Ann Kingdom married
Captain Stephen Rains
3. Ann Kingdom married Captain Stephen Rains of the Royal Navy.
It would be unreasonable to say
that the family of Ann Kingdom followed in the same vein as that of her
sisters. In fact it was so far remote,
that it becomes rather difficult to understand, why.
Ann Kingdom married Captain
Stephen Rains of the Royal Navy.
His family held a tradition in
the Navy, with his father Captain Stephen Rains 1745 - 1795 also serving.
His mother was Anna Harris Soady,
1724 - 1793, and she came from a family of Quakers at Looe Bay in Cornwall.
Captain Stephen Rains and his
wife Anna Harris Soady, were buried in the Charles Church, and were remembered
as follows:
Charles
Church - noted after the Blitz of 1941
He and Anna 's children were
1. 1. Anna
Rains 1754 - 1817 m Robert Hawker
2. Stephen Rains 1766 1824 m Ann Kingdom
3. John Rains 1769 1832 m Elizabeth Distin
4. James Rains 1769 - 1857 m Firstly Miss Wallace then Radigan Tewkesbury Williams
2. Stephen Rains 1766 1824 m Ann Kingdom
3. John Rains 1769 1832 m Elizabeth Distin
4. James Rains 1769 - 1857 m Firstly Miss Wallace then Radigan Tewkesbury Williams
Stephen Rains, John Rains and James Rains all served in the Royal Navy.
1. Dr Robert Hawker, the most famous Vicar of the Charles Church, husband of Anna Rains
Robert Hawker (1753–1827) was an Anglican priest in Devon vicar of Charles Church, Plymouth. Called "Star of the West" for his popular preaching, he was known as an evangelical and author. The Cornish poet Robert Stephen Hawker was his grandson.
As soon as he had attained to a sufficient age, our young Hawker, to qualify him for some learned profession, was sent to the endowed Grammar School at Exeter, where he made a considerable proficiency in the Latin and Greek classics.
I know not under what master he studied Hebrew, but his critical knowledge of the three learned languages gave him an advantage in polemical divinity which he knew how to appreciate
Hawker was born in Exeter in 1753 to Jacob Hawker, a surgeon in Exeter. He was married aged 19 to Anna Reins, and they had eight children altogether.
Hawker studied medicine in Plymouth under Samuel White of Bretonside, and joined the Royal Marines as assistant surgeon. In 1778 he entered Magdalen College, Oxford.
From the book on his life.
Before our young surgeon had completed his nineteenth year, he formed an attachment to Miss Anne Rains, the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Rains, afterwards Captain in the Royal Navy, and was married to her, at the parish church of Charles, Plymouth, on the 6th day of January, in the year 1772, when their united ages did not exceed thirty-six years. A truly young couple to embark in so momentous an undertaking. How far early marriages are prudent, must depend upon circumstances ; but, in some cases, it has a tendency to prevent or correct illicit connexions.
So many elements of Rev Hawker's
life mirrored those of the Mudge and Kingdom Families, particularly as he was
at the Charles Church in Plymouth for so many years.
The Charles Church was bombed
extensively in World War 2, and it now sits as a monument to all those who were
killed there, and in respect to those who were buried in its grounds. So many of the Mudge/Kingdom lineages were
buried there.
When we visited Plymouth,
we drove around it several times, trying to take a photo. It sits on a roundabout, and at the time, we
had no idea why it was in ruin.
2. Stephen Rains Captain of Viper 1790 14 guns Command of Transports at Ramsgate 1815 died in House of Robert Clark Esq Trinity
Square 59 Feb 1824. (Robert was his son-in-law).
In 1808 Stephen Rains was commanding the sea fencibles at Ramsgate.
The Sea Fencibles were a naval militia
established to provide a close-in line of defence and obstruct the operation of
enemy shipping, principally during the French
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.The earliest recorded use of the term was in 1793, when Royal Navy captain Sir Home Popham organised groups of fishermen to guard against French vessels off the coast of Nieuwpoort, Belgium.
At Popham's suggestion the British Admiralty subsequently authorised the formation of co-ordinated Sea Fencible units along the English and Irish coasts, supported by a network of Martello towers. Popham's Sea Fencible companies consisted of merchant seamen using their own private or commercial vessels, but operating under letters of marque that authorised them to capture enemy ships should opportunity arise.
The Navy provided the Fencibles with uniforms and weapons; it also protected them from the depredations of navy press gangs
The Sea Fencibles were divided into 36 companies, with each company responsible for patrolling and defending a section of the coastline. Company command was vested in three Royal Navy captains and up to six Lieutenants per district. The district captains reported in turn to the Director of Sea Fencibles, an admiral.
