Timothy STEWARD [12425]

  General Notes:

Timothy Stewart Esq.,was a merchant and shipowner. He possessed some of the fastest vessels belonging to the port, they were much in request before the introduction of steam to take cargoes of herrings to the Mediterranean and bring back fruit. They were both buried in Blundeston Church. There is a portrait of Mr. Steward, when a young man, by Sir William Beechy. There is also a portrait of him by Davis. (ref: Palmers Perlustration)

Images courtesy M Lynn/Ian Lonsdale

  Research Notes:

THE PERLUSTRATION OF GREAT YARMOUTH, vol 2, pp 152 to 157
Row No. 96, from South Quay to Middlegate Street, anciently called Wildgres' North Row and afterwards Fuller's North Row; also Old Meeting House South Row. . . . .
. . . . . the old house was burnt to the ground; and in 1800 the site purchased by Timothy Steward Esq., who erected on part thereof the house (No. 17) which he afterwards sold to the Rev. B. W. Salmon, and on the remaining part he built in 1811 a house (No. 16) for his own abode, and in which he resided until his death in 1836, aged 74.
There are numerous and distinct families of the name of STEWARD, which is derived from the office so called. During the middle ages religious houses, nobles, lords of manors, and corporations, all had stewards to manage their affairs. The Stewards of Scotland were named from the office which they held under the crown until they attained, to regal power themselves; (note 1) when the name became changed to Stewart, and finally to Stuart.
The name of Steward is not found in our local records until 1642, when a Mr. Steward contributed two silver tankards and a considerable quantity of plate to be coined into money for the use of the Parliament; but there is no reason to suppose that he was connected with the family now under consideration.
The mother of Oliver Cromwell was a Steward; descended, it is asserted, from Sir John Steward, who accompanied Prince James of Scotland into England circa 1402. A branch of this family settled at Wells- next-the-sea. Robert Steward, who was born there, was Prior of Ely in 1522, and was one of the few divines who had the courage to uphold the legality of the marriage of Henry VIII. with Catherine of Arragon. He surrendered his convent in 1539, and became the first Dean of Ely. He always asserted that his ancestors came from Scotland to England temp. Henry IV., and that after performing marvellous deeds in France, finally settled at Upwell in Norfolk; but it seems that a family of this name had resided in that locality as far back as the reign of Richard II. Nicholas Steward of Wells descended, according to Noble, from the above-named Sir John Steward, died there circa 1520.
From him descended, it is said, Timothy Steward of Wells, who was born there in 1696, and came to Yarmouth, where he married Hannah, only child of Christopher Harbord (as mentioned in vol i., p. 248), and with her acquired some property in the town; and became the founder of a family who attained to considerable wealth and importance. He died in 1769, aged 73, leaving a son, Timothy Steward, to whom his uncle, Tobias Harbord, left a ship called the Two Brothers. This Timothy Steward commanded a private vessel of war called the Dreadnought, with which, in 1781, he captured a Swedish vessel named the Sophia, on her passage from Stockholm to Bordeaux, and brought her into Yarmouth where she was condemned as a lawful prize. This gave rise to a suit in the High Court of Admiralty, which was decided in favor of Capt. Steward. He died in 1793, aged 60. By Mary his wife, daughter of Ambrose Palmer, who died in 1829, aged 89, he had three surviving sons - William, Timothy, and Ambrose Harbord.
