ISAAC DOBSON was the third son of THOMAS DOBSON a joiner of Hull, Humberside. THOMAS married MARGARET COWHAM in December 1818 at the Holy Trinity Church, Kingston on Hull, daughter of ROBERT COWHAM and FRANCES CURTIS.
They moved to Whitby and there produced their three sons, ISAAC DOBSON, JOHN DOBSON baptised March 1823 and DAVID DOBSON baptized August 1832.
With the ten years difference between John and David, one can only assume that there were other children that either died or have not yet been found. On looking at the names of Isaac's children, all of whom seem to have been named after a grandparent or an aunt or uncle, except for the two youngest so it is entirely possible that there might also have been two or three sisters - Sarah, Ann and Elizabeth. Nothing further is known of John & David.
ISAAC DOBSON was born 1826 in Whitby. He married JANE HODGSON on February 10, 1848 in St Marys, up on the cliffs in Whitby.
Both Isaac and Jane signed their marriage certificate with their marks ( illiterate). Isaac was, at the time, living on Church st and Jane lived on the Cragg, where Isaac moved to after their marriage.
Isaac was a fisherman and sailor, supplementing his meagre income with the small amount received from work as a lifeboat man.
They had nine children, the last born posthumously.
MARGARET DOBSON, b. May 26, 1848, Whitby. She married a WILLIAM PIERSON a carpenter. They had three children, FANNY, SARAH and RECRETIA PIERSON.
RECRETIA was married in 1884 to a WILLIAM READMAN who was also her second cousin on the HODGSON side)
MARY JANE DOBSON, b. January 24, 1850, Whitby and married a VALENTINE AUSTIN a jet worker. They had two children, Robert and Ann Elizabeth.
THOMAS DOBSON, b. December 25, 1851, Whitby. Married to MARIA BRYAN, they had 7 children and settled in Stockton On Tees. Some of Thomas’s descendants now live in Sheffield
ISAAC DOBSON, b. November 6, 1853, Whitby Isaac worked as a jet worker in 1871
DAVID DOBSON, b. February 11, 1856, Whitby.
HENRY DOBSON, b. March 6, 1857, Whitby.also moved to Stockton, married Sarah and had two children, Henry and Jane.
HENRY HODGSON DOBSON, b. March 6, 1859. Henry was also working as a jet worker in 1871. Whilst this Henry is down as a separate child, it is possible that he is the same as the above Henry.
SARAH ANN DOBSON, b. May 10, 1859, Whitby. Sarah possibly married a William Davison and had children William and Susannah
Finally, born posthumously, there was the youngest child ELIZABETH COWHAM DOBSON
Jane’s marriage to Isaac lasted until February 9th, 1861 when a cruel and dramatic twist of fate brought it to an end.
In February 1861, Jane and Isaac had eight children with a ninth well on the way. The ages of their eight children ranged from eleven to two and must have been a strain on any family budget, not least that of a poor fisherman and his wife.
Isaac, like many of the fishermen, doubled as lifeboat man. This dangerous job provided a small but additional income to the family with lifeboat men being paid a small sum every time they were called out. The lifeboats themselves were little more than large cobles and had to be rowed out to sea in the storms to reach the ships.
On the 9th February, the weather was bad and the lifeboat was called four times to rescue ships crews that were in distress off the Whitby coast. On one such occasion, Isaac was rowing out with his crewmates to help the crew of the ship “The Merchant”. According to reports, they had just cleared Whitby pier it became clear that the lifeboat was unequal to the task required of them that night. Two enormous waves collided with a third on the rebound, throwing the lifeboat completely out of the water and capsizing the boat. The lifeboat men were all thrown into the rough sea, a mere 200 feet from shore. At first the onlookers, who were unable to help, could see heads bobbing in the water but as wave after wave passed over them, all they could see was the backs of their men folk as they floated face down in the water, kept afloat by their lifebelts.
Every single one of the crew bar one, were drowned. Onlookers risked their lives to rescue the bodies and all but two were found. The bodies of Tyreman and Isaac Dobson were rescued from beneath the boat when it was washed to shore and it was reported that Great great grandpa Isaac was still warm when they pulled his body to land. It is possible that, had it happened in this day and age, he might have survived the hypothermia that probably killed him as he tried to survive under the upturned boat. Henry Freeman was the only survivor of the lifeboat disaster of 1861, saved by the new style cork lifebelt that he wore.
