Jonathan Birch (EIC captain)

Jonathan Birch (1771/2–1848) was a ship captain for the British East India Company. He became a close friend of the actor William Charles Macready, whose diary is a major source for Birch's background and life.

Jonathan Birch, miniature portrait

Birch was an East India Company ship captain, making a number of voyages; a report of 1837 gave his age as 65, the senior surviving captain.[1] He captained the Britannia, lost off Brazil in 1805.[2] He then captained its successor of the same name, Britannia.[3]

Wrecks of the Britannia, and Admiral Gardner, East Indiamen, on the Goodwin Sands, 24 Jan 1809

Birch's second command Britannia ended in a wrecking on the Goodwin Sands off the South Foreland on 24 January 1809, in company with the Admiral Gardner and the brig Apollo.[4][5] He then took the Cabalva on an 1813/4 voyage to Bombay and China.[6]

On land

Birch in retirement from the sea resided in Gower Street, London, and at Pudlicote House, near Shorthampton in Oxfordshire, built in 1810, which he purchased in 1822.[7][8][9]

Pudlicote House, 2009 photograph

Birch was on the committee of The Marine Society.[10]

Relationship with Macready and family background

The Rev. Thomas Birch was rector of South Thoresby, which is not far to the west of Alford; he was a brother of the surgeon Charles Birch, maternal grandfather of William Charles Macready the actor.[11] Jonathan Birch was his son.[12] Birch was a therefore a relation of Macready on the latter's mother's side.[13]

Macready while he was on tour in New York, and hearing of Jonathan Birch's death, called him "my dear friend and relative".[14] His mother was Christina Ann Birch, granddaughter of the Rev. Jonathan Birch of Bakewell (1685–1735); his housemaster at Rugby School was a cousin (once removed) William Birch, son of the Rev. Thomas Birch of Alford, Lincolnshire, a son of Jonathan Birch of Bakewell.[15][16][17][18]

Death

Jonathan Birch died in 1848, at age 76, at Alford.[7]

Family

Birch, described as of St Pancras, London, married Mary Elizabeth Morrice (died 1822), daughter of William Morice.[7][19] They had a son, William John Birch, known as a writer.[20] A brother and two sisters of William John died young.[21] The eldest daughter, Elizabeth Mary Morice Birch, died in 1831 at age 23.[22]

After Birch's death, his brother George brought a case on the interpretation of his will of 1845 in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.[23]

Notes
  1. Report from the select committee on East India maritime officers: Appendix and index. 1837. p. 68.
  2. Hardy, Charles (1811). A Register of Ships, Employed in the Service of the Honorable the United East India Company, from the Year 1760 to 1810: With an Appendix, Containing a Variety of Particulars, and Useful Information Interesting to Those Concerned with East India Commerce. Black, Parry, and Kingsbury. p. 249.
  3. "Philip Mould, Historical Portraits". www.historicalportraits.com.
  4. Interesting Particulars of the Loss of the Admiral Gardner & Britannia ... and of the Apollo ... wrecked on the Goodwins, Jan. 24, 1809 ... Also the loss of the Russian ship St. Peter, etc. London: Thomas Tegg. 1809. p. 7.
  5. Cotton, Sir Evan (1949). East Indiamen: The East India Company's Maritime Service. Batchworth Press. p. 137.
  6. "CABALVA". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
  7. Howard, Joseph Jackson, ed. (1884). Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica. Vol. 4. Hamilton, Adams, and Company. p. 126.
  8. History, Gazetteer, and Directory of the County of Oxford. R. Gardner. 1852. p. 838.
  9. White, Edward Gillam (1844). The register of electors to vote in the choice of ... members to serve in parliament for the county of Oxford. (Banbury division). p. 149.
  10. Marine Society (London, England) (1831). General State of the Marine Society ... to the 31st December, 1830. p. 22.
  11. Macready, William Charles; Toynbee, William (1912). The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833-1851. Vol. 2. New York Putnam. p. 332 note 2.
  12. The Birch Family History: Descendants of Rev. Jonathan Birch, Vicar of Bakewell, Derbyshire, England and His Sons : Rev. John Neville Birch of Leasingham, Lincolnshire : Dr. Charles Birch of St. Kitts, British West Indies : Rev. Thomas Birch of Thoresby, Lincolnshire. Genealogy Pub. Service. 1998. p. 323.
  13. Macready, William Charles; Toynbee, William (1912). The Diaries of William Charles Macready, 1833-1851. Vol. 2. New York Putnam. p. 271 note.
  14. Macready, William Charles (1875). Macready's Reminiscences. Harper. p. 581.
  15. Foulkes, Richard. "Macready, William Charles". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17741. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  16. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Birch, William" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  17. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Birch, Thomas (1)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  18. Rugby School register: with annotations and alphabetical index. Rugby : A.J. Lawrence. 1881. pp. xiii and 89.
  19. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Morice, William (1)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  20. Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Birch, William John" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  21. "St. Pancras Church, British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
  22. The Gentleman's Magazine. E. Cave. 1831. p. 187.
  23. Thornton, Thomas (1849). Notes of Cases in the Ecclesiastical & Maritime Courts. Vol. VI. Professional Books. p. 581.
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