Of the eldest we shall have occasion to speak presently; the youngest has already been noticed. Timothy Steward, Esq., the second son, who built and resided in the above-mentioned house, was a merchant and shipowner. He possessed some of the fastest vessels belonging to the port, when they were much in request before the introduction of steam, to take cargoes of herrings to the Mediterranean and bring back fruit. (note 2) He married Mary, daughter of John Fowler, Esq. (ante. p. 119.) (sister of Thomas Fowler, Esq., of Gunton Hall), who died in 1837, aged 74. They were both buried in Blundeston Church. There is a portrait of Mr. Steward, when a young man, by Sir William Beechy. There is also a portrait of him by Davis. [Timothy and Mary were also the parents of Arthur]
Timothy Steward, the eldest son of the above marriage, was, when a youth, a Lieutenant in the Yarmouth Yeomanry Cavalry. He became a principal partner in the brewery firm of Steward, Patteson, and. Co., and resided for many years at Heigham Lodge, near Norwich, where he died in 1858, aged 63. He filled the office of Sheriff of Norwich in 1856.
Charles Steward, the third son, commanded an East Indiaman before the highly lucrative trade of the company was thrown open. He resided for many years at Blundeston house; (note 3) was an active magistrate for Suffolk, and died at the Rectory of his only child, the Rev. C. J. Steward, at Somerleyton in 1870, aged 72, where also died Harriet his widow (daughter of A. H. Steward, Esq.) in 1872, aged 71.
George, the youngest son, was educated at the Grammar School at Norwich, then ably conducted by Dr. Valpy, where he formed an acquaintance which powerfully influenced his future career. Evincing an early predilection for the sea, he was placed in the mercantile navy of the East India Company, one of the private ships in which service was commanded by his brother,. Capt. Charles Steward, and another by his cousin, Capt. Robert Fowler, but before he became eligible for a similar command, this huge monopoly was broken up. Finding no field for enterprise at home he, in 1843, joined a brother officer, Mr. Henry Wise, in fitting out a vessel; and proceeding in her to Sarawak, was cordially received by an old school fellow, James Brooks, who was then exercising supreme power there as Rajah. The Bornean Seas at that time swarmed with pirates and a determination was taken to put them down by force. For this purpose Rajah Brooke applied for assistance from H.M.S. Dido,. then commanded by a Norfolk mat, Sir Harry Keppel, and a boat expedition was decided on, in which Steward joined as a volunteer, and commanded a party of friendly Malays and Dyaks. After attacking some strong forts at the entrance of the river, the boats proceeded for twenty miles up the country destroying the strongholds of the pirates on both sides as they went along. On the following morning, Steward obtained permission to go ahead with the light native boats, but with an injunction to proceed cautiously and to fall back on the appearance of an enemy. In about a quarter of an hour the war yells of the pirates were heard, mingled with the report of fire-arms. Keppel immediately pushed forward, and soon found that the foremost boat, commanded by Steward, had been too daring, for she had been attacked by an overwhelming force consisting of six large war-boats, each containing from fifty to sixty men. When last seen, says Brooke (who was present with the British force), Steward was endeavouring to board the enemy, but his own boat sunk under him, and every soul on board, sixteen in number, perished. As soon as the Dido's boats could get up, the pirates were attacked and ultimately defeated with great loss. The boats then went farther up the river, and completely destroyed the town aid capital of Karaugau. At the time of the above fatal occurrence, Mr George Steward was in his thirty-ninth year and unmarried. There is a mural tablet to his memory in Blundeston Church. (note 4) Amelia, the younger of the two daughters of Timothy Steward, Esq., married John Hector Munro, Esq, of Walsham-le-Willows, Suffolk, and died leaving an only daughter, who married Frederick Arden, Esq., of the 12th Lancers, eldest son of Joseph Arden, Esq., of Rickmanworth Park, Herts. A hatchment with the arms of Steward, as granted to the Yarmouth family by Sir Isaac Heard, Garter, hangs in the Parish Church. [see opposite and footnote 1]

