Samuel Blacker Colls

[DavidByrne]

Hi - Samuel Blacker Colls (SBC) was born around 1822, prob in Midsomer Norton, Somerset. I THINK he is the son of Charles Thomas Colls and Sarah Patience Blacker (married Bristol, 24 Jun 1810) but I've no proof other than their surnames both ending up in SBC's name, and a suggestion that their issue ended up in NZ, as SBC did. SBC had a colourful life, going to sea as a ship's boy aged 12, fetching up in Tasmania, getting shipwrecked, marrying into my family in Melbourne, running a number of pubs (spectacularly unsuccessfully) in Melbourne, and in Dunedin, Hokitika and Auckland in NZ - and going bankrupt four times, once in each of those places. And that's just a small part of it . . .

Other than merchant navy registration, I've been unable to find any record of SBC in England, however. Can anyone offer any thoughts or insights? Many thanks!

[kiterunner]

Have you seen his death registration, and if so, does it give any information about his parents and his birthplace?

[Merry]

i expect you have Sarah Patience Blacker's bap at midsomer Norton 17 Feb 1790, dau of Samuel and Betty?

one of my shift keys has stopped working so apologies for missing capitals.

[kiterunner]

FamilySearch has the possible parents' marriage as Thomas Colls / Sarah P Blacker, 24 Jun 1810 at St Paul's Bristol, no Charles in his name. Where did you get Charles from, please?
Edit - he is also just Thomas Colls on the BAFHS marriages CD.

[Merry]

here's her burial aged 41;

Sarah Patience COLES Burial 12 Feb 1831 Somerset Radstock (St Nicholas) [Bishop's Transcripts]

[Merry]

FamilySearch has the possible parents' marriage as Thomas Colls / Sarah P Blacker, 24 Jun 1810 at St Paul's Bristol, no Charles in his name. Where did you get Charles from, please?
Edit - he is also just Thomas Colls on the BAFHS marriages CD.

That's what I was about to ask!

[kiterunner]

Found a baptism for one of their children so far: Charles Frederic Coles baptised 19 May 1816 at St Peter's Bristol. (Father's name is Thomas.) It would help if FamilySearch treated Colls and Coles as variants of each other! I'll see if the baptisms disk has more info.

[Merry]

It would help if FamilySearch treated Colls and Coles as variants of each other!

Indeed (That reminds me of saunders/Sanders!)

[kiterunner]

Charles Frederic Coles baptised 19 May 1816 at St Peter's, Bristol, parents Thomas and Sarah Patience, abode St Maryport St, basket maker.
There is also Jane Joanna Colls baptised 18 Apr 1813 at St Mary le Port, Bristol, born 1 Feb, parents Thomas and Sarah, abode St Maryport Street, engineer.

[kiterunner]

Elizabeth Colls born 17 Aug 1811, baptised 8 Dec 1811 St Mary Redcliffe, Bristol, parents Thomas and Sarah Patience.

[kiterunner]

Some Bristol burials, but I haven't got full details:
Caroline Colls buried 12 Mar 1815 St Peter, age 0
Jane Colls buried 6 Nov 1816 St Peter, age 3 (could be Jane Joanna?)
Thomas Colls buried 10 Aug 1832 St Philip & St Jacob, age 76. (Maybe father or uncle of the Thomas who was married to Sarah Patience?)

[kiterunner]

Samuel Blacker Colls' seaman's ticket (no 583401) states that he was born at London, Middlesex, on the 17 Jan 1822:
http://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=tna%2fmsea%2fbtoth%2f4650278%2f00377&parentid=tna%2fbt113%2f2133114912%2f1&highlights=%22%22
It also says that he first went to sea as a Boy in 1834 and resides in London on the 4th Oct 1850.

[DavidByrne]

Really appreciate the responses on this. Just a couple of quick comments:

* The suggestion that SBC's father's name was "Charles Thomas Colls (or Coles)" comes from a descendant of the family who has published materials on-line but who is unfortunately no longer active or in communication. Every reference other than this, though, has just been to "Thomas Colls".

