James Mathewson
ID # 2403
| Marriage | James Mathewson married Emma Beal Hare on 6 October 1830 at Eastchurch, Kent, England. A transcription provided by familysearch.org, sourced from microfilm 1786434, item 2 p 74, shows the marriage at Eastchurch, Kent, England, of James Matthewson and Emma Hare on 6 October 1830. No other information, such as parentage, age, or witnesses, is provided. Eastchurch is on the Isle of Sheppey where Sheerness and the Royal Navy station was located. Such census information as we have for Emma, at her residence in Bromley, shows her place of birth as Sheerness. She was likely the daughter of a Royal Navy family. Family stories say that James Matthewson was in the navy and captained a training ship that taught the Turks to be sailers during the Crimean War. This story is probably an exaggeration but, given their place of marriage, it seems likely that James Matthewson's presence on the Isle of Sheppey and his marriage to Emma Hare would indicate that he was in the Royal Navy. |
| Note | A family story tells that James Mathewson, or Matthewson, was a member of the Royal Navy and captained a training ship that taught the Turks to be sailers during the Crimean War. No record of him has yet been found in census information and it may be that he spent most of his time away at sea. Childrens' births in Sheerness have been found for James and Emma in transcriptions of old records. By the time we find Emma in census information, she is living in Bromley in the east end of London and that is where she died. It seems that the later children were all born in Bromley. One of the older sons went to sea. His little sister Lavinia only remembered her brother from an incident that happened on the day he left. He sat on her doll and broke it. His travels took him to Australia and the story is that when he got there he was so sick of the sea that he settled in Australia and took up ranching. There was correspondence between sisters Emma and Lavinia who lived in Galt, Ontario, and their brother in Australia, but all contact was lost in the 1920s. It is evident from the 1871 census at Bromley that John Himes and his wife Lavinia Mathewson were living with Emma Hare Mathewson. John and Lavinia gave their firstborn son and daughter their own names, but gave them James and Emma for middle names. We do have some transcriptions of birth records for Mathewson children born in Sheerness and we have some later baptism images for the Bromley children. These give the father's name as James Mathewson and they appear with their mother in Bromley censuses. Other than that, we little direct information about James and we know nothing of his birth year and place or of his death. At the time of the 1871 census, Emma seems to be supporting herself as a laundress. It may be that James is dead by this time, though a family story tells that when Lavinia Mathewson Himes returned to England for a visit late in her life, she met her father's second wife. Nothing has been found to confirm this story. Considering that Emma was, as shown in the 1871 census, a 'laundress', it seems unlikely that James Mathewson was an officer in the Royal Navy. This was probably an exaggeration. |
Children of James Mathewson and Emma Beal Hare |
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| Last Edited | 21 May 2024 |