Who Do You Think You Are? Encyclopedia of Genealogy (38 page)

    
  T 42: 1747 to 1847

    
Additional records for Scotland can be found in T 43 (1714 to 1829) and CUST 39/104–121 (1860 to 1885). This is continued after 1885 up to 1894 in CUST 39/141–144 but also includes Ireland. Separate information for Ireland is also located in CUST 20 (1684 to 1826) and CUST 39/122–140 (1840 and then 1860 to 1885).

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Pension records:
These records can be useful as they may contain additional details about family members. The main series can be found in CUST 39/145–151 (1803 to 1922). Separate records for Ireland and Scotland can be found in CUST 39/161–22 (1795 to 1898) and CUST 39/160 respectively. Further records regarding applications for widow's pensions are found in T 1. There is a published calendar for this series covering the records till 1745. Thereafter indexes can be found in T 2, T 4 and T 108.

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Appointments, pay, discipline and other matters:
Two general series that contain a large number of documents relating to appointments, pay, discipline and other such matters can be found in CUST 119 (1802 to 1926) and CUST 40 (1831 to 1921).

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Ham's Custom Year Book:
This is a very useful publication covering the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was an annual publication listing all the employees of HM Customs and Excise, the
date of their first appointment, where they were stationed and also details of their retirement. As such it is perhaps the easiest method of tracing an ancestor who was part of this profession. The British Library and The National Archives both have copies, from 1875 to 1930.

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Correspondence:
If you have ascertained where your ancestor worked, you might want to examine the correspondence files between the local Collector of Customs and the Board of Customs based in London. These are to be found at The National Archives in a wide variety of CUST series, arranged geographically by the name of the relevant Collector's district. Correspondence letter books contain copies of all letters sent to the Board in London, including disciplinary matters, promotions, appointments of senior staff and occasional pay lists, as well as incidents that occurred on a daily basis – many of which relate to piracy, as well as more mundane matters such as assessment of customs duties and information on general maritime activity in the port.

‘Letters sent to the Customs Board cover promotions, disciplinary matters and piracy.'

Records for Excise officers are similar in nature to that of Customs' officials and are mostly held at The National Archives.

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Pay lists:
There are lists for English Excise officers in T 44 (1705 to 1835) and for Scotland's officers in T 45 (1708 to 1832). Unfortunately, few records survive apart from an index in the National Archives for Scotland due to their destruction in a fire.

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Board Minute Books:
These can be founding CUST 47, starting in 1695 and finishing in 1867.

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Pension records:
These are stored in CUST 39/157–159 (1856 to 1922).

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Entry papers:
This series of records are unique to Excise officers and are held in CUST 116 for England (1820 to 1870) and Scotland (for 1820 to 1829). They are useful documents giving birth details and marital status. They were created following an individual's application and form two parts of a letter: a letter of recommendation and an existing Excise officer's report on the candidate's training. They are searchable online by name in The National Archives catalogue. Records for Ireland can be found in CUST 110 and CUST 119, although these are not currently searchable by name.

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Staff lists:
The earliest list available is one for 1692 in CUST 109/9. The main series are for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (1870 to 1937) in CUST 39/225 to 249.

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Ham's Inland Revenue Year Book:
This is a similar publication to the one for Customs officers (above). However, as the Board of Excise was part of the Inland Revenue until the two Boards' amalgamation in 1910, Excise officials may be noted as Inland Revenue officers until that date.

If your ancestor was working in Scotland there may be additional sources worth consulting at The National Archives of Scotland. They are organized into two series, before and after the Act of Union of 1707.

1
.
Customs records

Prior to 1707 records can be found within the series for the Scottish Exchequer in E38 and E71–74. These include customs book, which may detail names of ships' masters and merchants although the primary purpose of these records was to record the duties placed on goods entering Scottish ports and therefore there are no lists of crew included. After 1707 Scottish Customs establishment books list the names and salaries of individuals employed at each port. They can be found for the years 1715 to 1822 in series CE3. CE12 contains the establishment lists of those involved in the collection of salt duty in particular, covering the years 1714 to 1798. Additionally, letter books of the Board of Customs can give information on employees and their families along with personal information on other people not employed by the Board but in contact with the authority, such as merchants, ship-owners and mariners.

2
.
Excise records

Many excise records were destroyed in a fire during the nineteenth century. However, the Archive has a biographical card index detailing Excise officers between 1707 and 1830 that can be found in the records that did survive. Additionally, piece GD1/54/10 is a list of all officers in 1743. CE13 contains registers of appointments and removals from 1813 to 1829. Scottish Excise minute books have some details of its staff from 1824 to 1830 and are in CE16. One further list of officers in 1794 is in CE6/19.