* His age is very possibly in question. The merchant navy record is dated October 1850, and states he went to sea as a ship's boy in 1834, and was born on 17 Jan 1822, therefore making him 12 at the time. Though he was mainly working ships around Australia at the time, he crewed on the "Phillip Oakden" from Launceston, Tasmania, to London in early 1850. The merchant navy record dated at Oct 1850 in London tallies with this voyage. He arrived back in Launceston on the same vessel in January 1851 (being shipwrecked just short of his destination). However, his NZ death record from 1884 suggests he was aged 59, therefore born 1825. If he went to sea as a child, though, he may not have had much education, and reading and writing may have been a challenge, so he may have agreed dates in the merchant navy records which are incorrect. I certainly don't think that he would have been born in 1825 AND gone to sea in 1834 - that would have made him just 9 years old.

* The NZ death record material available on-line doesn't show his parents' names. I'm hoping to avoid paying the $26-odd for the full certificate to find out if they are recorded on the hard copy. By 1884 his wife, my great-great-grandmother, had also passed away, and whether her children (his step-children) even knew his parents' names I'm unsure.

* Knowing now that his mother died in 1831 makes it more understandable that he could have gone to sea aged 12 in 1834. By then his closest known sibling, brother Charles Federic, would have been 18 years old, and his sisters 21 and 23 respectively, and possibly married (I'll check on that). It's possible his father Thomas may also have passed away by then leaving SBC effectively orphaned.

* Still frustrating that the only reference to SBC's birth date is in merchant navy records, and that there's no direct confirmation that Thomas Colls and Sarah Blacker were his parents. I'll do some further research on his presumed siblings, but any ideas on other areas for research?

[Merry]

* Knowing now that his mother died in 1831 makes it more understandable that he could have gone to sea aged 12 in 1834. By then his closest known sibling, brother Charles Federic, would have been 18 years old, and his sisters 21 and 23 respectively, and possibly married (I'll check on that). It's possible his father Thomas may also have passed away by then leaving SBC effectively orphaned.

Can you be sure Sarah is his mother though? if it is correct that he was born in London that would seem unlikely.

[kiterunner]

* Knowing now that his mother died in 1831 makes it more understandable that he could have gone to sea aged 12 in 1834. By then his closest known sibling, brother Charles Federic, would have been 18 years old, and his sisters 21 and 23 respectively, and possibly married (I'll check on that). It's possible his father Thomas may also have passed away by then leaving SBC effectively orphaned.

* Still frustrating that the only reference to SBC's birth date is in merchant navy records, and that there's no direct confirmation that Thomas Colls and Sarah Blacker were his parents. I'll do some further research on his presumed siblings, but any ideas on other areas for research?

I wouldn't call Charles Frederic his "closest known sibling" unless you have some evidence that they were actually siblings. Also, I don't think it was that unusual for boys to go to sea at the age of 12 in those days.

I think Jane Joanna Colls is likely the Jane Colls who was buried in 1816 age 3.

You mentioned at the beginning of the thread that some of Thomas and Sarah's children (apart from Samuel, if he was one of theirs) are supposed to have emigrated to NZ - do you have any information on that, please?

[DavidByrne]

No, I can't be sure at all about his parentage. As I say, the only things pointing me in that direction are
* The fact that his name was Samuel Blacker Colls, incorporating both Sarah's and Thomas' surnames (just coincidence? - seems unlikely);
* The suggestion from other descendants that Thomas and Sarah's issue ended up in NZ

I'm not sure how much credence I put on the 1850 seaman's ticket stating he was born in London as being the last word on the issue of his birthplace. I still think it's entirely possible he was born in the Bristol or Midsomer Norton areas. Agree that the London reference is unhelpful, though.

Re the emigration of SBC to NZ: the only reference I have is this suggestion from another web site:

c.2. Sarah Patience Blacker
bapt. 17.2.1790
m. Charles Thomas Coles (Colls?)
Their issue were living in New Zealand in 1885.

Source: http://genealogy.amay.co.uk/index.php?p=WF2-BlackersUK
As noted earlier, the author of that material is now very old and no longer communicating, so can't get more detail there.

