Mather and Co., Mr. Mather's wharf at Blackwall - Thomas and John Mather, Rotherhithe in 1805; Montgomery; Joseph Lucas (0ct. 1805); Bennett; Smith at Hull; Sanders at Southampton; Parr(?) Southampton; Wrangham (Canton 1792 brig Hope); Curtino(?); Mellish; Dudman; King; Bill; with Enderbys 1775, March 1790, St. Barbe, London, Southampton; Curling; Yorke; Metcalfe; Paul, Simon of Tottenham Court Rd and his own wharf, Paul's Wharf: Le Mesurier (Guernsey); Teast, Saml and Son, Bristol; Hurry and Co., Yarmouth; Ogle; Oliver; Mount; Hall (or Hull); Hattersley; Wardell; Thornton (See Oct. 28, 1786); Mills; Bell; Calvert; Mangles; Stainforth; Hayley, very early in fishery history; De Bond; Harrison; Harford; George Heyley [Hayley]; Daniel Coffin; Benjamin Rotch; Barclay; Powell; Brantingham; Williams; Price; Meader; Peter Evet Mestairs, also owned a dock on Thames opposite Shadwells. (Genealogical information on most of these surnames is thin, except for Mangles.)

I'd like to say how very impressed I am with all the work you have done in piecing together so many seemingly unrelated bits of information, and even more, writing it all down!

Thanks very much.
Jane Lucas, Consolidated Information Services, 641 West Queen's Road, North Vancouver, B.C., V7N 2L2, Canada
E-mail to: JaneLucas@telus.net

On Anglo-Indian family names

Date: 10 August 2001

Dear Dan Byrnes, Hi, and do these names from families of British India mean anything to you? Hastings, Broughton, Clutterbuck, Abbott, Impey, Miles, Carnell, Cornpigne (with an acute accent on the e) - I'm running into them in some work I did this morning - now I have to stop and go work at the library.
Kind regards, Mary Pattle Hover.
Email to: roadrunners3@peoplepc.com and website: http://members.madasafish.com/~mqofs/
(Answer: Not very much, really, at this stage.)

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Date: Saturday, 4 August 2001 11:14 AM
Subject: Indian slaves to Guyana
Dear Mr. Byrnes, I have found again this site.. makes some horrific reading and mentions plenty of NAMES associated with this cruel practise!!
http://www.guyana.org/Speeches/indian_immigration.htm/ --- and another interesting site for anyone looking to China:
http://www.salemwaxmuseum.com/tetrade.htm/
Hope these help, Pat

On Job Charnock and origins of Calcutta

On August 4 2001 (sent to the India Mailing List)
. -----Original Message----- From: achintyarup Ray: aray0@rediffmail.com
To: INDIA-L@rootsweb.com - INDIA-L@rootsweb.com
Date: Saturday, 4 August 2001 3:46 AM
Subject: [India-L] Calcutta History
Dear Listers, Following is a legal story the Hindustan Times is carrying today on the history of Calcutta. Thanks, Achintyarup Ray, Calcutta

PIL filed against Charnok myth
HT Correspondent
Kolkata, August 3

CALCUTTA HIGH Court today admitted a public interest litigation challenging that Job Charnok, agent of East India Company, founded Kolkata about 300 years ago.
A two-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice Asoke Kumar Mathur, asked the petitioner to serve notice on the State Government and held that the matter would be heard again after a month.
Presently, August 24 is being celebrated as the city's birthday as Charnok is believed to have anchored his boat in the Hooghly off Sutanity on that day in 1690.
The petitioners -- Sabarna Roy Chowdhury Parivar Parishad (SRPP) and some city-based historians -- claimed that Kolkata existed long before Job Charnok arrived in India and the name "Kalkata" may be traced even in books like Manasa Vijay and Ain-e-Akbari, written in 1494 and 1596 respectively.
SRPP, founded by members of Sabarna Roy Chowdhury family, which originally owned Kolkata, said Charnok landed at Sutanuti, a marshy fishing village on the bank of the Hooghly on August 24, 1964 and lived there till he died on January 10, 1692.
"Charnok only concentrated towards some trade and was among hundreds other Europeans and Indians who traded at Sutanuti", said counsel Smarajit Roy Chowdhury, who appeared for SRPP before the Division Bench this afternoon. Roy Chowdhury, who is also a descendant of Sabarna Roy Chowdhury, said it was long after Charnok's death that East India Company obtained the "Right to Rent" of the three villages - Kalkata, Sutanuti and Gobindapur -- on which the city of Kolkata now stands. Charnok died six years before the deal was signed.
The deed, singed at Bangladesh's Barisha, was, however, found to be illegal as two minor of Sabarna family signed it out of a plan, formulated to resist the British, Roy Chowdhury pointed out.
SRPP also said no individual can be regarded as the founder of the city and it was Lakshmikanta, predecessor of Sabarna Roy Chopwdhury, who got the ownership right of eight villages, including the three ones, from the Emperor Akbar as a token of appreciation of his services.
Roy Chowdhury said a copy of the "Right to Rent" also proved that Charnok was founder of the city, August 24 was its birthday.
The case was filed "to set right a wrong fact and reconstruct the history of Kolkata, which is almost unknown to the world".
///////////Ends

