Thomas Rigmaiden 1746-1803: Part 2
Thomas Rigmaiden of Liverpool married Margery Jackson on the 22nd June 1780 at the church called St Anne’s in the Richmond area of North Liverpool. This was an area of Liverpool popular with merchants in the 18th century. The marriage register of St Anne’s records the marriage thus:
[No596] Thomas Rigmaiden of the parish of Liverpool, mariner, and Margery Jackson of the same place, spinster, were married in this Chapel by licence this 22nd day of June in the year 1780 …. [Name of the minister is illegible but it is not the usual one]
This marriage was solemnized between us [signatures of Thomas Rigmaiden and Margery Jackson]
In the presence of [signatures] Dorinda Salthouse, Will Cort & John Jackson
The marriage bond tells us that Thomas agreed with William Jackson a bond of £50 and that Thomas was at that time a mariner and they were both of Liverpool. The document contains the signatures of both men. We know from the date of her death that Margery Jackson was born c1756 and her brother was John Jackson (as mentioned in husband Thomas's will). The diocese of Chester baptism records her baptism date as the 16th February 1758, daughter of William & Alice Jackson of Netherton. Netherton was a small village north of Liverpool
Their marriage was announced in the Leeds Intelligencer of the 4th July 1780: “Thursday the 22nd inst was married at Liverpool, Captain Rigmaiden to Miss Jackson of Crosby”
Their children were also baptised at St Anne's Church in the Richmond area of Liverpool which opened in 1772. "The church was built at the expense of Thomas and Richard Dobb, cabinetmakers, of Williamson Square and a Henry North, fruit merchant, Dale Street. The church was built on land belonging to them. According to an article in 'Topographical News cuttings: St. Anne's Church, St. Anne Street' [Liverpool Record Office] for many years 'the original St. Anne's held the most aristocratic congregation in the town and the pews at one time were sold for sixty and seventy guineas to some of the most noted families of the period'. There were no free pews in the church, the pew rents and money given for burial plots in the churchyard having largely made up the incumbent's income". However, it went downhill in the nineteenth century and was eventually demolished in the 1870s.
Some of the baptism records of their children (between 1781 and 1785) name their address specifically as Rainford Gardens. The website www.liverpoolpictorial.co.uk gives the origin of Rainford Gardens and Rainford Square as being established by Peter Rainford who was Mayor of Liverpool in 1740. He bought a piece of land on the bank of the Pool of Liverpool and laid it out as a market garden. In the nineteenth century this area became part of the fruit and provision trade with many warehouses built there. (See Nikolaus Pevsner's book Lancashire: Liverpool and the south west). Incidentally, in the 1960s, a street connecting Rainford Gardens to North John Street was Matthew Street where the famous Cavern Club of Beatles fame was located.
By 1790 Thomas (merchant) was listed in Gore's Directory as being at 13 St Ann Street near the area where the Liverpool Community Fire and Rescue Service building is now located. Margery and Thomas went on to have 12 children of whom nine survived into adulthood. Their children were:
Margaret or Margery, born 9th May 1781, christened 2nd June 1781
John, christened 2nd July 1783
Catherine was born 1784 and died at 11 days of age, christened 12th July 1784
Another Catherine was christened on the 23rd July 1785, and died 26th Sept 1785, at 2 mths 26 days
Their fourth child was Thomas, born on the 29th Oct 1786, christened on the 22nd December 1786
Another Catherine was born, christened on the 22nd December 1787, but died on the 8th Oct 1794, aged 7 years
Mary was born on the 27th January and christened on the 25th february 1790
Edward was born 12th May and christened on the 10 June 1791
James was christened on the 20th Oct 1791 and born on the 25th september 1791 according to the 1810 parish register for St Peter's Church, but this should surely be 1792 making James the younger brother to Edward.
Henry was born 25th March 1794 and christened on the 17th April 1794.
The twelfth child and the ninth to survive, Lucy, was baptised on the 25th Sept 1796
All except James were baptised at St Anne's.
From the baptism records we learn that after 1785 Thomas Rigmaiden was referred to as a merchant rather than mariner. Margery died 5th December 1798, aged 42 years and was buried on the 9th December in St Anne's churchyard. When she died their youngest child, Lucy, was have been two years old and the oldest, Margery was 17. The first of the children to marry was Margery in 1800 to James Dickson, gentleman, at the age of 19. They had a son, Thomas Benson Dickson, in 1803 and they gave their address as St Ann Street.
Thomas died 6th April 1803, aged 57 and in his will named his executors as James Dickson (son in law) and John Jackson (brother-in-law). All his children who were under age, that is all of them except Margery, who was married to James, were placed in the care of his executors.
