The Hampshire Family Historian | Vol.49 No.2 | September 2022

Member’s article

Our ancestors were ‘Coastguard Boatmen!’

Thomas Redding was one of five. His siblings included Mary Ann b.1811, and Richard b.1820. Their parents were John b.1773 Fowey and Mary DODGE b.1772 in Mevagissey. In the Fowey 1841 census we found John Redding (b 1773). He was in the household of Mary Ann BARRETT and two boys, Richard Barrett 7 years and William Barrett 5 years. We went on to establish that Mary Ann was his daughter (parish birth records/local - Connor’s) and the boys his grandchildren. Searches for her marriage and the birth records of the boys yielded no results. We found no trace of Mary Ann Barrett and her family in Fowey in 1851. In 2017 the record of the marriage of Mary Ann REDDING and a William BARRETT , (findmypast/familysearch.org.uk) was

The REDDING’S, our father’s side of the family were not much known to us. He grew up in Torpoint, Cornwall. We recall talking to him about his immediate forebears quite often. As for any ‘further back’ information, nothing was ever said. Thomas Redding, Mary Ann Redding and William Barrett . . ? In about 2010 we set about finding out! Census searches soon revealed Thomas REDDING , born 1799, was our great, great grandfather and that he had been born in Mevagissey, Cornwall and had grown up in Fowey. He was employed as a boatman/chief boatman in the coast guard service until his retirement in 1865 in Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk. He had travelled from coastguard station to coastguard station along the south coast and ‘up’ the east coast - from Fowey to Wells. The family made at least twenty moves!

Admiralty Map of coastguard stations 1855 (The National Archives)

53