William Richman

1746 – 1819

✓ Validated against records · 2026-07-05

William Richman was born at Great Grimsby, on the south shore of the Humber, and baptised there in the church of St James on the 23rd of January 1746/7 — the son of Henry Richmond and Mary Loggon. His birth had long been known only as "about 1746," reckoned back from his age at his death; the Grimsby register bears that reckoning out exactly, and gives besides the parents it had never named — a whole generation beyond where the tree had reached. He was the fourth of a large family, and the one who left: by his first marriage he was a man of Thorne, the inland port of the Don, some forty miles up the tidal rivers from the town of his birth. He appears in the records as a working man of the river all his life — "Waterman" at his first wedding, "Mariner" at his second and in his children's baptisms — in the years when Thorne built and crewed the keels that worked coal and corn between the coalfield and the Humber.

He married twice. On the 28th of January 1779, in Thorne church, "William Richman, Waterman, and Sarah Brown, Spinster, both of this Parish" were married by banns — Thomas Brown and Alice Park witnessing. The register preserves a distinction the transcript-copyist was careful to keep: William made his mark; Sarah signed her name. Their son William was baptised that December. Sarah died in October 1780, aged twenty-three, eighteen months a wife; and in the 1783/84 register year William married again — Hannah Kettle, in a season when Thorne's register reads like a muster of the river: Archer, Heaton, Darley of Brigg, Jackson, Jennings of Hatfield, Avey, White, Ingle, Drake of Selby — mariner after mariner, and a shipwright, married in one Lady-Day year.

With Hannah came nine more children across twenty years, and their baptisms carry the family name across a spelling divide: John, Martin and Robert are Richman; from Nanny in 1793 the register writes Richmond, and Richmond it stayed. The sixth child, Henry, born and baptised on the same September day in 1795, lived two months; the ninth, born in January 1803, was given the name again — his grandfather's name. Seventeen months later Hannah was dead at forty-one, and the burial register says why in two words that the clerk had first written as one, harder word: "Accidental Death."

William did not marry again. He outlived Sarah by thirty-nine years and Hannah by fifteen, and died at Thorne on the 16th of January 1819, aged seventy-three — a waterman of the old century whose grandsons would master keels he never saw, on the same water.

Composed from validated records · 2026-07-05

Baptism: About 1746
Marriage: 1. Sarah Brown, January 28th 1779, Thorne 2. Hannah Kettle, 1783, Thorne
Death: January 16th 1819 aged 73, Thorne
Children: William Richman baptised December 12th 1779, Thorne Susanna Richman baptised 6th January 1785, Thorne John Richman baptised April 4th 1787, Thorne Martin Richman baptised February 2nd 1789, Thorne Robert Richman baptised January 24th 1791, Thorne Nanny Richmond baptised March 25th 1793, Thorne Henry Richman baptised September 10th 1795, burial Novembe 29th 1795, Thorne Hannah Richmond baptised September 29th 1798, Thorne Mary Richmond baptised August 23rd 1800, Thorne Henry Richmond born January 6th 1802 baptised January 16th 1802, Thorne
1779: William marries Sarah Brown in Thorne William Richman, Waterman and Sarah Brown spinster both of this parish were married in this church , by banns, this twenty eighth day of January in the year 1779 in the presence of Thomas Brown and Alice Park William made his mark (x); Sarah signed her name
1780: Wife Sarah dies on the 18th of October aged just 23 years.
1783: Marriage of William Richman to Hannah Kettle William Richman, Mariner and Hannah Kettle both of this parish were married by banns 1783
1795: Death of son Henry aged 2 months
1804: Hannah dies on the 21st June and was buried on the 22nd. The parish record said that the death was accidental. She was aged 43 years
1819: William dies aged 73 years

