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Skriv ut sidan - Woolyart - Mystery Swedish place name ?
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Titel: Woolyart - Mystery Swedish place name ?
Skrivet av: Jerome Farrell skrivet 2011-10-18, 21:29
Elin, Niklas, Chris, Lissela, Helene, Sven-Ore and Kristina: thank you for all your interesting & useful comments.
I know where my ancestor John Christopher Wentland (JCW) was from 1807 until his death in 1857: all places in England, or at sea - so he must have left Sweden before 1807 (most likely as a young man in around 1800), and did not return to live there. Of course, he probably left parents, brothers etc still in Sweden though.
Many sources in England give his age, and all agree he was born about 1778, give or take a year or two.
Niklas, the 1851 census you show above is indeed for JCW (here as 'John Wintland', in old age). By this time, I know that he was nearly blind and receiving a pension from the British navy. For a long time I thought his place of birth must be Milford, Pembroke (in west Wales) as it says here (but nowhere else). The records for this area have been checked, but there is no sign he or anyone else with his name was in the Pembroke area. I now suspect this reference to Milford, Pembroke is either a mistake, or possibly a deliberate 'red herring' given by him or his wife, to draw attention away from the fact that over 70 years earlier he had been born abroad (this might have affected his right to a pension). Milford is a well known port where naval people came and went.
I have now traced him through four ships, between 1807 and 1815, and in all these different records his birthplace is repeatedly given as Sweden (and in one ship's records always as 'Woolyart, Sweden'). I think this is much more likely to be the true place of birth, especially as these records are from when he was a young man and it was probably obvious he was not British (by 1851 he could probably pass as English - or any remaining accent might pass for Welsh, perhaps).
As for his surname it is Wintland by the end of his life (and this is what his children used), but always Wentland in the earlier records. When he married in 1812 he did not sign his name but just put a cross, which here generally indicates that someone could not read or write - quite common in England at that time.
In the very earliest record I have for him, from July 1807, his name is Christian Venteling. He and 24 other sailors were forced to leave an East India Company ship and to join a Royal Navy one, off the coast of southern India. I have studied the lists of these 25 names from both ships and am certain that 'Christian Venteling' on the old ship and 'Christopher Wentland' on the new ship refer to the same man. I did wonder if Christian (almost unknown as a name here) was more likely to be his original Swedish name and that he changed it to 'Christopher', but I realise Christopher is also a common Swedish name. And perhaps he was simply known as 'Chris'!
In the many places his name appears in English records it is often 'Christopher', sometimes 'John Christopher' and sometimes just 'John'.
He joined the East India Company ship in Portsmouth in February 1807, but I suspect he had previous experience at sea on other ships, either British or maybe Swedish (I have discovered that Sweden also had an East India Company!). It's interesting that there was a Carl Baltzar Wendtland who was a captain of a merchant ship and is the right age to be JCW's father. I am a bit doubtful though, as here you would expect the children of a captain to be educated a bit - and probably in Sweden too? JCW was a sailmaker on the ships he worked on and as explained, does not seem to have been literate.
It was illegal to force foreign men ('press gang' them) from a British merchant ship onto a Royal Navy one unless they had worked at sea for at least 2 years already (they only wanted experienced sailors) so this is another reason I think he was a sailor for a few years before 1807, somewhere.
Finally back to the name Woolyart. Yes, the ending -yard would be much more usual in a place name here than -yart, so I think he must have said it with a strong 't' sound at the end. But maybe a 'd' at the end of a word in Sweden can sound like a t? - I don't know. I would love to find out more about where exactly he came from.
Any further comments are welcome. Thanks again. I see there is some discussion about the surname Wentland (and similar names) elsewhere on this site, but as it is in Swedish, unfortunately I cannot follow it.