Close connections: the second-generation Suttons
The First Register of Seamen in 1835 provides an update on the five Clonakilty-born Suttons, demonstrating their services on Jane & Mary Anne , William Brown , Industry , Hannah and James Carmichael (Fig. 5; Appendix 6: Register of Seamen). The close family relationships between these five brother mariners are affirmed by the names of their children, which reference their grandparents. Among the known first-born male children were four Roberts, three of whom became master mariners. Five of the known first-born female children were named Catherine (with one Mary Catherine). Three of these five married master mariners. The name of Abraham, the second youngest of the brothers, was unique to the West Cork mariner Suttons. The brothers George, Abraham and William Sutton had sons, Abraham George (b.1842), Abraham Jr (b.1849) and Abraham William (b.1840). The close relationships between the Suttons are underlined by records of wills and baptismal sponsorship. Fig. 14 (Section 4) shows that Abraham and George were administrators of the will of their brother Thomas. In 1840 a baptismal record indicates that Abraham Sutton was godfather to his brother William’s son, Abraham William Sutton. William’s daughter Catherine had family friend Captain John Twohig (b.1804) of Kin sale and Nathaniel Sutton’s wife, Joanna (Donovan) Sutton, as sponsors in 1844. William was sponsor for Abraham’s daughter, Margaret in 1845. George Sutton and his soon-to-be wife, Margaret Carthy, were sponsors for Nathaniel’s daughter, Margaret (b.1826). Outside the tight family group of the five brothers there is a Captain John Sutton (b.c.1775) possibly a younger brother of Robert. His history of occupation at sea intertwines with his five nephews ( Lloyd’s ). John Sutton and Robert Sutton appear as signature witnesses on a Voyage Agreement and Crew List for Thomas Sutton’s Herbert , in the first part of 1845 (BT98). The only viable adult family members with those names at that time were Captain John Sutton (b.c.1775) and Robert Sutton (b.1803/4), the shipwright, who was a son or nephew to Captain John Sutton and therefore a cousin or brother to the five Clonakilty master mariners enumerated in Ring above. A further brother of the five, William Sutton (b.1812) was documented by a Clonakilty baptismal record as a son of Robert and Catherine, but was likely to have died in infancy, since strong evidence suggests Captain William (b.1814) was also a brother. There is another Sutton seaman, William Sutton (b.1810, #17874), who is recorded as being a mariner of twenty-five years old on the George Lawrence of Cork. He died on the third of January 1840 at St Jaga de Cuba (BT112/66). His relationship to the rest of the family is unclear.
Browns and Suttons: interlocking businesses
In 1776, forty per cent of all ships built in Ireland were built in Cork and a further forty per cent of ship construction was divided between Dungarvan and Waterford. During the Napoleonic War, Dublin, with 300 shipwrights, became the main shipbuilding centre in Ireland but suffered a major decline after the war. Cork re-emerged slowly and by 1826 was responsible for forty-one per cent of the tonnage launched in the whole country.
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