In your grandmother’s words · from her notebook

Family

Parents

HRFatherHenry Richmond1713–1805 MLMotherMary Loggon

The children of Henry & Mary

· · · William Richman b. 1746this page · · · · · ·

Marriages

HKSpouseHannah Kettle1761–1804

The children of William & Sarah Brown

The children of William & Hannah

HRChild · the line continuesHenry Richmondmain line1803–1879

Life

Confirmed — anchored to a recordEstimated — inferred

1746

Baptism — Great Grimsby, son of Henry Richmond & Mary Loggon

about 1746

William Son of Henry Richmond & Mary his Wife was Baptized — Jan. 23.— Baptism — Great Grimsby, St James (23 January 1746/7)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Baptism — Great Grimsby, St James (23 January 1746/7) — William, son of Henry Richmond & Mary his wife, baptised at Great Grimsby (St James), 23 January 1746/7 — findmypast, Lincolnshire Baptisms (Lincolnshire Archives), record GBPRS/LINCS/BAP/00805670, page 64; original register image GRIMSBY_ST_JAMES_PAR_1_3/0509, read at full resolution 5 July 2026. The entry falls under the register's '1746' year-header, above the '1747' turn — old-style 1746/7. This is the record that broke the wall: it names the parents Mum's page left blank, and bears out the birth she had reckoned only 'about 1746' from his age at death. It was found by searching FamilySearch on the father's name, Henry — the name the 1795 Thorne baptism had let slip. read at the image

1779

The first wedding — he made his mark; Sarah signed

1779

Banns of Marriage between William Richman, Waterman, and Sarah Brown, Spinster, both of this Parish, were married in this Church by Banns this Twenty Eight day of
January in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy Nine, by me J. Atkinson. In the Presence of: Thomas Brown, Alice Park. This Marriage was Solemnized between us: William ☓ [his mark] Richman — Sarah Brown.
— First marriage — Thorne (28 January 1779)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

First marriage — Thorne (28 January 1779) — Thorne Bishop's Transcript, top entry of the leaf (findmypast image 007588616/00410), read at full resolution 5 July 2026. On a transcript every hand is the copyist's — but the copyist reproduced the register's distinction exactly: a mark, annotated, against William's name; a written name against Sarah's. In the original, he marked and she signed. read at the image

1779

Married Sarah Brown

28 January 1779 at Thorne, Yorkshire

William Richman, Waterman, and Sarah Brown, Spinster, both of this Parish, by banns — he made his mark; she signed her name.— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1780

Sarah dies — eighteen months a wife

1780

Wife Sarah dies on the 18th of October aged just 23 years.— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1783

The keel country — a world that lived on the water

Three generations of this family gave the census-taker no address, only a vessel: William Richman married in a Thorne register year that reads like a muster of mariners; Henry's whole household slept aboard the keel Ann on census night 1861; Samuel lay at Ickles Lock, Rotherham, master of the Marion, while his family answered the door in Hull. The vessel behind those entries was the Humber keel — a bluff, square-rigged sailing barge, clinker- or carvel-built, sized to the inch for the locks it had to pass, with one great mainsail and a topsail on a single mast, and a cabin aft that was, for many families, home. Keels were worked by a man and a mate — often his son, sometimes his wife — and they carried everything the region moved: coal down from the pits, corn and seed up from the docks, timber, bricks, oilcake. Thorne, on the lower Don, was one of the trade's home ports — a town of keel-builders, sail-makers and waterman families — and from its staiths the water ran everywhere the work was: up the Don navigation to Rotherham and Sheffield, where Ickles Lock marked the head of the broad-water trade; up the branch canals to colliery villages like Elsecar, whose coal came down to the keels; and east by the Dutch River and the Ouse to the Humber, Hull and the sea. The census made special provision for this floating world — vessels were enumerated on their own schedules, listed by name like little parishes — which is why the family's records so often carry a ship where a street should be. Steam came into the trade in the later nineteenth century (Samuel's Reliance was a steam keel), and the railways, bigger holds and motor barges slowly took the rest; the last keels traded under sail within living memory of the Second World War, and the type survives today in preserved examples worked by enthusiasts. The keel world was close, hereditary and hard: crews were recruited at the family table, masters' daughters married masters' sons, and a good boat was livelihood, savings and address in one hull.

