Shep's Place Family Tree

The warship "Britannia" ‎(100 guns)‎ was 3rd in command under Rear- Admiral William, Earl of Northesk, at the Battle of Trafalgar ‎(from the official Trafalgar Roll)‎, under Lord Nelson, on October 21, 1805. In the list of midshipmen appears the name Christopher Wilson, no age given. Our Christopher was in the his 30th year and "middies" were usually in their teens or early twenties; however the oldest showing age in the roll was 28. By coincidence there was a Benjamin Shepherd, and there is a young man of the same name in the female line of descendants of Christopher.

He was already of the navy at the age of 33. Details supplied by the Admiralty are sketchy but he received a rise to Seniority on August 6, 1808. Next came an Admiralty Warrant of October 16, 1810 and then the Navy Warrant of November 3, 1810. His ship was H.M.S. "Echo". Christopher was invalided out from sea going service with the "Echo" on March 16, 1815 when he was about 40, the year of the Battle of Waterloo which ended the Napoleonic Wars.

Although no longer at sea he remained with the Navy, at London, in what must have been a clerical type position or in the Supply Department, until 1831, as his name appears in navy lists up to that year. He retired to Canterbury where his only child, Allen was at school.

It was erroneously believed by his grand children that Christopher held the rank of captain. He was certainly an officer but was "Purser" in the few records found. Purser was not then a commissioned rank, but neither was that of chaplain or surgeon. These three were "Warrant Officers of Wardroom rank" and so had meals as wardroom officers. Most warships had 6 lieutenants, a captain of marines, the master, surgeon, chaplain and always a purser as well as the ship's Commander. Purser and surgeon had cabins below the water line on these man-o-war ships, on the orlop deck, aft. They were both important officers; were seldom if ever young men. They were bearers of immense responsibility. After a battle the purser and chaplain often assisted the surgeon with the wounded and dying in the after cockpit near the surgeon's cabin.

The purser's cabin had to be near the ship's stores for which he was solely responsible, and it lay on the orlop or under it in the hold. He had to sleep on top of the spirit room so that any would--be thief would have to clamber over his body. Although scattered for sleep on three separate decks the wardroom officers were united for meals and daytime recreations. The dinners were decorous affairs. They sat down at a single long table, each with his boy servant standing behind him. They ate well, not of ship's rations but from mess subscriptions. There had to be wine; it was the "done thing" to have a half pint a day. This was the hallmark of gentility.

Pursers were business men. The state did not pay them a full salary direct as it did other officers and men. They were sanctioned to remunerate themselves in various ways. To become a purser a man had to put down cash of his own, much as army officers in those days purchased their commissions. He had to handle large sums of money and had considerable power to run up bills so this "caution" money was a surety against defaulting on the navy. A first rate purser paid 1200 pounds. He had to be well educated, able to cast accounts, keep books, know the current value of commodities and save on all stores and monies entrusted to him. Here lay most of his income. He was entitled to draw commission of 12 and a half percent on provisions, 5 percent on slop clothing ‎(for the seamen)‎, and 10 percent on ration tobacco from 1808 on which alone he could make as much as 165 pounds annually. These sums which seem paltry by present day standards had a much greater value then.
For the Purser, coal, oil for lanterns, candles and firewood were other sources of income. If his accounts were passed by the Victualling Board he received an annual bonus of 25 pounds .

There were of course dishonest pursers who made fortunes. The actual wage in 1814 was 83 pounds 12 shillings net yearly, on which he was obliged to pay income tax of 5 pounds and 6 pence. The title of paymaster only came about in 1840 when at last a fixed salary was paid. Many pursers were gentle folk and the position was considered an easy way to make money on the many commissions then available.

As Christopher did not leave a will so that his widow had to take out Letters of Administration and declared that the value of his estate did not exceed 100 pounds he was either an exceptionally honest purser or the widow was cleverly hiding what he had accumulated. Her existence was unknown until the writer E.M.S. tried to obtain his will in 1987. Her previous surname was not discovered. Christopher was Purser, R.N. retired, at his death at the Canterbury suburb of Wincheap and it is supposed that he was interred at the St. Mildred's burial ground, that being the parish. His daughter Elizabeth predeceased him. She lived with her Allen grandmother at Lydd until her death at 17 in 1835. The Allen grandmother died a few months later, and was also buried at All Saints Lydd, as was grandfather Allen.

There is no portrait of Mary but Mrs. Margaret Vasey, of Kew, Victoria has the miniature of Christopher, beautifully painted on ivory about the year of his marriage, 1813. He wears naval "undress" uniform with a voluminous black or dark coloured cravat below the high shirt "points" of the Regency period, and a gold anchor pinned to his white shirt front. The portrait is of head and shoulders only. E.M.S. has a photograph of it ‎[pictured]‎. His gold fob with the Wilson crest, used as a seal, is also in the possession of descendants of Oscar Wilson, grandfather of Mrs. Vasey.