A senior Sea Fencibles captain received £1 15s a day (equivalent to £130 today), junior captains received £1 10s (equivalent to £111 today), and Lieutenants 8s 6d (equivalent to £32 today). Petty Officers received 2s 6d (equivalent to £9 today) for each day they assembled, while Ordinary Seamen received 1 shilling and provisions (food and drink), or 2 shillings if no provisions were available (equivalent to £4 and £7 today). Sea Fencibles were also eligible to receive prize and salvage money. For example, on 13 June 1805 the sixth-rate frigate Vestal and the Sea Fencibles recaptured the Industry, off Hastings, and shared the subsequent salvage money.
3. Commander James Rains
RAINS. (Retired Commander, 1829.
f-p., 32; h-p., 36.)
James Rains, born 8 June, 1769, is son of the late Capt.
Stephen Rains, R.N.; and brother (with Retired Commander John Rains, R.N., who
died in 1832 at Fatcham Field, aged 63) of Capt. Stephen Rains, R.N. (1802),
who died 1 Feb. 1824, in his 59th year.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 Aug. 1779, as Captain’s Servant, on
board the Loudonn armed ship,
commanded by his father, with whom he served in the North Sea until May, 1781 –
the latter part of the time in the capacity of Midshipman. From the following
Dec. until July, 1783, he served on the Home and West India stations in the Seaford 20, Nemesis 28, and Endymion
40, all under the orders of Capt. Isaac Vaillant. He was then employed for
nearly two years in the Channel in the Sprightly
cutter, Lieut.-Commander Swan; and
next, from Aug. 1786 until July, 1792, on general service in the Myrmidon 20, Capt. Thos. Rawe, Viper cutter, commanded by his brother
Lieut. S. Rains, Cambridge 74,
flag-ship of Admiral Graves, and Ranger
and Viper cutters,
Lieut.-Commanders Isaac Cotgrave and Robt. Graeme. In the latter vessel he
discharged the duties of Pilot for nearly six months.
In the early part of 1793 he became Master’s Mate of the Monarch 74, Captain, afterwards
Commodore, Sir Jas. Wallace; of which
ship he was created a Lieutenant 2 Dec. in the same year. While in her he
assisted in silencing a battery in Martinique, and in bringing off a body of
French royalists. His next appointments were – 31 May, 1794, to the Albion floating battery, Capt. Henry
Savage, in the North Sea – 4 July, 1796, to the command (after three months’
half-pay) of the King George
cutter, employed in the North Sea and off Boulogne – 27 Oct. 1800, as First, to
the Sirius 36, Capt. Rich. King –
and, 26 Sept. 1801, in a similar capacity, to the Magnificent 74, Capt. John Giffard, whom he accompanied to
the West Indies.
While serving in the Albion
he brought a Colonel off from Ostend, just as the French were entering the
town. In 1797, at which time he commanded the King
George, he conveyed to Admiral Duncan information respecting the sailing
of the Dutch fleet, which led to the victory of 11 Oct. On the issue of the
battle he returned to England with Capt. Wm. Geo. Fairfax, the officer charged
with the despatches of the Admiral; who, in consequence, ordered him to attend
the King down the river Thames for the purpose of viewing the fleet on its arrival
at the Nore. The severity of the weather not permitting his Majesty to proceed
beyond Long Reach, the projected visit was deferred, and he in consequence lost
the promotion which would have been secured to him.
In the course of the same year
Lieut. Rains captured a French armed lugger on the coast of Norway; he
subsequently drove on shore on the coast of Jutland a French armed cutter, Le
Petit Diable, which he succeeded in getting off and bringing to England;
and in 1800 he engaged, and for an hour and a half sustained an action with, a
large French lugger, carrying 20 guns and full of troops. The King George drawing more water than her
opponent, the latter was enabled to escape into Ostend, after having materially
shattered the British vessel.
For the gallantry he displayed in the affair, Lieut. Rains, who was
wounded in the leg, received the marked approbation of his Commander-in-Chief,
Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge, and of Earl Spencer, the First Lord of the
Admiralty.
When in company, in the same vessel, with the Nautilus and the Seagull
sloops, he contributed to the capture of several privateers on the Norwegian
coast; where, in unison with the latter, he took, 23 July, 1797, the Capitaine
Thurot cutter, of 2 guns, 4 swivels, and 22 men.
As First of the Sirius, we
find him assisting, in company with L’Oiseau
36 and Amethyst 36, at the
capture, 28 Jan. 1801, after a chase of two days, of the French 36-gun frigate La
Dédaigneuse. On the surrender of the enemy’s ship he was despatched by
Capt. King to take charge of her; but on the coming up of L’Oiseau, commanded by Capt. Sam. Hood
Linzee, that officer, being the Senior, superseded him and confided the care of
the prize to his own First Lieutenant.