Rigmaiden as mariner
Liverpool Old Dock in the eighteenth century
Unfortunately, it is a rather unpalatable truth that both Thomas's made their money from the slave trade. A website detailing the passages of slaves ships and their owners and captains can be found at www.slavevoyages.org. Here we find that there are 11 entries for Rigmaiden as captain and they are:
1771 Ship's name William (a brigantine) joint captain with William Graham, sailing from Liverpool to the Windward coast of Africa and thence to Antigua. The voyage began on the 19th June 1770 and was completed on the 23rd August 1771. They acquired 135 slaves for the ship owner William James and landed at St John in Antigua with 120, so they lost 15 on the voyage which, though terrible, is not a bad result compared to some of the later voyages.
1773 Similar voyage with the same ship and captains to St Vincent during which voyage they lost 11 crew and 17 slaves. They set out on the 22nd October 1771 and returned on the 28th May 1773
1773 Ship's name Sally (a snow) with the same captains and owner from Liverpool to Bassa in Africa to Jamaica. On this voyage they lost 33 slaves on the voyage. They set out on the 3rd December 1771 and returned on the 9th July 1773.
As the above two voyages overlap it may be that Thomas Rigmaiden was captain of one and William Graham the other
1775 Again on the Sally but only Thomas Rigmaiden as captain; owner William James and the journey from Liverpool to the Windward coast (Bassa) to Grenada in the Caribbean. They set out on the 39th August 1773 and returned on the 30th June 1775, having lost 27 crew and 44 slaves
1777 Ship's name Blossom, captain Thomas Rigmaiden, same owner and voyage from Liverpool to The Windward Coast to Jamaica. Dates this time were 10th Feb 1776 to 23rd Jan 1798, number of slaves lost on the voyage were 31
1779 Ship's name Spy (a ship). This is the first time that Thomas Rigmaiden (captain) is mentioned as one of the owners who are: W James, Joseph Ward, Alex Wotherspoon, Jonathan Zwill, Joshua Rose, Chas Bromfield, Joseph Caton, William Jackson, Thomas Rigmaiden. Presumably the William Jackson mentioned is Thomas's future father-in-law. The voyage began on the 28th October 1778 and was completed on the 24th March 1780, 17 slaves were lost on the voyage from a total of 214.
1782 Ship's name Sturdy Beggar , captains Thomas Rigmaiden and Thomas Hughes, the owner was Parker. The voyage was begun in Liverpool and ended in St Lucia, the dates were 5th October 1781 to 25th September 1782. The number of slaves delivered was 328 out of 359, 8 crew deaths during the voyage. It is possible that Thomas, now an experienced captain is training up Thomas Hughes as he was, presumably trained by William Graham.
To add some colour to this voyage there was in the Manchester Mercury 8 October 1782 a report that: recently landed in Liverpool from St Lucia, in The Sturdy Beggar, was Tha Rigmaiden with 163 h[ogs]h[ea]ds [of wine], 15 tcs, 74 bls sugar, 100 bags cotton for J Tomlinson & Co.
There is a gap in the records until 1790 so I believe that the first Thomas Rigmaiden now concentrates on being a ship owner and merchant on land and the second Thomas Rigmaiden, the younger one mentioned above, takes to the sea. The first Thomas would have been married to Margery Jackson in 1780 and was now a father as well. After 1785 in his children's baptism records he refers to his occupation as merchant and not mariner.
Detail from painting 'Boarding a slaver' by L Burke
For Thomas Rigmaiden, as part shipowner, there are 52 entries from 1779 to 1803, the year that Thomas died. Rather than list them all here I am including a print out of the ships names, voyages and captains as an attachment. It should be stressed that Thomas was a part-owner of the vessels in a syndicate of up to seven others so would only receive a % of the profits of the voyages. Other co-owners that crop up in the lists with more or less frequency are: Plato Denny, Joseph Ward, John Perkins, Ralph Fisher, Thomas Dickenson, Joseph Caton, John Eckley Colley, Charles Wilson, William Begg, Benjamin Hammond, John Houghton, James Carruthers, Richard Middleton, William Forbes, William Gregson, John Carson, Alex Wotherspoon, Jonathan Zwill, Joshua Rose etc.
A popular haunt of sea captains when in Liverpool, and merchants, was The Three Tuns in Strand Street and, in an essay by C F Birbeck Wilson "The records of a Liverpool fireside 1775-1781" printed in the Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 1896, mention is found on page 141 of Thomas Rigmaiden. It was a custom of the house that drinkers there should pay a "fine" on the occasion of a celebration of some sort, for example a wedding. "1780 June 24. Captain Thomas Rigmaiden has paid 5s, by hands of the groomsman for entering into the Honourable State of Matrimony". Similar payments were made on the birth of an offspring or for the purchase of a fair wind in their next passage. Some of Thomas Rigmaiden's co- owners, named above, are also mentioned. It gives an interesting glimpse into Liverpool mercantile life and is a recommendeded read.