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On Capt. Michael Hogan

On 4 August 2001
Dear Mr. Byrnes, I just came across your fascinating website through a search for "Solvyns". I have just completed a book on the artist F. Balthazar Solvyns (1760-1824) and the manuscript is now in the hands of the publisher.
The title is: A PORTRAIT OF THE HINDUS: BALTHAZAR SOLVYNS LIFE AND WORK. Ahmedabad, Mapin Publishing, forthcoming. However, it will still be some time before the book is out.
You make a reference to Solvyns and his painting of the ship Marquis Cornwallis in Chapter 45 of the Blackheath Connection for the Year 1995. (The ref. appears in note No.9.) I am attaching what I have written on the painting. I have a description of the Solvyns project at:
http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/cas/SolvynsProject.html/

Yours, Bob Hardgrave
Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
Temple Professor Emeritus of the Humanities in Government and Asian Studies
Office: Dept. of Government, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
Dept. tel: (512) 471-5121 Office FAX: (512) 471-1061
Austin, TX 78746
Tel: (512) 327-0482
E-mail: rlh@uts.cc.utexas.edu
Home Page: http://asnic.utexas.edu/asnic/cas/rlh.html/
The Marquis Cornwallis: The Marquis Cornwallis (Pl. II.8) was a three-masted, square-rigged ship, the standard for the vast majority of ocean-going ships of the time. With three decks and weighing 586 tons, it had a length of 121 feet and a breadth of 36 feet. As portrayed by Solvyns, it flies the red ensign. The small ship to the left is possibly a pilot cutter.
Pl. I.8. "The Marquis Cornwallis, An East Indiaman." Oil on panel. Signed: "B. Solvyns 1793". 39.4 x 61.6 cm. Private Collection. Courtesy of Franklin Brook- Hiching, London.

The painting remained with the descendants of the man who probably commissioned it, Captain Michael Hogan, until 1980, when it was sold by the family with a collection of material that included charts and the ship's log. The ship, named for Lord Cornwallis, then Governor-General, was built in Calcutta in 1789, and in 1793, Hogan & Co., its owners, commissioned Solvyns to paint the Marquis Cornwallis.
Hogan & Co. was based in Cork, Ireland, and in 1795, Captain Hogan sailed the Marquis Cornwallis to Ireland to pick up Irish prisoners, sentenced to "transportation," and then to Australia. En route to Australia, there was a mutiny that became a cause celebre. The Marquis Cornwallis was the first convict ship to carry political prisoners from Ireland to Australia. As soon as the ship left Cork, the convicts (168 male and 73 female), instigated - or at least abetted -- by one of the Irish soldier guards, began to plot mutiny. Informers disclosed the plan to the captain, who had forty-two men summarily flogged. Seven of the convicts died from their wounds, and their leader, the mutinous guard, died in irons. On the ship's arrival in Australia, the prisoners -- radical "Irish Defenders" -- won support among the non-political Irish convicts already in New South Wales, and the ship entered Australian history. In 1796, in its return voyage via Calcutta, the Cornwallis again contributed to the early history of Australia, with two charts of Australia's northeast coast--the first ever.