Historical context Evidence

Background composed for this site from published history. It frames the family’s world; it is not one of Mum’s records.

1783

Married Hannah Kettle

1783

William Richman, Mariner, and Hannah Kettle, both of this Parish . . . By Banns.— Second marriage — the all-mariners leaf (1783/84)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Second marriage — the all-mariners leaf (1783/84) — Thorne Bishop's Transcript, the marriage year-list "from 25th March 1783 to 25th March 1784" (findmypast image 007588616/00465), read 5 July 2026. The list format carries names and mode only — no day; the findmypast index supplies the 1783 date. The leaf around him is Thorne's economy in one page: nine mariners and a shipwright married in the year, from Brigg, Hatfield and Selby as well as Thorne — and one line that reads "published, but not married." read at the image

1795

The first Henry — two months old

1795

Henry, 6th — Richmond — S. of Wm. Richmond, Mariner, S. of Henry Richmond — by Hannah his Wife, Dr. of Jno. Kettle — Born Septr. 10 — Baptized Septr. 10.— The 1795 baptism — three generations in one line

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

The 1795 baptism — three generations in one line — Thorne baptisms, Doncaster Archives P4/1/A9 (findmypast image ...ENGLYOR1D_P4-1-A9/00072), read 5 July 2026. The register's Dade-style descent formula names the infant's father AND grandfather — the only record yet found that names William's own father, Henry Richmond. Born and baptised the same day, the sign of a frail newborn; he lived two months. read at the image

1804

Hannah's accidental death

1804

Hannah, Wife of Willm. Richman — Died June 21st, Buried June 22d — [aged] 41 — [Distemper:] Killed [struck through] Accidental Death.— Hannah's burial — "Accidental Death" (22 June 1804)

The record image is with the family — family sign-in

Read at the image record Evidence

Confirmed against the original record, read at the image:

Hannah's burial — "Accidental Death" (22 June 1804) — Thorne burials 1804, Doncaster Archives P4/1/A9 (findmypast image ...ENGLYOR1D_P4-1-A9/00219), read at full resolution 5 July 2026. The full transcription and the clerk's correction are carried on Hannah's own page; here the entry stands for what it did to this house — a widower of fifty-eight, and the youngest child seventeen months old. read at the image

1819

In 1819

1819

William dies aged 73 years— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

1819

Died

16 January 1819 at Thorne

January 16th 1819 aged 73, Thorne— From Janet Brock’s research

Mum’s record Evidence

From Janet Brock’s research notebook.

Our research

William's open threads — the wall broken, and the frontier beyond

Research · Grimsby, Thorne, and the rivers between

The oldest wall on Mum's Richmond line is down. The 1795 Thorne baptism had let a father's name slip — "S. of Henry Richmond" — and following it to Grimsby turned up William's own baptism there in 1746/7, naming his parents Henry Richmond and Mary Loggon, with a houseful of brothers and sisters. They are built now, as people; the blank on Mum's page is filled, and her "about 1746" is shown to have been right.

The one join still inferred

No single record yet walks the Grimsby-born William the forty miles to Thorne. The case rests on a strong convergence — the father's name, matched independently; the age, exact; the same waterman's trade; and no rival Henry Richmond anywhere near Thorne (only a faded 1720s Richmond group there, gone by 1730). It is as firm as an eighteenth-century move across parishes usually gets, but the migration itself is inferred, not documented. To do: any settlement or waterman record placing a Grimsby Richmond at Thorne; whether a brother — John (1745) or Edward (1751) — followed the same water north.

New rungs, and old

Henry Richmond's own parents — he was himself an incomer to Grimsby; the lead points across the Humber. See his page.
The Loggon line — Mary's is an uncommon name that should give up her parents. See her page.
His end. William's burial, 16 January 1819 aged 73, still wants its Thorne register leaf.
Sarah Brown — her burial, 18 October 1780 aged 23, and son William's 12 December 1779 baptism image (the index names mother Sarah Brown, anchoring the family split on this page).
The 1783 day. The transcript year-list carries no day for the Hannah Kettle wedding; the parish register original would.