I often find it ironic that the man who survived gained fame and fortune whilst the 12 men who died seem to be largely forgotten to all but a few.
I feel immensely proud of this man who, like many unsung heroes, regularly risked his life to save others and who, sadly died doing just that.
In the RNLI lifeboat museum there is on display, a memorial card for Isaac Dobson that was produced in 1861. Unfortunately the museum was unable to inform me who had donated it but perhaps it was by another descendant of this man.
Various records show that Isaac was buried in St Mary's Churchyard, along with nine others who perished (two of the 12 never being found). On a recent trip to try and find his grave, I was informed that where the men were buried has now disappeared with the sea erosion so it is likely that Isaac has now been returned to the sea that took his life.
In St Mary’s Church, where Isaac married and was buried, there is a memorial to the 12 who perished that night, leaving 10 widows, 44 fatherless children and two other dependants. The crew were paid 11 shillings per voyage so Jane would have received 22 shillings. Poor recompense for the loss of a husband.
A national fund was raised of about £5,200 which was to provide aid to the widows and orphans of the brave seamen who perished.
I was rather stunned and, incensed, to recently read an article which stated that two of the widows were thrown off the list because of their immoral behaviour. One was reinstated and the other was not. Jane Dobson, my 3xgreat grandmother, was the one who was not reinstated because, it appears, she had the immorality to have an illegitimate child four years after Isaac's death. The child died, father unknown.
What incensed me was that in removing financial assitance from the fund, to penalise Jane for her behaviour, they also penalised Isaac's 7 surviving children. Whose behaviour was more immoral, the fund's aadministrators or great grannie, is open to debate.
Jane later remarried, about 1869, to Isaac Jackson, a bricklayer.
I have recently discovered that there was in existence, up until at least 1932, a painting of Isaac that was owned by his youngest daughter Elizabeth Cowham Dobson. One of Isaac's great grandsons could recall seeing it on his grandmother's wall and described it to me as a man in a peaked cap, a fishermans jersey and hair slightly long which curled under, possibly from the hat band. Sadly nothing is known of the picture's present whereabouts, if it has survived.
ELIZABETH COWHAM DOBSON was born June 4, 1861 in Whitby, almost four months to the day that her father died.
The family had moved to Stockton after THOMAS HODGSON died and it was here the paths of a young man of 21, JOHN THORPE, (a blacksmith from Pateley Bridge in N. Yorkshire) and the just- 15 year old ELIZABETH COWHAM DOBSON, crossed. How the age difference would be viewed then I am not sure, though I am sure that, if it were today, an eyebrow or two would be raised. At the time of their marriage in 1877, Elizabeth was lying on her marriage certificate, giving her age as 19 and her address was given as Percy St, Stockton, the same as John Thorpes. Whether he was a lodger in the family home or Elizabeth had proved to be something of a “wayward lass” I have yet to discover. The marriage certificate gives no hint as to whether the family knew or approved of the marriage, as the witnesses were names that I have never come across. Three months later their eldest child JOHN was born
Shortly after this, John and Elizabeth Thorpe moved to Pateley Bridge. If there had been any rift within the family it must have been mended as the portrait of Thomas Hodgson was handed down to his youngest grand daughter. Once in Pateley Bridge, John took up work as blacksmith in the town and they raised four children. In addition to the young John, there was also HANNAH JANE, THOMAS and SINCLAIR
JOHN THORPE came from a long line of Thorpes who had been in farming in the Pateley Bridge area since at least 1667 and were likely to have originated in the tiny hamlet of Thorpe, just a few miles down the Dales. Whilst in Pateley Bridge, they lived at Church Green, next door but one to John’s brother I don’t know what happened to his father but Elizabeth Cowham Dobson died on May 12, 1932 at Whittycroft Farm, Barrowford, Lancashire of kidney failure.
I looked for Whittycroft Farm on the maps but it no longer exists. Just outside Barrowford, in a district called Higherford there is a small housing estate and Whittycroft farm lies under these.
