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Note: BLACK Janet Black was christened on the 28th of May 1767 in AE, and died on the 26th June 1829,AE (this latter information is contained in a will). She was the third child of James Black Jnr, born 1742, merchant, and Helen Hodge, born 1744. James was the son of James Black Snr, also a merchant, and Janet Bennet; this couple was married in Carnbee, the home of many individuals bearing the Black name, but all their children are recorded in the AE parish register. Helen Hodge was the daughter of John Hodge, a baker, and Beatrix Lowson (or Lawson); Beatrix was the daughter of Patrick Lowson Snr, a weaver, and Isabell Young, all of Anstruther Easter. James Black Snr and Janet Bennet had a set of twins, John and Johnston Black, in 1740; their son James Jnr and Helen Hodge also had twins, Beatrix and James,born 1775. This latter James became Captain James Black RN; his older brother William, born 1771, became Rear-Admiral William Black; for more details see below. The following is from Stephanie Stevenson's book "Anstruther":- James Black, born in Anstruther Easter in 1775 in a house on the shore, attended the burgh school and was generally known a "daring Jimmie". He entered the Royal Navy at an early age, reaching the rank of lieutenant in 1799, and was wounded in the battle of Trafalgar on the Mars. Until a few years ago the ship's figurehead stood in a corner of the garden overlooking the sea. A subsequent Mars became a a training ship for boys, a kind of reform school, and was anchored in the Tay of Wormit. In East Fife a familiar parental warning to recalcitrant children was that they would be sent to the Mars if they did not behave. James Black was commissioned commander in 1810 and in 1813 as Captain of HMS Weasel was engaged in several running battles with the French fleet. He and his crew were commended for their gallantry, perseverance and steadiness, and later again he was commended "for his zeal and his unwearied endeavours to forward the public service". In 1815 Capt. Black was nominated a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and was decorated by the Austrian government, being created a Knight of the Imperial Order of Maria Theresa: his successful campaign against the French was fought in the Adriatic in what were then Austrian waters. He was admitted a burgess and freeman of Anstruther Wester in 1825 and died in December 1835 on his return to Anstruther in a smack from London to Leith. In his will Captain Black left his new house Marsfield to his elder brother, Rear Admiral William Black.[...] Marsfield was inherited in 1853 by the admiral's "nearest and lawful heir", James Watterston of the family of shipmasters. The following is from Gourlay's "Fisher Life": ADMIRAL BLACK.- Rear Admiral William Black, on the retired list of 1846, died 8th November 1852, aged 83. He was born in Anstruther-Easter, and entered the navy in 1793; served on the glorious 1st of June; was in Lord Bridport's action; in Sir R.C. Strachan's action as first Lieutenant of the Egyptienne, captured in her boats a letter of marque, of greatly superior force; was in the Cambrian in the expedition to Copenhagen; was promoted, November 1809, to the command of the Racoon sloop, and was posted in 1814. Altogether he served afloat 22 years. To the minister and kirk-session of his native place he has bequeathed £1400 in 3 1/4 government stock, free of legacy tax, £1000 of which is for the poor and £400 for educational purposes. The name of Black having always a preferable claim. Also from Gourlay's Fishing Life: "Marsfield, the residence of W.T. Jamieson, was built about sixty years ago by the hero sailor, Sir James Black. The figurehead of his ship (the "Mars", 74) looks proudly over the bulwarks. He twice nailed the colours to the mast at Trafalgar, and was put in command of one of the prizes, an 84 line-of-battle ship, captured at Copenhagen in 1807. The vessel came to anchor in Yarmouth Roads on the night of a fearful gale. The moorings parted. "Lost! lost!" shrieked the pilot, leaping overboard, as the keel grated on the sands; but one heart did not quail - the captain, seizing an axe, cut away the masts, and thus saved the lives of the eight hundred in the ship. He was invited to the palace in the autumn of 1835 by his old shipmate, William the IV. "Black, I so wished to see you," cried the King, grasping both his hands. The sum of £250 was added to his pension, with the right to assume his Austrian honours; but, alas! he died on his way to the Forth." Gourlay again: from his section about St. Adrian's (East Anstruther) churchyard: "The grave of one of Nelson's heroes lies at the foot of the modest panel on which you read - "Sacred to the memory of Captain James Black, R.N., Commander of the Most Noble Order of the Bath, and Knight of the Imperial Order of the Bath, and Knight of the Imperial Order of Maria Theresa, who died 6th December, 1835, aged 60. Erected by his brother, Captain William Black, R.N., 1836. " He lies by the side of his devoted mother, who died in the spring of 1840, in her 97th year. It was her flaxen-haired cousin Margaret Hodge who [...] was by-and-by the mother of the distinguished surgeon Sir William Ferguson."
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