There are remarkably few "Colls" around, though the name does seem to be interchangeable with "Coles". In theory, this should make the search easier!

[Janet]

Maybe you already have this, but he turns up in NZ on a Google search of "Samuel Blacker Colls". It's in the West Coast Times, link below:

West Coast Times, 25 July 1866, Page 5 (Supplement) (https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WCT18660725.2.19)

Region West Coast
Available online 1865-1916
Alternative title(s) Hokitika Guardian, Guardian and Evening Star
The West Coast Times owes its existence to the gold rush on the West Coast in 1865. Before the gold rush there were few European settlers on the West Coast, certainly not enough to sustain a newspaper.

The West Coast Times was the first of many papers to start up in the Hokitika area after the rush began. The Times started in May 1865, only two months after the Provincial Government in Canterbury had proclaimed the goldfield on the West Coast. [...]

WEST COAST TIMES, ISSUE 261, 25 JULY 1866, SUPPLEMENT

OBTAINING MONEY BY FALSE PRETENCES.--J.M. Warden on remand from the 20th, was charged with this offence. Mr Harvey appeared for the prisoner. Samuel Blacker Colls, being duly sworn, deposed that he was the landlord of Tattersall's Hotel, Revell-street. On Wednesday, the 18th instant, the prisoner went to his house and had his dinner and tea. Shortly after tea prisoner called for a blank Bank of New Zealand cheque, [...]

[DavidByrne]

Yes, Janet, there's a wealth of material in the newspapers in Dunedin, Hokitika and Auckland about SBC's exploits, usually him seeking to recover money from someone else to avoid going bankrupt - and failing. The newspapers have been an absolute gold-mine (no pun intended) - and the quality of the search function in Papers Past (NZ) is fantastic. He was in Hokitika from 1865-ish to 1870-ish, right around the time of the gold rush. He was in Melbourne also during the Victorian gold-rush times, and in Dunedin during the Otago gold rush times - he seems to have specialised in running pubs in mining service towns. He even did a brief stint in the West Coast goldfields himself, presumably to shore up his finances!

[Janet]

Sounds like quite a character! Good luck with that.

[DavidByrne]

He's not even a direct ancestor of mine, but as step-great-great grandfather, he brought up and clearly had a huge influence on my great-grandmother and her sister. Somehow both of them seemed emerge relatively unscathed from the mayhem that was going on around them.

[Merry]

I think Samuel's birthdate is going to be around 1822 as was stated on the seaman's ticket. If he was the child of Thomas and Sarah I think it extremely unlikely (not impossible of course!) he was born in London as this business of the shooting of Samuel Good Warner in June 1821 places his mother/parents in the Midsomer Norton/Radstock area at that date and it would seem this was the same area Sarah Patience died ten years later. (have you found any likely burials for her husband?)

it would be helpful if you could tell us which parish registers you have searched for Samuel's baptism to save us going over old ground.

Have you found any other references to 'Ashgrove' near Radstock?

[DavidByrne]

Agree 1822 more likely birth date, based on going to sea in 1834. Also agree that Midsomer Norton/Bristol more likely birthplace, based on Thomas and Sarah being recorded in that area. I haven't been able to find any records for Thomas (or Charles Thomas) other than his marriage to Sarah in 1810.

Re Parish records - I've been (naively?) working under the supposition that Parish records were incorporated into the Bishops' Transcripts, and are subsequently searchable through FMP, so I've generally not sought to search any parishes in particular. When I have sought to search individual parishes I tend to find roadblocks like paywalls, requirement to be using a Family History Centre etc etc. Any advice on how to cut through these roadblocks would be most welcome.

Re Ashgrove near Radstock: there is still an Ashgrove Farm near Midsomer Norton, but I can't dredge up anything much historical about it. Maybe on my next trip to England (next year?) I should visit the area and see what historical resources exist locally.

