19th Century Cork Sutton Mariners, Sailing Ships and Crews

Master:

1844 – 5 Thomas Walsh b.1817 (Dungarvan)# 1844 – 54 William Sutton b.1814 (Clonakilty)# 1845 – 7 Denis Driscoll b.1822 (Kinsale) 1856 – 7 Robert Sutton b.1836 (Cork)

Mate:

1845 Denis Driskol b.1822 (Kinsale)# 1851 – 3 Daniel Twohig b.1834 (Cork) 1854 – 6 John Twohig b.1838 (Cork) 1855 Robert Sutton b.1836 (Cork) 1851 Robert Sutton b.1836 (Cork)

Seaman:

Apprentice: Fate of ship:

An emigrant ship during the Famine. Arrival at St John, New Brunswick, 17 June 1847. This brigantine under Captain Sutton was 45 days out from Cork with passengers (Appendix: Emigrant ships)

Additional information:

This ship sailed on American and Baltic routes.

Captain Thomas Walsh appeared as the Master on a BT98/617 report for March 1845. He was a brother-in-law of Catherine Sutton Walsh (b.1822), who was a daughter of Captain Nathaniel Sutton (b.1794, Clonakilty). Captain William Sutton (b.1814, Clonakilty), who also appeared on a BT98/617 report as Master in 1845, was prosecuted during Famine times: ‘In 1849 William Sutton, the Master of Mary , a Schooner from Cork, was fined 50 pounds for dumping Irish in the river bank’ . This was the Usk river, Newport, Wales. The Newport infrastructure was overstretched by the mass immigration from Ireland at that time, creating a public health problem and stretching local sympathy. There was little choice however for the ‘paupers’ . Newport developed a large Irish community during the nineteenth century. This vessel was described as a schooner in 1849 suggesting a change of rig (common for brigantines and schooners), but she remained the same ship. Captains William Sutton and Robert Sutton were father and son and Robert’s above declaration for renewal of papers doesn’t tell the whole story (Fig. 2 8; Appendix 6: Sophia for Robert’s American Civil War venture). Mate Denis Driskol ,on a BT98/617 report for 1845, was almost certainly the Captain Denis Driscoll on Mary for 1845 – 7. Mates John Twohig and Daniel Twohig were brothers and sons of Captain John Twohig (b.1804, Kinsale); both would later earn their Master Certificates.

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