PARRYs at the Battle of Trafalgar

Back in October, I mentioned that two of the new databases on FindMyPast were the "British Royal Navy, Battle Of Trafalgar 1805" and the "British Royal Navy, Battle Of Trafalgar Prize Book", and I made it one of my intentions for this year, to follow these up in more detail. 

So that is what I have been working on recently.

It has been an interesting change (and challenge!) from what I sometimes do - I think most guides to genealogical good practice will suggest, somewhere, that it is important to understand the records you are dealing with, to know what date periods they cover, and whether any dates are missing, to know how reliable the information in them is, whether it is a 'primary' source, or composed from other sources. etc.  

But I often find myself just 'collecting' the PARRYs, without investigating such details.    

Of course, the intention is there, to process and understand the information more fully, in order to add it into the study 'properly' in the future.  But it can be quite time consuming to read all about a dataset before doing any work on it (especially if a quick initial search only shows a limited number of results).  

Most of us, I imagine, have to balance the time and effort required, against the potential results achieved, when carrying out our studies.

But it has felt quite rewarding to investigate these in more detail (even if I have tackled things 'backwards'!)

Starting point - collecting the information.
As I mentioned in October, the two datasets contain eight and six PARRY entries, respectively.  It was immediately apparent that some of the men were listed in both datasets, and that the prize book only contained three men, who were all listed twice.  

This latter point was intriguing, so I decided to look at that dataset first, especially since images of the original records were available.  Each page in the book(s) lists up to seventeen names and, for each man, gave their number, name, quality (ie rank), the sum they were paid, the date of payment, to whom the money was paid, and a witness' initial.  

The "to whom paid" column might occasionally be useful for researchers. However, the majority of payments just had "his X mark" entered.  The writing of these was all very regular, as if written by the same person, and often bracketed in small groups with just one witness initial.  The dates of payments are also not consecutive. Which all makes me wonder about the process of production for the books, but I haven't looked into that in detail.   

And none of that helped to explain why there were two entries for each man.

I backtracked though the images, to look for an 'explanation', initially stopping at the first page for each ship, and then back to the beginning of the book(s) to see what was written there.  By this time, I had realised that there were two sequences of images, relating to two separate books.  Although the text was very similar, there were differences - which I'd have appreciated earlier, if I had looked at the transcription pages on FindMyPast where, although the record set is described as "Battle Of Trafalgar Prize Book", the descriptions varied between "Trafalgar Prize Money" and "Trafalgar Parliamentary Grant".

The search page¹ gives some more information, explaining how ships captured by the Royal Navy would be sold and the profits divided among the crew.  While this might have been an incentive for some to join the navy, and it could be lucrative, there was no guarantee of success - even if a battle was won, and enemy ships captured, the ships might be lost before they could be brought back to Britain and sold.

And this is what happened, following the Battle of Trafalgar.  

The battle had taken place on the 21 October 1805, when 27 British ships met a combined French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships.  Thanks to Admiral Nelson's tactics, it seems 18 enemy ships were either destroyed or captured, while the British didn't lose any ships.  However, reading the account on Wikipedia,² it seems that, following the initial battle, there were attempts by the French and Spanish to retake some of their ships, which resulted in British sailors becoming prisoners. Both sides were also affected by the weather and, in the end, only four of the "prize ships" were brought back to Britain.

It seems, normally, that would be it. Ships lost = no prize money. 

But, because of the scale and importance of the victory, Parliament then awarded a grant of £300,000, to be divided among the sailors in the same way that the prize money would have been.  

Hence, there are the two books, one recording the distribution of the prize money from the four ships that were successfully brought back, the other recording the distribution of the Parliamentary grant.

FindMyPast indicates that the two prize books are in the National Museum of the Royal Navy, which is in Portsmouth.³ Their catalogue doesn't seem to be available at the moment, and I haven't been able to find the books listed in the National Archives catalogue either.  However, I did find what appear to be the relevant descriptions on the forum of the Society for Nautical research, which indicates the books are "RNM Naval Trophy/1983/1062/1 Trafalgar Awards List", and "RNM Naval Trophy/1983/1062/2 Trafalgar Awards List Supplementary Award granted by Parliament".⁴ It appears the Parliamentary Grant was issued first, in 1806, and the Prize Money was issued in 1807. 

