General

Amongst the collection of 4,500 printer proofs from William Davison’s Printing Shop in Alnwick , there are four posters each offering a reward for the recovery of the body from the Pegasus shipwreck which happened off the coast of Holy Island on 20th July 1843.

The Pegasus was a large wooden paddle steamer, the first boat of the newly created Hull and Leith Shipping Company, the vessel was to run a weekly passenger and cargo service between the two ports. It was launched from Glasgow and after completing sea trials had its first voyage, Leith to Hull in February 1836, with the return trip being completed days later. Between 1836 and 1841 the Pegasus was involved in a number of incidents hitting rocks at sea and being run ashore, so much so that it began to develop a reputation as a ‘problem ship’. In January 1843 the ship was taken out of service for an overhaul with the potential of being sold. When it did not sell, it was returned to service in the spring of the same year. Its last voyage left Leith on Wednesday 19th July 1843 at 5.40 pm. Aboard were 15 crew, 18 passengers and 23 cabin passengers. At 12.20 am the following morning it hit Goldstone Rock near Holy Island. At 5am Pegasus’ sister ship the Martello came across the scene of unimaginable devastation; a ship wrecked, bodies and little evidence of any survivors. Local fishermen also came out to assist with the rescue, however there were only six survivors, two of whom were passengers.

The four reward posters represent the loss of a loved one in tragic circumstances; three adults and two children. What do we know about the individuals mentioned in these posters? Unfortunately, there are no miraculous happy endings to report.

Miss Sarah Briggs is mentioned in the image attached. Her brother Mr. Briggs, who offered the reward, travelled to Holy Island and stayed at Bamburgh for 8-days. Her workbox, which contained items of a sewing kit was found and identified.

Mrs. C.O. Edington, aged 28 described as being 5 foot 5, a small figure with long thick auburn hair was sought by her husband. He too travelled to Holy Island and stayed for a short time on Bamburgh. He identified and claimed a satin cloak lined with fur as being part of her belongings.

Mr. James Richard Elliott, aged 38 was described as dark complexion, bushy black whiskers, an aquiline nose and a missing tooth. He was a solicitor with the firm Messrs. Elliott and Stott in Rochdale, Lancashire. He had been visiting his brother Captain Elliott in Dundee and was making the return journey with his nephew, the Captain’s eldest child.

It is the missing children that we know the most about. Master Field Flowers, aged 13 with fair hair and projecting upper teeth and his younger sister Miss Fanny Maria Flowers, aged 11 with fair hair, regular white teeth and ‘hands large for a child’. The 1841 census shows them living in Tealby, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire with their parents Mr. Field Flowers, aged 36, a clergyman and Frances Flowers, aged 35, younger sister Mary aged 3 and two female domestic servants. Master Flowers’ body was picked up by the crew of a French boat, ‘Lloyd’s weekly Newspaper’ reported that they “nobly refused to accept the award of £3 offered by his uncle until they were earnestly pressed to do so” explaining that “the master of the French boat stated that he had only performed an act of humanity”. Field Flowers was buried in the churchyard at St Mary the Virgin, Holy Island on 12th August 1843. Others from the shipwreck are buried there too. It would appear that the body of his sister, like the other victims of the tragedy mentioned in the reward posters, was never found. Her French teacher wrote a poem which originally appeared in a French journal and was published in French in the ‘Caledonian Mercury’ on 4th September 1843 lamenting her loss. Belongings of Miss J.M. Flower, a possible travel companion, including a handkerchief, frock and mits were later identified. The 1851 Census shows that their parents went on to have more children, two were named after the elder siblings they never met, William Field born c. 1844 and Elizabeth Fanny Maria born c. 1847.

If you are interested in learning more about the subject why not look at the Exhibitions section of the Northumberland Archives website which has exhibitions relating to both maritime history and Davison’s print shop. A more detailed history of the Pegasus paddle steamer can be found on the website www.islandshirearchives.org.uk. The reward posters referenced are ZMD 167/22/118; ZMD 167/22/119; ZMD 167/22/120; ZMD 167/22/138.

