Snippet 17 - Capt. James Saundry

 SNIPPET 17 - CAPT. JAMES SAUNDRY

“Right in the middle of the Action”

The parents of James Saundry[1], Tom & Ann[2], farmers from Breage, Cornwall, may have had other dreams for their 3rd child, James, but Historic Events clearly shaped him.

Within his first decade, the English Navy was sailing to the opposite extreme of the World, Part Jackson, to off-load convicts in a strange, new land. And at the same time, the French were rioting, declaring startling new beliefs, inflicting horrors on their nobility, and creating a new Hero, Napoleon, who would soon take on the might of the English Navy & military. And at the same time, the Irish were rebelling against the might of their English Masters.

 Within his second decade, England had 2 new Heroes – at sea, Horatio Nelson, and in India & Spain, Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington.

 James stepped away from his family farm and sought a life at sea – the natural home of any Cornwall man.

 James was to become a master Mariner, a Captain no less – a title and occupation much admired and in those stormy decades much in demand.

We know little of his Career, but we glimpse a little of his fixations. He was 18 years old and in Penzance when the first news reached England that the great Horatio Nelson had won the Battle of Trafalgar but had lost his own life.

 That moment had such an effect on James that he named his son, Horatio.

 James married at the age of 29 years, the year after Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo. He and his wife, Amelia[3], lived for 40 years in the vital Port city of Penzance where James became a “Navigation School Master” – a vital cog in the mastery that the English Navy had all of James’ life.

 During those 40 years, the English utilised its Navy & Military to enforce the end of Slavery, to colonise New Zealand, to fight to Opium Wars against China, to take full control of India, and to fight Russia in the valleys of Crimea.

James Saundry was indeed a Man of his Times!



 

 


[1] James Saundry (1778-1856) was a paternal 3rd Great Grandfather of Karen Saundry (Maloney) & the Saundry Generation

[2] Thomas Saundry (1749-1833) & Ann Eddy (1754-831)

[3] Amelia Ninnis (Saundry) (1788-1863)


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