Looking at the images on FindMyPast, each book contains a note from someone who, I assume, had possession of them before they went into the archive.  In the "Trafalgar Parliamentary Grant" book (FMP series containing 331 images), it says:

"A most valuable & interesting record of the various amounts that were paid out of £300,000 which Parliament voted as grants to the crews of all the ships that had taken part in the Great Battle of Trafalgar: - every officer, seaman & marine being apportioned a sum according to his rank & standing. The Grants were paid by a firm of London Bankers (now non existent) & an acknowledgement given either by the recipient himself or his legal representative (or heirs in the case of those who were killed) - as herein recorded."

The note in the "Prize Money" book (FMP series containing 287 images) is very similar, as might be expected - but the final paragraph sheds more light on the history of the records!:

"An extremely valuable and interesting record of the various sums of money that were awarded as Prize-money to the crews of all the ships that had taken part in the capture and destruction of the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar:- every officer, seaman & marine being apportioned an amount according to his rank & standing. The money was paid by a firm of Bankers in London (now non-existent) & an acknowledgement given either by the recipients themselves or their legal representatives as herein recorded.

The "Neptune" list was unfortunately stolen before the Book came into my possession: all the others are complete."

The comment about "all" the others being complete needs to be understood in the context of what was included to start with.  The information page on FindMyPast states "These books only cover ship names P-V. Unfortunately, it is not known what happened to the volumes for ships A-O." 

That isn't strictly correct, in that the Index at the start of each book lists the following ships:

Neptune

Orion

Polyphemus

Prince

Revenge

Royal Sovereign

Spartiate

Swiftsure

Temeraire

Tonnant

Thunderer

Victory

Euryalus

Naiad

Phoebe

Sirius

Pickle

Entreprenante

So, as you can see, a couple of ships beginning with "E" are included.

At the start of each ship's entry, more detail is included regarding what the men were signing for.  For the Parliamentary Grant this generally states:

"We whose Names & Marks are hereunto subscribed being the Captain Officers & Company of His Majesty's Ship {ship name} under the Command of the late Rt Hon. Lord Nelson in the Battle off Cape Trafalgar on the 21 October 1805 do acknowledge to have received by ourselves or our legal representatives thro' the hands of Messrs C(hristopher) Cooke & J(ames) Halford for & on acct of the Rt Hon. Lord Howick, John Earl Spencer & Lord Henry Petty Trustees for the Distribution of £300,000 voted by Parliament, the several sums expressed against our Names being our respective Proportions of the said Grant.

And we do hereby discharge our said Trustees as well as the said Messrs Cooke & Halford from any further demand on account thereof"

(There are some minor variations, such as having "the amount of our proportions of the said Grant" instead of " our respective Proportions of the said Grant" etc.)

In the Prize Book, the text is similar. However, the Bankers are Messrs Christopher Cooke & William Rd Cosway and the money received is described as "being the amount of our respective proportions of the proceeds of 4 French & Spanish ships captured on that day together with proceeds of Bounty Bills for the Enemy's ships destroyed."

Some more background - and resolving some potential confusion

While researching, I was interested to find that the "British Naval Biographical Dictionary, 1849", which is on Ancestry, includes a list of "General Actions" between 1794 - 1840, as well as tables showing the returns of numbers killed and wounded at each.  Based on the return for the Battle of Trafalgar, it appears that the following will be the ships where the prize money records have been lost:

Britannia

Dreadnought

Mars

Bellerophon

Minotaur

Conqueror

Leviathan

Ajax

Agememnon

Africa

Belleisle

Colossus

Achille

Defence

Defiance

This did cause me some initial confusion - because there are twenty seven ships in that table (which agrees with the number said to be at the battle). 

However, six of the ships in the prize books do not appear in the table, ie Euryalus, Naiad, Phoebe, Sirius, Pickle, and Entreprenante.

Thanks to the Nelson Society, who have published a pdf entitled "The Trafalgar Roll",⁵ I discovered that four of these six ships (Euryalus, Naiad, Phoebe, and Sirius), were frigates, which were too small to be actively engaged in the battle, although the Euryalus is mentioned as performing "valuable service" during the battle by making signals after one of the larger ships was disabled.

