I have a great fondness for America, and when I stayed there as a young teenager (my father was on tour with the Royal Shakespeare Company) I felt very much at home, and so did my mother. So I was thrilled when I discovered, many years later, that my mother and I share an American ancestor, Moses Stickney, whose line seems to go back to the early settlers in New England.
Moses was my maternal grandfather’s maternal grandfather. I first came across him when I was searching for Francis Manley’s mother, Margaret Jane Stickney, and her origins. Margaret’s baptism in 1831 in Liverpool showed her to be the daughter of Moses Stickney and Margaret O’Rourke (yet another Irish connection!).
Unfortunately, I have never found Moses on the census, and Margaret appears to be on her own with her daughter in 1841, which led me to think that Moses had died. Further investigations led me to Moses and Margaret’s marriage in 1825 in Liverpool, and told me that Moses was a mariner. They married by licence and Margaret had the consent of her father as she was a minor. For the moment, it was interesting enough that Moses was a mariner, as I have always loved the sea and those old sailing ships, so it was very exciting to know that one of my ancestors had been a sailor! Not only that, I myself have very fond memories of the Liverpool Docks from our many journeys to see family on the Isle of Man when I was a child. Interesting how these places associated with our ancestors seem to hold a certain significance, long before we know the connection.
I then ordered the certificate of Margaret’s marriage to my great-grandfather, John McEwen, and sure enough, her father’s name was Moses Stickney, and this time the occupation was shipwright. Again, very interesting.
I could find no other Stickneys in this area and very few in Britain at all, but a search on Ancestry led me to a published family tree which showed a wealth of Stickneys in Massachussets, and on this tree a Moses Stickney who the owner believed had emigrated to Liverpool! This was very exciting indeed – but being always cautious of all trees published on the internet, I did some further searches to try and confirm this fact.
I was lucky enough to find, on the American Ancestry site, a list of passengers on the ship, the Marathon, bound from Liverpool to Boston, Moses’s name as a member of the crew, aged 35 – which was about right. And written in the margin were the words: “Stickney was sent home by U.S. Consul, Liverpool.”
Well, this has to be my Moses, and explained why I had never found him on the census – but why on earth had he been sent back to America? I have searched newspapers and other online records, but nothing has turned up. Furthermore, I have no idea what he did after landing back in Boston or whether his wife ever saw him again. The only Moses Stickney I have found on the American census of the right age appears to have married again and become a painter. As I have found no further records for his wife, either in the death records or immigrations records, Moses’s story is now a complete mystery. Was he a bigamist? Did his wife join him years later? Did they travel elsewhere? If anyone with access to American records can help solve this mystery I would be more than grateful!
As far as I can see, Moses was probably born in Newburyport, and may have been the son of John and Jane Stickney baptized in 1802 – but as the Stickney name is quite common in this area, and there are at least 3 Moses’s, I have never been quite sure. Whatever the case, the family seems to have been in Massachussets since the 17th century and were originally quite a wealthy family from Lincolnshire. Looking into the local history of Newburyport, I found that there was a big fire in the docks in the early 19th century which affected the jobs of many shipwrights, so it made complete sense that Moses should come to England to work.
So my American ancestor remains a bit of an enigma. I have mixed feelings about him; I am not sure whether he was a villain or a victim. He disappeared from my view just when I felt I was getting to know him. But whatever his story, I am very glad that he is in my tree: a tree that is very much dominated by English, Irish and Manx ancestors, and Moses adds just a little touch of glamour and intrigue!
