A Possible Pirate

[exiled brummie]

A several times great uncle, Abraham Slater, was born in Dalton in Furness Lancashire in 1759. Apart from his baptismal record the only other mention of him is on a family headstone that says he was drowned in 1784 when his ship the "Rollins" of Lancaster was lost. No month, location or anything.

The only reference found is on a Slater family site, and that asked the question I was hoping would be answered. Does anyone have any information about this ship?

There is a family legend that one branch of the family was involved in smuggling and piracy in the 18th century, so I wonder if he and his ship mates were up to no good when their ship was lost.https://www.british-genealogy.com/for.../confused5.gif

[susan-y]

I always love a good mystery! I did alot of searching and the only references I found to a ship "Rollin" were the one you had and information about a dinner theater in I believe California. The dinner theater is doing a production about the pirate ship "Rollin Groan's" 300th anniversary of its inaugural trip. Don't know if it is fact or Fiction, but if you google Angelica's Bistro with the ship's name you can see for yourself

Sue

[Geoffers]

You might have a browse of this TNA research guide for possible means of following up your chap (if relevant records survive).

You refer to 'his ship' - by this do you mean he was an owner, officer, or one of the crew?

If he is mentioned on a headstone - did any of the family leave wills and refer to your chap in them?

[exiled brummie]

Thanks to you all for taking interest, I shall be following up your suggestions with crossed fingers.

I have a scanned copy of Abraham's father's will, which makes for very interesting reading in parts (for reasons that are not disclosed, one of the surviving sons and his heirs and successors were specifically excluded from benefits of any kind from any of the legatees). There is no mention at all of Abraham. My 4x great grandmother was left £500, quite a tidy sum by today's values.

There is a suspicion that the ship's name Rollins could be a red herring. The headstone was erected some 40 years after Abraham vanished, and a cousin who still lives in Lancashire thinks the reference could be to a ship owned by someone called Rawlins from Lancaster, who was deeply involved in the slave trade at that period. We have though found nothing to support or demolish this thought.