From Wikipedia, it appears the other two ships, Pickle and Entreprenante, were also both present but, again, were too small to take part in the fighting, although they were involved in rescuing sailors during the battle. Pickle also carried news of Nelson's death, and of the victory in the battle, back to Britain.⁶

I had another confusing moment when I found the Phoebe described as assisting two of the "prizes", one of which was called Swiftsure, ie the name of one of the ships on the British side during the Battle of Trafalgar.⁷

  

It turned out that there were two such ships in the battle - one on the British side, the other, originally British, but captured by the French in 1801, and so fighting on the French side!⁸

So, although only 27 British ships were engaged in the fighting, more ships were present in the area and were involved in other aspects of what took place.

Moving on to the PARRYs, and research into who they were 

Although the prize books currently only appear on FindMyPast, the other database on the site, 

"British Royal Navy, Battle Of Trafalgar 1805" seems to be the same as the "England, Battle of Trafalgar Crew Lists, 1805-1806" on Ancestry.  And the source for both is the "Trafalgar Ancestors" database at the TNA.⁹

The information on each site varies slightly. For example, searching for "Parry" on both Ancestry and FindMyPast produces eight results, but only seven on the National Archives site.  It's easy to spot the cause - one of the entries on FindMyPast has a question mark after the surname. This entry appears without the "?" on Ancestry, but is only found on the TNA site by searching for "Parry?" 

So it seems worth checking all three sites, if possible, not just to pick up any such spelling variations, but also some of the additional comments, which don't seem to be included on both the genealogical sites.  

The TNA database is also described as an ongoing project so, potentially, more information will become available in the future.  Most of the men only have one source listed - the ships muster list or pay book covering around (but not always including) the date of the Battle of Trafalgar.  Since muster lists for other date periods exist in the TNA, anyone interested in a particular person could potentially find out more about their service etc, through those records.

Looking at what I have discovered, so far, for each PARRY in turn: 

Andrew PARRY [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=4030]

In 1805, Andrew was a midshipman on HMS Britannia, one of the ships not included in the prize books. He was aged 20, and born in London. There is a comment, which states "see former books", so more information on him should be available in the navy records.

I found four references in the TNA to an Andrew PARRY connected with the navy:

- In January 1803, in a letter to the captain of HMS Ethalion, Sheerness, a midshipman Andrew PARRY asks to be discharged because of his wounds, and the Captain passes the letter on, asking that the request be complied with. (ADM 1/2509/103)

-  In July 1811, there's a request submitted from HMS Ulysses, for "a Lieutenant senior to Andrew Parry, whose seniority dates from September 18, 1809, as Lt Parry has just joined the ship from half pay, having been obliged to give up his previous appointment because of deafness." (ADM 1/1550/169)

-  In September 1811, a similar request to the above, this time specifically asking that a Lieutenant Lauzen be "appointed to HMS Ulysses in place of Lieutenant Andrew Parry." (ADM 1/1551/60)

-  In December 1813, the "Will of Andrew Parry, Lieutenant in the Royal Navy of Brockhurst, Hampshire" is proved in the PCC (PROB 11/1550/474)

 I suspect that the 1803 reference might relate to a different Andrew Parry - although he is a midshipman, if his wounds were such that he was unable to carry out his duties at that time, and his Captain agreed, is it likely that he would still be serving over two years later, at the Battle of Trafalgar, yet alone potentially progressing further to become a Lieutenant?   [A Lieutenant was the next rank up from a midshipman, but required passing an exam.¹⁰]

Ancestry has a database of the "Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815", which shows an Andrew PARRY becoming a Lieutenant on the 18 September 1809.  

This matches to the July 1811 entry in the TNA. Perhaps the 'deafness' could have been caused during the battle of Trafalgar?

Tieing in with the probate entry, a Lieutenant Andrew PARRY is buried at Alverstoke, Hampshire on the 16th December 1813.  He was aged 28, which matches to a birthdate of 1785, and would make him 20 in 1805.  The address at burial was given as "Hardway", which is a hamlet in the parish of Alverstoke. "Brockhurst", the address in the probate entry, is another hamlet in the same area.¹¹

 In the Will, Andrew mentions his wife, Isabella, his brother, Henry, and his father - who he doesn't name but who is described as "Andrew Parry, gent" when the Will is proved.

An Andrew PARRY married an Isabella EMLEY in Alverstoke in 1813. There are three different dates shown for the marriage on FindMyPast (1st February, 5th July, and 6th July.) Ancestry just shows 6th July 1813.  Neither of the sites have images for the marriage, so I haven't been able to confirm any of the details.  However, Ancestry does also have the Pallot's Marriage Index, which indicates that this Andrew was a Lieutenant in the RN.