Footnotes:
(1) Families of this name still hear for their arms a fesse cheque, in allusion to the chequered board anciently used by accountants. The arms confirmed to the Yarmouth family by authority are quarterly or and arp, on a fesse sa., three fleur-de-lis of the first; in the first and fourth quarters a fesse cheque of the second and third; and in the second and third quarters a lion ramp. gu., debruised by a bend raguly or; and for a crest, on a mount vert. within a crown vallery or., a lion ramp. gu.

(2) The following anecdotes testify to the bravery of Yarmouth men in the merchant service. In 1800 Mr. Steward had a ship called the Lord Petre, Hezekiah Martin, commander, which, on a voyage from Mogadore to London, was captured by two Spanish privateers and carried into Camarino, a port near Cape Finisterre;
"not without a good deal of bloodshed," says the captain in a letter to his owner, "for I had two men killed and three wounded. When they first boarded we cleared the deck of every man, some going overboard; and the second time they came up we did the same again. We still steered our course, but after four hours constant firing I was obliged to give up the vessel. I am wounded myself through the thigh. Captain McFarlane, whom I had on board as a passenger with his wife was killed. They lost their vessel at Mogadore, and I gave them a passage. My mate was killed, and I have another man that I am afraid will not live as he has got two balls in his head. When we landed in the place, the cries of the people were shocking to see our situation. Our vessel was nothing but blood all over. I should not have given the ship up had not two privateers come down upon us when I was wounded by swivel shot through my thigh, and two men lay dead on the deck, and two more wounded out of eight in all."
Capt. Martin had a narrow escape, for besides the serious wound he mentions, a ball passed quite through his hat. He was of an old Yarmouth family and died at Southtown in 1828, aged 60.
Mr Steward had another vessel called the Eve, which in 1804 was captured by a French privateer. All the crew were taken out except the mate, named Piggin, and a boy; and six Frenchmen and three Americans were put on board the prize. When half way to Holland, Piggin proposed to one of the Americans to seize the ship and take her back to Yarmouth, to which he assented, and when the rest of the crew were below and Piggin at dinner with the prize master, this man put down and locked the hatch; upon hearing which Piggin rose from the table, seized the prize master, and told him be was a prisoner. Th latter snatched up a pistol and snapped it at Piggin, but it missed fire, and the man surrendered; and then Piggin -with the assistance of the American, brought this ship, into Yarmouth with their prisoners in her hold.
An almost simi1ar instance occurred in the case of the Rapid, one of Mr. Steward's fast ships. On the same day be heard that she had. been captured by the French, and that she had arrived safe at Malta. Subsequent letters explained the mystery. She had been captued in the Mediterranean, and her captain (Miller), a lady passenger, and all her crew, except the mate, were taken out of her and sent to Marseilles. A prize-master and crew were put on board the Rapid, her mate, a young man named Jex, being left to assist in navigating her Among the prize-crew were a Dane and a Hamburgher neither of whom, as Jex discovered, had much liking for the French service; and with them he planned a rescue. One day Jex, watching his opportunity, felled the prize-master to the deck with a handspike, his confederates seized the man at the wheel, and the rest of the crew being below were secured by fastening the hatches. The Rapid was then taken into Malta, and delivered up to the British authorities. Jex, on his return to Yarmouth, was made master of another vessel built by Mr. Steward, but he lived a few years only.

(3) The beauties of this charming spot have already been mentioned (see vol. i, p. 170). The lordship of Blundeston and the advowson, were at one time the property of the Patons, from whom they passed to the Sydnors, and from them to the Allens and Anguishes of Somerleyton, and were never severed until their sale by Lord Sydney Godolphin Osborne. The present rector is the Rev. Robert Woolmer Gory, third son of Robert Cory, Jun., Esq. see ante p. 33, where it is stated that the widow of Dr. Cory, the second son, married Thomas Woodthorpe. This is an error. Mrs. Cory married William Woodthorpe, Esq., of Clarlton Colville, where the family have held am estate for nearly two centuries. The site of Blundeston house was in 1627 the property of Sir Butts Bacon, Bart., seventh son of Sir Nicholas Bacon of Redgrave, Bart., who was the direct ancestor of the present representative of that ancient family. The late Mr. Charles Steward made very extensive collections towards an illustrated history of the hundred of Lothingland; and also possessed a valuable ornithological museum.

(4) Steward fell in a truly-glorious cause. "A visitor to Sarawak," says a recent traveller "who knew its former state, may well be struck with its flourishing condition, and with the aspect of peace, plenty, and security, which now pervades a place so short a time back a prey to lawlessness, rapine, and bloodshed. No portion of the globe could have been more wretched than this territory; when pirates and robbers swept the country with fire and sword; when murderous head-hunters sought for their bleeding trophies far and near; when savage tribes sought opportunities of making a raid upon the least protected of their neighbours, murdering all the males and leading the females into captivity. Such was the reign of terror, and worse than civil war, which Brooke found existing in this part of Borneo, Far from the seat of even nominal government, the strong hand kept down the weak with the ferocity of the savage and without appeal; and as a necessary result the country was becoming depopulated; for those who escaped the kris of the enemy could only look to die of starvation. Having with a mighty effort given such a blow to piracy that it has never been able to lift its head since, and having fairly scratched if not killed the snake, Brocke thus essentially mitigated the great crying evil of that part of the world, and paved the way for improvements, which the natives readily appreciated and soon sensibly adopted. He succeeded in winning the entire confidence of the population, and by his own indomitable will and enthusiastic nature, backed by no state support or military force, changed this desolated district into a thriving settlement, well governed and secure, where every man sits under his own vine and under his own fig-tree none daring to molest him" Cuthbert Collingwood, p202. He might have added that the head-house in which the skulls of slaughtered enemies were kept has now given place to a church, where the doctrines of Christ are preached.

  Other Records

1. Steward Memorial Blundeston Church Suffolk.

Timothy married Mary FOWLER [12426] [MRIN: 4165], daughter of John FOWLER [12465] and Ann [12466], in 1794. (Mary FOWLER [12426] was born on 29 Sep 1763, died on 22 Jan 1837 and was buried in Blundeston Church.)