The Jersey Merchant Seamen's Benefit Society
IntroductionThe Jersey Merchant Seamen's Benefit Society was created by the
States of Jersey in 1835 when the English compulsory levy of sixpence per
month from every Merchant Seaman's pay was abolished. The contribution was
71/2d. per month, beginning on July 1 1835. The ship's Master was authorised
to collect the contributions by direct deduction from pay.
The books can be found at the Société
Jersiaise Library. There is no equivalent record for Guernsey.
They detail the service of each seaman member and his contribution to the
welfare fund. The names of his ships, the length of service in each, his
parish of origin and age are recorded. The set (with some gaps) are now
only available on microfilm. The index to these records appears in a different
set of books and here you are handling the originals. Another book gives
details of pensions payable to disabled members and, on their death, to
their families and one final set (also with gaps) details the ships and
their compliments.
This pagewas previously at Supernet until August 30 1998 - Alex Glendinning.
CatalogueAn example from Book A page. 402. John Carré of St Martin aged
23 .
Once one has the names of the ships an ancestor served on, the next step
is to consult ...
Each book has an index of ships at the beginning and each page contains
the headings : "Date; Ships' Name; Number of Receipts; Men's Names;
Men's Age; Of What Country; Parish; (Book 1 only - the later books have
Place of Birth and Vessel on board of which Seaman last Served instead)
Folio of Ledger; Entry into Pay; When Discharged; Months; Days; Men's Contributions;
Total Amount of Ship's Receipts; Remarks."
Ships of every size were listed, from local fishing vessels of five crew
members, to ships that undertook the Newfoundland run, with crews of up
to fifty. The most common crew size seems to be about ten men.
From the second book (1837-1839), the 'Peggy' made a return on December
22 1837 after a voyage from May 2 (from column "Entry into Pay")
to November 5 1837 (from column "When Discharged"). She carried
thirty seven crew, Captained by Hugh Godfray (43) of St Martin, Jersey.
Three were from Alderney, three from France, two from Guernsey and one from
Truro in Cornwall - the remaining twenty eight were Jerseymen from a cross
section of the Parishes of St Helier, St Lawrence, St Brelade, St Martin,
Grouville and St Clement.
The return of the 'Welcome'. A representative of the smaller ships
from a later book (1861-1864).
Not all the vessels were Jersey registered, for the date May 2 1837 I
came across several from Colchester, the 'Charles' of Quebec, captained
by 20 year old Francis Perreé of St Mary (formerly of the 'Damon')
and the 'Harriet' of Sydney, Hillary Luce (24) of St Lawrence, Captain,
making his first payment. The amount of English registered vessels seems
to increase in the later years of the books.
Often there are two ships in the Register with the same name so be careful
that you are not following the wrong one!
Also listed in catalogue but still being assessed.
The ShipsOften the ships listed can be found in Jean Jean's "Jersey Sailing
Ships" or A.G. Jamieson's "A People of the Sea: A Martime History
of the Channel Islands". You can read about these titles at Charles
Picot's Books about
the Channel Islands.
The Jersey Museum
are custodians of the largest collection of Maritime paintings in the Channel
Islands. Many local artists were commissioned to paint these ships for their
proud owners or captains. The collection is indexed on a large computer
database which can be consulted by visitors. e-mail enquiries to Jersey Heritage Trust Information
Centre
Future PlansJersey Customs records are presently being indexed by the Friends
of the Maritime Museum. Four years of work have seen the Shipping
Register completed from 1803 to 1907 and the work will continue up to
1918, when the last locally built ships are listed. The peak period runs
from the beginning to about 1867. The information contained in the index
will be the ship's name, her first registration date, who built her and
where, the first owner (s) and Master, tonnage and a comments section; where
losses and alterations were recorded.
By the Millenium, the Friends hope to have completed the index of members
of the J.M.S.B.S. 6,000 names have been entered so far. This task is much
more complicated, due to the proliferation of certain names - there are
nineteen Jean Le Feuvres for instance, and several of them served on ships
named 'Hope'. Further difficulties arose when they realised that there were
also nine 'Hopes'! The index had to be restarted with a reference number
given to each man and has been put on hold until the Ships Index is finished.
