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Shouler Family History

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Careys, Coles and Cases

We now come to the history of my Grandmother’s family. Her maiden name was Doris Freda Carey and this branch of the family had it’s recent origins in the Pill, Somerset and Bristol areas of the country, although in more historic times it is likely that the Carey’s were migrants from Ireland. Bristol was a great centre for Irish immigration and my Great Uncle, Lancelot William Carey, said that the Carey family had originated in Waterford, Ireland.

The Carey family, traditionally, were operating in the Bristol Channel Pilot service and the earliest relative of this branch of the family with this occupation, found so far, is William Carey (baptised 2 Aug 1798), the son of William and Mary Carey. William (junior) is described as ‘Pilot’ on the Marriage certificate of his son John George Carey, who also became a Pilot. John Carey married Elizabeth Hookway on 21st. February 1861 (photograph below - ‘Grandma Hookway’) and ‘Grandma Hookway’ apparently had a great deal of trouble with Captain John Carey, because of his ‘over-fondness for strong drink’, but he eventually signed the Pledge on the death of his son William Henry Carey in 1899. John Carey and his wife had four sons and two daughters, of the sons William Henry (my GG grandfather, born in 1864) also became a Bristol Channel Pilot and was the father of Doris Freda, by his wife Edith Fanny (née Coles). Edith’s parents were Joseph Coles and Mary (née Avery of the ‘Avery Scales’ family) married on 13th. January 1853 in St. Thomas Church Bristol. According to Great Aunt Clarissa, Mary Avery’s mother ’Grandma Avery’ was a stern woman - ’something of a tartar’, nothing else is known. The photograph of her (below) is the earliest photograph in the family archives. No photograph of Mary Avery survives.

Pigot’s Directory of Bristol 1830, has a John Carey listed as a Pilot, this John Carey is also a son of William Carey (senior) and Mary.

William Henry Carey (1864 – 1899), was a Bristol Channel Pilot, living in Pill in Somerset. His cutter, reputedly named the ‘Doris Freda’, was built in Fowey, Cornwall at a cost of £400. The picture below is believed to be this cutter, taken from Portishead with Denny Island in the background.

William Henry married Edith Fanny Coles circa 1888, they had 6 children, Doris Freda (1893 - 1977), Clarissa Maud (1890 - 1980), Annice Eviva (1898 – 1930), Edith Mary Elizabeth (1885 – 1911) and Lancelot William (1896 – 1975), Howard Carey died in infancy at the age of 6 months (1888).

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Click on some images to enlarge.

Elizabeth Carey (Grandma Hookway)		Grandma Avery (Mary Avery’s mother)
William Henry – Bristol Channel Pilot	William Henry and Edith Fanny Carey (née Coles)	Card of William Henry Carey – Pilot Pill, Near Bristol
Grave of W.H. Carey and daughter, Easton in Gordano Church.	Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter ‘Doris Freda’ - taken from Portishead with Denny Island in the background.		Funeral report of William Henry.Carey

William Henry Carey died tragically at the early age of 35 in 1899 leaving Edith Fanny with 5 children. Fanny with some help from the Carey family set up a grocery shop in Pill village which she ran for some years until she married Arthur Case (1877 – 1938), her second husband, in 1905. Arthur Case was the son of Richard Case, an old seafarer and Bristol Channel Pilot. Arthur was put to sea when he left school at the age of 13, on a full-rugged sailing ship and served in the wool trade to Australia and later in the Guano trade from South America. After his marriage to Edith Fanny he gave up deep sea sailing and became Boatswain on a P and A Campbell’s paddle steamer, taking passengers on excursions down the Bristol channel to Barry and Ilfracombe etc. Arthur ended his working life as a Hobbler in Pill, helping with the mooring/un-mooring etc. of ships in Bristol. The Hobblers had a hut on the riverbank at Pill (‘the air blue with strong tobacco smoke, whilst the played cards and dominoes’) and when a ship was expected they would row up to Bristol in a heavy clinker-built longboat.

Arthur Case’s copy of Norie’s Navigation

Arthur Case

Edith Fanny at about the time of her marriage to Arthur Case in 1905

The Harbour Pill

P & A Campbell Paddle Steamer

Lancelot William Carey worked for the Ministry of Labour in Bristol and later as manager of the Smethwick branch, and then in London in the travelling Inspectorate, he was awarded the OBE in 1949.

Clarissa Maud Carey married Jose de Freitas in (from a family of vineyard owners in Madeira), they went to live in Madeira as hoteliers.

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Copyright © 2006 P. Shouler