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Stephen Gavin
2003 - 2011
brig Elizabeth Jane
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Brig Elizabeth Jane - launched Nova Scotia 1817 - Lost July 1854 off the coast of Yorkshire - Found Robin Hood's Bay, July 2003

Elizabeth Jane Timeline - 1817 -1829 & 1830 - 1854


 

Year

Elizabeth Jane Events

Source

Questions/Actions

Contemporary Events

1817



View Google Map of this part of Nova Scotia

A New Map of Nova Scotia, compiled...for the Historical & Statistical Account of Nova Scotia - 1829 From: Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM)

Irritatingly NSARM requires a Viewpoint Media Player plugin that seems incompatible with Google Chrome but it works with Inter Explorer and Firefox browsers.

See: Barque anchored in Guysborough Harbour 1900 for a general idea of landscape.
Guysborough farmland
Town of Guysborough Early 20th C.?
Guysborough showing Chedabucto Bay and many others from a NSARM search
African Nova Scotians

See:
History of the British Colonies. Volume III. Possessions in North America
London: James Cochrane and Co. London 1834 for history of Nova Scotia. This introduction of this volume gives an interesting overview of the colonisation of North America and the 'melancholy decline' of its original inhabitants.

Also: A General Description of Nova Scotia; Illustrated by a New and Correct Map
Vivere naturae si convenienter oportet,
Ponendaeque domo quaerenda est area primum, Novistine locum potiorem?

Halifax, N. S.:
Printed at the Royal Arcadian School
1823
Price 6s 6d.

A written note inside: This book was probably written by Judge Thomas Chandler Haliburton much of it is the same language ha(?) been reproduced in Judge Haliburton's larger Hist. of S(?) Account of Nova Scotia.


  Elizabeth Jane built at Guysborough, Nova Scotia.

Charles Brown of Manchester (Nova Scotia) and Thomas Hugh, mariner, are noted by Cunningham Hart, but she does not state their connection with the ship.

Harriet Cunningham Hart's History of the County of Guysborough. Page 249

See Jim Mathew's article: Wooden Vessel Ship Construction

Who were Charles Brown and Thomas Hugh? Was there a woman called 'Elizabeth Jane'. See: News: regarding contact with decendants of Thomas Hugh and the naming of the Elizabeth Jane.

Are there paintings of Elizabeth Jane, her owners or the place where she was built; a pier head painting perhaps?

World Chronology

Jane Austen died.


First Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched.

  Thomas Hugh
(1783-20th March 1860)

Source :A C Jost's Guysborough Sketches, p330-331. I need to see this and source/context of date and reference to Thomas Hugh. SG.  
 

Charles Brown and Thomas Hugh are Sole owners of the 'ship or vessel called Elizabeth Jane'... ...and
Charles Brown is 'at present master'.

 

See 1817 registration document.    
 

Registered Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Tons 109 87/94

Canada Ship Information Database SID Official Number 9007765 and 9007766

   
 

 

Harriet Cunningham Hart's History of the County of Guysborough. Page 249

Mrs Harriet Cunningham Hart born Guysborough, 1836 was the daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Wylde) Cunningham. She died at the Old Ladies Home(Victoria Hall), Halifax 1917/02/10. She married James Edward Hart, 24 December 1857. She was one of the first female graduates of Mount Allison University and won the Akins Historical Prize for her History of Guysborough County in 1877.
Sources: A C Jost Guysborough Sketches p407
Acadian Recorder: 1917/02/10 p.1

With thanks to:
Garry D Shutlak
Senior Reference Archivist
Public Services
Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management

   
  Elizabeth Jane's first voyage? NOTICE:
Ready for sea Thursday next, the Brig "Elizabeth Jane", to Kingston,
Jamaica.
Accommodations for a few cabin and steerage passengers are
available. Apply to the Master on board, at the wharf of Miller, Fergus &
Co. (8 July)

Article of unknown provenance.

Unfortunately author (A. Bennett) unknown and email address (buzzyjab@frontiernet.net) no longer valid.

 

1818

World Chronology

Britain establishes effective control over most of India.


Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is first published.


British Institution of Civil Engineers formed.

1819

Sold at *Hamburg under Bottomry Bond

*This would appear to be the meaning of 'Hambro' in Cunningham Hart's reference to Elizabeth Jane.

Harriet Cunningham Hart's History of the County of Guysborough. P249

How did the Elizabeth Jane come to be in Hamburg? What repairs required a 'Bottomry Bond'?

World Chronology

Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.

The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia, United States, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship arrived at Liverpool, England on June 20.

The bicycle is patented.

The Factory Act is passed in Britain, creating restrictions on child labor.

Eleven people die and 400 are injured by cavalry charges at the Peterloo Massacre at a public meeting at St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England.

  From Hamburg... Elizabeth Jane, Ramsden. Possibly Elizabeth Jane's first voyage into Hull. She was actually only registered at Hull on 1st July 1819.
This is the heading for the cutting below it.
 