On Cockerell and Co., Calcutta

By 18 July 2001:
From: Rich Norgard mailto: alaskapi@gci.net:
Subject: [India-L] Calcutta Merchants: Larpent; Newcomen; Martin; Beckwith
Can anyone assist me with information regarding the following four individuals, all prominent businessmen in Calcutta from the mid-1830's to 1840's, and all partners in the firm Cockerell & Co. I have listed some of their known business affiliations:
John Albert De Hochepied Larpent: a Director of the Atlas Insurance Company; affiliated, Calcutta Insurance Co. and Hope Insurance Co;
William Martin: a Director of the Atlas Insurance Company;
Charles Edward Newcomen: Director, Alliance Insurance Co.; affiliated, Tropic Insurance Co.; also sat on the Committee of Management and Correspondence of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and was a director of the Bengal Bonded Warehouse Association;
John Beckwith: Director, Bank of Bengal; affiliated, Commercial Insurance Co. and Equitable Insurance Society.
The four were at various times listed as owners of the Union Bank of Calcutta. Individually and collectively, they comprised a veritable Who's Who of the Calcutta business and social scene. Can anyone provide further details?
Kind regards,
Rich Norgard,
Anchorage, Alaska

On Alexander Davison

By 8 May 2001 from Jim Saunders, Liverpool, UK.
Dear Dan Byrnes,
I have been a "devotee" of Admiral Lord Nelson for about thirty years or so. His confidential friend was Alexander Davison (1750-1829), whom I have been researching for many years, and I was surprised to see him mentioned in your superb fountain of knowledge on the www, concerning convict transportation and other enterprises.
I have not seen Davison's name mentioned in this line of work before.
Any help in pointing me in the right direction as to where I may find further information about him and his brother, George Davison, would be invaluable. They began their business dealings in the fur and fisheries industry in Canada initially, but it now appears that they, or Alexander in the main, was into everything but surely not slavery?
I hope you can find the time to help me, it is important.
Regards Jim Saunders, Liverpool, UK
Answer: No, Davison was not involved in any sort of dealings associated with "slavery" as far as I know.

On Forbes and Co. of Bombay, c. 1811

By 3 February 2001 from pat.iseke@xtra.co.nz

From: Pat Iseke
Dear Dan, I live in New Zealand, and am a direct descendant of the Inglis family of Inverness, Scotland, They were shippers, and from the mid-18th century we have evidence some family members were trading to, and some of the family were based in South Carolina. From period 1799-1810 George Inglis (my 3 great-g'father) of Kingsmill, Inverness was based in Bristol, where most of his 9 children, my gr-(2)-grandmother among them, were born.
I have found this all from LDS films, and have also other data, information not all substantiated prior to this time. However, I do have proof that David Inglis (from the South Carolina branch) was one of the original founders of Forbes & Co., Banker/ shippers/ merchants of Bombay 1811.
I have had contact with (now Forbes Gokak) of Bombay (Mumbai)
You will be wondering why I am writing to you.? I am fascinated by the trade to America, and also incorporating "The East" (India) and extending to Australia. My ancestors on the Scottish side as stated above, were Inglis of Kingsmill, Inverness, then Jameson, (also Inverness and East India Company), Willis (partner in Forbes of Bombay, mid-19th century), his ancestors in Instanbul and Bombay). Also, Pottinger (governor of Hong Kong), also of NSW police fame, 1866, married into Keatinge family (VC, etc, India). And lastly my grandfather was Captain Eldred Pottinger Keatinge, appointed (first of two) Torres Strait pilot, 1886. These are just bare details, all of which we have well documented.
So you see I have quite an interesting ancestry, and I have always been fascinated by trade, seafaring, and now your intriguing research. I have long suspected that Inglis shippers were involved in slave trading to South Carolina. My questions are? Do you have any history of their shipping activities to and/or about America, and/or India . Even names of their ships would help.
Best regards, Pat Iseke

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On Thomas Hodge at Leedstown, Va

