Samantha Taylor has uncovered the travels of relatives who left Essex to try their luck in the burgeoning cities of the USA and the Canadian wilderness.
By Gail Dixon
An oceanic swell of migrants left Britain in the 19th and early 20th centuries, looking for fresh opportunities in the Americas. Among them were three brothers from Samantha Taylor’s family, who grew up immersed in the rhythms of maritime life.
Samantha is retired and lives in Clevedon, North Somerset, overlooking the Bristol Channel. “I grew up on the south coast of England, and I love the sea,” she says. “It’s important for me to look at it each day.”
Samantha began tracing her genealogy in 2013, after her daughter created a family tree as a present for her birthday. “All I knew was that my maternal grandmother Marion Farrington was born in 1902, and that her father Frederick had visited America and thought of emigrating there. He even told his wife Nettie Heaver to sell all their furniture and pack up.”
Using census entries and birth, marriage and death records, Samantha traced her lineage back to her 4x great grandfather William Farrington, born in Brightlingsea, Essex, c1780.
“I was intrigued to discover that Marion, and previous generations of Farringtons, were born there. It was somewhere new to explore.”
Brightlingsea is several miles south-east of Colchester and overlooks the estuary of the River Colne. It has been renowned for boatbuilding and seafaring since the time of Henry VIII, and probably beyond. Today, its colourful beach huts and working harbour make it a haven for daytrippers.
During the 19th century, the harbour would have been a hub of vessels laden with their catch of oysters and sprats. Wealthy people commissioned the men of Brightlingsea to build and crew race-winning yachts. It sounds idyllic, but the
town’s fishermen have long faced peril from storms, freezing conditions in winter and the treacherous shoals of the Gunfleet Sand and the Sunk.
“My Farringtons all earned their living as mariners, a pattern that wasn’t broken until my great grandfather Frederick became a shoe- and bootmaker. Frederick had his own business on Brightlingsea High Street.”
Frederick’s parents were able seaman Thomas Farrington and his wife Jane Wright. They had four other sons,
