Portraits of People
Henry Tabb - Master Mariner
(July 4, 2018) I've been engaged in a very interesting project for the past few days for a woman who is researching a portrait of Henry Tabb, a Master Mariner from Padstow. A couple of days ago she kindly sent me a photo of the portrait, courtesy of the Bridget McDonnell Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. The portrait of Henry Tabb was drawn by Jacques Emile Blanche in 1902 and is currently in the process of being catalogued for an upcoming show.
With the information provided about Henry's father and wife, I was able to find Henry's family using records on Ancestry.com. (Note that in addition to the subscription-based Ancestry service, the Ancestry Library Edition, to the best of my knowledge, is completely free of charge. The Library Edition is available "in the U.S., the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Denmark, Ireland and Norway" as cited on https://www.ancestry.com/cs/us/institution#library-edition.)
I asked other Online Parish Clerks for their input on June 30, 2018. I wrote:
I received the following helpful comments to my query, listed below with my replies:
(Note that what I wrote above is an error as the portrait is not a painting. Now that I've seen the photo of it, it appears to be a sketch done in Conté crayon and charcoal. I also erroneously attributed the acquisition of the work by the Bridget McDonnell Gallery to a museum.)
John Evans, the OPC for Creed and Probus (and the photographer who generously allowed me to post his photographs of Padstow on this website) did some research on Henry and wrote:
John Evans, the OPC for Creed and Probus (and the photographer who generously allowed me to post his photographs of Padstow on this website) did some research on Henry and wrote:
After getting a sense of where to find additional information on Henry Tabb, I have had the good fortune to correspond with two of Henry Tabb's great great granddaughters. Both women share Henry Tabb's son, Dr. John Sleeman Tabb, as their great grandfather. Jane B is descended from Dr. John Sleeman Tabb's son, Dr. Arthur (Gerrard Sleeman) Tabb, and Jane W is descended from Dr. John Sleeman Tabb's daughter, Ivy Mary Tabb.
Jane B wrote to me in response to my speculations about how the painting of Henry Tabb happened to be commissioned. I am very grateful to her for correcting my misconceptions: "I was reading some of your replies and felt I needed to say that our great grandfather [Dr. John Sleeman Tabb] became quite a wealthy Doctor, owning four houses in Padstow including what we as children used to call the ‘big house’ which I believe is now called Tabb house. Our great grandfather may well have commissioned both paintings (as he appeared to be quite wealthy, buying all the houses and sending his son, our grandfather, to private school in London, although we do not know that for certain." |
Jane B. kindly sent me a copy of an oil painting of Henry Tabb that her family owned:
Both images are shown here for comparison:
The Key to Lloyd's Register
I received some very helpful information from the Cornish Ships A-Z database at the Bartlett Maritime Research Centre and Library, National Maritime Museum Cornwall. www.nmmc.co.uk The database is only accessible at the Library, and I very much appreciate the assistance of volunteer researcher Jane Grenfell who gave the researcher from the Bridget McDonnell Gallery in Melbourne, Australia permission to share these three files with me. Jane Grenfell wrote:
"I have found some information about the ships he owned which are listed on our Cornish Ships A-Z database. They are all coasters - Millicent, Fayaway and Windsworth. There is some information on them mainly from Lloyd's Registers. I am attaching images of the output from our Cornish ships A-Z database (which is only accessible at the Bartlett). The details are also given in the book ‘Ships of North Cornwall’ by John Bartlett (ISBN 1 873951 03 5)." Jane Grenfell attached the following information from the database:
"I have found some information about the ships he owned which are listed on our Cornish Ships A-Z database. They are all coasters - Millicent, Fayaway and Windsworth. There is some information on them mainly from Lloyd's Registers. I am attaching images of the output from our Cornish ships A-Z database (which is only accessible at the Bartlett). The details are also given in the book ‘Ships of North Cornwall’ by John Bartlett (ISBN 1 873951 03 5)." Jane Grenfell attached the following information from the database:
I was delighted when John Buckingham, Padstow Museum https://www.padstowmuseum.co.uk/ sent me a photo of a painting of the Millicent. He wrote that the painting "of the smack Millicent is taken from a little book ‘A Century of Family Shipowning’ (John Cory and sons Ltd 1854 -1954). Henry Tabb was master at one time."