Dear Mr. Byrnes (on 29-1-2001), I was most interested in your information listed on Thomas Hodge at Leedstown, Virginia. I am putting together a file on Mr. Hodge and his business for our museum and so was very glad to see him mentioned on your site. Thank you for making this available,
Regards, Darlene Tallent, Westmoreland County Museum, Virginia
(And later), Thank you for taking the time to respond. Actually, I am not so sure that my interest in not genealogical in nature. Considering the business that Mr. Hodge was in, there is probably a very good chance that he is responsible for some of my ancestors being here. The list of names of people that he transported over here looks like our local phone book. I think the whole subject is extremely interesting. I am most interested in Mr. Hodge and who his business associates were here in the Northern Neck. Leedstown must have been a very busy place at that time. I know that it was a very busy port town before the Revolutionary War, it was laid out to be a town, streets were named, lots were sold etc. Of course it is most famous here for being the place where the "Leedstown Resolutions" were signed in 1766. ( Protest against the Stamp Act.)
There is almost nothing there now, an old cemetery or two, a few old houses and a historical marker. But I think that Leedstown had a whole other side and another story to tell (which is what really interests me), when you think of how much human misery must have gone through that place, you think it must surely still linger in the air there.
By the way, if you ever need anything here, (a look-up, etc), let me know.
Darlene Tallent

By 16 January, 2001, Many thanks from Dan Byrnes to Mark and Michael Williams of Birmingham, UK, for sending a copy of: Margaret Urquhart, Sir John St. Barbe, Bt. Of Broadlands. Southampton, Paul Cave Publications Ltd., 1983. This title is very useful for clarifying the extensive family history of convict contractor John St Barbe (died 1816).

By 9 December, 2000
Greetings, I found your web site the Blackheath Connection most interesting. I am wondering if you may be able to direct me as to where to begin research on an ancestor who was known to be 'of Cape Coast Castle in 1741/2'. Although of French Huguenot parents he was born in London. His brother was educated at Leiden University and became the Envoy to the Court of Portugal.
Kind regards, Pam Abikhair, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

By mid-November 2000
The Blackheath Connection has heard from descendants of the family line of John St Barbe (died 1816), the Lloyd's underwriter and whaling investor of Blackheath, London, who made the first suggestion (registered in Historical Records of Australia/New South Wales) that whaling ships could regularly send convicts to eastern Australia. The name St Barbe arrived in England with William the Conqueror, and since this lineage has been carefully recompiled over the centuries, tracing the lineage makes an interesting track through English history to the present. The website has also by mid-November heard from a UK researcher interested in the whalers Enderby of Blackheath, who were near-neighbours of St Barbe. Interest then is rising in "The Blackheath Connection" in a concentrated way.
- Dan Byrnes

Researching merchant families

On 7 November 2000

Dear Dan Byrnes,
I find your research to be truly amazing. It parallels what a number of researchers in both the US and UK have been doing. A series of articles I wrote in about a week's time, basically using old research I had done coupled with information gleaned from the Internet, can be found at the website of another researcher:
There are 3 parts to it: Part 1:
http://www.newsmakingnews.com/lmharvardpart1.htm/
Part 2: http://www.newsmakingnews.com/lmharvardpart2.htm/
Part 3: http://www.newsmakingnews.com/lmharvardpart3.htm/
I found your work while doing a search on the background of the Forbes family - tracing their English and Scottish roots. I knew they were heavily into opium in the early 19th Century, but it appears from your work that their family was also involved in other questionable shipping adventures prior to that. Thanks for putting your work online. I'll be spending lots of time reading what you've done.
Kind regards, Linda Minor (US)
Reply: I am still rather uncertain about the Forbes family (US traders to the Far East after 1786) and any of their genealogical links with the Scots Forbes who had links with some London banks of the early Nineteenth Century; especially, the little-known bank, Herries-Farquhar.

On archaeology, Southampton in UK

On 30 October 2000
Dear Dan Byrnes,
I am a post-graduate Archaeology student from Southampton University in England. As part of a group I am researching the port of Southampton and its links with slavery. To date the only concrete lead I have is Thomas Combe and his ships of slaves, which features on your site. I would be most grateful if you could let me know if you have any further information on him or any of his compatriots. I have located the names of three of his ships - 1626 'Christopher', 1628 'Plantation', and then 'Exchange'. His links with Maurice Thomson are most interesting also. Additionally, I have located a share certificate signed by a Sir Peter Mews, admiral commanding Southampton in connection with the 'South Sea Company'. I have been able to get little information on his involvement and again wondered if you had any information or sources? The material that we get, additional information etc., is to be displayed at a local museum and will hopefully let Southampton people know of the role the port played in slavery.
Thank you in anticipation of your assistance.
Christina Welch (Uni e-mail)
Dear Christina Welch, I am sorry, but neither Thomas Combe and Sir Peter Mews are listed in my genealogical database. That means I would have little on them. Maybe the only help I can give you is to suggest you go back to Robert Brenner's book, and/or other books on that timeframe, and dig much deeper into available citations - which might entail quite a fresh survey. You might like to print out my bibliography pages for making any such survey? - Dan Byrnes.

