Possibly a wild goose chase - LEADER c 1810

[David Tuson]

I am trying to find the birth of a James LEADER and his father Rev. Arthur LEADER.

James was a colourful character that I found linked to the Tuson family in Riverton in the Southland district of New Zealand. He drowned crossing a swollen river in 1851. His father is reported as the Rev.Arthur LEADER of Eastbourne, Sussex. James was briefly married to a high ranking Maori princess.

James left England sometime around 1830 (according to newspapers reports of a Captain John HOWELL) on a whaling expedition to the South Seas.

So, I do not know his age at the time of his death but have assumed he was in his 40s/50s.
I have looked at the 1841 and 1851 census for either James or his father without success. I have had a look at the Sussex OPC site again without success, so I am looking for some help and/or inspiration.

Thanks
David

[Megan Roberts]

You could try the Sussex pages of GENUKI - https://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/SSX/

This has links to Family History Societies including one that is specific to Eastbourne.

Interestingly there are no Leaders in Sussex in the 1841 Census and only 2 in 1851. neither of whom are from Sussex.

[David Tuson]

You could try the Sussex pages of GENUKI - https://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/SSX/

This has links to Family History Societies including one that is specific to Eastbourne.

Interestingly there are no Leaders in Sussex in the 1841 Census and only 2 in 1851. neither of whom are from Sussex.

Thanks Megan - I'll give GenUKI a try.

I too was surprised at the lack of Leaders in the census returns, I thought it would be a reasonably common surname.

[t@nya]

I tried familysearch and found a marriage of a James Leader to a Charlotte Dollman, 10 Jan 1824, Chichester, Sussex. A bit of a long shot, but may have worth checking out.

[t@nya]

I checked the Church of England Clergy Database and couldn't find an Arthur Leader who served in Sussex or, indeed, any Arthur Leader serving anywhere.

[Waitabit]

I went into the Sussex data base, Eastbourne was hopeless, & when I keyed in Leader I got Loder & several other offshoots, so didn't go into all of the other areas. Leader gave no positive results.

Also tried UK Clergy lists, no Arthur Leader, many others tho'.

[David Tuson]

Thanks for ALL your efforts I really appreciate them.

I followed Megan's advice and contacted the Sussex Family History Group via GENUKI. I had a very fast reply from a lady but she couldn't shed any light on this mystery either. She did provide another couple of options to follow so I'll keep chipping away at this brickwall.

What I find really surprising is that LEADER does not seem to be a common surname.

I'll share this little snippet about James with you - apparently he didn't have any teeth and the tiny settllement where he lived in Southland was named after him - Gummies Bush!

David

[pippycat]

David

You may well already have this info - not exactly what your requiring, but it is about James Leader!
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R...leader&f=false

Rebecca

[David Tuson]

David

You may well already have this info - not exactly what your requiring, but it is about James Leader!
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=R...leader&f=false

Rebecca

Hello Rebecca

I hadn't seen that, so thanks. I'll make arrangements with my local library to borrow a copy.

David

[Lesley Robertson]

The Clergy Database only covers Church of England Ministers. Does anyone know of others for the other denominations? I only know of the Fasti for the Church of Scotland.