Following on from my no. 1 thread, Mystery Man no. 2 is less of a shadowy character but information still seems thin on the ground.
My mother has told me from a very young age that my 4 x great grandfather on her grandmother's side was a Cornish sea captain by the name of Penleggen. It seems Chinese whispers were at work as I've found a trail through the censuses, since we already knew his daughter's name and who she married and the female line thereon. It seems his name was John Penlig(g)an/Penlig(g)en/Penligon (depending on the source - but NOT Penhaligon) and he was from Plymouth, not Cornwall. Going by the censuses, he would have been born around 1809, and his wife was Elizabeth, born in Weymouth around 1811. However, he himself only features on the 1861 census when he, his wife and 2 youngest children (along with a handful of others) were aboard his ship, the Royal George, of which he was Chief Officer, which was moored at Barking for census night.
I also found him once on Google books (and of course can't find him again) as an Acting Chief Officer in the the Plymouth (?) coastguard in 1857.
The IGI lists a John Penligan who married a Mary Turner in Stoke Damerel, Devon in 1803, so I'm surmising that might be his parents, but have nothing to substantiate that. The 1861 census also lists an unmarried Mary-Ann Penligan, age 50, in service as a cook in Maidstone - a sister?
That, however, is as far as I've been able to get, and I'm hitting a brick wall because the key info is prior to 1837. So questions:
1. Any suggestions for where to go next would be welcome (I have already mentally noted Kew and Greenwich for next time I'm in the UK)
2. I don't know whether he was merchant or Royal Navy. "Royal George" comes up on Google quite a lot as the name of various RN ships, but the dates don't fit with 1861 (either decommissioned before this date or commissioned afterwards). Any way of easily finding out?
3. Would a Chief Officer by definition be a master mariner? i.e. would the Nat. Maritime Museum be likely to have a master's certificate for him? A record of service?
(BTW I will probably in due course see if I can get hold of a birth certificate for one of his younger children as they were born after 1837)
My mother has told me from a very young age that my 4 x great grandfather on her grandmother's side was a Cornish sea captain by the name of Penleggen. It seems Chinese whispers were at work as I've found a trail through the censuses, since we already knew his daughter's name and who she married and the female line thereon. It seems his name was John Penlig(g)an/Penlig(g)en/Penligon (depending on the source - but NOT Penhaligon) and he was from Plymouth, not Cornwall. Going by the censuses, he would have been born around 1809, and his wife was Elizabeth, born in Weymouth around 1811. However, he himself only features on the 1861 census when he, his wife and 2 youngest children (along with a handful of others) were aboard his ship, the Royal George, of which he was Chief Officer, which was moored at Barking for census night.
I also found him once on Google books (and of course can't find him again) as an Acting Chief Officer in the the Plymouth (?) coastguard in 1857.
The IGI lists a John Penligan who married a Mary Turner in Stoke Damerel, Devon in 1803, so I'm surmising that might be his parents, but have nothing to substantiate that. The 1861 census also lists an unmarried Mary-Ann Penligan, age 50, in service as a cook in Maidstone - a sister?
That, however, is as far as I've been able to get, and I'm hitting a brick wall because the key info is prior to 1837. So questions:
1. Any suggestions for where to go next would be welcome (I have already mentally noted Kew and Greenwich for next time I'm in the UK)
2. I don't know whether he was merchant or Royal Navy. "Royal George" comes up on Google quite a lot as the name of various RN ships, but the dates don't fit with 1861 (either decommissioned before this date or commissioned afterwards). Any way of easily finding out?
3. Would a Chief Officer by definition be a master mariner? i.e. would the Nat. Maritime Museum be likely to have a master's certificate for him? A record of service?
(BTW I will probably in due course see if I can get hold of a birth certificate for one of his younger children as they were born after 1837)
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