The Millicent
The following is the information listed for the Millicent in Lloyd's Register:
The Millicent was a "Sk" or smack (described below), with "I.B." or iron bolts. The Millicent was 52 tons by the measurement of the old Act, and 39 tons by the new Act. The build is specified as being in Padstow in 1842, however the Lloyd's Register is from 1845-1846, and the "number of years first assigned" says 12, so there is something that doesn't match there. It is a vessel of the first class, "well and sufficiently found," as noted in the last column, and was last surveyed in September 1842, if I am reading the number correctly (under the A1 classification).
The Millicent is listed as a Padstow coaster and a Newport coaster. To find where Newport was for sure I "searched on it and found the following book:
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/History/bristolrecordsociety/publications/brs15.pdf The screen capture photo below describes the Port of Bristol that Newport was a part of: |
The parents and siblings of Henry Tabb
Henry's parents were Gregory Tabb and Elizabeth French Tabb; Elizabeth's father (Henry's maternal grandfather) was a mariner too. Henry's oldest brother, Joseph, also "took to the sea" as he is listed as "Mate" on the 1861 census report.
(I was unable to ascertain what Henry's other siblings - shown to the right of this text - had done for their livelihood.) (Note: July 4, 2018, the "List of Merchant Seamen, 1835-1857" that John Evans sent to me does list a Joseph and a Gregory Tabb. If they are indeed Henry's brothers, only one brother, Richard Tabb, is unaccounted for.) William and Thomas were easy to find as they were both listed with Henry on the 1871 census record (where Henry was also listed at the home of his father-in-law, John Sleeman, listed as a grocer and ironmonger). The 1851 census below lists Henry's father, Gregory Tabb, as a tailor. ("Tabb" has been misspelled in the record as "Gabb" shown directly below this text):
|
Henry's older brother, Joseph, listed as "Mate" on the Ann Elizabeth (I couldn't correctly identify this ship in the Lloyd's Register in order to include it too):
Sailor or Mariner?
I noticed that the census records use both "sailor" and "mariner" as an occupation, and I found the following definition at https://www.familytreeforum.com/content.php/261-Maritime-History&new_comment:
The Planet and Henry's youngest brother, Thomas Bate Tabb
Thomas is recorded in the 1861 census as an O. Seaman ordinary seaman with his older brothers, Henry and William (Henry as Master and William as Mate).
An "O Seaman" is an ordinary seaman:
Ten years later, in 1881, Thomas is recorded as 27 years old, married and sailing with his wife, Bessie Tabb. Thomas is now Master of the Planet:
The Planet was a 402 ton barque built in 1811 and recorded as sailing between London and Jamaica:
I did not know much about the relationship with Jamaica and found the following summary (not very in-depth, but it gives a brief overview) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony_of_Jamaica:
http://worldartswest.org/main/location.asp?i=35
"Managing a sailing cargo ship during the last decades of the 19th century often required the master to cut the crew size in half to reduce costs, as steam ships took over the merchant trade." http://thescholarship.ecu.edu/bitstream/handle/10342/4535/Seaborn_ecu_0600O_11155.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
The above quote from SEAFARING WOMEN: An Investigation of Material Culture for Potential Archaeological Diagnostics of Women on Nineteenth-Century Sailing Ships, a Masters thesis by R. Laurel Seaborn, April, 2014, has some fascinating information about women on board ships with their husbands. The following map is from her thesis, and illustrates the route that the Planet would most likely have taken from London to Jamaica:
The above quote from SEAFARING WOMEN: An Investigation of Material Culture for Potential Archaeological Diagnostics of Women on Nineteenth-Century Sailing Ships, a Masters thesis by R. Laurel Seaborn, April, 2014, has some fascinating information about women on board ships with their husbands. The following map is from her thesis, and illustrates the route that the Planet would most likely have taken from London to Jamaica:
SEAFARING WOMEN: An Investigation of Material Culture for Potential Archaeological Diagnostics of Women on Nineteenth-Century Sailing Ships, R. Laurel Seaborn, 2014 (can be downloaded by clicking the "download file" link immediately below this text).
seaborn_ecu_0600o_11155.pdf | |
File Size: | 2096 kb |
File Type: |
Padstow
Padstow pictured below (Google map). B3276 is Church Street and Church Lane is below it. St Petroc's Church is shown on the map below and it is near where Henry Tabb and his sons lived with his brother-in-law, John Sleeman, and John's sister, Mary Ann Sleeman Ivey, a widow living on her own means, as noted in the census results.
