Captain Thomas Harper White, Master -Cockle Light Ship (1871?)

Captain Thomas Harper White

Captain Thomas Harper White, born Dec 16 1812 in Plymouth Devon is my great great grandfather. I have not been able to trace any other surviving members of the family. I have considerable information from various census on the White family of Yarmouth particularly Mary Parker White his wife. My Grandmother Grace Marian White ( Wilford) lived with her at 46 Camden Road Yarmouth the time of the 1901 census. There were eleven children my great grandfather Samuel never went to sea but Thomas Harper White junior was also employed by Trinity House and another son John was a sailor. Norwich Record Office has a notebook written 1831-1875 by Thomas White. As I live in Canada I have yet to read it but this is a description "Notebook inscribed on the inside front cover: 'Thos H White his Book giving an account of what Vessels and what parts of the Globe he has been to 21 June 1831' and 'Thos. HarperWhite Born December 16th 1812'. Between 1827 and 1836 he travelled all over the world including Teneriffe, Rio de Janeiro, Cape of Good Hope, Madras, Western Isles, Petersburgh, Bermuda and Quebec. On 7 March 1836 White shipped on board the 'Vestal' Trinity Steam Yacht and was on board when St Anthony's Lighthouse at Falmouth [Cornwall] 'exhibited for the first time' on 20 April 1836 and when Start Lighthouse [near Dartmouth, Devon] first exhibited in July 1836. He was employed by Trinity House, 1836-1867, as lamplighter, acting mate, mate and master of the following light vessels: 'Swin Middle', 'St Nicholas Gat', 'Leman and Ower', 'Dudgeon' and 'Cockle'. He records the date and place these ships were built. White records family details, including: his own birth on 16 December 1812 and baptism on 3 January 1813 at St Andrew's, Plymouth, Devon; the birth of his wife Mary Ann White on 22 April 1822 and her baptism on 12 May 1822 at St Mary's Newington; their marriage on 7 May 1842; and the births and baptisms of their 11 children (the first in Limehouse and the rest in Great Yarmouth). He also refers to the death of his father (unnamed) in 1819 in Batavia [Java] and the re-marriage of his mother (unnamed) in 1831 in Havannah [Havana, Cuba]. White records the Trinity House service of 'Tom', presumably his son, also called ThomasHarperWhite, who was born at Limehouse on 23 December 1843 and was employed by Trinity House, 1867-1875. There are also aids to navigation such as a chart enabling a seaman to work out the distance from a lighthouse of known height and the bearings and distances of the principal headlands in the British Channel."