So several of these entries do seem to match up, indicating that the Andrew PARRY, who was present at the battle of Trafalgar, potentially became a Lieutenant in 1809, married in 1813, and then died later that year.

It is also possible that his father was an "Andrew PARRY, gentleman of Southwark", whose Will was proved in 1815. However, I haven't yet found a suitable baptism for Andrew junior. 

Howard Lewis Parry [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=17107]

In 1805, Howard was serving as a "boy" on HMS Tonnant, aged 14, and is described as born in Chatham, Kent.  He is listed in the prize books.

He is also the one entry that I have found a reasonable quantity of information for and, since I am running out of time to get this posted before the end of the month, I am going to write Howard's information up as a separate post, next month. 

James PARRY [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=2036]

James was an ordinary seaman ("able seaman" in the FMP Index), serving on HMS Ajax, in 1805.  He was aged 26, and described as born in "Cultarton, Devon", a parish that doesn't seem to exist!  

I haven't been able to confirm any other records as even potentially relating to him, and the Ajax is one of the ships not listed in the prize books.

The dates quoted on his page show "1 March 1805 to 1 June 1805", with an additional "2 June 1805" not connected to any information. However, the linked source seems to be for dates "1805 Aug - 1806 Jan".  Also, there is a comment stating, "see former books", so more information on James is probably available in the navy records.

John PARRY ["Jjohn" in the TNA entry at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=13688]

John was another 14 year old "boy", this time serving on HMS Royal Sovereign in 1805.  The comments described him as "late Gladiator".  The ship called HMS Gladiator, at that date, seems to have been permanently on harbour service.¹² The information about John in the Trafalgar database is said to have come from the Marine Society, whose historical records are held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.¹³ [Searching for PARRY in their catalogue returns a large number of entries, so I haven't explored that further.]

In the prize books, John received £4 12s 6d on 27 Oct 1806, from the Parliamentary Grant, and £1 17s 6d,  on 23 Aug 1807, from the prize money.  On both occasions, the receipt was acknowledge by his mark.

John was from Worcester, in Worcestershire. There are several baptisms for John PARRYs in, and near, Worcester around 1791, so more information would be needed to identify a relevant baptism.

However, it is possible he was admitted to the Greenwich Hospital pensioners in 1847.  Entries in the "Entry Book of Pensioners", and the "Rough Entry Book of Pensioners", within the database "British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service And Pension Records, 1704-1939" on FindMyPast, show a John PARRY, aged 58, being admitted on the 2nd December 1847. He had been a seaman, but his trade was now described as a labourer.  His last ship had been the Monarch.  Described as born in Worcester, his last residence was recorded as Chelsea, and he had a ticket number of 712, which I believe indicates that he had previously been receiving a pension while living independently (ie not in the Royal Hospital at Greenwich). He was married to a Mary, with three children under twelve, a boy and two girls, and he had lost a finger.  He was supplied with his "first clothing" on the 3rd December, and his "second clothing" on the 14th April, which, I imagine, refer to the distinctive coats worn by the hospital pensioners.

Based on the ticket number, it is also possible to find three entries that might be of relevance for John, on Ancestry, in the "UK, Royal Hospital Chelsea Returns of Payment of Army and Other Pensions, 1842-1883". The first is a pensioner being transferred from the 2nd West London district. He was in receipt of a permanent pension, was "Admitted In Pensioner per War Office letter 6/12(?)/47", and he had been paid his pension up until the 2nd December prior to being transferred.  That would seem to tie in with the admission record on FindMyPast.

The second entry shows a John PARRY under the section headed "Pensioners newly admitted to out-pension", with the 18th March 1855 being the date the pension starts being paid by the 2nd West London district.  If this was John being transferred back out of the hospital, one wonders why he wasn't listed under the section "Pensioners transferred to the District" instead, since he had previously been receiving a pension. 

 The third entry shows a John PARRY under the section of "Pensioners transferred from the District", with an "Admission to Out-Pension" date of 15 March 1855, being transferred to Deptford, with his pension paid up to 31st October 1860. 

Clearly more work is required to match up all these records properly, but it shows there is potential for discovering more.

In the 1841 census, there is a John PARRY, aged 45, a labourer, who was not born in the county, with a wife, Mary, and daughter, Betsey, aged 10, living in St Luke, Chelsea (HO107/688/6/7) which is a 'possibility' for John. I haven't been able to find any other census entries or a death/burial record for him.   

