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

Member’s article

We hunted again for a record of a death for William BARRETT and this time we had a find! A burial record and image of the parish burial record. (familysearch.org.uk) The date: 17 August 1836, at New Shoreham. He was 33 years old. But the image clinched it! William’s abode was given as ‘the Coastguard Station Houses’. He was in the coast guard service! Even more, the record showed two other boatmen buried within days of William. An incident - surely! A newspaper report? A Coroner's Report? Our hearts sank at the prospect of a newspaper search! However, Betty triumphed! Her Google search for ‘old newspapers of Shoreham, 1830s’ gave results. We found www.newshorehambysea.com Two articles of interest. We discovered names of boatmen based at Shoreham and these included William BARRETT , there from 1832-1836. The coastguard agency report of the incident at sea was included alongside the more detailed account from the local newspaper. From the Bucks. Herald , the story begins, ‘MELANCHOLY CATASTROPHE’. It was a Monday. We are told of the voyage planned from Cuckmere Haven to take the station officer and his luggage to his new appointment at Kingston. William BARRETT and the two other boatmen (Tyrell and Boyden) were to row the galley. A squall developed near Goring. The boat capsized and only the officer

got to shore. The report goes on to say ‘the unfortunate men each left a wife and family’. William BARRETT left Mary Ann and three boys. (Until now, we had known only of two, Richard and William, from 1841 census) A further hunt! The website had links to the Shoreham parish records. We found the death recorded of William BARRETT and the births of all three of his boys. At last! The third, John Redding BARRETT , b.1836 had died (familysearch.org.uk) before the 1841 census when the family was back in Fowey. (General Record Office unable to locate the death certificate 1840) Later, John Redding BARRETT (1836-1840) had a cousin, named John Barrett REDDING born in 1848 to Betsy BARRETT and Richard REDDING . Our Dad had made ‘notes’ of some family ancestors - and among them we found a scrap of paper where he had written, ‘Redding girls married Robins Barrett.

What, we wonder, did he know? The ‘finds’ made through the www.shorehambysea.com site were wonderful! Gaps were filled and speculation turned into fact. ‘Icing on the cake’

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