Another, rather grim, glimpse is given into life at sea in a report to the House of Lords about the slave trade:
"Mr William James testifies as follows: 'In the year 1779, being master of the Hound, sloop of war, and coming from the Bay of Honduras to Jamaica he fell in, off the Isle of Pines, with two Liverpool Guineamen on the middle passage, commanded by Captains Ringmaiden and Jackson, who had very imprudently (but whether wilfully or not he cannot say) missed the island of Jamaica. Captain Nugent gave them chase and caught up with them. Mr James upon boarding them found them in great distress, both on account of provisions and water. He asked the captains (for both of them were on board one ship) why they did not go into the watering place at the west end of the Isle of Pines (near Cuba). They replied that 'they had attempted to get in but got into shoal water'. He then asked them what they intended to have donewith their slaves if they had not fallen in with the Hound. They replied 'to make them walk the plank' - that is, to make them jump overboard. Mr James asked them again why they did not turn a number of the slaves on shore at the Isle of Pines and endeavour to save the rest. They replied again 'that in such case they could not have recovered the insurance, and that the rest would have gotten on shore'.
However, Captains Jackson and Ringmaiden denied the veracity of William James' report as quoted in "Observations given on the evidence given before the Committees of the Privy Council and the House of Commons in support of the Bill for abolishing the slave trade" by John Ranby, 1791. A footnote observes:
"Thomas Ringmaiden, captain of the ship Spy and William Jackson, late captain of the ship Rose severally made oath etc. That being at Tobago when an account was received that the French fleet had taken possession of Grenada, and were hourly expected at Tobago, they took a hasty departure on the 10th July 1779, and in order to avoid the enemies cruisers, for some days kept in pretty close to the Spanish main, which proved to be the cause of their being carried much to the westward of what they supposed or expected; and that this was the real cause of their being forced to the leeward of Jamaica and not either imprudence or bad intention etc. That the account given by Mr James, of his boarding them, finding both commanders on board one ship, the questions he asked them, and the answers he received from them, is a false, malicious and scandalous aspersion of the of the Commanders of the Spy and the Rose , who each for themselves says that they were not chased, but voluntarily stood for the Hound; and that each commander was on board his own ship; and that both ships ready for an engagement. That upon coming up and finding that the vessel was an English sloop of war, they were not boarded but went themselves in one of their own boats on board of the Hound , and met with every mark of kindness and assistance from Captain Nugent. Mr J did not ask them the questions , nor receive the answers from them set forth in his evidence. They never heard the term - walk the plank - till they saw it in Mr J's evidence, nor should they have known its meaning if they had not seen Mr J's explanation annexed to it. Each of them was largely concerned in the ships and cargoes, and their property therein far from being fully insured; they should therefore have greatly injured themselves in acting the part of which they stand accused by Mr James."
The Liverpool Museums website has interesting information about the slave trade and Liverpool at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
Liverpool slave ship, c1780 by William Jackson
In the 1790s Thomas was much connected with the church, although this may seem a strange contradiction to us, and seems to have been one of the sidesmen. In an extract from Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser for May 2nd 1791 he is mentioned in an announcement of the annual vestry: "On Tuesday last Mr John Houghton and Mr John Jackson (merchants) [presumably Thomas's brother-in-law] were elected churchwardens; Mr Thomas Rigmaiden and Mr John Dixon, sidesmen for this parish for the coming year. It is not clear which church this was.
He was also on the Committee appointed to inquire into the earnings of pilots, along with Joseph Brookes, Thomas Staniforth, Robert Ward, John Fisher, John Butler, Plato Denny, W Hutchinson and John Johnson. [Reference Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser 1791]He was also a business partner with an Edward Bate as the London Gazette printed:
"Liverpool May 1799. Notice is hereby given that the partnership heretofore carried on in Liverpool by Edward Bate and Thomas Rigmaiden, under the firm of Edward Bate and Company is now dissolved by mutual consent; and that all debts owing to and from the said concern will be received and paid by Edward Bate at his counting house, bottom of James Street."
Further information about Thomas Rigmaiden, including his will, to be included in the next newsletter.
I have been asked whether I plan to write a book about the Rigmaiden family and it may be that I will collate and edit the newsletters with updated research at some point into book form. I think that it will make an interesting read, but possibly for a limited audience so it may be best published in an electronic form with facility for printing copies out as required. In the meantime I would be grateful if readers could acknowledge this source for intellectual copyright purposes when quoting information herein.
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