Did uncle of Grace Martin Wills (or perhaps of Matthew Nettell) own the Gosforth?

Question

Quite a detailed story of the arrival of my 2nd great grandparents Matthew Nettell and Grace Martin Wills in South Australia came down to me via my late mother.

The story, as I recall it, says:

Both were only children who eloped to marry in Australia, causing their parents to disown them. They were aided in their passage by Grace's uncle who owned a ship called the Gosforth which carried them to Port Adelaide where they were married two days later on Christmas Day 1865.

It's a nice story, with elements of truth, but after failing to find any evidence of their marriage in South Australia, I obtained their marriage certificate showing that they married before leaving England on 23 Sep 1865 at Redruth, Cornwall. Grace gave her age as 17 (I think it was just over 16 and half), and Matthew gave his as 19.

The marriage seems to have been witnessed by Grace's brother George Wills and her new sister-in-law Eliza Ann Wills (see Finding identity of Eliza Ann Wills who witnessed marriage of Grace Martin Wills and Matthew Nettell in 1865 at Redruth, Cornwall?).

In any event, at least one member of the Wills family seems to have been part of the marriage ceremony which to my mind means it was not an elopement.

Matthew was the 6th of 9 children to Edward Nettell and Maria Hocking, and Grace was one of 11 children to George Wills and Frances Angove, so both were far from only children.

Matthew and Grace Nettell are listed amongst the passengers who arrived in Port Adelaide on the Gosforth on 23 Dec 1865 so that part is confirmed!

To confirm or refute whether an uncle (of either Grace or Matthew) owned the Gosforth, I am keen to find out who did own the Gosforth at the time of this voyage in 1865.

There is considerable information about this voyage of the Gosforth at the TheShipsList but it does not include the owner.

Is there another likely record source that I could use to find who it was?

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I'll try to add here what I know of the occupations for any of the uncles, but Ancestry is down at the moment. My recollection is that the occupations I know of are not in the vicinity of ship owning.

Answer 1

I usually start with the Crew List Index Project. That site has various finding aids, including one to list ships by name. Entering "Gosforth" as the ship's name (without the quotes but I'm sure you knew that) gives several ships but fortunately the Ship's List link in the question gives us a date and tonnage - the latter matches exactly the ship with Official Number 15983.

There are several lines for this ship (built 1856, registered Newcastle, 810t sailing ship) but the important one is the Mercantile Navy List of 1870. This gives the owner as George Luckley of 3 Exchange Buildings, Newcastle (that'll be Newcastle-on-Tyne, England). He is, according to the page, either the sole registered owner or the Managing Owner if there is more than one owner. Unfortunately, I can't see any way to tell which he is.

Copies of Lloyd's Register are also available online. Choosing the 1865 entry this time, we get into Google Books and searching inside the book for "Gosforth", we find the owners listed as "Smith & Co." - so assuming there has been no change between 1865 and 1870, it looks like "Smith & Co." are the owners, with George Luckley being their named representative.

Answer 2

I would like to confirm that Eliza Davey Wills (who you mention in the question), Richard her brother and his wife Louisa came to NZ in 1863 aboard the Accrington. They arrived in Lyttelton 5 Sept 1863. Eliza married Melchesideck Taylor 29 November 1864 at Trinity Church, Lyttelton. They are my GG Grandparents.

From Eliza's marriage date and location it seems unlikely that she was a witness to Grace's marriage.

Edith Ann another of Grace's sisters could have been the witness to the wedding of Grace and Matthew.

I am not aware of an uncle to Eliza, Grace and Richard owning a ship.