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John died in the Crail Fishing Disaster which occurred at the mouth of the Crail Harbour on 21 January 1765. Other details of his life are unknown, but he was unmarried and the only dependents were 2 sisters, aged 48 & 57 at the date of his drowning.
We can surmise that he was in the 45-65 age group.
John was a fisherman based at Crail. There were many fishing boats working from the harbour with the waters around the Isle of May opposite well-known as a rich fishing ground. The usual catch was herring but also mackerel, crab & lobster were brought ashore at Crail. At the time of his drowning James was on an 8-crew boat believed to be skippered by William Runciman. This is concluded by the order of names listed on the Register of the Dead as it was the custom that the skipper was always named first on a crew list.
Those who drowned together were :
William Runciman/Runseyman/Runsheman
Different spelling variations are shown as they have appeared in the Parish Records & The Widow's Fund.
The somberly titled 'Register of the Dead' from Crail Parish Church. |
The entry [1] reads:
'This morning were drowned in the mouth of the Harbour as they were going a-fishing the following eight persons viz
William Runcyman, James Dewar, John Brown, Andrew Taylor, Henry Burns, James Kae, Thomas Cunningham, married persons and John Ramsay unmarried,'
A 250th anniversary commemoration for the drowned fishermen was held by the descendants of the 8 fishermen in Crail on 16 May 2015. See Crail Fishing Disaster page for the known history and further information.
Thank you to Alan Runciman for creating WikiTree profile Ramsey-1523 through the import of Crail Disaster 041113.GED on Nov 4, 2013. Click to the Changes page for the details of edits by Alan and others.