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| Orkney Archive reference D2/22/20 |
Billy Manson left Ackworth School, Yorkshire, in April 1791,
aged 15 and came north to his father’s home in Kirkwall, Orkney. Ackworth was,
still is, a Society of Friends, a Quaker, boarding school.
Billy’s father was Captain William Manson, sea captain,
trader, ultimately Comptroller of Customs at Kirkwall and co-founder of the
settlement of Friendsborough in Georgia, USA. His mother was Dinah Jackson from
Whitby. She was William’s first wife, and she disappeared in Georgia sometime
after February 1780 when she and William parted company, leaving Billy and his
sister Elizabeth with their father, in Georgia. Billy had been born on-board
his father’s ship, the Georgia Packet,
in December 1775, as his parents, his sister and 100 settlers arrived in Savannah
from a 14 week crossing of the Atlantic from Britain. Many adventures later,
William returned to Orkney and remarried, in 1787. His second wife was
Elizabeth Balfour, sister of John, Thomas and David Balfour, and in marrying
her, William probably made the best bargain of his life, finding himself a fine
wife and an active and lucrative role in the Balfour family’s burgeoning
estates and business interests.
The Mansons, particularly Captain William, figure highly
amongst Orkney Archives’ Balfour Papers. There are letters from the Captain,
ledgers and financial documentation from his father’s business, from his own
business, letters to and from all of Captain William’s siblings, his mother and
much else.
And in amongst it all, in bundle D2/22/20, is a letter dated
September 8th 1792, from Kirkwall, to an unknown person, written
possibly by Billy’s stepmother, Elizabeth. It is a list of what is to go into a
chest for W Manson and it becomes clear that this is a list of what a young man
i.e. Billy, will need, going to sea for the first time.
Firstly, a list of clothing to be put into the chest, presumably
from his current wardrobe, being:
8 white shirts and 6 check shirts
6 pair linen, 6 pair woollen and 1 pair cotton stockings
1 green great coat, 1 brown coat
3 waistcoats and 3 pairs breeches
3 pair shoes and 1 pair buckles
2 silk handkerchiefs and 2 cravats
3 pair worsted mittens, and
3 pocket handkerchiefs
I’m curious about the 12 shirts and how the white are to be
successfully laundered, versus the check ones. White shirts suggest smart
formality and their preponderance suggests an officer rather than a seaman. Also
why 13 pair of stockings - and the specific need for 1 pair of cotton
stockings? Why 2 coats of different colours? Were they also of different
materials, for different climates? 2 silk handkerchiefs and 2 cravats – also of
silk? For land-based or sea-based events?
The following page of the letter then states that further
items are to be purchased for Billy at London (does this mean, once he gets
there from Kirkwall?), which
‘may be had cheapest
& most suitable at a slop shop in
Wapping’
A slop shop in Wapping? A shop where ready-made clothing was
sold, and in Wapping because it was hard on the River Thames and part of
London’s docklands. Young Billy’s uncle Thomas was settled in London and it is
probable Billy was with his uncle and his family, pending his departure.
The list of what’s to be bought at the slop ship is headed
by more clothing:
2 outside duffle
jackets, lined in the body and sleeves with blue flannel and [costing]about 10
to 12 shillings each, with horn buttons - duffle in the 18th
Century is about the type of fabric, a heavy-duty woollen flannel, rather than
the design of the garment. Horn buttons would have been harder-wearing than
wooden.
2 pair canvas long
trousers about 2 shillings and sixpence to 3 shillings – canvas would be immensely hard-wearing, and
note the fact that they must be long trousers, not knee-length, or any other short
trousers.
1 pair blue baize
trousers, at 5 shillings – baize being coarse, woollen cloth.
3 pair woollen drawers at 2 shillings to 2 shillings and
sixpence i.e. undergarments worn next to the skin. Billy has 12 shirts but only
3 pairs of drawers. It’s an imbalance not to be dwelt on, perhaps.
