I know that a second great grandmother on my mother's side is Elizabeth Diana Pattison (1830-1903), who was born in Ramsgate, Kent and baptized there on 14 Feb 1830. She had an older sister and a younger brother.
Elizabeth's birthplace is important -- this is a confirmation that appears consistently in censuses from 1861 onward in Berwick upon Tweed.
You'll see that Elizabeth's father is listed as Clement 'Patison', and he was a mariner. The name Pattison, Patterson or Paterson is an old Northumberland and Borders name that goes back generations, as does the name Clement in the Pattison family. The name Clement appears in multiple families and multiple generations. In addition to Clement the mariner, I've found a Clement who was a ship's surgeon and a Clement who was a solicitor. It seems from newspaper stories I've found that mariner Clement's father was solicitor Clement.
There is no record of a marriage between Elizabeth (last name unknown) and Clement the mariner, who, based on Elizabeth Diana's baptismal record is my 3rd great grandfather. They had at least three children together, based on baptismal records I've found. I wonder if they married at all, sailors being sailors...... Each of the Clements in my research were born in Berwick upon Tweed. Mariner Clement was probably born around 1800 to
Clement Pattison and an unknown mother.
I've never found a record of Clement the mariner's death that fits any timeline, but as a mariner, he was at sea for months at a time, and could have died anywhere. Here's a London newspaper notice about one of his voyages, to Smyrna, which today is in Turkey.
Another genealogy researcher did some digging through old London newspaper records and found reference to a November 1836 criminal court case involving a woman named Louisa, identified as the wife of Clement the mariner, charged child abandonment. This would have been the son, who was born in 1835 -- but according to the report, Clement may not have been the biological father. Perhaps Elizabeth also went by Louisa or perhaps neither was her true name.
The story goes on at great length in florid, lurid early 19th century detail and involves referring to Louisa/Elizabeth as a 'common trull' and habitual drunkard" and being infamous. Skipping ahead, the magistrate sentenced Louisa/Elizabeth to "two months imprisonment and hard labour at the House of Correction".
That is the last we know about this woman.
What we know is that Clement sent or brought Elizabeth Diana and her older sister to Berwick upon Tweed, where he left them with family, I'm perhaps presuming, to raise. Margaret died in the Berwick workhouse in 1851, just 23 years old. Of the male child baptized as Clement Charles Pattison on 1835, there is no further record.
Elizabeth Diana married fisherman Peter Cowe Young (1828-1903) before 1852, which is when their eldest child was born. My 2nd great grandparents had eight children in total, including my great grandfather, Robert Alexander Young. In a perfect world, their marriage record would list the bride's parents' names. But finding that marriage record has been impossible. As I said earlier, her birthplace is important. There is a record of a marriage between a Peter Young and Elizabeth McBride in Berwick. That Elizabeth McBride was not born in Ramsgate, and her parents' names aren't Pattison
They had a long marriage, living mostly in 'the Greens' in Berwick upon Tweed, except for a few years early in their marriage when they were nearby at Eyemouth. Elizabeth died in March 1903, and Peter died in December that same year.
But I do wonder who Elizabeth's mother was, and whatever happened to her. Did she survive her two months hard labour? Did she come to a bad end? Did she turn her life around?
The never ending story continues....
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