Samuel Doyle of St Vincent and the Royal Navy

By John D Ellis

Samuel Doyle was born on St Vincent c.1782-1783. Nothing is known of his origins. He was awarded a Royal Navy (RN) out-pension for two years by Greenwich Hospital in July 1823, when it was recorded that he was 41 years of age and had served for 10 years 2 months and 1 week.

His last ship had been HMS Euryalus, and he was described as “Black”, “a Black” or “A Black Man” in his Royal Navy records. His pension ended in 1825, but he successfully re-applied for an out-pension the same year.

Both ancestry.co.uk and findmypast.co.uk contain information about Samuel Doyle and his wife Lydia:

They resided in Shoreditch, where their three children were baptised: Samuel Wolfe Doyle. 9^th August 1825; Lydia Doyle. 25^th July 1831 (a Lydia Doyle of Bacchus Walk and aged 3 years and 7 months was buried on the 3^rd of July 1833); and Harriet Doyle, 26^th February 1837.

At St Philip, Bethnal Green in January 1851 Harriet Doyle (a spinster of 8 George Place) married Edward Sylvester Fletcher, a paper hanger born in 1832. Samuel Doyle, a bootmaker by occupation, was named as Harriet’s father.

The 1851 Census has the Doyle family residing at 8 Georges Place, St Leonards, Shoreditch, Tower Hamlets. Living at the address were: Samuel Doyle, 68 years of age, a pensioner, born at St Vincent, West Indies; and Lydia Doyle, his wife, 56 years of age, born at Marylebone, Middlesex. Visiting were: Edward Fletcher, 19 years of age, a paper hanger, born at Staines, Middlesex and his wife, Harriet Fletcher, 18 years of age, a dressmaker, born at Shoreditch, Middlesex.

Living next door were: Samuel Doyle, 25 years of age, a cabinet maker, born at Shoreditch, Middlesex; and Elizabeth Doyle, his wife, 26 years of age, born at Shoreditch, Middlesex. Samuel and Elizabeth Doyle had three children, all born at Shoreditch: Samuel aged 3 years; Lydia aged 5 years; and Sarah aged 1 year.

Being neighbours and with the grandchildren being named after grandparents, the Doyle family must have been close, making the following entry more tragic: Burial at St John the Baptist, Hoxton on the 26^th of October 1851. Harriet Fletcher of George Place aged 19 years.

Samuel Doyle was admitted to Greenwich Hospital as an in-pensioner in April 1853. He died at Greenwich Hospital on the 25^th of June 1854 and was buried at Greenwich on the 25^th of June.

In 1881 Lydia Doyle was residing in ‘Walters’ and Porter’s Almshouses’, Old Street, Shoreditch.^[1]The original almshouse building had been demolished by 1903 and the site is now occupied by a boutique hotel: https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/almshousesecpostcode.html Living with her, was Lydia Biddle 10 years of age, born at Shoreditch. Lydia Biddle was the daughter of Sarah Doyle, the granddaughter of Samuel (W) and Elizabeth Doyle and the great-granddaughter of Lydia and Samuel Doyle. Lydia Doyle died in 1883.^[2]Sources: The National Archives (TNA) WO 4/890. ADM 6/235. ADM 6/260. ADM 6/284. ADM 22/317. ADM 22/338. ADM 22/339. ADM 22/430. ADM 73/48. RG/8/17. Parish Register Baptism Entries for “Doyle” and … Continue reading