Robert Pollock Master Mariner

Robert Pollock Davison was born on February 15, 1807 in North Shields, Northumberland. He was christened on March 29 in the Christ Church, in Tynemouth, the same church where his siblings and mother were christened. Just like his father, Robert was a mariner. Some of this data was provided by his Master Mariner application, fulfilled by himself.

Christ Church, Tynemouth

North Shields is a city on England's Northeast coast, with a current population of 50.000 inhabitants.

North Shields

Robert Pollock became mariner apprentice in 1821, at the age of 13 years old, in the vessel Doncaster.

The table below presents the evolution of his carreer on the British merchant navy, on international trades. He traveled to America, Africa, India and Australia.

Vessel’s name	Port belonging to	Tons	Rank	In what trade	Date of service
Doncaster	New Castle	375	Apprentice	American and Baltic	1821 to 1824
Harmony	New Castle	300	Apprentice	Do.	1824 to 1825
Margaret	London	450	Chief Mate	Do.	1826 to 1826
Grecian	London	320	Chief Mate	Do.	1826 to 1826
John Barry	London	525	Chief Mate	Do.	1827 to 1829
Ocean	London	435	Captain	Sierra Leone	1829 to 1831
Eliza	London	384	Captain	Bermuda	1831 to 1835
Lady Kennaway	London	583	Captain	Indies	1836 to 1840
Agnes	London	691	Captain	N. S. Wales	1841 to 1843
Dryofre	London	340	Captain	Ichaboe	1844 to 1846
Argyle	London	585	Captain	America	1847 to 1849
Heart of Oak	London	329	Captain	Indies	1850 to 1851
Harbinger	London		Captain	Cape of Good Hope	1852 to 1854

Robert Pollock moved to London metropolitan area in 1826, as can be noticed by the vessels where he worked on.

The newspaper The Norwich Mercury from March 9, 1833 announces the departure of the vessel Eliza from London to New York with immigrants.

FOR NEW YORK To sail 20th March. The remarkably fine fast-sailing Teak-built ship ELIZA, coppered and copper-fastened, Robert Pollock DAVISON Commander, lying in the London Docks. The accommodations both in Cabin and Steerage are very superior. The Steerage is lofty, spacious and conveniently fitted up. Steerage passengers will be taken on moderate terms if early application is made to the captain on board or to Hopkins, Glover and Co, Brokers, Change Alley, Cornhill, London.

The announced trip ended on June 1st, 1833, after just over two months of navigation, as passenger manifest in New York found in a manual search of scanned images of records this year in the Family Search Site. The list of passengers contains 57 English immigrants left in New York.

On July 28, 1835, Robert Pollock made another trip with the ship Eliza, this time taking 75 English immigrants to New York.

The next ship, Lady Kennaway was a three-masted barque of 584 tons, built by Kid and Company in Calcutta in 1817. In his early years took guns and weapons.

A picture of this ship was painted in 1829 by J. W. Huggins and is for sale on the Grosvenor Prints website for £ 1,100.00.

Lady Kennaway in 1835

The ship was used most often on the route east of India. On at least four occasions, it was chartered to transport immigrants to Australia, although he was probably best known in Australia's history as a convict transport ship. It took more than 850 convicts and hundreds of emigrants to Australia and Van Diemen's land (Tasmania).

Three trips of the barque Lady Kennaway to Australia and Tasmania under the command of Robert Pollock Davison are known.

Departure	Arrival	Transport	Sources
Cork, 27/10/1834	Hobart, Tasmania 13/02/1835	311 convicts	Ross Genealogy  Brady Family Tree
London, 11/06/1836	Sydney, NSW 12/10/1836	298 convicts	Ross Genealogy  Brady Family Tree
Leith Roads, 19/04/1838 Downs, 25/04/1838	Sydney, NSW (Port Jackson), 11/08/1838	285 scottish immigrants	Ross Genealogy  History Australia  Sydney Mail  The Colonist

Despite this first trip (1834/1835) be attributed to Robert in the displayed sources, both his Master Mariner cetificate as the immigration manifest in New York indicate that in 1835 he still commanded the ship Eliza. The travel book of records "The Asiatic journal and monthly register for British and foreign India, China and Australasia" volume 15 confirms that this year the captain of the Lady Kennaway was called Thomas Bolton.

Lady Kennaway travel in 1836 indeed was commanded by Robert Pollock Davison. The arrival in Sydney, as well as the stops are listed in detail by "The Asiatic journal and monthly register for British and foreign India, China and Australasia" volumes 22 to 25. The return from Sydney went through Madras (India), Penang (Malaysia), Madras again, Ganjam (India), Calcutta (Bengal) before reaching London.

Ellen Priestman (who would become Robert's wife six months later) boarded on the Lady Kennaway after her husband's death on June 29 in Calcutta, reaching London on December 2nd, 1837. The volume wrote about this arrival and says that board were the passengers Mrs. Priestman and Miss Stanistreet (maybe her sister). Robert and Ellen met, therefore, in Calcutta or during the trip.

If someone has documents of the passengers of this trip I would appreciate to know.

Continue to Robert Pollock and Ellen;
Go back to Davison family origins; or
Go back to Stanistreet family origins

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