Ananais WEATHERLEY and Sarah Elizabeth BELL

Ananais WEATHERLEY was the third son of Edward WEATHERLEY and Catherine MIGLOCKIN, my fourth great grandparents, and one of 10 children. Ananias was born 29 January 1816 in Greenwich and christened on 30 January 1816 at St Alphage. Edward was shown as being a mariner on the baptismal register but later records show him as a labourer and a gardener born at Orpington in Kent; in those days very much a farming community. He moved to Deptford and married Catherine at St Paul’s on 27 June 1808. The Vicar must have just written in the Marriage Register what he had heard, as Catherine’s surname must surely have been the Scottish surname McLaughlin or a variation on that.

His Seaman’s Ticket number 8747 was issued on 7 January 1845 at London and provides an excellent physical description of him. He was 164 centimetres in height (5’ 4½ “), with dark brown hair, blue eyes and a fresh complexion with no distinguishing marks or tattoos. He first went to sea as an apprentice in 1832 at the age of 16 and could write.

Ananais married three times, surviving the death of two of his wives. He married Sarah Elizabeth BELL on 7 September 1837 in St Mary's, Lewisham, daughter of James Garnson BELL and Rebecca EARLY. This became the joining of two families heavily influenced by the River Thames and the sea. At the time of the marriage, Ananias was living in George Place, Greenwich and was working as a fisherman. Their children were:

1. ANANIAS JAMES FRANCIS WEATHERLEY, born about July 1840

2. SARAH EMILY WEATHERLEY, born 2 September 1841

3. JAMES ANANIAS WEATHERLEY, born 21 November 1843

4. WILLIAM HENRY WEATHERLEY, born 7 August 1847

5. JOHN GEORGE WEATHERLEY, born May 1849

6. CHARLES EDWARD WEATHERLEY, born 10 March 1851

Sarah was on her own at 4 Prospect Place in a 3 storey house in the narrow lane situated off Bennett Street when the 1841 census was taken, pregnant with Sarah but having just lost her son Ananias who had died when just a few months old in September 1840. This is the same address that Ananias’ first cousin Charlotte Brooks, nee WEATHERLEY, was living at the time of the 1851 census, 10 years later. Ananias must have been at sea, working as a fisherman. His ticket shows him as having undertaken voyages in 1845 and 1848 but the code numbers used to describe the ports of destination have not been translated.

They lived within a small geographic area in Greenwich for most of their married life; in Lower Park Place in 1840, Leach's Alley, off of Church Street from 1843 to 1844, Bridge Street in 1846 and Shepherd's Buildings in 1849. By 1851, Ananias was running his own business as a coal merchant and the family was living in Roan Street, as were Sarah’s parents. Perhaps he was not a great businessman because his occupation in 1861 was given as being a waterman, living at 10 Marlborough Street, in the area known as East Greenwich. This was a popular precinct for the WEATHERLEY’s, along with Bennett Street, Trafalgar Road and Old Woolwich Road, close to the Parish of Christ Church in East Greenwich where many were later baptized.

There is no doubt that he was not a qualified waterman though, having never completed an apprenticeship or been taken on as a “Contract Man” as an adult under the rules of The Company of Watermen and Lightermen. He must simply have been working for a licenced waterman at the time but it seems assured that he was skilled in boat craft, having been a fisherman for some years and living on the Thames all his life.

Sarah died at the age of 53 on 23 February 1869 after suffering from Elephantitis of her left arm for 10 months and pulmonary adema while they were living at 13 Marlborough Street. The death was registered by Ann HART, a nurse who lived nearby at number 8.