The Family History of Rosalind Hannah Youngs

Benjamin Curtis
Relationship to Ros Youngs - Great Grandfather
Baptised - 21 February 1819 in Hollesley, Suffolk
Parents - Thomas Curtis b. 1763 and Amy Johnson b. 1783
Married - Hannah Stollery 24 January 1868 at St Peter's, Ipswich, Suffolk. Witnesses Michael Stollery and Ann Stollery
Occupation - Seaman, caretaker of German Ocean Mansion.
Children - 1871 Annie
1872 Amy Elizabeth
1874 Kate Maud
1877 Benjamin Alfred
1879 Samuel James
1881 Adelaide Edith Rose
Addresses - 1871 The Lodge, Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
1881-1891 German Ocean Mansion, Shingle Street, Suffolk
Died - 1895 in Hollesley
Buried - All Saints, Hollesley
Documents held - Census 1871, 1881, 1891
Marriage certificate

Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich
The Lodge was demolished in 1898 and rebuilt

German Ocean Mansion c1900, with its boathouse/chapel
in the foreground

Benjamin Curtis is believed to have been Master of a 3-masted private yacht owned by the Fonnereau family of Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich.

Henry William Curtis says Benjamin was Captain of a schooner named "Daisy Sunderland", used for transporting currency. This may have been prior to his employment by the Fonnereaus.

Benjamin does not appear in the censuses of 1841, 1851 and 1861. A Benjamin Curtis is recorded as crew on 2 ships in Australian waters in the mid-1850s and also as a pessenger on one. If 'our' Benjamin was in Australia he may have influenced the decision of Hannah Stollery's brothers Michael and Ephraim to emigrate to there in the 1870s.

German Ocean Mansion in 2003, now called 'The Mansion'.
This was the summer home of the Fonnereau family,
who owned Christchurch Mansion, in the late 1800s

All Saints, Hollesley
Picture by Shirley Stone

Benjamin Curtis 1819 - 1895