John PARRY [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=17878]

This John was a private in the marines, serving on HMS Victory. He is shown as aged 25, but his birth year is calculated as 1778 by Ancestry and FindMyPast, since that has been calculated from 1803, the start date for the particular pay book the information comes from. This book is available for download from the TNA site (ADM 36/15900) and consists of multiple sections, with John PARRY's name appearing in several of them. So there is more to be learnt about him.  

On the TNA site, he is described as being at Trafalgar.  There are two comments for him, the first, "from Chatham HQ", the second "Discharged 15 Jan 1806 Chatham Headquarters HMS Victory paid off."

The prize books show him receiving £4 12s 6d, on the 18th Nov 1806, as his portion from the Parliamentary Grant, and £1 17s 6d, on the 3rd Oct 1807, from the prize money.

John is said to be born in Chirk, Shropshire. Shropshire is an area where the PARRY surname occurs fairly frequently, so I think more information on him from naval records would be needed, before many other records can be identified.  It is possible he appears on Ancestry, in the "Royal Hospital Chelsea Returns of Payment of Army and Other Pensions, 1842-1883" since there is a John PARRY, born about 1776, who served in the 1st Division RM, received a permanent Out-Pension from 15 August 1816, and then died on the 15th January 1855, aged 79.  

Richard PARRY [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=2037]

Richard was another private in the marines, this time serving on HMS Ajax.  There's no age or birthplace given for him, and the Ajax is one of the ships that isn't listed in the prize books.  

I think the initial route to finding any additional information on him will be to follow the comment on the TNA page, which says to "see former books". 

Robert PARRY [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=430]

Robert was an able seaman, serving on HMS Achille in 1805, aged 34.  He had previously served on HMS Renown. His birthplace is described as "Hollowell, Wales", which, I imagine, should be Holywell, in Flintshire.  

He is the only one of the eight PARRYs in the database that has a death date noted - he died at sea, on the 7 June 1807.  However, there is no indication where the death information came from, so further research is needed on that.

John PARRY? [https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/details.asp?id=9288]

This John was 21, a midshipman serving on HMS Minotaur. Since the Minotaur isn't one of the ships in the prize books, I've not been able to check the surname in any images.

John is described as born in Portsmouth. 

Additional Finds

During the course of researching this man, I came across two marriages relating to sailors:

On 23 Jan 1800, a John PARRY, of HMS Achille, married an Ann MIALL, in Portsea, St Marys

On 27 Mar 1813, a John PARRY, Royal Marine, married a Maria LEE, in Portsmouth, St Thomas.

Neither of these can be conclusively matched up to any of the above entries, but I have included them here, in case  the information helps anyone else researching the Royal Navy seamen.

So there we are, a post about (most of) the PARRYs who served in the Battle of Trafalgar, just scraping in as my monthly post for February. Phew!

Notes and Sources

1. The Prize Book search page on FMP: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/discover/military-armed-forces-and-conflict/regimental-and-service-records/british-royal-navy-battle-of-trafalgar-prize-book 

2. Wikipedia account of the Battle of Trafalgar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Trafalgar

3. National Museum of the Royal Navy: https://www.nmrn.org.uk/

4. The Society for Nautical research Forum query regarding the Prize Books: https://snr.org.uk/snr-forum/topic/trafalgar-prize-money-and-300000-l-special-award-payment-details/

5. The Nelson Society pdf "The Trafalgar Roll": https://www.nelson-society.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/TheBattleOfTrafalgar.pdf

6. Wikipedia re the two ships Entrepante and Pickle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Entreprenante and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pickle_(1800) 

7. Phoebe assisting a prize called Swiftsure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Phoebe_(1795)

8. The earlier British ship called Swiftsure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Swiftsure_(1787)

9. The "Trafalgar Ancestors" database at the TNA:  https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/trafalgarancestors/

10. A Lieutenant being the next rank up from a midshipman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Navy_ranks,_rates,_and_uniforms_of_the_18th_and_19th_centuries#/media/File:NormalEntryCommissionRoute.png and  https://19thcentury.us/19th-century-royal-navy-ranks/ 

11. "Hardway" and "Brockhurst" being hamlets in the parish of Alverstoke: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/hants/vol3/pp202-208  and https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/HAM/Alverstoke

12. HMS Gladiator on harbour service: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Gladiator

13. The Marine Society, and their historical records at Greenwich: https://www.marine-society.org/history and https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/archive/search/parry