This blog was written by Emily Rowe, a PHD student engaged on the ‘Northern Bridge – Carr-Ellison Project’. The aim of the project is to explore the records and histories of international trade and maritime transnational links between north-east England and the wider world through the records of Cotesworth, Carr and Ellison families held at Northumberland Archives and Tyne & Wear Archives.

“…a Merchant has the most anxious time which can never be lessened while he thinks it worth following…[I] often had the Mortification of seeing the very best concerted plans Overturned by a Variety of Untoward Accidents”

– Ralph Carr

Ralph Carr (1711-1806) was a successful businessman in eighteenth-century Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was a merchant adventurer, exporting local resources such as corn and coal, and dealing with commodities from iron and timber to wine and whale-oil. He had contacts all over Northern Europe, with his mercantile activities stretching from Amsterdam to St Petersburg. Around 1750, Ralph Carr extended his reach even further as he began to trade with New York and Boston.

Carr’s Atlantic dealings likely started off as a favour. He had merchant friends in Amsterdam looking for a convenient route through British customs. Cargo from Europe to America needed to stop in Britain and pay taxes. Ralph Carr facilitated this for his Dutch friends and filled the boats with ballast – heavy cargo such as grindstones and coal that provided stability for the ship to make its long journey east. Carr’s profit from this agreement was small…so he began to try to sell goods of his own to the American merchants.

In a 1750 letter to a Boston merchant, a copy of which is at Northumberland Archives, Carr tries to convince the merchant to purchase goods from the north-east:

‘‘We have many articles than answer well with you, & yearly ship great quantities for my friends in Boston and all parts of America as they are cheaper here than in any part of England…Lead, Shott, sheet Lead, Grindstones…& every sort of Glassware & Earthenwares…Cloth, Blanketts, Rugs, & all kings of Woolen Goods, we have also bought.”

Carr sent many letters of this sort to his contacts in America. He stressed the variety of goods the North of England had to offer and promised that they came cheaper than anywhere else in England and Europe. But the response was disappointing. American merchants were not interested in most of the goods Carr offered them – they only wanted cheap ballast and sometimes earthenware. One Boston merchant did put in some orders for glassware, lead, and linens, but never paid Carr and the dispute went on for years. Carr wrote to the merchant in 1752:

“I am really quite tired out with writing to you year after year upon this same disagreeable subject and am sorry for your repeated promises which only pass for words of course, however, I shall wait until the Fall for their accomplishment and no longer.”

Despite his many successes as a merchant, Carr was never able to crack the American market. Lack of interest in his wares and caution on Carr’s side over selling to Americans on credit rather than cash meant that despite his connections, Carr’s dealings with American trade were frustrating and had very modest profits. In a 1756 letter, Carr wrote to two New York merchants, “I absolutely refused to be concern’d with any ships [to New York] save such as Enter’d every pennyworth of their goods fairly and above board”. By 1765, however, the Newcastle-America trade came to a grinding halt when the British government demanded bonds of £2000 from all merchants trading with America and the Newcastle merchants refused to comply. British-imposed taxes on shipped goods to and from America were a source of growing resentment on both sides and the escalation of these frustrations, just twenty years after Carr attempted to trade with Boston, led to the Boston Tea Party and the American War of Independence.

Sources

Digital copy of portrait of Ralph Carr, Northumberland Archives, ref: ZCE/F/4/1/2/9.

Copy letter from Ralph Carr, Newcastle upon Tyne, to Benjamin Tenouil Esq. [at Boston, America] (1750), Northumberland Archives, ref: ZCE/E/3/5/1/14/1033.

Note by Ralph Carr, Newcastle upon Tyne, to William Fletcher [at Boston, America] (1752), Northumberland Archives, ref: ZCE/E/3/5/1/14/1133.

Copy letter from Ralph Carr & Co., Newcastle upon Tyne, to Messrs Philip and John Livingston and David Provost [at New York, America] (1756), ZCE/E/3/5/1/14/1214.

A. W. Purdue, Merchants and Gentry in North-East England 1650-1830: The Carrs and the Ellisons (University of Sunderland Press, 1999), pp. 141-86.

William I. Roberts, III, ‘Ralph Carr: A Newcastle Merchant and the American Colonial Trade’, The Business History Review, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Autumn, 1968), pp. 271-287