I was fascinated by Claire Vaughan’s
‘Reader Story’ in the March issue about Angus Wardlaw’s relation Francis RM Crozier, and the ill-fated journey of the Erebus and Terror in search of the Northwest Passage. Through an article by Gillian Rickard in the journal of Kent Family History Society (kfhs.org.uk), I discovered that James Frederick Elgar Rigden had served as captain’s coxswain on board the Erebus. As the manager of the Rigden One Name Study (one-name.org/name_profile/rigden), I had to dig deeper.
Gillian had already identified that James was the son of John Rigden and Frances Rebecca Capp and the grandson of William Rigden and Ann Elgar, who married at Great Mongeham in Kent on 20 October 1760. Since I am also descended from Rigdens of Great Mongeham, I was hoping to find a link.
James served on the Erebus from 1839 or earlier (The National Archives, ADM 27/66/84 ff 234–235), and took part in Ross’ Antarctic Expedition. He married Caroline New in Portsea on 8 March 1845, just two months before Erebus’ final voyage.
Sadly, Caroline died in the poorhouse in 1853, aged just 27. But, rather surprisingly, she did leave a will, proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, leaving everything to her sister, Elizabeth Barker. In the 1851 census she had described herself as a “sailor’s wife”, so seems to have been holding out hope that James would return. But when she wrote her will, she acknowledged that she was a widow.
Although James and Caroline had no children, his name lived on, because his brother John named his first-born son James Frederick Elgar Rigden.
For anyone else searching for Erebus or Terror men, there is a range of great resources available online:
The National Archives’ series ADM 27 can be searched by surname and ship via the archive’s online catalogue Discovery: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Royal Museums Greenwich has a painting by Belgian marine artist François-Étienne Musin
depicting Erebus in the ice that can be seen at rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-14798, an image of its memorial plaque listing all the names of the officers and crew at rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/library-archive/memorial-men-hms-erebus
-terror-library-item-month and a great blog at rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/curatorial/hms
-terror-sir-john-franklins-final-expedition.
The Imperial War Museum has some good images of the Westminster memorial statue and
