Document Request: William Richardson Solebay Log Book 1764-5
Document Description: Log Book of the Solebay from Limehouse Hole in April 1764 via Brazil and Madagascar to Fort Marlborough in Java.
Transcription URL: https://richardson.surnametree.com/library/vdocs/D_264#264
Document Transcription:Foreward
In the graveyard of St Mary’s Church in Gainford, County Durham, overlooking the River Tees, is an unassuming gravestone with the epitaph:
Sacred to the Memory
of Captain WILLIAM RICHARDSON
many years Commander of a Ship in the East Indies
who died the 21st day of August 1799
Now Gainford is far from the sea and far from any port, however the last few years of research have begun to reveal the eventful life of William Richardson, and one of these events was that at the age of 26 he captained the Solebay and its crew of 80, as well as 31 HEIC (Honorable East India Company) soldiers, from London to Java and thence to Calcutta where he remained for most of his life until he retired to Gainford around 1796.
Not many log-books of the period survive, and this one appears to have languished in obscurity for the last 250 years until this transcription has brought it to light.
Transcribing this 160-page log book has taken about as long as the 14-month voyage of The Solebay from Limehouse Hole in London to Fort Marlborough in Java, and both Richardsons were relieved to have finally reached their destination. It is no easy task transcribing faded handwritten text on weather-stained paper (such as the page above) and to come to grips with the idiosyncrasies of the period - a disdain for the full stop (Wills and Indentures of the period are as bad), peppering the text with apostrophes (penn’d instead of penned) and quaint spellings such as extreams and logg.
It is recommended reading for insomniacs, William Welch the first mate, who penn’d the log, achieved some 300 permutations for describing the day’s weather in three parts - the first, the middle and the latter.
The Solebay started out as a ship of the Royal Navy, the third vessel named after the battle of Solebay on 7 June 1672, the first battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. It was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1742. She was captured by the French in 1744, recaptured by the British in 1746 and then sold into mercantile service in 1763. It was bought by Charles Dingley.
William’s younger brother Christopher Richardson was Charles Dingley’s manager at the Limehouse sawmill, so this might explain why William became Captain despite Captain Gardener being nominated by the HEIC only a month before.
The Solebay was one of four vessels departing Portsmouth for Java in May 1764 in the service of the HEIC. The Lord Anson and the Prince of Wales were to be stationed at Bencoolen, the port of the HEIC’s Fort Marlborough, and the Solebay and the Beckenham were to continue to Bengal.
Captain William Richardson seems to have had his fair share of problems during the voyage, as crew were pressed into service they fled the ship wherever they could, except Madagascar where it was probably safer to stay aboard the fever-ridden ship. Confining crew to irons and giving a dozen lashes were all part of the day job, The ship itself, now 25 years old, was showing signs of age and the activities of Mr Ingram Smith, the sailmaker and Mr William White, the carpenter are noted almost daily.
The Solebay’s three-month stopover in Madagascar is of interest as it gives an indication of how trade operated in these early days. During this period the Solebay took on board 42 slaves, bartered by the local kings in exchange for iron pots and alcohol, and taken to Bencoolen to work for the HEIC in Java.
The log book finishes abruptly in Bencoolen, so we have no knowledge of the onward journey to Calcutta. As other documents in the Richardson Collection attest, William Richardson went on to have a successful, and hugely profitable, career in Calcutta as a Country Trader (a privateer in the pay of the HEIC) including potentially being the first to smuggle a shipment of HEIC opium into China.
His investments were not restricted to India, he also purchased properties in England and his children were sought for marriage by members of the merchant class. He bought up several properties in Gainford and built his own mansion overlooking the Tees, recently rediscovered. Sadly he died before it was fully completed and his daughter Charlotte inherited it.
It is hoped that more information will come to light on the life of William Richardson (his son-in-law Michael Hogan’s papers in the Mitchell Library in Sydney might one day be transcribed) and if anything is found, it will be added to the Richardson Collection.
Tim Richardson
London
July 2020
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