St Petroc's Church:
I have erroneously listed the date of Henry Tabb's birth as 1831 in the following account from ancestry .com. It should read 1830-1908, consistent with the dates noted on his portrait.
Note that Port Isaac is a village in the parish of St Endellion in Cornwall.
The 1871 census reports follow (it is odd to have two, but it appears that he was both reported at home and on his ship). Henry Tabb is living with his father-in-law John Sleeman, John's sister Mary Sleeman Tippett, and John's son, also named John Sleeman, and Henry's three sons.
The 1881 census report lists Henry and his sons living with his brother-in-law, John Sleeman ("the younger" who appears to have taken over the shop from his father, John Sleeman "senior") and the sister of John Sleeman the younger, Mary Ann Sleeman Ivey.
Lanadwell Street, John Sleeman's ironmonger and grocer's shop where they lived:
This may be the one of the shops that was the ironmonger's shop (like a hardware shop):
Indeed, John Buckingham from the Padstow Museum wrote to me in July 2019, and confirmed that the white building on the left (near the middle of the screen captured photo above) is indeed the location of the ironmonger's shop:
"The Ironmongers Shop was what is now Rick Steins Pattissierie. My family had a story about Prestrige who ran it when my mother was growing up (born 1899) which involved him trying to sell a kettle with a dent in it. He said to the customer, ‘There’s no detriment to the utility of the article Madam.’ Growing up in the Grocers across the road I heard this quoted often when dented cans were found in the stock."
"The Ironmongers Shop was what is now Rick Steins Pattissierie. My family had a story about Prestrige who ran it when my mother was growing up (born 1899) which involved him trying to sell a kettle with a dent in it. He said to the customer, ‘There’s no detriment to the utility of the article Madam.’ Growing up in the Grocers across the road I heard this quoted often when dented cans were found in the stock."
Photograph, Lanadwell Street from Broad Street, Padstow. c1904-1905, by Albert Henry Yelland
"Shows Sleeman's ironmongers shop on the left and Matcham's grocers on the right; animated street scene with horse and cart; taken by A H Yelland.Negative 1/3. Reference number AD707/18; Date c1904-1905; Access status Open" https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/9192810e-23a3-4e0a-adf1-223f14936d22/
Thank you to John Buckingham, Padstow Museum, for telling me about the Yelland Collection.
"Shows Sleeman's ironmongers shop on the left and Matcham's grocers on the right; animated street scene with horse and cart; taken by A H Yelland.Negative 1/3. Reference number AD707/18; Date c1904-1905; Access status Open" https://kresenkernow.org/SOAP/detail/9192810e-23a3-4e0a-adf1-223f14936d22/
Thank you to John Buckingham, Padstow Museum, for telling me about the Yelland Collection.
John Buckingham also wrote in July 2019:
"John Sleeman Tabb (1863 – 1953), Henry’s son, became a Doctor of Medicine and retired to Padstow in his old age. He was made a Cornish Bard in 1934. His house later became the home of Tabb House Publishing who published the most valuable book on Padstow Maritime History ‘Ships of North Cornwall' by John Bartlett."
"John Sleeman Tabb (1863 – 1953), Henry’s son, became a Doctor of Medicine and retired to Padstow in his old age. He was made a Cornish Bard in 1934. His house later became the home of Tabb House Publishing who published the most valuable book on Padstow Maritime History ‘Ships of North Cornwall' by John Bartlett."
John Buckingham continued:
"The Tabb family are recorded here as owning or being masters of several vessels. The painting I mentioned was of the ‘Lizzie’ E (Edmund) Tabb Padstow. Did not see him on your list. This was painted by C. Strout, a Falmouth based Pierhead Painter."
"[The painting] of the Lizzie (E. Tabb) is privately owned."