On 22 October 2000
Dear Mr Byrnes, Re John St. Barbe (died 1816):
I am puzzled as to when our John St Barbe (o.b1816) had the time for his businesses as it appears that he served in the Royal Navy from 1761 until 1808 according to Steeles Navy List.
The 4xgt grandfather of John St Barbe (o.b.1816). was a William St Barbe (Gent. of the Privy Chamber to Henry V111 who was a legatee and one of the subscribing witnesses to that King's will). This William St Barbe"s grandfather, another John St. Barbe married Jane Sydenham whose great grandfather John Stourton was brother to Edith Stourton, who married John Beauchamp, the great-grandparents of Henry V11. Which makes William St Barbe 5th cousin to Elizabeth 1.
The other Sydenham connection is that William St Barbe"s great nephew was Captain St. Barbe, a captain in the Parliamentarian forces during the Civil War, and it was his sister Catherine who married Sir William Pole, their daughter Jane marrying Humphrey Sydenham, whose grandson of the same name was devisee of Captain St Barbe's son, Sir John St. Barbe Baronet of Broadlands. Also, William St. Barbe"s niece Ursula St. Barbe married (as her second husband) Sir Francis Walsingham; whose daughter Frances married firstly Sir Phillip Sidney the poet and secondly Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex.
Kind regards, Michael and Mark Williams

On John St Barbe

On 18 October 2000: Re John St Barbe (died 1816):
Dear Sir, After reading Chapter 1 pages 1-2 of your website The Blackheath Connection, I was fascinated to see you refer to a John St. Barbe, as I have been tracing my family history for a number of years, and discovered that this man is my 6th great grand/father, his daughter being Caroline who married my fifth great-grand/father, Peter Unger Williams.
It would be much appreciated if you could give me any information on how I could find out more about John St. Barbe as I know very little about his life or business [ ie pictures of ships, bibliographies, career details, etc.] As to the Sydenham family connection with the St. Barbes. During the 15th Century, Jane Sydenham a third cousin to Henry V11 married a John St. Barbe Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset.
And then in the 18th Century, another John St. Barbe, Baronet of Broadlands, Hampshire, left his estates in Somerset and Hampshire to a Humphrey Sydenham of Combe in Dulverton; who was a grandson of Jane Pole, whose mother Catherine Pole nee St. Barbe was a sister of Captain St. Barbe (of the Civil War on the Parliament side); Sir John's father, Humphrey lost his inheritance when the South Sea Bubble burst in the 1720s. I also have numerous family trees and histories on the St. Barbe family reaching back to Alfred the Great time which might be of interest to you. Also I would like to purchase your book The Blackheath Connection.
Yours faithfully, Michael. F. Williams (UK)

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From Washington, USA

Re: The British Creditors: On 10 August 2000: From: Dr Tony Joseph, Associate Editor, Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the U.S., 1789-1800:
Dan, Glad to hear your convict transportation project is now on the net. We will be fully citing a letter you have transcribed from the Duncan Campbell Letterbooks, in our next volume and thanking you for the reference as well. ( Here is the citation as we now have it: Duncan Campbell to William Russell, July 7, 1792, vol. 6, Duncan Campbell Letterbooks, vol. 6, ML A3230, p. 337. We are citing this letter because it identifies Joseph Court as the brother of Christopher Court. I thank you for the information you have provided me in connection with my work here and hope we can communicate further.
Many thanks.
Tony Joseph, Associate Editor, Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the U.S., 1789-1800

On William Richards II

Can anyone help Kim O'Grady here? kim@tatts.com (1 August 2000)
Dear Dan, Thank you for your reply. I don't know if I am a descendant of William Richards 11 (shipping contractor for the First Fleet) All I have found out so far is that my grandmother Ellen/Nellie Walsh was born 1888 at Winterbourne (as owned by William Richards III) and her parents were Denis Walsh born 1856, and her mother was Ellen Ryan born 1856, and she died 1914. Ellen Ryan's parents were John and Mary Ryan. Denis Walsh and Ellen Ryan were married in Armidale. They had children, Edward, Mary, Denis, Bridget, Ellen (my grandmother), John, James and Anastasia. I would like to know more about Winterbourne near Walcha, its owners and employees. I don't know if my family were owners or employees or what their connection is with Winterbourne, only that my grandmother was born there. I would appreciate it if you could help me in any way.
Thanking you, Kim O'Grady: Phone: 0409848516

