Thursday, April 19, 2012

People On the William Brown

88 persons were on board, including 18 officers and crewmen and 65 male and female passengers, most of whom were Irish immigrants bound for the William Brown's home port of Philadelphia.

As on other ships sailing westward across the Atlantic in the 1840s, most of the passengers were Irish folks who were traveling to America where family members, earlier emigrants, had already established themselves.
  • 19-year-old Bridget McGee was on her way to Philadelphia where her father had a stable. With her was an uncle who was to work for her father.
  • 17-year-old Biddy Nugent's was on her way to Philadelphia to join her mother who ran a lodging house. She was traveling with her Uncle John.
  • Mrs. Anderson and her three daughters were on their way to join her husband, a physician who had prospered in Cincinnati.
  • There were 12 in the Luden family, all heading for Philadelphia from Colonel Stewart's County Tyrone estate in Ireland.
  • The Carrs, also from County Tyrone, included 5 children, both parents and an assortment of nieces and nephews. 
 The records are inexact and varied. Some sailors are named in the dispositions but are not on any official list. Some passengers may be listed twice under slightly different names, or incorrectly, or not at all.

Ship’s Officers and Crew
George Harris, captain
Francis Rhodes, first mate+
Walter Parker, second mate
Isaac Freeman, sailor+
Alexander William Holmes, sailor+
Joseph Marshall, steward+
John “Jack” Messer, sailor+
William Miller, sailor
Henry Murray, cook+
James Norton, sailor+
Charles Smith, sailor+
1 unnamed sailor+
5-7 unnamed sailors

+= in longboat
All others in jolly boat

Passengers Drowned with the William Brown
Mrs. Anderson & 3 children
Jane Anderson
Mary Bradley
Nicholas Carr, wife & 5 children
Martin Morris, wife & child
John Davelin
Mary Connelly
Mary Jane Weil

Jolly Boat Passenger Saved
Eliza Lafferty

Longboat Passengers Saved
James and Ellen Black
Ann Bradley
Owen Carr
Jane Carr
Mary Carr 
(Mary Carr was my great great grandmother. This story has come down through my family: Mary and Jane Carr, and their younger brother were in the lifeboat. The family story is that they saved their brother by hiding him under their skirts. The only other thing they saved from the shipwreck was a copper lustre pitcher, which I have. They testified at the trial in Philadelphia. Submitted by Phillygirl.)
Isabella Edgar
Jane Johnston Edgar
Jean Edgar
Margaret Edgar
Mrs. Margaret Edgar
Sarah Edgar
Susannah Edgar
Julie McCadden
Bridget McGee
Bridget “Biddy” Nugent
James & Matilda Patrick & child

Longboat Passengers Drowned
Ellen Asken
Francis “Frank” Askin
Mary Askin
Charles Conlin
George Duffy
James Goeld
Robert Hunter
Hugh Keigham
James MacAvoy
Martin MacAvoy
George Nugent
John Nugent
Owen Riley
James Smith
James Todd
John Welsh
John Wilson

1 comment:

  1. The Mary Carr that survived this shipwreck was my great great grandmother. This story has come down through my family. Mary and Jane (not Sarah) Carr,and their younger brother, whose first name was lost over time, were in the lifeboat. The family story is that they saved their brother by hiding him under their skirts. The only other thing they saved from the shipwreck was a copper lustre pitcher, which I have. They testified at the trial in Philadelphia.

    ReplyDelete