A part two following my previous post (ok, it was 3 years ago …) about the family of my 5 x great-uncle, focusing on his son Benjamin Murray. That one was a lickety-split tour from East Lulworth and the Jurassic Coast of Dorset up to Stockton and Hartlepool, focusing on his business practices (some good, some not so good!).

This post is to look at a few of his descendants ….

I knew early on that Benjamin was married to a lady named Mary. Her place of birth in the census returns was somewhat scattered. The 1851 census gives it as Wareham, Dorset; in 1861 it is “Exbining”, Hampshire, and in 1871 it is Exbury, Hampshire. The birth certificate of Benjamin and Mary’s daughter, Emily Georgiana, gives the mother’s maiden name as Merrington, but I can find no corresponding baptism in the Dorset records, nor in the Hampshire records.

However, knowing her maiden name enabled a more targeted search for Benjamin and Mary’s marriage, and it enabled me to track it down to London (St George, Hanover Square – the parish church for Mayfair):

Their first child, Herbert Benjamin Murray, was baptised in the same church on 19 July 1837, having been born 3 weeks prior on 26 June. Benjamin and Mary were living on Green Street, and Benjamin is listed as a “Lodging House Keeper”. The family obviously soon moved north as they are already in Stockton by 1841. Their second child, a daughter named Emily Georgiana, joined the family on 07 Novermber 1842.

Herbert isn’t living at home in 1861 – and currently I can’t find his whereabouts – but he turns up a few years later as a civil engineer marrying Caroline Moffitt in Whickham, Co. Durham. Presumably in 1861 he is in education or training – or perhaps abroad.

Herbert and Carline then move down to London, where their first child, Herbert Maurice Murray, is born and unfortunately dies aged just 5 days. The first surpise was finding the birth registration for their next child, Emily Caroline. She was baptised in the Lutheran church of “Czernowitz” in Germany in 1869. No, I’d never heard of it either. Turns out that nowadays it is (rightly) part of Ukraine and known as Chernivtsi. It is located in the south west of the country, close to the border with both Moldova and Romania. The church was built in 1849 by Lutheran Protestant community, ethnically mostly Germans who had moved there after the annexation by Austria in 1775. By the time of WWI, there were around 5000 German Lutherans living in the area.

What was Herbert doing there? The birth entry for Emily – and her sister, Edith Mary – gives his occupation as Engineer. Chernivtsi had long been the state capital of the region and had gradually been improved as had been required. In 1860 the first savings bank in the region was opened, and in 1864 a housing complex was built for the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Bukovina. (This later became the site of the National University, and in 2011 the central building was entered into the World Heritage List.) In 1865-6, a train station was built and the city was connected to the Austrain Imperial Railway network. Throughout the 1870s, a huge public building spree continued with many schools, houses, shops, state buildings and more appearing, along with imporoved roads and water sup(although the first water pipeline wouldn’t arrive until 1895). It was not uncommon in the 19th century for British engineers to travel to Europe as there was a massive demand for industrialisation works.

The family were still in Ukraine in February 1871 when Edith Mary died, but didn’t stay much longer. Their next child, Herbert Charles, was born in May 1873 in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. The bad luck that had seen them bury two children already continued and whilst working abroad in Brazil, Herbert died in November 1874. Caroline must have packed up her life in Canada pretty damn quickly and moved herself and the two children back to England. In February 1875, she gave birth to her last child, Ethel Marr Clara, in Jesmond, Northumberland. Unfortunately Caroline was struck once again by fate and Ethel died a week before Christmas in 1876, aged 22 months.

As with his work in Ukraine, I don’t know what exactly took him to Brazil, but he is reported as dying in the state of Ceará. Much like in Europe, much of South America was also being indistrialised and upgraded during the last few decades of the 19th century. In Ceará, the city of Fortaleza was upgrading its docks (a complicated story as there were many attempts over the years) as the area was growing its cotton exports following the American Civil War (also a complicated story) so it may have been connected to that enterprise, or to the large amount of investment Britain put into the South American railway industry which began in the 1850s. (Also a complicated economic story due to Brazil’s independance from Portugal and being in debt to Britain and Britain’s constant scramble for ever more resources and ways to extract wealth from other territories.)

Emiy went on to marry and have children, dying in South Africa aged 70. Her brother, Herbert Charles married, had a career as a commercial clerk and died aged 67 in Lewisham.

Benjamin and Mary’s other child, Emily Georgiana, married twice: once to a Master Mariner named William Sabiston, who died in 1895, and then to the Superintendent of Pilots at Gravesend, Kent named Arthur Ronaldson. The pilots in question refer to river pilots (i.e. they would board and pilot ships into port) – more information can be found at this article. The Superintendant at Gravesend was also known as Ruler of Pilots – which is how Arthur is enumerated in the 1901 census. (Which caused me some confusion until I realised it was an actual job related to harbour piloting and was not some kind of “King of the skies” thing …)

Arthur died in 1910, and Emily in 1931, by which time she had moved back to London and was living in South Hampstead.

Interestingly, Herbert Charles’ son, Philip Moffit Murray, has his death registered in Dorset in 1969. Had he moved down to the coast following the death of his wife, Gladys, or was he just visiting? Was he aware that his great-grandfather, Benjamin, had been from Dorset?

Philip had no sons and so was the last born Murray of Benjamin’s line, although it continues through the various female lines.