As an aside, my research into SBC's merchant navy past suggested that there were crew lists for individual vessels available at Kew. Does anyone have experience of using these lists, and what kind of info can be obtained from them? I've been able to use crew lists compiled in Launceston, Tasmania to track SBC very closely on sailings from Launceston to Melbourne, Adelaide and San Francisco - and his trip to London in 1850 which tallies with the seaman's ticket referred to above. I'd be fascinated to see where else he sailed from the UK - and indeed, the date of his first arrival in Australia, which has eluded me (his first recorded sailings as crew out of Launceston were in 1848). Unfortunately. other Australian ports do not seem to have formally recorded crew lists so assiduously, so he might have been in Australia for a while before then - or not.

As before, I'm blown away with the helpfulness of people in this forum, very grateful for any further light that can be shed!

[kiterunner]

Here is some information about the crew lists at Kew:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/crew-lists-agreements-log-books-merchant-ships-1747-1860/

[Merry]

Re Parish records - I've been (naively?) working under the supposition that Parish records were incorporated into the Bishops' Transcripts, and are subsequently searchable through FMP, so I've generally not sought to search any parishes in particular. When I have sought to search individual parishes I tend to find roadblocks like paywalls, requirement to be using a Family History Centre etc etc. Any advice on how to cut through these roadblocks would be most welcome.



BTs don't always show the same information or even the same records as the PRs, so it's always good to look at both if possible. Also I have found it's not always straightforward on some sites to see exactly what records they have for a particular parish (the start and end dates are not always easy to establish for instance) so you might think you have looked for something, but the transcribed records ended five years before the date you needed, or whatever!

I found Sarah Patience's burial on FreeREG (PRs and BTs on there for Radstock) but I see it's also on FMP, but only from the National Burial Index.

I just looked at FreeREG to see what their coverage for Radstock is like and this is what showed up:

Radstock St Nicholas Bishop's Transcripts 1597-1834
Radstock St Nicholas Parish Register 1641-1914

and for Midsomer Norton:

Midsomer Norton St John the Baptist Phillimore's Transcripts 1701-1837
Midsomer Norton St John the Baptist Parish Register 1636-1915

So, good coverage of those two parishes for the time frame of Samuel's birth, but no sigh of any baptisms for children of Thomas and Sarah Col*s.

All these parishes are within a five mile radius of Radstock:

Ashwick 4.9 South West
Babington 2.2 South by South East
Buckland Dinham 4.7 East by South East
Camely 4.7 West by North West
Camerton 1.9 North
Chilcompton 3.1 South West
Clutton 4.9 North West
Coleford 3.7 South
Combe Hay 4.4 North East
Dunkerton 3.6 North by North East
Elm (Great Elm) 4.9 South East
Emborough 4.7 West by South West
Farmborough 3.9 North by North West
Farrington Gurney 3.2 West by North West
Hardington 3.9 East by South East
Hemington 2.6 East by South East
High Littleton 3.5 North West
Holcombe 3.2 South by South West
Kilmersdon 1.4 South by South East
Leigh on Mendip 4.4 South
Mells 4.0 South East
Midsomer Norton 1.2 West
Paulton 2.2 West by North West
Priston 3.8 North
Radstock 0.0
Stone Easton 3.1 West
Stratton on the Foss 3.1 South West
Timsbury 2.8 North by North West
Wellow 4.0 North East
Writhlington 1.2 East

So that's a lot of places to begin checking :)

I'd say it's always important to keep a record of where you have not found a record!

Personally I don't think Thomas and Sarah P are SBC's parents, but would love to be proved wrong. Hopefully by saying that, someone will come up with something almost immediately. :rolleyes:

[vita]

David - I've been following this thread with interest as my ancestor Alfred James Samuel

Headland ran the local store in Oamaru during the Otago gold rush & was apparently 'a

familiar and popular figure' as he visited the sites to supply provisions.

Good to know that between them our forebears kept the prospectors fed & watered.

[DavidByrne]

This doesn't prove anything in itself, but it's a little piece of circumstantial information that may have some relevance.

Thinking of the suggestion that Thomas and Sarah's issue ended up in NZ, I thought to check how many Colls deaths there were in NZ between 1865 and 1930. The answer is . . . just 2 - Samuel and his wife, Janet. This suggests that the "Colls issue" may well have been Samuel.

