Francis Peter Werry (1745 - 1832)

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 27 Jul 1832 at age 87 in Izmir, Turkey

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Anonymous Bedford [send private message]

Biography

The Werrys that later became the diplomatic family to Smyrna find their roots in Cornwall, having made their way to Southwark in the 17th century and becoming successful in shipping and war.

They came up from Cornwall, and settled in Southwark a few years before the death of Charles II, and were merchants and shipowners, commanding privateers under letters of marque. [...] John Werry...superintended the erection of the first Eddystone Lighthouse.^[1]. He died in Izmir, Turkey on July 27th, 1832^[2]

Francis Werry was born on January 3rd, 1745.^[1] and baptised on Jan 24 at St Mary Magdalene, Bermondsey, Southwark. A sickly child by his own accounts, he was encouraged to toughen up, ride horses, sail, and drink and smoke by his godfather, a man named Wheatley.

In 1758 I first went to sea, in the ship Crown, the property of my father. [...] I was dreadfully sea-sick all the voyage, and most miserable. My father wished me to give up the sea, but I could not resolve to brave the jeering of my old schoolmates.^[1]

His granddaughter recounts his later journeys to China and India aboard the frigate Tweed, and an infamously quick journey by land from Constantinople to London via the Balkans in 1778. That same year he took command of the King George, a 28-gun privateer owned by the City of London. He captured two Spanish vessels but later surrendered to the French and spent three years as a prisoner of war.

His application for marriage license reads: " Appeared personally Francis Werry 18th January 1783 and made oath that he is of the parish of St Leonard Shoreditch in the county of Middlesex a bachelor aged thirty-nine years and intendeth to marry with Elizabeth Disney of the parish of St Mary Islington in the same county a spinster aged twenty-one years and upwards". They intended to marry at St Mary Islington which had been their normal place of abode for the requisite four weeks. The marriage took place on Jan 19 1783, interestingly two months after the baptism of their first two children who were born in 1780 and 1782. Possibly the couple had been "married" at sea. (Francis appeared in Lloyd's register captaining the Tweed in 1779 and owner of the Crowned Galley in 1780.)

In 1793 he was elected British consul at Smyrna by the Levant Company, and there he remained for thirty years.

The Gentleman's Magazine of London gives a detailed obituary:

Mr Werry in the first American war commanded armed letters of marque; and in 1779 was appointed, by the Reprisal Association of the city of London, to the command of the private ship of war King George, when on the 2d of August, 1779, he fell in with the French frigate La Concorde, and after a severe and obstinate resistance of near two hours, the King George had 42 men killed and wounded, and on a Spanish ship of the line bearing down, she was obliged to surrender to her opponent...

He afterwards served his country 34 years as Consul at Smyrna. He discharged his magisterial and judicial duties [...] with independence and uprightness, to the satisfaction of his superiors and of the public; and in all the events during the French revolutionary war, and the critical position of Smyrna in 1797, and during the insurrection of the Greeks, he rendered essential service to His Majesty's subjects, to the Europeans in general, and to the Christian population of Smyrna.

[...]

During the successive rapid military, naval, and political events in the Mediterranean and Levant, from the commencement of the war with France to the close of the same (1814), the various political intelligence which he caused to be conveyed to the Admirals Earl St. Vincent, Lord Nelson, Lord Keith, Sir Sidney Smith, and Lord Collingwood, and to His Majesty's respective Ambassadors...was highly valued by them.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Francis Peter Werry. Personal Memoirs and Letters of Francis Peter Werry, Attache to the British Embassies at St. Petersburg and Vienna 1812-1815. London: Charles J. Skeet, Publisher, 1861. https://books.google.ca/books/about/Personal_memoirs_and_letters_of_Francis.html?id=SWABAAAAQAAJ&redir_esc=y
2. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (accessed 19 March 2021), memorial page for Francis Werry (1745–27 Jul 1832), Find A Grave: Memorial #34515538, citing Buca Anglican Cemetery, Izmir, İzmir, Turkey ; Maintained by KMRL (contributor 46809234).
3. ↑ Sylvanus Urban. The Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 102, Part 2; Volume 152, pp. 277-78. London: J.B. Nichols, 1832. Accessed 1 November 2020 at https://books.google.ch/books?id=0a3PAAAAMAAJ.

See also:

• LONDON GAZETTE OF TUESDAY, JULY 4th 1826 The King has appointed Francis Werry, be his Majesty's Consul in Smyrna. - Correspondence and papers of Francis Werry, consul at Smyrna, and his son Francis Peter, diplomat, c.1800-30 held at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford

London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921 (image available on Ancestry) London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P83/MRY1/1195

London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P71/MMG/008

London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P91/LEN/A/004/MS07496/009