The Hull Packet and Original Weekly Commercial, Literary and General Advertiser. (Hull)
Tuesday March 2, 1819; Issue 1687

 
  For Hamburg... Elizabeth Jane, Smith;

The Hull Packet and Original Weekly Commercial, Literary and General Advertiser. (Hull).
Oct 18, 1819

 
 

3rd July Registered at Hull, UK.

See 1819 Hull Registration document.

Canada Ship Information Database SID Official Number 9007765 and 9007766

   
 

First registered in 'Green Book

ELIZABETH JANE - 1819-1820

(Green Book - Underwriters)
Master: Captain J. Smith (1819); Captain R. Mentsap (1820)
Rigging: Brig; single deck; fastened with iron bolts
Tonnage: 103 tons
Construction: in Nova Scotia using Birch, Spruce & Pine; vessel 4 years old (1819)
major repairs in 1819 using Oak
Owners: Ramsden
Draught under load: 10 feet
Port of survey: Hull
Voyage: sailed for Hamburg (1819); Lisbon (1820)

Email from Gilbert Provost. Ontario, Canada who notes:

'The vessel is not listed in the Red Book and appeared for the first time in the 1819 Green Book.'

S Gavin noted query 'vessel 4 years old (1819)?' (see note: in '1822')

(Gilbert Provost sent a further email on 14th May 2006 in which he says: 'The first set of details I provided for 1819-1820 were for the Green Book only simply because she is listed as ELIZABETH & JANE in the RED BOOK. This listing is two pages after ELIZABETH JANE. When the Underwriters and the Shipowners reunited in 1834, the single edition of the Lloyd's Register no longer list the vessel under either name. I checked up to 1840 but no sign of her'.

Transcribed from the Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping

What were/are the Green and Red Books?

Her Masters and Owners

How was her tonnage calculated?

 

 

1820

Where was she in these years?

 

World Chronology

George III died. William IV become King of Great Britain.


The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society established a settlement in present-day Liberia.


The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.


The Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Melos.


An 80-ton sperm whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story).

1821

Elizabeth Jane
TONS Burthen 103 68/94

Registered De Novo at London 9 June 1821 Master: John Smith

Hull Registration Document

 

This London registration document is needed. Kew?

World Chronology

Independence of Mexico.

Death of Napoleon on St. Helena.
Mexico gains its independence from Spain

1822

Master Captain Mentrup/Captain A. Ward

Rigging: Brig; single deck; sheated in copper in 1822; fastened with iron bolts,

Tonnage: 103

Construction: in Nova Scotia; vessel 5 years old (s.g. notes: presumably in 1822, which would be correct), major repairs in 1819; good repairs in 1826

Owners Ramsden

LLoyds GREEN Book (as transcribed by Gilbert Provost in email 14th May 2006. As ELIZABETH JANE.

 

 

World Chronology

Foundation of Liberia by freed American slaves.

See 'Painting that became Black Loyalists' icon'.

Discussed in Simon Schama's
Rough Crossings

Charles Babbage proposes a difference engine in a paper to the Royal Astronomical Society entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables."

Jean-François Champollion announces that he has deciphered the Rosetta stone.

 

  SHIP NEWS

Plymouth, Dec. 14.- Wind N.E. - Arrived the Elizabeth and Jane, from Seville, in 20 days, with sails split; It is not certain that this is the Elizabeth Jane, however she is recorded in Lloyd's Green in 1822 sailing to/from 'Lisbon/Madeira'.

The Morning Chronicle (London) Tuesday December 17, 1822; Issue 16742

 
 

Port of survey: Hull/London

Voyage: sailed for Lisbon/Madeira

LLoyds GREEN Book (as transcribed by Gilbert Provost in email 14th May 2006. As ELIZABETH JANE.

 
  Port of survey: London LLoyds RED Book (as transcribed by Gilbert Provost in email 14th May 2006. As ELIZABETH & JANE.  
  Possibly the Brig Elizabeth Jane (to be confirmed). Sailed from Liverpool 2nd June, Captain Dobson carrying Mr Butterworth and six settlers, and salt and goods for Froste & Porter. Montreal Gazette 1822 as reported in The Ships List as transcribed at Ship_Arrivals_Canada_June-July_1822.htm

What else is recorded in the Montreal Gazette?

What happened to Mr Butterworth and the 'six settlers'.

Who were Froste & Porter?

1823

Trip to Sierra Leone

Google Book Search "Brig Elizabeth Jane" April 11. Ship weighing 104 tons, Registered at London- Master Samuel Potter - recorded in Report Report By African Institution (London, England) Page 296 (Appendix H) Table showing 'amount of the several Vessels' Cargoes imported into the Colony of Sierra Leone, and on which Duties have been paid, in the period from 1st January to 31st December, 1823.' The invoice amount of cargo imported by Elizabeth Jane is £3,689 9s 9d.

