The Spirit of the Yealm
CHAPTER 4.4 COASTGUARDS & CUSTOMS”.
Readers of the “Spirit of the Yealm” may recall that in the Chapter on Coastguards and Customs, there is a report, gleaned from the pages of the Royal Cornwall Gazette dated 8 December 1837, about the discovery of a large consignment of smuggled spirit by Lt. John Somerville RN.
Perhaps Lt Somerville’s enthusiasm for his job was fired by an earlier involvement with the locals. He was aged 44 and a widower, based at the Yealm Coastguard Station when he married Mary Fowler, age 21, at Wembury Church on Saturday 18 Feb 1837. The following day on Sunday 19 Feb 1837 he and Mary had three sons baptised at Revelstoke Church at Stoke. The years of birth of the sons was given as 1833, 1835 and 1836. In some way the Curate of Revelstoke, Robert Fortesque, learnt of the marriage and became so concerned that a month later in the presence of the Church Wardens ( Robert Anthony and Thomas Kerswill), he made the following entry in the Parish Register:
“Since making the entries Nos 158, 159, 160, I learned that Lt Somerville was married only the day previous at Wembury. If therefore, as I suppose the children were the offspring of his present wife, not being born in wedlock, they ought to have been registered as the sons of Mary Fowler. I applied in vain today for certain information.
Dated this day 17 March 1837. Robert H Fortesque, Curate”
This matter was of some concern to the Curate as over two years later he made another addition to the Register:
“At the time of making the entries 158, 159,160, Lieut Somerville received from me one certified copy of them,
which on discovering that the entries were probably erroneous, I forthwith endeavoured to recover, but failed in doing so until May 6th 1839, when they were returned to me and at the request of Lieut. Somerville I destroyed them in the presence of him and my brother Mr J F Fortesque Solre (Solicitor) of Plymouth, at the same time Lieut S stated, in reply to a question from me, that copies of the certificates were still in existence. Witness my hand this 16th day of May 1839. Robert H Fortesque”
Although we do not know how the Curate was tipped off about the marriage we can surmise that the less than great esteem that the coastguards were held in may have something to do with it.
John Somerville never progressed further in the RN or Coastguard and he returned to live in Devonport where he was born, with his now four sons and wife Mary. His marriage continued until his death there in 1841.
Robin Forrester