Grinage pensioner??

[grace bc]

Hi
On the 1851 census for JOHN SHORE - head aged 74, living in High St., Long M- elford Suffolk it has his occpation asfar as I can make out as a "grinage" pensioner - i'm not sure if it's a poor copy/bad handwriting/spelling or a type of pensioner I've never heard of. Anyone any ideas as to what he was?
regards Grace

[Terry]

Greenwich pensioner perhaps, phonetically its "grenitch"

[Peter Goodey]

As Terry has pointed out, "grinage" is a reasonable phonetic stab at Greenwich. Greenwich pensioners were navy pensioners (the paying authority being the Royal Greenwich Hospital).

It opens up another avenue of research. See, for starters,

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/RdLeaflet.asp?sLeafletID=41

[grace bc]

Thanks very much to both for the Greenwich pensioner idea - i've looked on the nat. archives but it turned up 4 mentions of the name (John Shaw) on the ADM records with different original page nos. but none with an age/ birth date but 3 have possible service dates. All three record dates are the same. Are these for the same man and where do I go from here?

Although John is a side interest on my tree (one of my rellies lived with him and his wife) I'm intrigued to know how these archives can help.
Thanks for any info, grace

[Elly]

Although John is a side interest on my tree (one of my rellies lived with him and his wife) I'm intrigued to know how these archives can help.
The certificates of service in ADM 29 were prepared to support a man's application for a Greenwich pension, but there are many hundreds of Greenwich out-pensioners for whom no ADM 29 certificate survives. So your man may be one or more of those showing in the online catalogue, or none of them.

The Greenwich records held at Kew are voluminous and complex, and you would need to go in person (probably several visits) or engage a researcher. The certificates in ADM 29 are only a starting-point. They give the names of ships and dates of service that qualified each man for a pension. From there you may be able to track each man in the ship's musters and paybooks. These give further information about his place and date of birth which may enable you to identify one of these men as yours and eliminate the others. From the same sources you can then attempt to construct his naval career.

It's an extensive task. Since you say this man is a sideline in your tree I don't imagine you will want to pursue it, but if you do you are welcome to send me a private message.

Elly

[grace bc]

Thanks very much for the info elly but as it looks a complicated task and he's not related at all I think keep him as a greenwich pensioner and leave it at that!
Thanks again, Grace