On Campbells in the Bahamas: 5 August 2000 from Ariel7a@aol.com
Are you aware that there were Campbells in the Bahamas after the Revolutionary War, and do you know of any connection to the ones who settled in Jamaica. By the way, great book!!!
Yolanda Deal Rotondo

On Lambert, Prinsep and Saunders, London

On the London firm Lambert, Prinsep, and Saunders circa 1802:
31 July 2000 From: Dan Morgan
Dear Mr. Byrnes: I have been reading with interest The Blackheath Connection website. Particularly interesting is mention of an East India trading house in London, Lambert, Prinsep, and Saunders. My 4th-great grandfather had a younger brother Robert Saunders (1754-1825) who was certainly involved in the India trade, though I don't know many details. Based on various family connections (e.g. his brother was physician to the Prince Regent, one son was Dean of Peterborough, another son was the first Secretary and General Manager of the Great Western Railway, etc.) he was probably quite wealthy. It's also worth noting that he was Scottish, from a Banffshire family of merchants and professionals. I wonder if he was the Saunders partner in LP&S? Your site also mentions that "one Robert Saunders . . . was a London-Calcutta indigo dealer; he was probably son of the otherwise-unknown partner, Saunders, of John Prinsep, from about 1800." The above Robert did have a son Robert John Saunders (1792-1852), but he was an artillery lieutenant and later a factory inspector. However, there was also a nephew named Robert Saunders (1792-1856) - my 3rd-great grandfather, in fact - who was in the Bengal Civil Service. This family had numerous members associated with India, including merchants, civil servants, and army officers. Some further details are on my web site at:
http://www.mit.edu/~dfm/genealogy/saunders.html/
I would be very interested to hear from you if you can add anything to what I have there, especially if you think there is indeed a connection with the firm of Lambert, Prinsep, and Saunders. Perhaps something there will ring a bell with your research?
Daniel Morgan, Washington DC

By 17 July, 2000, a US researcher reports confidentially that new information arises, based in the Caribbean, that by 1775 links Duncan Campbell (1726-1803) with matters entirely unknown from his letterbooks. This information will be released entirely at the discretion of the researcher in question. The implications may be broad and may encourage much new writing. Watch this page for more news here. -Dan Byrnes

Story on The Blackheath Connection in The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, on 6 July 2000.

Story on The Blackheath Connection in The Armidale Express, 23 June, 2000.

Dear Dan, They [e-mails] all sound very exciting to me... I try to stay off the computer on the weekend - and that's why you haven't heard from me after you sent me all those goodies on Duncan Campbell... I know Chris Codrington and we throw things back and forth about another family, the Warners, who were the first English settlers in the Caribbean - who also ended up having family in the late 1700s/early 1800s ... St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia) and originally I didn't think it had a part in my tale. But it appears more and more...
Best regards, Cindy
(Thur. 22 May 2000) From: Cindy Kilgore Brown at: minke@wcvt.com

Dear Dan, This is incredible! I have, by accident, been trying to find information on Duncan Campbell for the past several years! My interest is in the Caribbean connection - I've been, slowly, working on a history of a tiny island, Bequia, and its whaling community.

I've spent the last seven whaling seasons there with the whalers and eventually began digging through the records looking for when the whaling families first arrived. That's when I ran across the name Duncan Campbell as a landowner in the late 1700s. I simply chose his name out of the lot to try to trace.

I followed him up to St. Vincent, down to Grenada, and finally this year, put two and two together, and got Jamaica. Could you tell me of any references I might find of his dealings in Jamaica? Did you ever run across the names William Wallace (naval officer 1770's) or Joseph Olivier or Ollivierre with Campbell? ... I can't tell you how exciting this is to find!!

Also, on your list of maritime museums, do you know Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, Kendall Whaling Museum, Sharon(?), Massachusetts, and the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts? They all have websites and are incredible warehouses of information.
Best regards, Cindy Kilgore Brown... minke@wcvt.com 20 May 2000.

