Captain Cuthbert to the Isle of Man in 1843

Some months ago I learned that the National Library and Archives of the Isle of Man was planning in early 2011 to give internet access to all Manx Newspapers held by Manx National Heritage from 1793 to 1960.   See http://www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/library/imuseum.xml  

The Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea between Ireland and Great Britain.  One of the Cuthbert ships, an 87-ton schooner, official number 19891, called the William and Margaret, presumably named after my great grandparents William Cuthbert and Margaret (nee Dalton) Cuthbert, was built at Peel on the Isle of Man in 1846.  So I e-mailed the Isle of Man Library and asked them to let me know when the newspapers would become available on line.  I thought that there might be an article about the launch of the ship at Peel.

Recently I received a message from the Library stating that, while the newspapers are not yet available to the public, they were enclosing a copy of a shipping notice from page 3 of the Manx Liberal newspaper of April 1st, 1843, that might be of interest.  

Arrivals

The notice shows that on March 30th, 1843, a ship called the Elizabeth and Mary, arrived at the port of Ramsey, Isle of Man, from Carlisle, with a Cuthbert as captain.  This could well be William Cuthbert (baptised 17 Jan 1779  - died 8 Oct 1843), father of my great grandfather Robert Cuthbert.  On the same day, a ship called the William and Margaret arrived at the port of Ramsay from Bray with a captain named Gerrard.  Since it came from Bray, the home of our Cuthbert family, there must have been some connection with our ship, the William and Margaret, official number 19891, although ours was supposed to have been built in 1846, three years after the 1843 newspaper article.  

Departures

The shipping notice also lists ships that departed from Ramsey that week, including on March 31st, 1843, the William and Margaret, sailing for Whitehaven with a Cuthbert as captain, most likely the same Cuthbert who had arrived in Ramsey the day before.  This has to be one of our Cuthberts since the Cuthberts made many voyages to and from Whitehaven in England to pick up coal for their coal importing business in Bray.    

The elder William died in Bray on October 8th, 1843, at age 64, and so he would have still been living in March 1843.  His sea captain sons, George, William junior and Richard would have been 24, 19 and 14 respectively in 1843, perhaps a bit young to have been a captain in 1843.  When the rest of the newspapers go on line, maybe I can pin down for sure which of our ancestors was the Cuthbert in question.  In the meantime, it’s wonderful to think that back in 1843 these small sailing ships were able to sail safely to and from the Isle of Man away out in the middle of the Irish Sea.