Nelson & His World

As to William's wives:

I have found two other possible women as candidates for his first wife.

In 1789, St Andrew Hollborn a marriage
William Birchall of St James, Merkenwell, Middlesex married Lydia Maddock of St Andrew Hollborn 18 Oct 1789 with witnesses of James and Mary Birchall.

a marriage
William Birchall and Hannah Catherine
27 October 1771
Westminster, London

a burial in 1806
02 April 1806 Birchall, Hannah, Shelton
Burials in 1805-1806
Collection Staffordshire: Stoke-Upon-Trent
Parish registers, 1754-1812

a possible third
from Pallot's Marriage
Mary Page and William Birchall
1802 at Lenton Parish

Sorry I forgot to list a better location for this last one

I hope some of this may help toward our goal of locating his gravesite.

Hi dmafit,

Welcome to Nelson and his World.

Regarding my sourse? Click on http://www.rootschat.com then go to the Forum then English counties, click on Dorset and then click Dorset Lookup Requests and you will see my posting.

Regards,

Stephen

Henrietta Street, Bath.

If the Birchall's lived in Henrietta Street, then their neighbours in No 20 Henrietta Street would have been Rear Admiral Mark Robinson (1722-1799) Who served as acting Lieutenant under Nelson in the Worcester in 1776. he died in Bath.
His son Thomas Pitt Robinson served as midshipman on board the Royal Sovereign also lived at the same address and died there in 1861.

I've found some information that may be of help but it is not online at present and the record office holding the info is in the process of moving. Microfiche may be available. The info is:

Here are the full details for this record.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Repository Somerset Record Office
Level Item
RefNo A\BTL/2/16
AccNo M/221
Title Diary of Reverend William Holland.
Description [The diaries written between September 1802 and March 1803 are missing]. Visit to Marsh Mills, Sunday School, visit to Cannington, visits to Asholt [Aisholt], a man 'Porter' and his daughter who was impregnated by him, Holland suffering from influenza, visit to Enmore,

Captain Birchill [Birchall] (Captain at the Battle of Copenhagen),

visit to Claverton, Canon of Salisbury, visit to Wells.
Date Mar-May 1803

Extent 1
Format volume
AccessStatus Open

http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/ gives info on the record office.

If anyone can get to that office, they might be able to get the info and I feel it may be pertinent as it speaks to the time of William's first wife and where he might have been during that time. Good luck!

The previous email about a link to Birchall in Somerset was a result of looking at the post

"Might be taking the bait here as I have found a burial for a Esther Birchall on the 13th February 1806,Aged 42, at Bathhampton, St Nicholas, Somerset."

I wrote to the secretary at St Nicholas and received the reply that the records were stored at the Somerset Record Office. A search there with the name of "Birchall" led me to find the Diary entry.

re William Birchall's first wife:

I saw the post about the marriage of an Esther, as well as her death but I think this Esther is a better match.

Dorset Mariage Index 1538 to 1856
William Birchall m Esther Catherine Delaney
21 September 1786
Lyme Regis, Dorset
witnesses: Alice Moore, Mos. James

What do you think?

I feel the evidense points to an Esther as the first wife. The connection through St Nicholas, Bathampton leading to an entry about Capt Birchall is pretty strong. But which Esther is the question. We have at least two possibilities. Most of William's locations are London and the Bath area. I am comparing parent possibilities in Middlesex to parishes where William was either married or located. I may be completely wrong.

Looking for Birchalls in the Bath area, a possible candidate for a father in the 1792 Bath directory is William Birchall, Queen Square, 'Upholder, Auctioneer, etc'. There is an errata which replaces his name with Potter, presumably because he had moved.

The Monthly Magazine for November 1807 has a death: 'At Combe Down, Mr. Birchall, formerly an eminent upholder of Bath, 76'. Combe Down is a couple of miles from Bath, and from Bathhampton.

Yet, I find an 1851 Census record with Leonora and George and some of the children from the 1841 Census.

I did find the death record but it was in a different area than where she was living. Could this be a different Leonora?

You are correct!!!!

Looking through the Bath Chronicle, searching for Birchall I found this:

27 Jun 1793 Military: Mr Wm. Birchall, son of Mr Birchall in Queen Sq, Bath, midshipman for 13 years in His Majesty's Navy promoted to Lieutenant on board the ship "Montague." of 74 guns.
Bath Chronicle
1258/1793 article:3 b

An older brother, Peregrine, died in Bath. Wife's name Susanna, two children.

His father sold the business or died:

12 Dec 1799 Notices: Wm Bally has taken Mr Birchall's premises on W side Queen Sq, Bath for use as auction room & repository for furniture. NB the upholstery & cabinet trades as usual at upper cnr Milsom St
Bath Chronicle
2596/1799 article:3,e

Update:

After writing to a librarian at Bath, who confirmed that an article in the Bath Chronicle mentioned the death of Capt Birchall in Exeter but on the 1st of December, my husband wrote to a librarian in Exeter who found the mention of the death in the Trewman's Exeter Flying Post of 4 Dec 1817. He died on the first, was buried on the 8th according to records from the burial registers for the parish of St Sidwell. He had been in Exeter "but a short time". This is a different death date than the National Archives had. This may have led to our difficulty in finding Capt Birchall's death.