Links and Further Research
Link to The Viberts
of Jersey Who Went to Sea by Trevor Vibert.
Researching Jersey Mariners and Ships by James Brannan and Bob Sanders' Merchant and Naval Mariners Research Links.
The Maritime History Archives at Memorial University of Newfoundland have many crewlists and logbooks from British merchant ships (including those registered in the Channel Islands) once held by the Public Record Office in London. Their collection includes 80% of the agreements made between 1863 and 1938 and from 1951 to 1976. For more information go to the Crewlists page. There is no surname index - the records are kept by name or official number of the vessel and are in chronological order.
13th May 1999 - Liz Mason reports on the records of the Maritime History Archives at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
You mention that Maritime History Archives do not have a surname index
for crew. Their brochure indicates they do have name files called the Keith
Matthews Name File Collection which includes Admiralty, Colonial Office,
Customs and Apprentice records; Ship registers, Board of Trade shipping
returns, Muster Rolls and crew lists. I know that captains are definitely
in the name lists and that each name has a folder. A Captain's Folder gives
the Lloyds dispatches sent by that captain, listing date, name and type
of vessel, destination and other interesting tidbits such as captures of
enemy vessels during the Napoleonic War. A request for a search of these
records can be made to The Archivist, Maritime History Archive, Henrietta
Harvey Building, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Canada
A1B 5S7.
The Public Record Office
retains agreements from 1747-1860, 1939-1950 and a 10% sample from the period
1863-1938. Their Family
Fact Sheets include one for the Merchant Navy.
The National Maritime Museum
also have a small sample. 1861-1862, all the years ending in 5 from 1865-1935
and from1955-1975. Thier collection of maritime pictures is unrivalled and
they will undertake searches for specific ships.
James Brannan reports
on the records of the National Maritime Museum.
- If you intend to look at their sample of Crew Lists you have to call them
about 10 days in advance because these are kept at another location. I was
unaware of this and they kindly promised to look up one name (although you
need to supply a list of ships with official numbers) and inform me if they
found anything.
- If you want copies of pictures, orders are placed at the library (for
the time being there is no separate picture room). Once you know the reference
(from their microfiche catalogue also on Internet) you can view a black
and white copy on microfilm. If you want a photographic copy, the cost depends
on whether a negative has already been made. If not, a colour copy size
10 x 8 will cost around fifty pounds!
- On microfilm they have the index to the Lloyds lists of "shipping
intelligence", which means that if you know the name of your ancestor's
ship and approximate year you can find out its movements and any incidents
quite easily. You don't even need to know the official number or port of
registration.
- When you know the number (from the Lloyds Captains register) of a certificate
of service/competency for a master or mate, the archivist can find it for
you on the spot (manuscripts are however only produced 3 times during the
day). If you want a copy, however many pages there are, it will cost you
ten pounds per reference and they may have to send it to you by post.
- If an applicant has already been a Master, at the time the certificates
were first delivered (1850), you will only find a list of ships on which
he previously sailed (in various capacities) and the certificate itself
(just 2 pages, but still ten pounds!). In my case this was not very useful
because the list of ships corresponded exactly to the information in the
ledgers of the Jersey Merchant Seamen's Benefit Society - and the latter
is more accurate with dates.
- They do not allow photocopies to be taken from the Lloyds Lists (only
the microfilm indices) or the Lloyds registers (lists of ships). However,
if you go to the archives at the Merseyside
Maritime Museum in Liverpool you can make as many copies as you
like from these sources!
Stephen Foote's Channel
Islands Maritime Miscellany includes a Guernsey Crew Lists Index
and information on Letters of Marque. He invites contributions
so the page is expanding | Al Beagan's Ships
Connected to Newfoundland (mostly captained by Chevalier/Knight
family members) | Various Maritime
History Pages | Letters
of Marque - a bibliography of the age of Sail | A Description
of the Lloyd's
Captains Register | Geoff
Wright's Index Page will now lead you to: History of Channel Islands
Shipping and Some Post War Shipping and Passengers to/from St Helier.
at The Société
Jersiaise