"Henry was Master of the ‘Windsworth’ and owner of ‘Republican’. The book, ‘Ships of North Cornwall' by John Bartlett, "does not go into the relationships of the various Tabb’s although in its description of ‘Rare Plant’ ON 51346 [it notes that the 'Rare Plant' was] built in 1866 at Dartmouth [and] bought by Edmund Tabb in 1883.
" ‘On 8th Oct 1896 the Penrhyndu had to land all eight from her (including E.R. Tabb’s wife and children) when she was on passage from Manchester to Tynemouth ; that is the only mention found of a Padstow vessel trading to Manchester.’
"There is a list of Ships Insured with the Padstow Shipping Assurance Association 1856 (Samuel Allport Sec) listing ‘Millicent G and H Tabb and ‘Conservator’ Osborne and Tabb."
The painting of the Lizzie appears below:
"The Tabb family are recorded here as owning or being masters of several vessels. The painting I mentioned was of the ‘Lizzie’ E (Edmund) Tabb Padstow. Did not see him on your list. This was painted by C. Strout, a Falmouth based Pierhead Painter."
"[The painting] of the Lizzie (E. Tabb) is privately owned."
"Henry was Master of the ‘Windsworth’ and owner of ‘Republican’. The book, ‘Ships of North Cornwall' by John Bartlett, "does not go into the relationships of the various Tabb’s although in its description of ‘Rare Plant’ ON 51346 [it notes that the 'Rare Plant' was] built in 1866 at Dartmouth [and] bought by Edmund Tabb in 1883.
" ‘On 8th Oct 1896 the Penrhyndu had to land all eight from her (including E.R. Tabb’s wife and children) when she was on passage from Manchester to Tynemouth ; that is the only mention found of a Padstow vessel trading to Manchester.’
"There is a list of Ships Insured with the Padstow Shipping Assurance Association 1856 (Samuel Allport Sec) listing ‘Millicent G and H Tabb and ‘Conservator’ Osborne and Tabb."
The painting of the Lizzie appears below:
John Evans, Cornwall Online Parish Clerk, had contacted me in July 2018 after doing some additional research on Henry Tabb:
The List of Merchant Seamen, 1835-1857 is shown below:
John also suggested the following way of learning more about the Padstow mariners:
John went on to explain that the List of Merchant Seamen, 1835-1857 is on FindMyPast, while the original is in the National Archive at Kew. He noted, "I have a subscription both to Ancestry and FMP, and very often if you can't find something on one site, you can on the other. If anything, I think FMP is better for British records, and its transcriptions are often better."
I am very grateful to John Evans for all his research on this project and for acquainting me with resources that I was not aware of prior to this time. It is lovely to be a part of the remarkable resource that is the Cornwall OPC database and OPC network! I am also very grateful to the volunteer researcher from the gallery who contacted me about this fascinating project, and to the other OPCs who helped me to find out more about Henry Tabb.
John Buckingham at the Padstow Museum has been a tremendous help and has sent me numerous emails and attachments over the past year and a half. The information that Jane Grenfell at the Bartlett Maritime Research Centre and Library has shared has also been very helpful.
Henry Tabb's great great granddaughter, Jane B, has provided me with much assistance in helping me to understand more about Henry Tabb. Jane B contacted me in November of 2018, and John Buckingham put me in touch with Henry Tabb's great great granddaughter Jane W. in July 2019.
Jane B, Dr. Gerrard (Arthur) Tabb's granddaughter, shared the following story:
"You are correct the ‘big house’ is now the registered offices for a small publishing company but I believe still a family home.
"My father had been an officer in the Royal Airforce and so we travelled extensively, so Padstow was really Home for us, until my parents settled in [their home] in the 1970’s. Two of the cottages my grandfather (and great grandfather [Dr. John Sleeman Tabb]) owned were in Broad Street next to the fish and chip shop and the fourth house was further up from Broad Street and was unfortunately bombed during the war! With my two aunts and a babysitter in it at the time! There are records of the baby sitter and her ‘heroic’ act (although my mother and aunt contended that it was some builders nearby that actually got them all out and fortuitously the baby sitter had been with my two young aunts waiting at the front window for my mother and grandmother to return home as the bomb fell on the back of the house.
