James Henry Browning, plot J2
My maiden name was Wadlow and, by coincidence, I married a Browning ( a totally alien branch) which was my mother’s maiden name.
One day I received a phone call from a gentleman who was researching the Browning family and was particularly interested in my grandfather who was the most interesting member of the family. He phoned on the spur of the moment because we were the only Brownings in Teignmouth. He obviously struck gold. He sent me a copy of the family tree and I was able to photocopy all the information from my aunt’s archive and send it to him.
It’s a fascinating story of a lad who, together with his brother, was made to leave school because they were involved in so much fighting – mainly because the Shaldonian lads didn’t like the aliens from Teignmouth attending their school. The brothers went to sea and eventually, William went onto deepwater ships, sailed to South America – where, to cut a very long story short, he was involved in many adventures including a revolution.
Then there is a break after he been standing at the side of the Panama Canal and thinking. All the earlier part was written later in life down but he was unable to continue dictating it because he was so ill. The next thing we know is that he turned up in New York, became an American citizen under a pseudonym and joined their navy, and was involved in the Spanish/American war.
He obviously came back to Teignmouth and married my grandmother. He wanted to take her to the USA to settle down but her mother (Bessie White who I mentioned in the e-mail to Viv) forbade it. It’s a shame because that’s where he longed to be and where all his friends were.
James Henry Browning was born in Teignmouth in 1867. He left Shaldon school ( started there 1879) at the same time and for the same reasons as my grandfather ( estimated date 1882 – I think my grandfather was about 12 years old when they were expelled). His father found him a berth on the Eldergrove which was taking emigrants to Australia where he jumped ship and went into the bush.
After that, he joined the Australian Navy for a number of years. He was back in Teignmouth in 1890 where he had married Harriet Dodd and had a son, James George Browning His death certificate describes him as a fisherman who died on August 2nd, 1894. ‘Accidentally drowned by the boat capsizing in which he was fishing in the sea off the breakwater East Teignmouth’.
William Vickery Browning
My grandfather arrived back in England ‘just after he was buried in the village graveyard. So that was the end of poor brother Jim.’ My grandfather, William Charles Richards Browning, was born in 1870. His berth was on ‘ a small coasting vessel called ‘Nelly of Littlehampton’ and my first start of wages was 15/- per month as a cook for the four of us.
That was not bad wages at that time as a lad of 12 years and 7 1⁄2 months.’ At 16 1/2 he got a berth on a deepwater vessel going to Valparaiso in Chile. On June 27th, 1892 he joined the US Navy at Brooklyn under the pseudonym of Charles Richards. He had become an American citizen although he was probably an illegal immigrant. (Don’t tell MR T!).
He was discharged on October 9th, 1901, returned to England and married my grandmother, Bessie, on December 5th that same year. She died on April 19th, 1938. Grandfather died on April 18th, 1943. Grandad served on merchant ships in the Pacific from nearly Cape Horn (they were dismasted and couldn’t quite make it) to Alaska and the Bering Sea as well as being involved in the Spanish American War.
