Mutiny on the Bounty - A Genealogical Mystery

A tantalising mystery which has puzzled historians for more than 230 years concerns the identity of Edward (Ned) Young, c 1764-1800, of 'Mutiny on the Bounty' fame. I believe my DNA links to the Young family of the island of St Vincent in the Caribbean might provide some long sought answers. 

Let me begin in 1720, probably in Antigua, when the widow Margaret Nanton (née Dearman?) married Dr William Young, the Jacobite exile from Scotland. Dr William’s elder son Sir William Young, Baronet, 1725-1788, mentions Margaret Nanton as his sister in his Will of 21 May 1784 but she is deceased by 6 April 1788 when Sir William adds a codicil to his Will. I think Margaret would have been his half-sister, born before 1720 to his mother Margaret and her first husband George Nanton, who is said to have died in Antigua in 1719.

The Margaret who died in the 1780s appears to have had brothers John Dearman Nanton and Henry Nanton but, while baptism records for all three persons have not been located, I share a DNA link with a descendant of Henry Nanton.

Sir William Young had a younger brother, this being my direct forebear Dr George Young c 1726-1803, with whom I share well-documented family links and DNA links. An army surgeon who was keenly interested in botany, in 1765 he was the founding curator of the St Vincent Botanic Garden. See https://flocktonfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/2013/01/dr-george-young-c-1726-1803.html for a short version of his story. Botany remained an interest in Dr George Young's family, as his granddaughter subsequently raised her own granddaughter (the scientific botanical artist Margaret Flockton) on tales of life in St Vincent. 

Photo by David Pyle, Jan 2014, from his article on https://blogs.egu.eu/network/volcanicdegassing/2014/01/17/the-botanic-gardens-of-st-vincent-and-the-grenadines/

The Hon. George Young was a member of the Council of St Vincent during the years 1779-1781 and beyond, this man being a doctor. He remained living on St Vincent and was presumably the same Council member of that name who witnessed a codicil added to Sir William’s Will on 6 Apr 1788, a few days before Sir William died on St Vincent.

Dr George Young of St Vincent OR Sir William Young was also likely to be the father of Edward (Ned) Young of ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ fame, because I also share DNA links with three of Ned’s descendants.

I’ve tentatively listed Ned on Ancestry as a son of Dr George, because so far I haven’t discovered any DNA links to the children of Sir William, but that might be because I haven’t tried hard enough, or because they have not tested on Ancestry. Both brothers were living and travelling in the Caribbean around the time of Ned's birth.

Different theories abound for Ned’s origins. Some say Ned Young was born on Saint Kitts, apparently from a poor family although he did attend school. An 1825 Royal Navy biography reports that he was the nephew of Sir George Young, Baronet and joined the Bounty as a midshipman - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complement_of_HMS_Bounty. The Bounty Museum on Norfolk Island says he was the nephew of Sir George Young and was probably a mulatto. Some say he was the son of Admiral Sir George Young and Polly, see https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Young. Certainly Ned gave the name Polly to his daughter with Toofaiti but I can’t establish any family or DNA links to the family of Admiral Sir George Young, emanating from Dorset. Captain William Bligh of Bounty fame says only in his journal that Ned Young joined the navy on the recommendation of Admiral Young, a man who would have known both Sir William and Dr George Young, either by reputation or personally.

My theory that Margaret (née Dearman?) is the common link between Sir William and Dr George and, via one of them, to Ned Young gets around these confusing difficulties. There WAS likely a George Young in Ned’s background, and a Young who was a Baronet, but the identities of these men have been scrambled over time. By adding my theory to this blogspot, I'm hoping that more descendants of Sir William Young will undergo DNA tests, or that someone with ready access to other documentary records relating to the West Indies might find the details to link these people in the way I've suggested.

P.S. You can contact Louise Wilson on Instagram

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. 

P.S. Louise Wilson, Author also posts occasionally on Instagram.