Collina founders off Holland

The Collina of Ipswich foundered off the coast of Holland on the morning of June 17th 1841.

See the Collina's position in Google Maps  Her owner William Read of Ipswich was accused of inciting  her master William Simpson to sink her. The report of Read and Simpson's trial was recoded in the Nautical Magazine in 1844 -

'John Brady, examined by Mr. C. Jones: I am a mariner, residing in Barking, in Essex. My business is the Cod fishing. In the month of June, 1841, I had the command of a smack called the Sarah, and I went in her to the coast of Holland. I was off that coast in company with some other smacks. I was lying off the Brown Bank on the eastern edge. There were about eight other smacks lying off the same place. About six o'clock one morning I was roused out of my berth by the watch, and I immediately went on deck, and my attention was directed to a brig which was in sight. This brig I afterwards found at to be the Colina. She was about six miles off, and appeared to have been deserted by her crew, and to be in distress. Her canvas was only three parts set, and there was no signal of distress hoisted. The wind at that time was south-west, and the weather fine. I called all hands and made towards the ship. I neared her very soon, and was about half a mile distant when she went down. I then took up the crew who were in the long-boat. They had been taken on board a Dutch galliot, which they left to come on board of my vessel.'

In The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 it is recorded: WILLIAM SIMPSON was indicted for feloniously and maliciously casting away and destroying a vessel called the Colina, with intent to defraud John Irving and others; to which he pleaded. GUILTY . Aged 28.— Transported for Life. Before Mr. Baron Gurney.

Image Gallery for Lost Brig Site - Version one

I have added an 'Image Gallery' to the lost brig site. I did a 'search' of jpeg files from the website folders; copied these to a new folder; got Picasa to index these and build a website from the files found. I have not yet made links from the images back to the website. I am thinking about how I can do this, easily, on a regular basis. The original Image Gallery is still on the site.

New Gallery of Images for the brig Elizabeth Jane Website

I have long held the view that websites often conceal as much as communicate. The Elizabeth Jane's site in its current state is, I think, an example of this. People like to see pictures and use them to decide what they want to know more about. I have decided to make a 'gallery' of all the images on the Lostbrig site with the help of 'Picasa', Google's free image cataloguing and image editing software. Picasa is able to generate a website, which can be published like any other website; and it will also upload images to a Picasa Web Album where they can be shared by a web or email link. This should happen quite soon, though I am unsure at the moment how I will make the connection between the website image and its location.

Registration Documents of the Sloop Samuel

I have recently received, from the North East Lincolnshire Archives, the registration document of the Samuel of Grimsby. The Samuel rescued the crew of the Elizabeth Jane when she was abandoned in July 1854. The Samuel was built by Samuel and George Bennett in 1849 and was registered at Grimsby on the 17th July 1850. Her registration document shows that she was a sloop.

Thanks to the work of a descendant of the Bennett brothers, I now know that the Samuel was built at the Barnby Basin which was at the end of the Barnsley Canal. Cawthorne and Kexborough are the closest modern settlements to its remains. The site of the Barnby Basin may also be seen on Google Maps.


The Barnby Basin is now filled in, but there are photographs of remaining cottages at Barnby see: http://www.billogs.com/cb/yorkshire.htm . A link from this page provides much information about canals in the area at the time of the Samuel. Google Books has much contemporary information about the Barnby Basin and its surrounding area:

More about Ebenezer Robertson

I have recently been in contact with Richard Pinner a descendant of Ebenezer Robertson's family. He has given me interesting photographs from a family bible detailing births and deaths in the Robertson family over about a century. This information is closely related to William Read's will and the chart of William Read's immediate family. The photographs from the bible, a transcription of the recorded births and deaths, and the biblical texts mentioned will be published soon. Please note: In William Read's will 'Ebeneezer' is spelled with two 'e's; in the family bible 'Ebeneezer' is spelled with one.

Key People in William Read's Will

All the names in William Read's will have been added to the Key People page of this site. Those who are related to Read have had their relationship explained by using MyHeritage's Family Tree Builder's website to build text relationship charts which explain each individual's relationship to Read. It is possible to search this site for each name or individual.
The confusion as to the identity of Read's Executors is now clear: they cannot be the William and Thomas Taylor who are bank clerks as Read's exceutors are separately listed as beneficiaries. The two remaining candidates are therefore Thomas Taylor grandfather of the clerks and his son William who is father of the clerks. Read therefore was able to protect the interests of his wife by appointing her brother William and his son (her nephew) as Executors.
I have begun to add some images to the Stockton on Tees page; including a print of the port Stockton in 1825 which is two years before the Elizabeth Jane was registered there. Stockton is important in the history of the Railway and this connects in well with Read's later journey to Liverpool, the introduction of steam as a motive power, the start of the demise of sail and the rise and rise of coal.

More about William Read's Will

By reading William Read's will I have, together with some addition information found at http://genforum.genealogy.com/robertson/messages/7093.html, been able to build a chart of William Read's immediate family. William Read looks quite isolated on it. He appears to have had no children with his wife Mary, though Maria Hare's child was (I think) judged to be his by a court. His sister Sophia is the only direct relative mentioned in his will, though she was already dead when Read wrote it in 1866. I do not yet know the order (or status) of Read's mother's relationships to Mr Mack, Mr Gill and Mr Read, though she clearly had children with them.