CHRISTOPHER PUNNETT (CHRISTOPHER, CHRISTOPHER, ROGER) was born 1739 in St. Michael, Barbados, and died April 1786 in St Vincent. He married a Nanton.
Children of CHRISTOPHER PUNNETT and Ms. Nanton are:
i. ELIZA FRANCES PUNNETT, Christening: January 14, 1772, St Andrews parish
ii. ELIZABETH PUNNETT. Christening: November 28, 1772, St Andrews Parish
iii. MARY PUNNETT, b. 1778. Christening: September 21, 1782
iv. FRANCES PUNNETT, b. 1780; Christening: Sept 21, 1782; d. May 15, 1795, St. Vincent.
v. CHRISTOPHER PUNNETT, b. Sept 21, 1782; d. June 4, 1844, Mustique, St. Vincent. He married ELIZABETH DAVIDSON November 27, 1803, daughter of DR. DAVIDSON and HANNAH ELMES.
vi. JAMES PUNNETT, b. April 9, 1786.
However, the entry for Elizabeth on Davidson's website states:
b. 21 Nov 1772, Santa Cruz, West Indies d. Feb 1795, Port L’Orient, France
Below
are relevant excerpts, but the whole piece is well worth reading. http://www.electricscotland.com/mackenzie/images/march2007.pdf
As Brenda pointed out, it should make a
marvellous film!
Curiously, by Alexander Mackenzie's account, he also had a niece (daughter of his sister Margaret) named Eliza Punnett, but there is nothing further about her... could she have been named for his wife? Again, any thoughts?
Curiously, by Alexander Mackenzie's account, he also had a niece (daughter of his sister Margaret) named Eliza Punnett, but there is nothing further about her... could she have been named for his wife? Again, any thoughts?
Extract from the Memoirs of Alexander Kenneth Mackenzie Esq, Dochcairn, Bathurst, N.S.W. Written by himself from memory at the age of 68
…My sister Margaret married a Mr. Clunes, a merchant in Aberdeen by whom she had 3 children, John, a Major in the Company’s service at Bombay, and married to a daughter of General Prole. William Henry, a surgeon, in the Navy, who has been dead for some years, and Eliza Punnett, lately the widow of Major Snodgrass, in the Company’s service [Presumably, the East India Company] in Bombay, and last year married again to a Mr. Smythe, a man of property and the member for Westmeath in Ireland…
…On 30 June, 1792, I was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Punnett, the ceremony was performed by the Rev. Mr. Findenter at the house of our friend Mrs. St. Lawrence, from which we adjourned to the residence of another friend (with whom we were to spend our honeymoon) a Mrs. Wiston, from thence we paid a visit to Mrs. Davidson, before we settled ourselves in our own happy home. Miss Punnett’s father was a man of good family and had been dead some years, leaving a widow, 3 daughters and 1 son, to inherit his property. I obtained a good fortune with Miss Punnett and it was a most desirable match in every point of view - I trust she is now reaping the reward in Heaven, of a well spent life on Earth, for her pilgrimage on this earth was of very short duration.
She was a girl of elegant figure and most graceful manner, a beautiful expressive countenance, she possessed a mind highly cultivated and attractive, very amiable disposition, and above all, her adoration of that being who gave her life was sublime and striking to a degree; we were most fondly attached to each other, but a good Providence thought proper to take this dear Angel to himself, when we had enjoyed a few brief years of each other’s society; her mother’s residence was at Nova Zembla, about 50 miles from St. Vincent, she was on a visit to a cousin of her own when I first met her, a Miss Nanton, who resided about 10 miles from town. When I commenced paying my addresses to her, I used regularly for a length of time to ride that distance every evening after 6 o’clock and home again (36 miles) in toto; for I felt too anxious with such a heavy responsibility on my shoulders to be even absent for one night, but so long a ride every evening nearly killed me.
I was very happy when it was proposed she should come into St. Vincent to remain until our marriage with her friends, Mrs. St. Lawrence and Mrs. Davidson. About this time I had a serious illness, from which it was thought I could not recover, and well do I remember, though so many years have elapsed since that period, how constantly that dear Angel visited (as was then supposed my dying bed) in company with another young friend, bringing 2 or 3 times a day cordials made with her own hands.
…Mrs. Mackenzie was confined with her first child, a sweet little girl, on 25 Aug. 1793…
...we made up our minds to visit England. In July 1794, Mrs. Mackenzie, myself, a free woman and a negro boy of my own embarked on board the “Sarah Rebecca” for London, leaving our sweet little girl under the care of good old Mrs. Punnett (Mrs. M.’s mother) with the intention of returning in less than 12 months. Some considerable time before we left the West Indies a war had broken out, and martial law being proclaimed, I, like the other young men of the island, was obliged to do military duty day and night till such time as reinforcements of the military should arrive from headquarters, it was hard duty and made me the more hurry my departure from the island....
Mr. Mackenzie says that Christopher's heirs were his widow, three daughters and a son. According to the family tree, Elizabeth had 3 sisters (Eliza, Mary, and Frances), one of whom (Frances) died in May 1795, and two brothers - Christopher (died in Mustique in 1884) and James. We have no date of birth for James, so perhaps he died prior to Mr. Mackenzie coming on the scene?
Presumably, the conflict referred to would have been the French Revolutionary wars (1793 -1892)?
Any ideas about Nova Zembla, about 50 miles from St. Vincent? Could this have been a house on Mustique?
No more is heard of the free woman or Mackenzie's "negro boy", and we don't know if he perished in captivity, was abandoned, or continued on with his father.
The account, courtesy of Bill Davidson, continues…
Memorandum: The remaining portion was destroyed by cockroaches. It only continued on until the time of his arrival in England after his escape from the captivity of the French prison.
The trip to Europe to which the young couple looked forward with so much pleasure, had a most disastrous termination. Their ship (The “Sarah Rebecca”) was captured by a French man-of-war and all the passengers and crew taken prisoners to Port L’Orient in France. Here they remained for several months, over-crowded and badly provisioned, and suffering so much from the cold that they were compelled to break up their boxes for firewood. These hardships were especially trying no doubt to the delicate West Indian constitution of Mrs. Mackenzie, and she did not long survive the birth of her second child, which took place while she was a prisoner.
We find this entry in Mr. Mackenzie's writing in the old family Bible: -
“Elizabeth Mackenzie, wife of A. K .Mackenzie, died in child-bed at Port L’Orient in France (where she was taken prisoner with her husband on a voyage from St. Vincent to London) Feb. 1795. Child died Bristol Mar 7, 95.”"...the delicate West Indian constitution of Mrs. Mackenzie..."!!!!!!!
Thus was Mr. Mackenzie left a very youthful widower. After committing to the grave the remains of his beloved wife, he was fortunate enough to regain his liberty, and escaped to his native land. It appears that he persuaded an English or Irish captain to have him smuggled on board ship in a “cask”. The ship was bound for Cork, where in due time she arrived.
There he was joined by the nurse with the poor little motherless babe, and from thence they all crossed to Bristol, where the infant died… the little girl left in the West Indies with the grandmother, and named after his own mother, Mary Price, likewise died…
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald
One love!
Lisbie
Posts
Thank you for this great review of his life. He is my 4th great grandfather through his daugther hectorina australia mackenzie m. charles langley. after i read the memoir i thought it would make a great movie, so im glad i wasnt the only one who enjoyed it.
ReplyDeletehow wonderful it is that we have the ability to make this connection centuries later! Mr. Mackenzie certainly had a life of great adventure!
ReplyDeleteThank you for making contact. I am curious as to how you happened upon us?
One love,
Lisbie