Story on this website project appears in The Armidale Independent newspaper, 18 May, 2000. Probably the first story to appear on this topic in Australian print media.

Dear Dan, Thx for this interesting info on Blackheath &c, I have also forwarded it to Lorraine Banks the Executive Director of the Convict Trail Project. (lbanks@ros.com.au)
Paul Budde, 7 May, 2000.

Dear Dan, I'm very happy to have heard from you... it pleases me to see that you're publishing on-line. This is undoubtedly a good solution, but I surely would like to see a book in print one of these days.
Charles Campbell, author of The Intolerable Hulks, May 2000.

Good to know The Blackheath Connection continues to develop.
Graham Halcrow, Catford, London. April, 2000.

You had an enquiry generally about a Thomas King. He was local - lived in a mansion called the Red House next to Vanbrugh Castle 1785 to 1802 and then his widow (?) Sarah until 1810.
From Neil Rhind, co-discoverer of The Blackheath Connection, of Blackheath, London. 17 April, 2000.
Reply: It depends here, if this Thomas King at Blackheath was of the slaving firm of the 1790s, Camden, Calvert and King. King the Calvert partner is discussed in Michael Flynn, The Second Fleet: Britain's Grim Convict Armada of 1790. Sydney, Library of Australian History, 1993.

There are several books in this website. You are going to have to split it into those books soon.
Shane Muldoon, of Melbourne, 13 April, 2000.

Subject: Re: Whaler Daniel Bennett of Blackheath from Graham Whyte: grwhyte@melbpc.org.au
Dear Dan Byrnes, I had read where whalers were used to transport convicts to Australia and then they went on the whaling grounds. Was Daniel Bennett one of these firms? Regards, Graham Whyte
Answer: The answer is yes. On Daniel Bennett, see chapters 45-47 of The Blackheath Connection.

From Codrington in the Caribbean

Re Blackheath Connection, London merchants, etc. 19 March 2000. From: C.M. (Chris) Codrington: chriscod@bellsouth.net
Dear Dan Byrnes, Have enjoyed plowing through your website with particular interest in your evaluation of the role of the London Merchants. Are you familiar with Citizens of the World by D. Hancock? I've been studying Merchant/Planter kinship-commercial webs as they relate to the West Indies and the mainland colonies, so I find your observations on the Planters and Merchants group etc., to be sound, and am very eager to see a coordinated study of how they networked over time. Historians in general do not seem to follow kinship webs sufficiently to inform their perceptions of how the many "informal" or short-term ventures of this time were pervasively effected by such webs.
Several thoughts on your articles...

1. Justinian Cassamajour was a friend and factor for both Sir William Codrington 3rd Bart (exiled in France) and several of his England-based Codrington cousins (Bethels for instance). He is named in WC's will of 1820-something as guardian to his children: Sir William Raimond C and daughter. It is implied that Cassamajour had interests in St. Malo. Justinian had interests in Barbados and Antigua - probably Jamaica also but can't confirm that.

To understand this, a little background: W. Codrington III was disinherited by his father the Hon. Sir William II, MP for Minehead (and a lobbyist for the West Indies interests). His father secured him an income of 1000L/year and the young baronet took off for France becoming a prisoner in the Conciergerie. He was eventually released, while his wife was executed in La Place de la Liberte' Dinan, Brittany. Sir William remarried and remaining in France, taking residence in Rennes, Brittany. His son William Raimond married the daughter of Joseph Raphael Agrippin (etc) le Fer de Bonaban a "Sieur de St. Malo" (major armateur/merchant to the African and Indies trade) of a siegneurial family; very rich indeed before and after the Revolution.
I have always thought it remarkable that a disinherited English baronet should remain in France through all stages of the Revolution, and though in exile and probably always short on funds, secure a marriage to such a significant family...

So these connections struck me as intriguing, though I've had little luck researching regarding St. Malo. My impression is that Sir W. Codrington III was doing some investing with Le Fer in the only business he would have known anything about: slaves, sugar and rum....

