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Jonathan Birch, miniature portrait

Jonathan Birch (1771/2–1848) was a ship captain for the British East India Company. He became a close friend of the actor William Charles Macready, whose diary is a major source for Birch's background and life.

Naval career

Birch was an East India Company ship captain, making a number of voyages; a report of 1837 gave his age as 65, the senior surviving captain. [1] He captained the Britannia, lost off Brazil in 1805. [2] He then captained its successor of the same name, Britannia. [3]

Wrecks of the Britannia, and Admiral Gardner, East Indiamen, on the Goodwin Sands, 24 Jan 1809

Birch's second command Britannia ended in a wrecking on the Goodwin Sands off the South Foreland on 24 January 1809, in company with the Admiral Gardner and the brig Apollo. [4] [5] He then took the Cabalva on an 1813/4 voyage to Bombay and China. [6]

On land

Birch in retirement from the sea resided in Gower Street, London, and at Pudlicote House, near Shorthampton in Oxfordshire, built in 1810, which he purchased in 1822. [7] [8] [9]

Pudlicote House, 2009 photograph

Birch was on the committee of The Marine Society. [10]

Relationship with Macready and family background

The Rev. Thomas Birch was rector of South Thoresby, which is not far to the west of Alford; he was a brother of the surgeon Charles Birch, maternal grandfather of William Charles Macready the actor. [11] Jonathan Birch was his son. [12] Birch was a therefore a relation of Macready on the latter's mother's side. [13]

Macready while he was on tour in New York, and hearing of Jonathan Birch's death, called him "my dear friend and relative". [14] His mother was Christina Ann Birch, granddaughter of the Rev. Jonathan Birch of Bakewell (1685–1735); his housemaster at Rugby School was a cousin (once removed) William Birch, son of the Rev. Thomas Birch of Alford, Lincolnshire, a son of Jonathan Birch of Bakewell. [15] [16] [17] [18]

Death

Jonathan Birch died in 1848, at age 76, at Alford. [7]

Family

Birch, described as of St Pancras, London, married Mary Elizabeth Morrice (died 1822), daughter of William Morice. [7] [19] They had a son, William John Birch, known as a writer. [20] A brother and two sisters of William John died young. [21] The eldest daughter, Elizabeth Mary Morice Birch, died in 1831 at age 23. [22]

After Birch's death, his brother George brought a case on the interpretation of his will of 1845 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. [23]

Notes

  1. ^ Report from the select committee on East India maritime officers: Appendix and index. 1837. p. 68.
  2. ^ Hardy, Charles (1811). A Register of Ships, Employed in the Service of the Honorable the United East India Company, from the Year 1760 to 1810: With an Appendix, Containing a Variety of Particulars, and Useful Information Interesting to Those Concerned with East India Commerce. Black, Parry, and Kingsbury. p. 249.
  3. ^ "Philip Mould, Historical Portraits". www.historicalportraits.com.
  4. ^ Interesting Particulars of the Loss of the Admiral Gardner & Britannia ... and of the Apollo ... wrecked on the Goodwins, Jan. 24, 1809 ... Also the loss of the Russian ship St. Peter, etc. London: Thomas Tegg. 1809. p. 7.
  5. ^ Cotton, Sir Evan (1949). East Indiamen: The East India Company's Maritime Service. Batchworth Press. p. 137.
  6. ^ "CABALVA". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  7. ^ a b c Howard, Joseph Jackson, ed. (1884). Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica. Vol. 4. Hamilton, Adams, and Company. p. 126.
  8. ^ History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the County of Oxford. R. Gardner. 1852. p. 838.
  9. ^ White, Edward Gillam (1844). The register of electors to vote in the choice of ... members to serve in parliament for the county of Oxford. (Banbury division). p. 149.
  10. ^ Marine Society (London, England) (1831). General State of the Marine Society ... to the 31st December, 1830. p. 22.
  11. ^ Macready, William Charles; Toynbee, William (1912). The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833-1851. Vol. 2. New York Putnam. p. 332 note 2.
  12. ^ The Birch Family History: Descendants of Rev. Jonathan Birch, Vicar of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England and His Sons : Rev. John Neville Birch of Leasingham, Lincolnshire : Dr. Charles Birch of St. Kitts, British West Indies : Rev. Thomas Birch of Thoresby, Lincolnshire. Genealogy Pub. Service. 1998. p. 323.
  13. ^ Macready, William Charles; Toynbee, William (1912). The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833-1851. Vol. 2. New York Putnam. p. 271 note.
  14. ^ Macready, William Charles (1875). Macready's Reminiscences. Harper. p. 581.
  15. ^ Foulkes, Richard. "Macready, William Charles". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/17741. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  16. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Birch, William" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  17. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Birch, Thomas (1)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  18. ^ Rugby School register: with annotations and alphabetical index. Rugby : A.J. Lawrence. 1881. pp. xiii and 89.
  19. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Morice, William (1)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  20. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Birch, William John" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  21. ^ "St. Pancras Church, British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  22. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine. E. Cave. 1831. p. 187.
  23. ^ Thornton, Thomas (1849). Notes of Cases in the Ecclesiastical & Maritime Courts. Vol. VI. Professional Books. p. 581.
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