"After that the plot/building was sold but I am not sure if it was immediately or not. This was apparently the only bomb to have fallen on Padstow during the entire war. Consequently my grandmother decided if she could be bombed in Padstow she might as well return to London to be with my grandfather. My mother and two aunts were eventually evacuated, on their own, to the country as the blitz started, with my grandparents remaining in London, my grandfather [Dr Gerrard (Arthur) Tabb] tending to victims of the bombing. We have quite a famous photo of two women standing on the rubble of a bombed house and in the background is my grandfather, standing next to the ambulance. I will try to send you that photo as well."
She wrote again, saying, "I remembered I had found this handwritten note in my mother’s possessions. I am not sure who wrote it and some of the dates don’t coincide with your tree [the tree I put together on the Tabb family]. I am also not sure where the information came from although the marriage of Henry Tabb is recorded accurately. It does look like my Grandfather’s writing but writing styles were pretty prescriptive in those days!"
Tabb William (Farmer) of Trevisker in the Parish of St Eval Cornwall B 17-- D
Tabb Henry (Tailor) - Son of above, went to Port Isaac and married Mary Prestridge B 1776? D 18-- Tabb Gregory (Tailor) - Son of Henry, above B 1809 D 1887 Tabb Henry (Master Mariner) - Son of Gregory B 1830 D 1907 Tabb John Sleeman (Surgeon, etc) B 1863 Tabb Arthur Gerard Sleeman |
"I also believe that my sister dropped in some photographs [to the Padstow Museum], one of which showed our great grandfather (Henry’s son) leading the ‘Obby hoss’ in his Bardic robes."
John Buckingham forwarded me the photograph of "Dr. Sleeman Tabb as MC of the Blue Ribbon Oss 1950’s" shown below:
John Buckingham forwarded me the photograph of "Dr. Sleeman Tabb as MC of the Blue Ribbon Oss 1950’s" shown below:
Jane W, Henry Tabb's other great great granddaughter wrote:
"I've asked my father about Henry Tabb and found out some details.
"John Sleeman Tabb was my father's grandfather, so my great grandfather.
"His daughter, Ivy Tabb, is my father's mother and my grandmother. Sadly she died before I ever got to meet her.
"We believe Henry Tabb, a sea captain, was John Sleeman Tabb's father.
"As he was away at sea a great deal, we think John was brought up by his aunt and uncle, whose surname was Sleeman (hence the name).
"Henry Tabb owned the house at 11 Church Street, Padstow and rented it to Dr Marley.
"Dr Marley knew Charles Dickens and Dickens apparently borrowed his name for a character in A Christmas Carol.
"John Sleeman was eventually apprenticed to Dr Marley and became a doctor himself, qualifying in London.
"He eventually inherited 11 Church St."
The Padstow Kernow Players' website at https://www.padstowkernowplayers.co.uk/a-christmas-carol/ tells more about this. The following text is directly copied from their website:
"PADSTOW KERNOW PLAYERS ‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’
"Not many people know the story of Charles Dickens’ connections with Cornwall and the special significance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ for Padstow.
"On returning from a visit to Cornwall & Padstow, Dickens dined with his friend, Dr Miles Marley, in London. They agreed that Marley was an unusual name & Dickens said, “Before the New Year, your name will be a household word!” He then used the name ‘Jacob Marley’ for Scrooge’s partner in ‘A Christmas Carol’, which was finished at the beginning of December 1843 & sold 6,000 copies by Christmas Eve, a record in those days.
"Miles’ son, Dr Henry Frederick Marley, born 1831, lived at The Nook (now the Dower House) by Prideaux Place in Padstow & practised there for about 50 years. There is a plaque in St Petroc’s Church commemorating the family. Kernow Players’ late founder, Margaret Brenton put pressure on, until Pam Finlay adapted Dickens’ traditional story to highlight Cornish & particularly Padstow connections & wrote a Prologue set in the home of the Padstow Marley family. (This was in 1996).
"Dr Marley’s eight daughters are authentically named & of the ages they would have been in 1883, when the play is set. Adela married Dr Frank Harvey & died in Padstow as recently as 1973. Dickens had one of the Spirits take Scrooge to a Cornish Tinner’s cottage & to a lighthouse, which might have been Trevose.
