Nelson & His World

Is this the information that the 1805 Club are after then?

St James' Church, Piccadilly is still there (see below) but it is possible that as with other London churches burial remains from churchyard and/or vaults will have been removed and reinterred.

I suppose there is a very small possibility that there is some memorial within the church.

Probably worth someone contacting the church to ascertain details.



MB

Just did a bit of Googling re St James' Church, Piccadilly.

It looks as if the graveyard may still be intact but I found the following:

Few of the memorials in the churchyard are now decipherable. A list of those which were readable in 1913 was published in Notes and Queries, 11th series, vol. vii, pp. 185, 224–5, 303 and 324.

I won't be holding my breath but it would be worth checking out that Notes & Queries information.

MB

Try This,

http://www.st-james-piccadilly.org/memorials.html

No joy there unfortunately.

It's a real long shot but I will do my best to track down that Notes & Queries info - unless anyone can beat me to it!!

MB

Brilliant work Stephen! Why didn't the Club just ask you in the first place?

Thanks all for the ongoing input.

And don't forget William Birchall...

Tony,

Can you give me some information on William Birchall ? Was he a Lancashire man as that is where the Birchall originates.

As I said previously London Burals are very difficult to locate.

www.burial.magic-nation.co.uk

There is quite alot of interesting material on Captain Jonas Rose in the London Gazette, On-Line.

Phew - I managed to check out that volume of Notes & Queries. It listed the inscriptions from about 138 graves but REGRETABLy no mention of Jonas Rose.

Possibilities are therefore:
The inscription was illegible after only about 100 years - unlikely
He never had a gravestone at all - I would have thought unlikely
He was buried in the crypt - reasonable chance. If the coffins have ever been removed from the crypt as happened with a good few churches the authorities may well have made a record of the coffin plates.

I guess now it's over to the 1805 Club to contact the church and see what they can come up with - if anything.

Hopefully - if nothing else - the 1805 Club will arrange for a memorial to be placed in the church.

Tony - please can you let us know how they get on.

MB

Regarding William Birchall - this is just an observation - and may be going over old ground.

But I checked him out in the list of Commissioned Officers and noted there that only one Birchall was ever promoted to Captain in this era.

I then went to the records of deaths in the Naval Chronicle and although there is no William Birchall there are two "Mrs Birchalls" - both described as "wife of Captain Birchall". So by default I guess these must be two wives of William Birchall.

The first death was in the first half of 1806 and was at Bath

The second death was in the second half of 1811 and was at Ilfracombe.

I think if this was my project I would be checking out the burial records for Ilfracombe and maybe even Bath just on the off chance that that is where William ended up.

I think that is as far as I can take it but good luck!!

MB

Thanks for all that, Mark.

Info from the 1805 Club is that there is evidence indicating that Birchall died at Exeter on 12 Dec 1817, but that a search of the Exeter burial registers does not confirm this. I have emailed to find out if there is any further information.

In the meantime, information that I have come up with is as follows:

He married Jane Cross of Bath on 16 June 1806, at St Mary, St Marylebone, London. She died in June 1811, in Ilfracombe.

He married Leonora BINGHAM of Melcombe, Dorset on 12 Jan 1815. He is then described as 'of St. Giles, Camberwell'. She outlived him by many years and remarried. Much later, in 1836 she was receiving an Admiralty pension as a Captain's widow.

ADM 9/2/167 (Admiralty: Survey Returns of Officers' Services) gives the date of his death: Name: William Birchall; Rank: Post Captain; Date of Seniority: Died 12 December 1817, survey is missing from document.

ADM 354/221/151 puts him in Chester in 1806: William Marsden. The accounts of Captain W Birchall, Regulating Officer at Chester, are questioned.

So Camberwell may be worth a try, and the Admiralty pension records may also provide a clue.

Re Jonas Rose, a note I spotted at Ancestry.co.uk suggests to me that Randy Mafit, editor of the Kedge Anchor, may have just pipped us at the post with the burial record!

Tony

Crikey - not easy to tie William Birchall down to one place is it!

That marriage to Jane Cross ties in exactly with my understanding that his first(?) wife died at Bath just a few months earlier.

And at quite an advanced age he has obviously married a much younger woman.

Makes it especially strange that his death/burial is proving so elusive.

Sorry - no more ideas at present but if I have any flash of inspiration I will get back.

MB

According to the London, Marriages and Banns, 1754-1921.

William Birchall was already a widower for he married a Jane Cross of Brampton, Middlesex, Spinster, on the 16th June 1806.
So he could have married three times?

Yes, you are right, Stephen. As Mark discovered in the Naval Chronicle, his first wife died in Bath only a few months earlier. Source: Naval Chronicle XV p176. There is no date given, but it was perhaps Jan/Feb 1806.

The Gentleman's Magazine Vol LXXVI for 1806 (part 1) p189 also records her death: 'In Henrietta-street, Bath, after a long illness, the wife of Capt. Birchall, R. N.'

Here is some more info from the 1805 Club secretary on research into Birchall:
In addition to that, he has also checked the burial registers in Ilfracombe where Birchall's second wife died.