2 under waistcoats
with sleeves, unlined with horn buttons at 5 to 6 shillings – think about
the environment Billy is setting out into. The letter is written in September
so we can surmise an autumn or early winter departure, from London, out onto a
cold, cold Atlantic ocean where layers of warm clothing will be vital.
The list then moves onto miscellaneous items:
I hammock bed of flock,
2 blankets and a rug – not only did
a hammock take up least space in the confined world of 18th century
ships, but it was a safe place for a sailor to sleep. The hammock moved in
rhythm with the ship and held in the sailor, much preferable to being flung
about in a bunk.
1 pair block tin
buckles with brass chapes and tongues- as 2 buckles are required, it seems
probable they are for footwear. Block tin is solid tin, as opposed to tinplate,
therefore sturdy, as is the brass from which the chapes and tongues are to be
made. And what of the chapes and tongues? Chapes are the plates by which the
buckle is attached to the shoe and the tongue is the pin of the buckle.
2 sailors’ frocks of
canvas to wear over all – the frock worn by a sailor was a heavy duty,
waist length tunic, presumably as protection from weather and dirt. No Gore-Tex
for Billy and his companions!
1 French Grammar and
Dictionary to be got second hand, and any other small books he may chuse –
is this the first clue as to where Billy is heading? His father and Uncle Thomas
both had connections to the Caribbean sugar trade, and France had its share of
the islands of the Caribbean, which Billy might visit if he too joined that
trade. Or - the French Revolution of 1789 was the reason for war across Europe
by 1792. Britain was neutral until 1793, but the storm was brewing and perhaps
understanding French might be useful for a naval man – prizes to be captured on
the high seas, perhaps?
And finally, one
navigation book of Hamilton Moor’s that has all the tables used in keeping a
ship’s way at sea etc – John Hamilton Moor was Edinburgh born and his The New Practical Navigator and Daily Assistant was published in 1772.
Again, an indication that Billy is officer material, to be trained to command
and take charge, as his father had done.
The letter’s author believes it is needless to buy a quadrant for him for the 1st voyage,
nor sea charts. But notes that if Billy
meets up with John Paterson (who was John Paterson?), he should take Paterson’s
advice on what it is necessary to have for this first trip.
Finally, the writer states
N.B. His things must
be very easy for him as sea clothes are very apt to shrink and get past use in
a little time- presumably easy is used in the sense of comfortable and
roomy.
There is very little known about young Billy’s sea-going
career. He had been born at sea, he had crossed the Atlantic before he was 10
years old, returning from America to Britain, his father was a sea-going man
and his London and Orkney families lived by trade which was dependent on the
sea: all in all, no surprise then that he goes to sea, aged 16. It may be that
more information lies un-catalogued in the Manson letters in the Balfour papers -
we don’t know the ships he sailed on; whether he was Royal Navy or Merchant
Navy, but probably the latter given his father’s and uncle’s connections.
What we do know, from a sad, torn and tattered little list
of family deaths, written up perhaps by his step-mother, is that Billy died in
June 1795, of yellow fever in Antigua. He was 20 years old.
Yellow fever is a nasty, tropical virus spread by infected
mosquitos. Inoculation helps nowadays and immunity also builds but Billy didn’t
benefit from either in 1795. Antigua is one of the West Indies, and was an
important British naval base from the 1660s onwards. Was he nursed at the naval
hospital at English Harbour, or were its beds reserved for Royal Navy men? Did
he die, as he was born, on board ship? And does he have a burial place in
Antigua?
A short life, filled with adventure and separation – the
loss of his mother, his time at Ackworth, and then away to sea, far from
father, step-mother, sister and all the rest. Did he mind? A life lived from
sea-chests ………
And a post-script: in April 2018 an Orkney
family visited Antigua, made contact with the local Archive
http://www.antiguanationalarchives.org/. There was no immediate trace of Billy
there, but they will keep looking – he was one of hundreds, if not thousands of
seamen who died in the Caribbean – and so the candle lit for Billy by
uncovering the inventory of his sea-chest, will keep burning and we’ll also keep
looking for more information in the Balfour papers