 

Thomas Astley. A Map of the Coast and Country about Sierra Leone and Sherbro River London c. 1745 Source: Tim Bryers Ltd.

Find London Registration document.

Read Report by African Institute to better understand history of period.

see also Black Loyalist Painting

 

World Chronology

Monroe Doctrine declares North America a zone free of European colonial interest.

1824

SUNDERLAND . Arrived, ... Elizabeth and Jane, Potter, Whitstable, corf rods.

corf rod coppice rod, 0.5 – 1 inch in diameter used to make corves

corf (kôrf)
noun pl. corves
BRIT. a basket or small cart, as for carrying coal, ore, etc. in mines
Etymology: ME < MDu & MLowG < L corbis, a basket: see corbeil

Corvers 1825 made the corves, wicker-work baskets used to bring coal from the hewer to the bank.

The Newcastle Courant. Saturday July 10, 1824; Issue 7709

 

 

World Chronology

Decembrist rising in Russia.

Ashantis crush British forces in the Gold Coast.

Ludwig van Beethoven, completely deaf, conducts the debut of his Ninth Symphony in Vienna.

The Creek cede the last of their lands in Georgia to the United States government, and migrate west.

1825

Margate, April 30th. - The brig Elizabeth Jane, Ball, delivering coals here, has got damage, through sitting uneven, and filled with water.

The Newcastle Courant Saturday May 7th, 1825; Issue 7752

See John Constable's
Coal Brigs on Brighton Beach and Brighton Beach with Colliers

 

 

World Chronology

British Parliament abolishes feudalism and the seigniorial system in British North America.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway opens, and begins operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.

 

William Read is a future owner of EJ. 'After some years of difficulty George Bayley was declared bankrupt in January 1825. Probably with financial help from his foreman, William Read he managed to build his last vessel, the Childe Harold, 'a fine Indiaman, upwards of 400 tons burthen, in the following month,..'

'Read insisted on being taken into partnership... ...'Read was young enough to be Bayley's son, and he may have taken advantage of his master plight.

Brig Shannon registered as built by both men. Several vessels attributed to partnership.

Hugh Moffat's
Ships and Shipyards of Ipswich
P.93-P.94
 
  In 1825 Read advertised that he had taken premises 'adjoining Mr. Raymond's in St. Clement's as a Shipwright and Boat-builder, which must have been yard No.5. Suffolk Chronicle* 2 April I825

Hugh Moffat's
Ships and Shipyards of Ipswich
P.96

 
  Read probably built the sloop Ruby at St. Clement's in I825 and built a few other small craft until I830 when the yard became empty. * At Suffolk Record Office  

1826

COASTERS SAILED.

For

London, Eizabeth Jane, Ball.

March 14,1826; Issue 2156

 

 

World Chronology

Samuel Morey patents the internal combustion engine.

Fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, on which John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of America's Founding Fathers, died.

 

For London, ...Elizabeth Jane, Ball;

The Hull Packet etc. June 13, 1826; Issue 2169

 
 

Captain J. Ball

Owners: Ball & Co.
Good repairs in 1826

Voyage: Hull

LLoyds GREEN Book (as transcribed by Gilbert Provost in email 14th May 2006. As ELIZABETH JANE.  
  STOCKTON.
Arrived, Foreign,

- Elizabeth and Jane (not Elizabeth Jane), Paterson, St John's:

However - Elizabeth Jane, Wilson, Riga:

Newcastle Courant. Saturday July 21, 1827; Issue 7867

 
 

Port of Survey: London

Voyage: Tenerife

LLoyds RED Book (as transcribed by Gilbert Provost in email 14th May 2006. As ELIZABETH & JANE.  

1827

Captain J. Wilson (1827-33)

LLoyds GREEN Book (as transcribed by Gilbert Provost in email 14th May 2006. As ELIZABETH JANE.

World Chronology

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad is incorporated, becoming the first railroad in America offering commercial transportation of both people and freight

Slavery is abolished in New York State.

24th February
Registered Port of Stockton.

Suffolk Records Office, Ipswich Reference: IG 2/2/2

Stockton Registration documents apparently no longer exist. Double check.

1828

'Steamer Commerce built by Jabez Bayley entered service in I828. Sailed from Ipswich to London.


1828 Bayley sole owner of 'Commerce'

Hugh Moffat's
Ships and Shipyards of Ipswich
P.42

 

 

World Chronology

Andrew Jackson seventh president of the United States.

Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary.

U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States.

Mysterious feral child Kaspar Hauser is discovered wandering the streets of Nuremberg.

St Katharine Docks opened in London

1829

 

World Chronology

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres.

HMS Pickle captures the armed slave ship Voladora off the coast of Cuba.

In the United States, William Austin Burt patents the first typewriter.

continued - 1830-1854