Some of the following information about Thomas' seafaring activity has been extracted from the family history of the Featherstone and related families, written in March 1993 by John Featherstone and his sister Jo Denman.
Thomas Warland (1795 - 1852) was the son of Robert Warland (1761 - 1821) and Sarah Stickland (? -1821). Robert and Sarah Warland married in 1783 in St James, Poole, Dorset, England and had a number of children.
Thomas Warland went to sea at an early age. He married Mary Adams (abt. 1802 - ) on 22 July 1828 in Piddlehinton. They had the following children, during which time he returned to sea (see below):
Thomas Warland was the master of several small trading vessels of 100 to 200 tons from at least 1837. Perhaps for this reason, he does not appear to be recorded in the 1841 census for Dorset. His wife Ann and his children born before that date were, recorded in the 1841 census as follows:
Thomas Warland captained Eggardon Castle to Newfoundland (possibly with emigrants from the UK), through the Mediterranean and to northern Europe. In February 1843, the Eggardon Castle was wrecked near Bastia, Corsica, on a voyage from Leghorn to Naples with 'part of the cargo saved'.
By May 1843, Thomas Warland senior was Master of the Julia of Poole and travelled to Cadiz. This ship also travelled to Newfoundland and throughout the Mediterranean. In 1844, the ship travelled to Pernambuco in Brazil to collect guano, and to Constantinople, Kertch, in the Crimea, and Taganrog at the far end of the Sea of Azov in Russia. Possibly around this time he returned to England; his last child Philip Christopher Warland was born and died in 1845.
In 1845, Thomas Warland senior acquired his own vessel, the barque Boadicea. The Boadicea, of 427 tons, was larger than the vessels he had previously commanded, and was registered in London. He set sail for Singapore, Semarang, and Anjer in Java, and St Helena, taking 15 months for the trip. The next voyage was to Hamburg, possibly to collect emigrants for the United States, then on to New York. However, on 14 June 1847, the Boadicea went ashore at the South East of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. All crew and passengers were saved, but the ship was condemned and sold.
Thomas' last ship was the Arun, of London, a barque of 343 tons, which he owned. From February 1848 to late 1849, Thomas made a number of voyages to the Mediterranean and on to Constantinople, Taganrog and Odessa. He last voyage appears to have been in April 1850 to Valparaiso in Chile, San Francisco, back to Valparaiso and to Callao in Peru (April 1851).
Mary Warland and children appear in the 1851 census in Piddlehinton. Thomas Warland (1838/40 - abt 1881) was noted in the 1851 census as a 'Boarder Scholar' of 11 years at West Borough, Wimbourne Minster. Thomas Warland' last known address was Wimborne Road, Poole, UK.
Thomas Warland died in February 1852. His will, proved on 10 February 1852, left his assets to his wife Mary.
In 1854, Thomas Warland (born 1838/1840) was shown in the Register of Seamen as a boy in the barque Pharamond, of London. He became an ordinary seaman in that vessel, and went on to gain 3rd, 2nd and 1st mate appointments in other ships.
In 1861, Mary Warland, the widow of Thomas Warland, was noted in Wimbourne Road, Poole, head of the household and a 'proprietress of railway shares', living with three daughters in their 20's.
Thomas Warland junior appeared in the 1861 census as the 3rd mate of the South Sea, of London, in the middle of the Atlantic. In 1864/65, he was noted as First Mate or Chief Officer on the Bolton Abbey.
A year after gaining his First Mate's appointment, Thomas Warland married Mary Ann Elizabeth Ecclestone (nee Greenacre) (abt 1837 based on the 1871 census or 1843 according to the 1881 census in Yarmouth, Norfolk - 1899) on 10 June 1865 at the Bootle Chapel in Bootle, near Liverpool, UK. They had the following children:
In 1866, Thomas Warland junior gained his master's certificate and his first command, of the ship Bebbington, of 894 tons, of Liverpool. According to the ship's log, his first voyage included insubordinate and negligent crew, and also the birth and death of his first son at sea.
Thomas and Mary Warland's second child, Gertrude Warland, was born in Bootle in 1868 when Thomas was at sea.
In 1869, Mary Warland and their infant daughter Gertrude accompanied him on a long voyage to Java on the Glenduror. On the return voyage, the ship was driven ashore in a strong gale near Deal, Kent in February 1870, with the family and crew rescued.
Further voyages followed, including one on board the West Ridge, which was involved in a collision off Folkestone, UK, in 1871.
In the 1871 census, Thomas and Mary Ann Warland appear with their children Gertrude Warland (born 1868), Eleanor Warland (born 1871) located in Lancashire.
Thomas Warland's last sailing command was the Duntrune of Dundee which, as the crew agreement reveals, was taking emigrants to Australia from London in August 1876. The agreement shows a prohibition on the crew against conversing with female passengers or trespassing on their accommodation. The vessel returned from Adelaide via Calcutta and the Cape of Good Hope, to Marseilles in August 1877. At this point, the Master and the crew were discharged.
Thomas Warland was later noted as serving on the Scotland, of Newcastle, and in May 1881 as the 2nd Mate on the steamship Lamperts, of Liverpool, on which he travelled to Bombay. It seems possible that he intended to gain experience as a Mate on board steam ships, in order to get his Master's ticket in steam. At Bombay, Thomas joined the Sestos as First Mate and returned to London, arriving on 18 September 1881.
Thomas Warland appears to have settled in Hackney towards the end of his career, perhaps when he took appointments in London registered steam ships. The 1881 census shows Thomas Warland (born 1839), an unemployed master mariner, his wife Mary Warland (born 1843) and their young son Thomas Warland (born 1876 in Bootle) at 35 Aspland Grove, St John Hackney. The census also records Gertrude Warland (born 1868) and her sister Eleanor Warland (born 1871) living at Wharton Street, Bungay Holy Trinity as 'boarders' and 'scholars'.
Thomas Warland (born 1838) died in 1881.
The newspaper account of his daughter's wedding in September 1893 refers to 'the late Captain Thomas Warland of Hackney'. No death certificate or will has yet been found.
Gertrude Warland (born 1868, Bootle), the daughter of Thomas Warland and Mary Ann (nee Ecclestone), married Ernest Vickery Tull in September 1893 in St Georges Hanover Square, London, West End, UK. Ernest was, at some point, the pastrycook to Queen Victoria. They ran a patisserie or confectionary shop and tea room in Windsor, UK. Gertrude and Ernest had four children:
Eleanor Warland married Adrian Paton Hillhouse ( - 1942, Victoria (Vic BDM Ref 25051)) in 1896. Adrian's parents names, as given on his death certificate, were James Paton Hillhouse and Janet Mary Adrian. Adrian and Eleanor Hillhouse moved to Australia in the late 1920's and had three children:
Thomas Graham Warland moved to Bombay, India some time around 1900 where he worked initially as a pilot. He married Ada Florence Dwyer (died 21 October 1954) in around 1903 in Bombay, and they had two children. See this link for more information.
Gertrude Warland died on 28 December 1940 in the UK.
Eleanor Sarah Hillhouse died in Victoria in 1963 (Vic BDM Ref 23836).
Page created 2012, last updated 2 July 2022 (minor edits). Copyright © Andrew Warland. (andrewwarland(at)gmail.com)