Nelson & His World

Good Morning All,

Researching a Lt. John Hadaway of Leith, who was fourth Lieutenant on the Bellerphone at the Battle of the Nile. He was wounded during the Battle by a canon ball and survived. Can't trace him at Trafalgar and he died on the 4th August 1806, at Leith. Trying to locate where he was buried South Leith and of any memorials to him. Any information welcome.

Cheers

Apologies for this all, but the Portrait is not that of John Hadaway.

Not much, but I can say that in searching the Caledonian Mercury for this time, there are several mentions of Hadaways of Leith - a Patrick Hadaway who was evidently in the brewing trade, and a Thomas Hadaway, "merchant of Leith" - his house "...In the Yardheads, Leith" was advertised for sale in October 1802 - "House, garden, stable, hayloft and other offices .... pleasantly situated, having nothing but garden ground between it and Edinburgh"

I can only trace one positive mention of Lieut J Hadaway - in January 1806 he is listed as being a subscriber to a fund for improving Leith Schools, contributing £21.

There is one more possible mention - in October 1806 lands for advertised in the Caledonian Mercury for sale at Bonnington, "feued" to the deceased John Hadaway, merchant of Leith. These were shown as five acres and a half of land "lying on the south side of the road leading to Queensferry". The advertisment continues with a description of more land, which I presume to be also Hadaway property - a "park lying at the head of Kings Street and Yard Heads of South Leith, commonly called the Tuils, consisting of about one acre".

Not sure if I am reading your last-but-one sentence correctly.

Are you saying he WAS buried in South Leith or questioning IF he was?

Have you tried the National Burial Index?. VERY frustrating at times because it is incomplete but always worth a look.

Have you picked up on his will on the National Archive website? A slight chance that that will give an indication where he is buried.

MB

Mark I'm researching this for a friend with family connections, located the will in the National Archives, but up to this person to delve into the details. Been off the Nelson radar for a while, but glad to be back with this interesting story.

Still uncertain what you are looking for regarding his burial.

If you are saying he WAS buried in South Leith then the first place to look is the local Parish Church - which has seemingly been there for 500 years.

http://www.slpc.co.uk/html/slpc_history.html

But details would need checking to either the National Burial Index or the Burial Register for that church.

If we can trace him to that church or another - then would need to see if at any time the gravestones and memorials have been recorded.

I should think only a slim chance that he would have had a memorial inside the church and equally as slim that a gravestone from 1806 would have survived.

MB

P.S. No mention on the Memorials section of the National Maritime Museum website. But again that is not 100% complete.

Sorry for this Mark, but I gather he must have been buried in a Vault with family members. Father sounds as though he may have been a Merchant of Leith.Most likely quite well off at the time.

Steve

Something odd going on here.

I think somebody may have got some details wrong.

If you look at the death notice below you will see that the name has 2 "D's" and this is from August 1805 not August 1806.

(confirmed by the Naval Chronicle)

Bernard Street is still there - less than half a mile from South Leith Parish Church so I would lay a small wager that that is where he was buried.



MB

Oh boy - more confusion!

The Bellerophon muster (see below), and of course his will, have his name spelt with one "D".

So I can only suggest that if anyone is doing computer searches try both spellings of the name.

But I am 100% certain that the date of August 1805 is correct.



MB

Dear Mark

Thank you very much for your help, I shall be looking into all of this and putting all the pieces together.

Kind Regards

Are you a descendant?

It's always nice to know the background to these queries.

MB

Thanks for your help here Mark, as you can see the research was on behalf of Genoa1740. Now she has joined onto this site, I will let her continue, as it is her connections with this thread.

Stephen

Dear Mark

I am a descendant but not directly. Here is my article: http://www.levantineheritage.com/note93.htm
Are you descended from anyone in the Royal Navy etc during this era?

SH

From the National Archives catalogue -

(ref) ADM 6/343/24 -Papers submitted to the Charity for the relief of Officers' Widows; pages 113 - 118 are papers submitted by Agnes Hadaway widow of John Hadaway, Lieutenant Royal Navy who died 04 Aug 1805. Includes: Extract from Parish Register, married 25 Aug 1803

Thanks Safeena. An interesting story. I can see that you had already picked up on that strange "double d" that was occasionally used in his name.

And no - no known naval ancestors from the Nelson era. I just caught the Naval history bug a few years back and am happy to share the bits and pieces of knowledge that I have built up.



Another very interesting piece in the jigsaw.

MB