Robert Cruickshank is said to have been born in Tobago around 1787.[1] It should be noted that at that time Tobago was under French control with a depressed economy. [2]He came from a family of sugar planters in the West Indies, was educated for the law and spent some time in Montreal, Canada, before settling at Gosport in Hampshire in 1806, aged 19, where he joined a legal practice in Clarence Square, on the respectable side of the town. [1]
On the 17th of July 1807 in Fareham he married Anne Barney, [3] daughter of Fareham attorney Stephen Barney of Lysses House, and his wife, Ann Read. [4]
In 1812 Robert was secretary to the company that had been formed to pull down the old market hall [1] in Middle Street and replace it with a splendid new building overlooking the harbour. (It was severely damaged by bombing in WWII and had to be demolished)
Ann died in 1820 and was buried at St Peter and St Paul in Fareham on the 4th of March. [5] She and Robert were parents of seven children, Isabella, Robert, Eliza, Mary, Emmeline and George.
On the 31st of May 1828, eight years after Ann's death, Robert married Harriott Susanna Barnard [6] daughter of Edward Barnard, Rector of St Mary, Alverstoke, and his wife, Mary Anne Beadon. She presented him with a son, Edward, in 1840. [7]
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The Crescent. |
Seaside holidays had become fashionable and Robert conceived the idea of creating a spa at Stokes Bay. He planned to call it Angleseyville in honour of his aquaintance, Henry Paget, Marquess of Anglesey who was to have laid the foundation stone but, the Marquess being indisposed, it was laid by his son The Earl of Uxbridge. The result was the Crescent, complete with hotel which opened on the 18th of May 1830. The area quickly became a resort for the high and the mighty: Lord Charles Wellesley was the Steward at the first horse race on the new course in 1832.
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Floating Bridge 1900 |
Learning that a railway was planned for Gosport in 1840 (it was easier to obtain permission for a route into Gosport than into Portsmouth) he obtained an Act of Parliament for creating a floating bridge from Gosport Hard to Portsmouth. [8] The company that was formed for the purpose attracted 147 shareholders. Among the directors of the company were Daniel Quarrier JP, Colonel Charles Menzies, Andrew Nance, John Lindegren and Sir Francis Austen. Still going strong in 1900 the floating bridge was taken out of service in 1959. [9]
Robert's father-in-law died in 1840 and the new Rector of St Mary was Samuel Wilberforce, who resisted strongly when Robert sought to build a new church close to the Crescent and only half a mile from St Mary. Robert eventually got his way and St Mark was consecrated as a Chapel of Ease of St Mary in 1844.
Robert's last great plan was to create an international harbour on the shore at Stokes Bay with a canal through to Haslar Creek and an extension to the railway which had opened in 1841, but he died in 1853 [10] and was buried at St Mark on the 19th of February. [11] By 1911 St Mark had become unsafe and was pulled down. The churchyard is now cared for by a friends group and has an indexed list of graves available on site.
Acadian heritage connections: Robert is 25 degrees from Beyoncé Knowles, 21 degrees from Jean Béliveau, 19 degrees from Madonna Ciccone, 24 degrees from Rhéal Cormier, 17 degrees from Joseph Drouin, 23 degrees from Jack Kerouac, 19 degrees from Anne Langstroth, 24 degrees from Matt LeBlanc, 21 degrees from Roméo LeBlanc, 21 degrees from Azilda Marchand, 16 degrees from Mary Travers and 23 degrees from Clarence White on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
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Categories: Gosport, Hampshire | St Mary's Church, Alverstoke, Hampshire | St Mark's Church, Alverstoke, Hampshire | Fareham, Hampshire | The Cresent, Alverstoke, Hampshire | Tobago