Now, many French and English history folk rebut this. They do not appreciate the paradoxical relationship between the French and English in the Sugar Islands and do not see that trade routinely occurred between them, even when "enemies". With the [French] revolution, certain sympathies developed, particularly due to the disruptive actions of certain infamous representatives of the Convention in Haiti and the other French islands.
Although English and British forces fought violently on the continent and in the islands, a British expeditionary force was sent to relieve the planters of St. Dominigue, etc., and French planters were provided land and shelter in Jamaica. Both French and English islands suffered terribly from disruption of necessary supplies, and there is very little doubt that there was some very serious money to be made by those willing to stretch the rules (by interloping). Anyway, that is a topic for one book by itself...

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However, the connections with Jamaica you note re Bligh and others go much farther. Initial discussions on promising botanicals as alternate provisioning or cash crops was actively initiated by several cabals of West Indian planters, most notably those hosted by the Wallen Family in Jamaica. Here, names such as Jasper Hall, various Campbells, Wests, Pattersons, Grant, French-Bogle(s) (originally of a Scots/Antiguan lineage) etc., were all familiars and enjoyed the congenial atmosphere of Wallen's botanical garden. (the name of which escapes me). Anyway French-Bogles had interests in Jamaica and Antigua.

When I read work like yours it is exciting because as you are piecing together the networks and motivation behind these broad general developments in Australian history; we are working on it in the North American/Indies sector. They are all intimately related by the men who made it happen. The number of West Indies planters/merchants' sons who took off for the East and Australia is considerable to say the least. These sons had really only three or four choices: return to Britain rich (fine for the older sons); get involved in the development of the US mainland; stay and speculate on the modernization of the old sugar system; or in one capacity or the other seek your fortune in the eastern empire, including Australia.

Codrington in the Caribbean

My research into the Jamaican branch of the Codringtons shows family members taking all these paths, but ultimately the main branch leaves the sugar system entirely and moves to Eastern Florida... the last plantation in a sense. I hope you continue to publish results of your study on the site, and that you'll keep an eye out for those West Indies merchant/planter connections.
Kind regards, Chris Codrington

13 March, 2000: Good work for the world's eyes! All the best... Thom the World Poet, Texas.

On the surname Pattle

A query from Mary Pattle Hover, Dunedin, Florida, USA. 12 March, 2000. This query arises from an old newsletter from back when it was "The World of Pattledom" (As viewed from the Antipodes) written by Norman Miller and Raymond Pattle (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).
Convict Heritage: It has now become fashionable amongst Australian family researchers, to find a convict in one's family.
It appears that the Pattle family did not let us down in this respect. We have come across the name of Samuel Pattle, who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment at Lynn, Norfolk, on 16 January, 1821, together with a Benjamin Johnson. These two men were placed aboard the vessel Grenada (2), which left England on 15 May, 1821 and arrived at Sydney Cove on 16 September, 1821. This was the second voyage to Australia with prisoners by this vessel. We do not know at this stage the exact crime committed by Samuel. In the documents available at this stage, Samuel Pattle was described as being a native of Lynn, Norfolk, aged 26 years, 5'9-1/2", florid complexion, brown hair and gray eyes. To date, we have been unable to trace Samuel Pattle during his stay in Australia. We would like anyone with any information whatsoever to contact us if they were in possession of any details of Samuel, before and after his conviction and transportation to Australia."
From Mary Pattle Hover at: roadrunners3@peoplepc.com

From Charles Campbell in US

By August 1993-4 March 1994, US criminologist Charles Campbell, writing on the British use of ship hulks for the confinement of prisoners, wrote in his Author's Note:
"An always-to-be-treasured period of time spent at the Local History Library for the Borough of Greenwich in Blackheath, London, during 1991 was of special value to me, in large measure because of the generous and knowledgeable assistance of Julian Watson, research librarian at that marvellous institution. Furthermore, it was he who put me in touch with Dan Byrnes of Tamworth, New South Wales, a man who keeps his fellow historians in Australia on their toes. I must thank Dan Byrnes for his encouraging letters and sharing his unique insights on "the Blackheath Connection". (Incidentally, so far as I know, I am not a descendant of hulkmaster Duncan Campbell. In any event, we should watch for Dan Byrnes' forthcoming book on that fascinating individual.)"
Charles Campbell, Juneau, Alaska, August 1993
Citation: Charles Campbell, The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement, 1776-1857. Bowie, Maryland, Heritage Books, Inc., 1994.