Of course it's possible that a female Colls married and died under their married name, so I also checked marriages where the female's name was Colls over the same timespan, and there were . . . none at all.

As I said, this proves nothing in an of itself, but it's just another piece of a circumstantial puzzle in the absence of anything more compelling.

[kiterunner]

* The NZ death record material available on-line doesn't show his parents' names. I'm hoping to avoid paying the $26-odd for the full certificate to find out if they are recorded on the hard copy. By 1884 his wife, my great-great-grandmother, had also passed away, and whether her children (his step-children) even knew his parents' names I'm unsure.


It looks as though you can get what they call a "printout" for 20.40 NZ $, which they say on the website "has more information than we can include on a certificate." You never know, there might be something useful on it. I have just been looking at the death cert of my 2xg-aunt by marriage, and the informant was her daughter who I had never heard of before.

[kiterunner]

This doesn't prove anything in itself, but it's a little piece of circumstantial information that may have some relevance.

Thinking of the suggestion that Thomas and Sarah's issue ended up in NZ, I thought to check how many Colls deaths there were in NZ between 1865 and 1930. The answer is . . . just 2 - Samuel and his wife, Janet. This suggests that the "Colls issue" may well have been Samuel.

Of course it's possible that a female Colls married and died under their married name, so I also checked marriages where the female's name was Colls over the same timespan, and there were . . . none at all.

As I said, this proves nothing in an of itself, but it's just another piece of a circumstantial puzzle in the absence of anything more compelling.

If only we knew where the researcher got the information that Thomas and Sarah's "issue" were in NZ, though, we would have some idea whether it was likely to be accurate.

[DavidByrne]

Agreed. So frustrating that she is now very old and no longer communicating on these issues.

[Merry]

If only we knew where the researcher got the information that Thomas and Sarah's "issue" were in NZ, though, we would have some idea whether it was likely to be accurate.

The comment specified a year - 1885 - so something happened that year which could be identified? Maybe a letter between family members we don't have access to? That might explain why they didn't know specifically who was in NZ.

[DavidByrne]

Known family events are the death of SBC's wife, Janet, in 1875, the marriages of his two stepdaughters in 1876 and 1878, and his own death in 1884, all these events occurring in Auckland. Both stepdaughters left Auckland after their respective marriages, and may not even have been immediately aware of SBC's death. While the stepdaughters rallied around and took over their mother's employment agency business when she died, they're not known to have had any involvement in SBC's business, and they may not even have been close to him (it's clear that SBC and Janet were sometimes living apart). SBC and Janet had a son themselves, George Thomas Colls, but he died in infancy in Melbourne before they came to NZ, so SBC had no known direct descendants.

It may be that word passed back to the Blacker family in England in 1885 that SBC had died in 1884. About all I can think of.

[DavidByrne]

Postscript to the above: I bit the bullet and decided to purchase the marriage certificate of Samuel Colls and Janet Fogarty (nee Brown) in the hope that it would provide SBC's parents' names. It does confirm my suspicions - SBC's parents were Thomas Colls and Sarah Blacker, with Samuel born in London.

Just hope I don't have to fork out $$$ for every forebear whose details I want to confirm - the bank balance will take a serious hammering if I do!

Thanks especially to Kiterunner and Merry for the help you've provided on this - very much appreciated.

[kiterunner]

Good to know it is solved, David.

[anne fraser]

I have only just seen this thread as I don't visit the site too often. I think you have solved a mystery for me too. I am descended from Sarah Patience's brother Samuel Blacker and although I had heard the story of the shooting I had not solved the mystery of what happened to the rest of the children. Sarah's father was Samuel Blacker who was a copy holder of the Duchy of Cornwall. He owned the Manor house in Midsummer Norton as well as land and a coal mine. Sarah's sister Elizabeth emigrated to South Africa in 1820. I have a lot of information on the family if you want to contact me. Old family records confirm that Sarah Patience from Midsummer Norton's married name was Colls but I don't have information about her children. Samuel Good Warner was a cousin and son of Sarah's sister Mary who died in London in 1827 so it is possible that Sarah could have gone there as well.

[DavidByrne]

Thanks for this, Anne - I've sent you a PM.