m. 10 Dec 1784, The Town Church St Peter Port, Guernsey

Samuel WHITTON

Rebecca OSMAN

 

bd. about 1734, Bedale (Bedall?), Yorkshire

occ. Button Maker; NCO Royal Artillery
dd. 16th Nov 1787, St Peter Port, Guernsey

Buried. 18 Nov 1787, The Town Church, St Peter Port, Guernsey

bd. Blandford, Dorset
 
dd.

spouses: 1, 2, 3

 

Childrenê

Samuel’s Military Career:

 I am currently investigating the military career of Samuel Whitton.  What we know so far is that he enlisted on the 1st Jan 1756 at Spalding.  He was then aged 22.  He served in the First Battalion of the Royal Artillery being promoted to Gunner in May 1763, to Bombardier in October 1768 and to Corporal in December1773.  He was then “put upon the pension list” on the 1st February 1775.

 

Samuel doesn’t actually seem to have retired though and  he was stationed on Guernsey with an ‘invalid company’ also known as the Fifth Battalion of the Royal Artillery under the command of a Cpt. Charles Torriano since at least 1780.  Invalid companies were generally assigned to garrison duties to free up the more able bodied for active service.

 

There is then a rather confused picture of the rank held by Samuel.  The pay and muster lists for that year show him listed as a bombardier and in receipt of £2 2/ 7d.  Oddly in September to December that year he is however listed as a Gunner receiving a mere £1 14/ 2d in his pay packet.  Although I know nothing of the circumstances of this apparent demotion, it coincides with the death of Samuel’s first known wife Margaret.  His last entries in the pay and muster lists prior to his death again show his rank as Bombardier, however.

 

The Royal Artillery description Books state that Samuel had a “swarthy” complexion, black hair and hazel eyes and could both read and write.

 

 

Rebecca and the Poor Law:

After the death of Samuel Rebecca and her surviving daughter Henrietta returned to Poole in Dorset where they were destitute.  On the 7th March 1789 they were apprehended in the parish of St James in Poole as Vagabonds “wandering and begging”.  In her examination with the Justices of the Peace Rebecca provided details of her marriage to Samuel and his death on Guernsey.  She further stated that Samuel had often said that his last legal settlement in England had been in ‘Beadle’ in Yorkshire.  The Justices duly issued a warrant under the Poor Law to have Rebecca and Henrietta transported back to Beadle to be provided for there.  Rebecca and Henrietta were thus packed off to Yorkshire, where they had never been in their lives.  They were no more a welcome burden on the parish of Bedale however and on the 22 Sept 1789 the Justices there  determined that they should be dispatched onward  to the township of Burill, as that, for reasons unknown, was their last ‘legal’ settlement.


Children:

Henrietta WHITTON

 

Anne Marie WHITTON

B. 23 Jan 1787 Guernsey, bapt. 4 Feb 1787 The Town Church St Peter Port, Guernsey. D. 1787, Bur. 26 April 1787, The Town Church St Peter Port, Guernsey

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