He invalided home from the Magnificent
in May, 1802; and was lastly, from May, 1803, until Dec. 1814, employed in
command of a signal-station on the coast of Dorset. He accepted his present
rank 25 April, 1829. Commander Rains married, first, in 1792, Miss J. Wallace,
a niece of the late Sir Jas. Wallace; and secondly, in 1804, Miss R. T.
Williams. He has issue two sons and one daughter.
Sir James Wallace (For interest)
From 1782 he leased Hanworth House where his family lived for some years. Also in 1783 Sir James Wallace was involved in a complicated assault case at which Charles Bourne accused him of assaulting him when they were on a ship the "Warrior" in 1782 on a journey to Jamaica and then in Bath Charles Bourne challenged Sir James Wallace to a duel which Wallace declined.
On 12 April 1794, Wallace was promoted to rear-admiral of the white and appointed commander-in-chief and governor of Newfoundland. During his governorship Wallace defended the coast of Newfoundland from French privateers. In August 1796 Wallace's leadership successfully defended St. John's against a French squadron of seven ships and three frigates and raised a militia known as Skinner's Fencibles. He was promoted to vice-admiral of the white in 1795.
He departed Newfoundland in 1797 for England, and left active service. He was promoted to vice-admiral of the red in 1799 and to admiral of the blue in 1801. He died in London on 6 March 1803.
He entered the Royal Navy in 1746. He was promoted to
lieutenant in 1755, and having served in the West Indies and Mediterranean in 1760, he was promoted to
commander in 1762. He joined the North
American Station
in 1763.
4. Commander John Reins
He served on the "Pallas", but which one?
Seven ships of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy have been called HMS Pallas. See Pallas (disambiguation) for various figures called "Pallas" in Greek mythology.
- The second HMS Pallas (1793) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1793 and wrecked in 1798 on Mount Batten Point, near Plymouth.
- The third Pallas was a 38-gun fifth rate launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1780 as HMS Minerva but renamed HMS Pallas when she was converted to a troopship in 1798. She was broken up in 1803.
- A Pallas was ordered but before construction started her name was changed and she was launched in 1803 as HMS Shannon.
On 16th June 1795, Pallas was one of the ships involved in Cornwallis’s Retreat. Over the next two years, she saw service in the Mediterranean, capturing the 16 gun privateer Santa Jose y Nuestra Senora de Begoyna on 16th July 1795. Commanded by Captain Hon. Henry Curzon, she arrived in Plymouth Sound on Tuesday 3rd April 1798 after a cruise off the coast of France. The weather was squally with fresh south-westerly gales when they anchored in the Sound. On the evening of 3rd April, the Master and William Holland, the first lieutenant, observed that the best bower anchor cable appeared to be slack, at which point the Master advised that it be heaved in at daylight. Overnight, the wind dropped and it appeared calm enough for the third lieutenant to send the watch to bed, however by 5am the winds were strengthening.
The morning
after, a gale from the south-west parted one of her anchors and drove her
nearer to the shore, before her other anchors stopped her with just 4 fathoms
of water beneath her keel. Yards and topmasts were struck (brought down) to
reduce the pull of the wind and guns were fired as a signal of distress. Even
with three anchors on the seabed she again stated to drive ashore so crew cut
down her masts, even so she still drove backwards until the stern of the ship
struck the rocks in Jennycliff Bay. Pallas remained with her bows to
the waves until 3:15pm when the anchor cables parted under the strain of the
heaving ship and she went broadside to and struck heavily on shore.
Many people had gathered on shore to help
rescue the trapped sailors. The Pallas' last remaining boat was put
over the side with Lieut. Bissel and five seamen who managed to get a line
ashore but destroyed the ship's boat in the process. A hawser was secured to
the shore and was used to rescue the crew, marines, women, children and the
sick. A solitary seaman called Peter Charlock perished, carried overboard when
the mainmast fell.
Being shallower
forward than aft she was eventually forced round so her stern faced the
oncoming waves. The ship was made to heel towards the shore and the hull itself
provided some protection for the crew from the waves crashing over the hull. By
11pm she was out of danger but firmly stuck on the rocks.
The ship was aground at low water so parties
from other Navy ships and a guard of marines recovered the larger part of her
stores. Dockyard workers stripped off all the copper sheathing that could be
reached from the hull below the waterline. The ship could not be refloated and
was broken up where she lay.[1]
[1]
The
works of the Rev. Robert Hawker, D.D., late
Vicar of Charles, Plymouth : with a memoir of his life and writings. by Hawker,
Robert, 1753-1827; Williams, John, 1792-1858. Publication date 1831. Topics
Hawker, Robert, 1753-1827, Church of England, Theology. Publisher London :
Printed for E. Palmer. Collection
No comments:
Post a Comment