October 2017 - Reflections 2


In the second reflections, “Blue Plaques of Swansea – Mumbles Lighthouse”, published in Bay July 2017 I wrote about the blue plaque commemorating the bravery of the two sisters, Jessie Ace, and Margaret Wright (Ace), during the storm of 1883, saving lifeboat men from disaster. Both girls were awarded with a gold cross, blue medallion, and a copy of Sir Walter Scott’s book The Pirate (1822).

With the ‘disappearance’ of Jessie, I set a question whether anyone knew of her whereabouts and that I would really like to hear from them.



I was delighted to have an interesting response from Mr John Griffiths, of Swansea Harriers. He certainly had a good run with the results, let’s get on the starting blocks – we will get to the finishing line in record time!



In 1885 there was a marriage between couples, Jessie Ace, Rose Wright, John Dunstan, and John Henry Morris. (If anyone does have this problem in their research, at least one of the couples would be listed on a later census, check to see who was married to whom). In this case Jessie was married to John Dunstan at St. Mary’s, Swansea. At the time of the marriage Jessie was living at Argyle Street.


Garonne
During 1888, Jessie – with an infant – were passengers on a ship named Garonne, (above) bound for Australia.



John Dunstan was born in Cornwall in 1848. He had previously married Mary Ann Loxton in 1876 – she died in Swansea, 1883.



Jessie and John had a son, Courtney Ace Dunstan, born in 1887. You would have thought that the story ended there, but wait, there is more.



Jessie Dunstan was divorced by her husband in 1901, in New South Wales – the grounds for divorce were the alleged adultery with Peter Hine, habitual drunkenness, and habitual neglect of her domestic duties. The Decree Absolute (pictured right) was announced in the Sydney Morning Herald, 21st June 1901.



Mr John Griffiths had followed a line of enquiries to Australia, France, and the USA. Although the line to America came to nothing, there was a link with France, but the most promising results came from Australia. There does seem to be a few more children born in Australia, John and Oscar. Information received from Jessie’s great grand-daughter, Vicki Dunstan, indicate that Jessie died during 1936 and that she is buried in a grave of a family that she was working for – the Nagle family. Also buried in the same cemetery, Rockwood, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in a different grave was her son Oscar, who died the same year 1936.

We have reached the finishing line!



I would like to thank John Griffiths for his time and sterling effort on getting the information for this article.



Copyright – The Bay Magazine – October  2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reader Feedback

Image
Following April’s article Per Ardua ad Astra , two readers have been in touch. Mary Johnstone contacted me via email regarding her father, Hubert John Lewis who served with the RAF Hubert was born in 1923 and was 16 at the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. He was employed as an Apprentice Metallurgical Chemist and was living with his parents, Philip and Beatrice Lewis at 24 Elwy Crescent, Swansea. (Left) Herbert John Lewis (Right) With his crew and ground crew with kind permission Mary Johnstone Joining the RAF in 1942, 19 year old Hubert undertook his training at RAF Juby, in the Isle of Man. He joined the No 5 Bombing and Gunnery School where training was undertaken on the Handley Page Hereford aircraft. On completion of training, Air Gunner Sergeant Lewis was a Pilot Officer for a period of 6 months, which followed automatic promotion to Flying Officer. Hubert served with the 102 Squadron, based at RAF Pocklington, Yorkshire, which...
Read more

Birth Certificates

Image
July 1st 2019, marked the 182th anniversary of the introduction of the National Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths in 1837. This first article will be covering  Birth Certificates , where I will be using examples of people from Swansea to give some colour and add some meat to the bones. So let’s go back to the year of 1837, and paint a picture of what was happening nationally.  Poor  King William IV  died of a heart attack on June 20th at Windsor, with the crown passing to his niece,  Victoria . The Prime Minister was  Lord Melbourne  of the Whig party. At home, Swansea’s population had risen from 6,000 in 1801 to 17,000 in 1851. Swansea can boast of the first newspaper,  The Cambrian , which was published in Wales, 1804. A good read! Before 1837 baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded in parish registers. At this time, there were only two churches within the Swansea area, St John-juxta-Swansea, Hafod – with registe...
Read more

Swansea and WWI

Image
2018 marks the centenary anniversary of the Armistice of the First World War, November 1918. Here Charles looks at the life of marine engineer William John Johnstone and the steamer S.S. Kingsley   The steamer S.S. Kingsley was constructed in 1881, by T. & W. Smith, of North Shields; it weighed in at 633 tons. By 1918, it was managed by Harries Bros. & Co, Swansea, of Cambrian Street. The S.S. Kingsley was attacked and damaged on the morning of the 2 January 1918, by U-95, 3 miles east of Rundelstone Buoy, Cornwall. A few days after the centenary anniversary of the confrontation, Mrs Lisa Johnstone-Davies contacted me, with a tale of her great-grandfather, William John Johnstone. I carried out some research using various sources, and can now paint a picture of what occurred on that fateful morning. During the 1911 Census, William John Johnstone, (age 27), who filled in the census and called himself William Alexander, is living at 22 Calland Street, L...
Read more