| I have been helping my
mother research our family history since September 1997. We
have been lucky that our ancestors have hailed mainly from
Essex, England and that the local library holds many of the
Essex parish records on microfiche. The majority of the
information gained so far is from this source.
The surnames that I am most
interested in are WRIGHT,
SAVILL,
MURRELL,
BURLES,
BRETT,
GRIGGS and
FRENCH from Essex ,
WILLINGALE and
STEIN (from Liverpool) , although many other surnames
feature on these pages. Links to our online tree are here
- search by family name or
individuals name |
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James Wright, my great great great grandfather was born in Woodham Ferrers, Essex on 17 May 1828. He was actually baptised James Griggs, the son of James Griggs and Mary Ann Blackwell, but when his widowed mother married Jacob Wright in 1833 he assumed his stepfather’s surname.
James married Isabella Murrell (below) at Maldon Independent Chapel in 1853.
James was a mariner and was apparently at sea on every census day 1841 - 1871 as he does not appear with his family at the home addresses. We know his whereabouts in 1861 but have been unable to find him on other censuses.
On census night 1861 James Wright, a married seaman aged 33, was on board the vessel C.S.M. The ship was a brig of 195 tonnage involved in the coal trade. Its home port was London and its master was J. Dykes. The position of the vessel at midnight 7th April 1861 was 4 miles distant of Flamborough Head. The schedule of census was delivered on 20th April 1861 in London.
Despite his sea-
faring James fathered nine children before he died at sea in
1872. James was on the vessel “Charante” which had left
St Katherine’s Dock, London on a hometrade voyage in
December 1872. The vessel was reported missing on 7 December
with all 14 men lost. Pay due was 4s 3d which was paid to
the family on 2 May 1873.
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| Isabella Murrell was
born in Southend on Sea, Essex circa 1835. Following her
marriage to James (above) in 1853 she lived in Maldon, Essex
where she raised her family.
After the death of James she
married a wine merchant named Thomas Hayes and bore him two
children.
Having out-lived both her husbands
Isabella died in 1919, aged 83.
Through the power of the internet and the great Essex genealogy pages I have made contact with other descendants of my Great Great Great Grandparents, JAMES WRIGHT and ISABELLA (nee MURRELL), namely Steve Bush in Scarsdale, NY and Joyce Lingousky in Pittsburgh. We have been able to exchange information, photos and anecdotes and have each discovered relatives that we knew nothing about. A more recent contact is Alan Fielder from Gloucestershire whose wife Audrey is also descended from James and Isabella. |
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