The Society of Genealogists

Trinity House Calendars 1787-1854

The Trinity House Papers, which were gifted to the Society of Genealogists, are a very rich source of genealogical information. Covering the period 1787 to 1854, most of the papers are Petitions for aid, submitted by the seaman or, often, his widow. The Petitions contain a wealth of family information, about the seaman and his dependents. Other papers include Apprenticeship Indentures of seamen, and a collection of Miscellaneouspapers, consisting mainly of marriage and baptismal certificates.

These papers cover families from all over the United Kingdom. The Calendars, which are detailed, printed, indexes to the papers, in name order, have been digitised and a last name index (6,500 records) allows easy searching of these calendars. Hard copies of the original papers can be ordered online.

Introduction

Trinity House was responsible for the supervision of lighthouses round the English coast, and also distributed charitable funds to disabled seamen and their families.

Most of the papers are Petitions for aid, submitted by the seaman or, often, his widow. Other papers include Apprenticeship Indentures of seamen, and a collection of Miscellaneous papers, consisting mainly of marriage and baptismal certificates. The papers cover families from all over the United Kingdom.

The calendars are available online as digitised images of the printed version. The entries are all in alphabetical order, and the last name index, which covers all three indexes, allows you to retrieve and display all pages which have entries relevant to the last name you are searching.

Hard copies of the original papers can be ordered online.

Trinity House

The ancient Corporation of Trinity House was responsible for the supervision of lighthouses and buoys around England. Under the terms of its Charter of Incorporation granted in 1514 it was concerned also with the distribution of charitable funds, which had been entrusted to it by many benefactors, for the benefit of poor disabled seamen and their widows and orphans.

Before the passing of the Mercantile Marine Act of 1854, the Corporation had at its disposal for charitable purposes not only the revenue from their trust properties, but also the annual surplus from light dues. When necessary, the Corporation did not hesitate to augment its charities by large donations from its private or corporate income. The Corporation was thus able to relieve an enormous number of distressed mariners. In consequence of the abolition in 1854 of its right to administer the surplus money received from light dues, its charities were greatly curtailed.

Great care was always taken by Trinity House to see that its charitable funds were carefully disbursed and every mariner or his dependent applying for help was required to give full particulars of his or her circumstances. These forms of application were known as 'Petitions'. It is impossible to say when they were first in use, but some sort of petition must have existed from the earliest days of the Corporation. Even before the Charter of 1514 it possessed almshouses at Deptford, Kent, for the benefit of distressed mariners and subsequently it acquired further almshouses at Mile End, London.

Trinity House Calendars

The great majority of the Trinity House papers are Petitions, with related documents, but there are two other separate collections of papers: Apprentice Indentures and Miscellaneous Papers. All these papers are included in the calendars, and a searchable last name index covers all three collections. Note that the last name index includes all last names, which appear in the calendar records, not just the last name under which the index record appears, so you will be able to find documents, which refer to persons with different last names from that of the person which the papers relate directly to.

Calendar of Petitions

About 8,000 petitions are calendared, by petitioner. This is usually the wife or widow, but is often the seaman himself. The year of the petition, the petitioner's age, in most cases the spouse's name, and the place they are living is shown.

Below is a sample petition - click on the image to enlarge it:

Calendar of Apprentice Indentures

186 Apprenticeship Indentures of seamen from the periods 1780 and 1818-1845 are calendared. Most of the indentures have endorsements as to their enrolment and the completion of the terms. Many are also endorsed with notes of money advanced and paid.

Below is a sample Apprentice Indenture - click on the image to enlarge it:

Calendar of Miscellaneous Papers

The 'Miscellaneous Almshouse and Pension Papers', which consist mainly of baptismal and marriage certificates, seem to have been removed from files relating to pension and almshouse applications made to Trinity House between about 1790 and 1890. The great majority relate to applications made in the period 1830-1880, with 30% made in the 1870s, though the certificated themselves date from the mid-18th century. In some cases the petitions and supporting documents have survived and are attached; in others it is clear that only a fraction of the formerly existing records has been retained. It is not known why this particular selection of the records has survived.

Below is a sample miscellaneous paper - click on the image to enlarge it:

The dates of extraction of the certificates have been included as giving clues to the dates of the pension applications. About 400 sets of papers are calendared.

The original documents

Petitions

In nearly every case the Petitions follow a stereotyped formula, as the forms contain a printed set of questions which are to be answered by the applicant.

Naturally every Petition varies in the amount of information given, and also the number of documents enclosed in support of the Petitioner's claims, but as the period covered by them includes the whole of the Napoleonic Wars, there is a tremendous amount of valuable genealogical information about many seamen who either fought or were taken prisoner during those times.

Acknowledgements

The text published here concerning the Trinity House Paper and Calendars is an edited version of the introduction prepared by Anthony J. Camp for the printed version of the booklet on Trinity House Petitions published by the Society of Genealogists in 1987.

The Calendar of Petitions was made by Mr A.D. D'Ews in 1987, subsequently corrected by Mrs I. Charlton, and retyped for publication by Mr Charles V. Porter. Anthony Camp generated the calendars of Apprentice Indentures and of the Miscellaneous Papers, and also compiled the composite index of last names for the Society of Genealogists.