If you find from a birth, marriage or death certificate or a census return that your ancestor was a fisherman it may also be possible to find some further documentation in local archives or The National Archives. Prior to the Merchant Shipping (Fishing Boats) Act of 1883, many records of fishermen would be included within the general records of the Merchant Navy (see
Chapter 13
). This new legislation made it compulsory for skippers to have written agreements with any seaman he carried on his ship as crew from any port in the United Kingdom. Prior to this Act the crew lists would be within the general series of crew lists, in The National Archive series BT 98 and BT 99. From 1884 to 1929 the records can be found in BT 144. However, although similar to the records in BT 98 and 99, these later crew lists do not survive in their entirety and only a 10 per cent sample was retained. Post 1929 these lists are once more included within BT 99, arranged by the official number of each vessel.

The majority of the remaining records can be found in the University of Newfoundland or the National Maritime Museum (for years ending in 5, from 1885 to 1935 and 1955 to 1985). A small number may also be found in local repositories. Appendix 2 of
Records of Merchant Shipping and
Seamen
by Smith, Watts and Watts (PRO Publications, 1998) has details on the information held in local repositories.

Similar to many other occupations and trades, there was an apprentice system for fishing. This system became centralized in 1894 with the Merchant Shipping Act, which extended the apprentice system for general merchant shipping to cover fishing vessels too. Henceforth copies for all apprenticeship indentures were to be forwarded to the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen. These records can now be found in BT 152, covering the years 1895 to 1935, although only on a five-year basis. This series is indexed by BT 150.

Many local archives may also have information on fishing and apprenticeship records for their locality. If you are aware of where your ancestor was based it is always worth checking to see what such repositories may contain. For example, Hull and Grimsby archives contain crew lists along with apprenticeship records, the area having an important maritime history. Further information on the nature of their holdings can be found at www.hullcc.gov.uk

In the previous chapter, Amanda Redman discovered various ways to find out more about her ancestors who had served in the Merchant Navy, in particular her elusive relative Cyril Herrington. However, whilst building her family tree she also found that earlier branches of the Herrington family had a long association with the sea, particularly her 2 x great-grandfather Benjamin Herrington, who – according to census returns – lived with his family in the coastal village of Southwold, Suffolk.

Although little more than the names and occupations of family members, and their addresses, were listed in the census, Amanda was able to undertake further research on Benjamin Herrington at the Lowestoft archive, and it would appear he was something of a hero. Apart from earning a living from the sea as a fisherman, he also became actively involved in the local lifeboat service. In 1854, as Coxswain he was awarded a Silver Medal along with a colleague, William Waters, when they helped rescue nine crew from the ship
Sheraton Grange
, after it had run into difficulties during a winter storm on
29
November 1853.

Indeed, Benjamin Herrington was awarded a second Silver Medal in 1859 for his part in saving lives of eleven crew members from the
Lucinde
. Yet the year was tinged with personal tragedy for Benjamin. Amanda also discovered at the archive, in a list of parish burials, that his wife Ann had died, and was buried in St Edmund parish church, Southwold. Benjamin eventually remarried, and it was his son from this second union – John Clair Herrington – from whom Amanda is descended.

These crew lists should provide:

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Name, birth details, salary, length of engagement and total number of the crew

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Owner's and skipper's name and address

Additionally, skippers and mates of fishing vessels would also be required to take the competency examinations introduced for masters and mates for other merchant vessels from 1884 onwards. As stated in
Chapter 13
, certificates for skippers and mates of fishing vessels from 1882 onwards can be found in The National Archives series BT 129 and BT 130 with the index in BT 138. The index covers the period 1880 to 1917 and should provide the individual's name, date and place of birth. Although the index in BT 138 extends to 1917, after 1910 the system was modified once more. The competency certificates for skippers were
combined with competency certificates for masters and mates to form one single series – BT 352 (discussed in
Chapter 13
).

As seafaring was such an important part of the country's history, the construction and maintenance of ships would have created many jobs and employment opportunities for our ancestors. Many dockyards and shipyards operated at various ports throughout Great Britain and Ireland. The Royal Navy itself had dockyards throughout the world as well as its ones at home. You may be able to find documentation relating to your ancestor's employment in this industry depending on when and where they worked. There is a large amount of material relating to the Royal Naval dockyards in particular.

The first six Royal Naval dockyards sprang up in England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, sited at Deptford, Woolwich, Chatham, Sheerness, Portsmouth and Plymouth. There were additional outposts in England and also overseas. These dockyards were under the control of the Navy Board although officers would be appointed by the Admiralty. Most employees of the Royal Naval dockyards would either have come from the Royal Navy itself or would go on to work for the Royal Navy and it may be possible to find records for both periods of employment.