Unfortunately, the church was bombed and much was destroyed. The librarian said, "The pre-war descriptions of the interior monuments that we have here do not include a memorial to a Captain Birchall/Burchill/Burchell, and we do not have any details of the memorials in the graveyard which was also badly damaged. I don't know whether the memorials in the graveyard were ever documented." His name was spelled variously during the years and venues.

We had previously found that his mother's name was Ann Driver. We found a baptism record for his brother Peregrine, (though spelled incorrectly), in London and, since the Exeter paper mentioned William was 48 when he died, he was born in 1769. The family was in Bath by 1770 so William could have been born either place. The other interesting piece of information from Bath was that Thomas William Birchall was Peregrine's son. He was also a Royal Navy man, sometimes listed as William, to add to the confusion.

Now, if we only knew why he was in Exeter.

Thanks for the update, and congratulations on finally tracking him down! It's sad that again there is no surviving memorial on the ground, but at least the 1805 Club can now help to put that straight. It did also always seem likely that Thomas William Birchall was related, but the link was very elusive, and you have done a great job in identifying the various family members.

I can go and have a look at Richard Retallick's grave in Padstow (also the grave in Falmouth) - but I don't know how you lot are getting all this information about which church/etc. Let me know if you need any help - I can cycle to Padstow from where I live.

Caitlin

That is a very kind offer, Caitlin, but the info from recent 1805 Club newsletters is that those graves have now been visited and surveyed, so there is no need for a visit – unless for your own interest, of course. Richard Retalick’s grave at Padstow is apparently in need of considerable attention and is being added to the list of future conservation projects. I think Hender Whitter’s grave at St Martin’s near Looe is OK.

Another grave in Cornwall recently repaired and conserved by the 1805 Club is that of Luke Brokenshaw, the master of the Revenge at Trafalgar, where he was severely wounded, and also master of the Ganges at Copenhagen 1807. (He had another brother who was also a master in the navy and served briefly with my ancestor in the frigate Dryad.) Luke Brokenshaw’s grave is at St Michael’s Church, Caerhays, near Mevagissey, and needed major repairs as the headstone had broken into several pieces, all fortunately still present. I visited the church last year, but did not spot the grave as I was not aware of it at the time. It is a very beautiful little church in a lovely location, and also contains tucked away in a side chapel a very imposing black life size statue of Captain George Byron Bettesworth in full naval uniform with sword, complete with anchor and cannon at his feet. Well worth a visit, if you are in the area.

Another of the 1805 Club’s projects in the West Country last year was the conservation of the tomb of Captain Robert Cuthbert. He is regarded as one of the ‘Captains’ at the battle of the Nile, because as first lieutenant he assumed command of the Majestic following the death of Captain George Blagdon Westcott, and was promoted to Captain after the battle. His grave is at All Saints Church, Weston, Bath, just two graves away from that of Sir Henry Bayntun, commander of the Leviathan at the battle of Trafalgar. The 1805 Club had previously undertaken conservation work on Bayntun’s tomb as part of the Trafalgar Captains’ Memorial Project.

The Club’s main project for 2010 is in London at Kensal Green Cemetery, and is the conservation of the tomb of Admiral Sir Robert Waller Otway, flag Captain of the London at the Battle of Copenhagen under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker. Otway had also been present at the Battle of the Glorious First of June. His tomb at Kensal Green is only a short distance from the tomb of Admiral Sir Thomas Bladen Capel, which was recently conserved by the Club. Capel served in HMS Vanguard under Nelson at the Nile and commanded HMS Phoebe at Trafalgar. There is due to be rededication ceremony at Kensal Green for both men on 10 July.

Kensal Green contains the graves of include more than 20 naval officers who served through the French wars and ended their careers as admirals. These include Admiral Sir George Cockburn who conveyed Napoleon to St Helena in HMS Bellerophon, and was also responsible for burning down the White House during the War of 1812 against the United States. Also there is the grave of Sir William Beatty, Nelson’s surgeon at Trafalgar. I believe that at his own request there was no memorial to him at the time, and the 1805 Club erected a memorial plaque several years ago.

Most of the above information is from 1805 Club newsletters (The Kedge Anchor). More information on earlier conservation projects can be found here: http://www.1805club.org/ourprojects

Great post, Tony. Do you actually carry all this information in your head, or do you just know where to look? Either way, I'm impressed.

Is anything known of the grave of Davidge Gould, the last surviving Nile Captain (of Audacious)? He died in 1847, aged 89, at Hawkshead in Herefordshire (according to wiki.) The reason I ask is that he was a Somerset lad, born in Bridgwater, (as was Admiral Blake), and the family home was at Sharpham Park near Glastonbury - now owned by Roger Saul, founder of the leather goods firm, Mulberry.