"Fifteen years on Kernow Players are repeating this very special play, with 7 of the original company. It’s a magical story, made even more fascinating by the inclusion of a Padstow Carol; handbells; the White Rose & beautiful music all of which was in existence in 1843; some breathtaking choreography from Trish Daley & Zoe Reskelly; a dazzling array of Victorian costumes; a stunning set & some truly ghostly ghosts.
"Kernow Players give three very different & wonderful presentations of their own ‘A Christmas Carol’. An unforgettable one-off at Prideaux Place; everything to maximum effect on the Little Theatre stage, for which it was designed, & finally, in the fabulously re-furbished St Petroc’s Church."
The Dower House is pictured below:
"I've asked my father about Henry Tabb and found out some details.
"John Sleeman Tabb was my father's grandfather, so my great grandfather.
"His daughter, Ivy Tabb, is my father's mother and my grandmother. Sadly she died before I ever got to meet her.
"We believe Henry Tabb, a sea captain, was John Sleeman Tabb's father.
"As he was away at sea a great deal, we think John was brought up by his aunt and uncle, whose surname was Sleeman (hence the name).
"Henry Tabb owned the house at 11 Church Street, Padstow and rented it to Dr Marley.
"Dr Marley knew Charles Dickens and Dickens apparently borrowed his name for a character in A Christmas Carol.
"John Sleeman was eventually apprenticed to Dr Marley and became a doctor himself, qualifying in London.
"He eventually inherited 11 Church St."
The Padstow Kernow Players' website at https://www.padstowkernowplayers.co.uk/a-christmas-carol/ tells more about this. The following text is directly copied from their website:
"PADSTOW KERNOW PLAYERS ‘A CHRISTMAS CAROL’
"Not many people know the story of Charles Dickens’ connections with Cornwall and the special significance of ‘A Christmas Carol’ for Padstow.
"On returning from a visit to Cornwall & Padstow, Dickens dined with his friend, Dr Miles Marley, in London. They agreed that Marley was an unusual name & Dickens said, “Before the New Year, your name will be a household word!” He then used the name ‘Jacob Marley’ for Scrooge’s partner in ‘A Christmas Carol’, which was finished at the beginning of December 1843 & sold 6,000 copies by Christmas Eve, a record in those days.
"Miles’ son, Dr Henry Frederick Marley, born 1831, lived at The Nook (now the Dower House) by Prideaux Place in Padstow & practised there for about 50 years. There is a plaque in St Petroc’s Church commemorating the family. Kernow Players’ late founder, Margaret Brenton put pressure on, until Pam Finlay adapted Dickens’ traditional story to highlight Cornish & particularly Padstow connections & wrote a Prologue set in the home of the Padstow Marley family. (This was in 1996).
"Dr Marley’s eight daughters are authentically named & of the ages they would have been in 1883, when the play is set. Adela married Dr Frank Harvey & died in Padstow as recently as 1973. Dickens had one of the Spirits take Scrooge to a Cornish Tinner’s cottage & to a lighthouse, which might have been Trevose.
"Fifteen years on Kernow Players are repeating this very special play, with 7 of the original company. It’s a magical story, made even more fascinating by the inclusion of a Padstow Carol; handbells; the White Rose & beautiful music all of which was in existence in 1843; some breathtaking choreography from Trish Daley & Zoe Reskelly; a dazzling array of Victorian costumes; a stunning set & some truly ghostly ghosts.
"Kernow Players give three very different & wonderful presentations of their own ‘A Christmas Carol’. An unforgettable one-off at Prideaux Place; everything to maximum effect on the Little Theatre stage, for which it was designed, & finally, in the fabulously re-furbished St Petroc’s Church."
The Dower House is pictured below:
https://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/56494278
The Padstow Museum is a treausure trove of information about Padstow www.padstowmuseum.co.uk/ and I would urge anyone interested in learning more about Padstow to visit it in person or online, depending on where you live in the world. I have also added five photo galleries of photos of Padstow that John Evans took in the section of photographs by John Evans. I very much appreciate his taking the time this past summer to go to Padstow for me to take photographs for this site, thank you!
(site updated December 30, 2020)
(site updated December 30, 2020)