William Wallis, Horeke

This is one of the many sad tales belonging to the residents of the Mangungu Cemetery in Horeke.

William Wallis was born 11th May 1815 in Poplar, London, England. Sadly there isn't much information about him apart from the fact that he was probably either a sailor on the barque "Patriot" manned by Captain Shorter which sailed from Sydney for the Bay of Islands on 8th April 1836 with 29 spars and 600 pine planks. 

After another voyage to New Zealand she sailed from Sydney for London with colonial produce (evidence of early trading) and passengers on 3rd January 1837.

William was the brother of Reverend J. Wallis and his death is listed by drowning in 1836 while taking the spars to the ship, possibly the smaller boat he was in overturned?  Nevertheless sadly he was only 21 years old.

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Comments

How many untold stories like this are there? I like the fact that you took the time to research this and tell the story.
EricaSta said…
Sorry ... so sorry for my late visit.

It was very interesting to read, deaar blogfriend Amy. Sad for this poor young man to find a davy jones's locker.

Hugs by Heidrun
Cloudia said…
A moving post. Thank you. Aloha
Share my Garden said…
Graveyards hold such interesting histories, thank you for sharing this one. Poplar was a very poor area of London where the dockers lived in squalid conditions. As William's brother was a vicar he will probably have lived in better conditions than those around him.

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