White Island and La Soufriere

In the major eruption on White Island in New Zealand this week, adventurous tourists and tour operators suffered loss of life and catastrophic injuries. Their sad fate reminds us that human beings remain ever-curious about the dramatic natural forces shaping our world.

And so it was more than 200 years ago when one of my relatives died as the result of climbing an active volcano, La Soufriere, on the Caribbean island of St Vincent.

Kingstown, St Vincent,, c 1830
Picture from Shephard, Charles, Esq, An Historical Account of the Island of Saint Vincent, (W Nicol, London, 1831

My 4^th great-grandfather, James Cruikshank, a merchant then aged around twenty-five, and Sarah Young, an heiress then aged around thirty-six, married on St Vincent on 7 December 1808. The Cruikshanks operated two estates, 'Cummacrabou' Estate and 'Mesopotamia' Estate, both inherited from Sarah's father Dr George Young. It seems the estates were located some distance from La Soufriere volcano, as the owners were not compensated by the British government for financial losses sustained when the volcano erupted in 1812.

Two daughters of James and Sarah Cruikshank were born on the island: Maria Isabella in 1810 and Ellen Sarah in 1812. When Maria Isabella was only two months old she was taken by her mother to be brought up in England, where she remained for the rest of her life.

On 30 April 1812, around the time Ellen was born, La Soufriere erupted in a major volcanic event. The Times of London reported the eruption in graphic detail, including an article on 30 June that the Souffrier [sic]:

had for some time past indicated much disquietude; and from the extraordinary frequency and violence of earthquakes, which are calculated to have exceeded two hundred within the last year, portended some great movement or eruption. The apprehension, however, was not so immediate as to restrain curiosity, or to prevent repeated visits to the crater, which of late had been more numerous than at any former period, even up to Sunday last, the 26^th of April; when some Gentlemen ascended it and remained there for some time. Nothing unusual was then remarked, or any external difference observed, except rather a stronger emission of smoke from the interstices of the conical hill, at the bottom of the crater.

Young James Cruikshank must have been one of these adventurous gentlemen. According to his daughter Maria’s recollections, he died at the age of twenty-eight from a chill caught by ascending the mountain. Inhalation of poisonous gases might have been the real cause. James was buried at St George’s in Kingstown, St Vincent on 1 May 1812, the day after the eruption. The Times described this day, May Day:

the birth of May dawned like the day of judgment: a chaotic gloom enveloped the mountain, and an impenetrable haze hung over the sea, with black sluggish clouds of a sulphureous cast. The whole island was covered with favilla, cinders, scoria, and broken masses of volcanic matter. It was not until the afternoon, the muttering noise of the mountain sunk gradually into a solemn yet suspicious silence.

Six weeks after the death of James, his second child Ellen Sarah was christened. The bereaved widow Sarah kept her second baby with her and remained on St Vincent until her own death there early in 1820. She'd spent most of her almost forty-eight years in the tropics.

Aged around eight, Ellen was sent to join her older sister Maria in England. Ellen was sick when she arrived and she eventually died in England in 1830, aged eighteen. Maria, through her husband Webster Flockton, retained ownership of both the estates on St Vincent until they were sold some time in the 1830s or 1840s, by which time they had been in Maria’s family since about 1773.

No Will has ever been found for James in England or Scotland. If only his Will could be found, it might explain some of his family connections and thereby indicate where he came from. There were other Cruikshanks on the island of St Vincent in the early 1800s, including another James Cruikshank. They must have been relatives, but a connection can’t be found. Can anyone help?

NOTE: This abbreviated James Cruikshank story forms part of a much larger and more detailed collection of material I have gathered over many years about the Flockton family. A book is planned but, as I have many other works-in-progress underway, I fear that I'm running out of time to finalise it. 

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