Genealogy Chat

Does anyone know anywhere I could find a William Heritage a Royal Navy Capt then Commander made his will in 1843 so assume served some time before that, or made it befor ea battle? Many thanks and Happy Christmas

The National Archives is your best bet. You can most likely search for his name on their sit search facility. Suzanne Update: Sorry marie didnt read your thread properly. Though you were after his service records. Wills I know are proved at different places. Does it suggest a location in the actual will at all?

What do you wish to find? What exactly? I could look in the Navy List for you which is especially good for Officers. They were more documented than their enlisted counterparts. Steve

Anything on him at all please I believe born Cranbrook Nr Tenderden Kent and have been told of his possible marrige in 1808 Hastings. His Will states William Heritage of Dover and I know he is buried in Goodnestone Nr Wingham Nr Canterbury. I have details of his later life and family but birth, Naval History would be great. Many thanks All

Tiny, tiny bit! Someone of that name appears on Ancestry in a book called: Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy, 1660-1815 Just has his name and ''L - 5th Dec 1796'' Just looking to see what that means......................... Merry

''L'' = date he became a Lieutenant. Merry

I had a look on http://www.pbenyon1.plus.*com/Nbd/Index.html (remove *), but couldn't see him there. You might see if his career gets a mention in the Times Archive (see Bedfordshire Virtual Library). There is certainly a history of forces promotions being recorded there. Christine

Just to help you in your your research he would have been a Commander and then a Captain. Keith

Thank-you all very much do not know anything about RN careers you've given me some good clues will do some checking after the festivities Hope Old Crone turns up Merry and have a good time (where do you get all your knowledge) more to the point how do you keep it all in your brain! Very Merry Christmas to you all, mine will be a bit strange first year without the children:(

He may have been at the Battle of Trafalgar 1805. Celebration of 200 years just ben celebrated in Portsmouth in October 05. All those in battle are on the website but cannot remember the web site so try a google search for 'Battle of Trafalgar'. Otherwise you will ahve to pay a visit to Kew to get all his naval details. Janet

The Trafalgar info is on the Documents Online (National Archives) site. Christine

I saw two references to William HERITAGE on the links from Paul Benyon's site. http://www.pbenyon.plus.*com/Naval.html (remove the *) In the Navy List of 1805 - Officers of the Royal Navy Lieutenants in the Royal Navy - May 1805 Lieutenant Heritage Wm. Seniority 1796 (This tallies with the information posted earlier by Merry) The second reference was in the obituaries of the Navy List of June 1844 'Officers whose Deaths have been officially reported since 20th March, 1844' Under the heading 'Commanders' is the entry William HERITAGE. Seniority 1838. If these entries both refer to the same man he would appear not to have been promoted at all between 1796 and 1838. Forty odd years in one rank? Perhaps he was promoted from Lieutenant to Comander prior to retirement to give him a better pension. I suppose it is possible that he did make it to captain and lost it again for some misdemeanour. However he does not get an entry in the Times online during his navy career so he can't have been that newsworthy! Pete

Thanks for all you help one day I'll get to NA Marie-Louise