Orion Gallery

Official No. 26008: Code Letters PJHT.

Owners: 1846 registered at Pictou, Nova Scotia Official No. 9023537; 1846 Sinnot & Co, Wexford, Ireland; 1854 Liverpool; 1856 James Perry (Seaton Carew) Thomas Johnson Jewels (North Shields) & John McIntyre (Jarrow) & Hartlepool; August 1862 George Pyman & Co, Hartlepool.

Masters: 1847-53 P Connor; 1863 Atkins.

Voyages: 1847 Liverpool for the Mediterranian; December 1863 she stranded near Hertshals.

James Perry senior owned and managed ships from the 1850s. By 1860 he was advertising the buying and selling of ships, mainly for the timber trade.

James Perry senior formed the company of J. Perry & Sons which went into liquidation. In December 1875 the London Gazette printed bankruptcy proceedings for J. Perry & Sons, Merchants, Brokers and Commission Agents at West Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. The partners were; James Perry the elder, Matthew Forrest Perry and James Perry the younger.

In May 1884 the partnership as steamship owners between James Perry senior, James Perry junior and Walter Raimes was dissolved. Around this time James Perry junior would have taken over the company’s reigns and the company became James Perry & Co., of West Hartlepool & London.

At the Board of Trade Inquiry into the loss of the steamer William Hartmann in August of 1883 near the Hook of Holland James Perry junior was given as the owner. In a statement he said that his name did not appear on the register ‘as he believed, it was not originally his property’.

Family History:

James Perry was born in 1820 at Southwick, Durham to parents James and Alice (Hewison) Perry. In November 1844 at South Shields he married Mary Forrest Shotton whose uncle, Matthew Forrest, was a shipowner. James was listed in the 1851 census as living at Wallsend and working as a grocer. By 1861 he and his wife were at Seaton Carew and James was listed as a shipowner. By 1881 the couple were living at The Square, Stockton. Mary died aged 63 on 31^st March 1886 at Glaisdale. She was interred at Seaton Carew. In 1891 James was living as a boarder at 15 Durham Street, Bishop Auckland.

James died aged 81 at Bishop Auckland in 1901.

James Perry junior was born in 1849 at Newcastle-on-Tyne to parents James and Mary (nee Shotton) Perry. By 1871 he was living with his parents and five siblings at Raglan Place, Stranton, West Hartlepool. He married Margaret Allison (daughter of Jacob Allison, shipowner) in September 1873 at Hartlepool. The couple had two sons and three daughters during their marriage. On the 1881 census the couple were living at Moor Terrace, Hartlepool with their two sons and a daughter with James working as a shipbroker. By 1891 they had moved to Lewisham and by 1901 to West Ham, Essex with James as an insurance agent for Prudential. Margaret died aged 65 in 1916.

Matthew Forrest Perry was born in 1847 to parents James and Mary (Shotton) Perry at Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 1871 he was living with his parents at Stranton, West Hartlepool and was working as a commercial clerk. Matthew married Jane Rickinson in August 1873 at Norton.  They had three children during their marriage. By 1881 the couple were living at Stowmarket, Suffolk with Matthew working as an engineer’s clerk.

Matthew died aged 43 in the first quarter of 1891 at Lewisham.

Walter Raimes was born in 1855 at Acaster Malbis, Yorkshire to parents John (farmer) and Isabella (Cundall) Raimes.  He began his working life as a grocer’s assistant. By 1881 he was a boarder with the Perry family at Stockton and working as a grocer’s assistant

Walter died aged 75 at Stockton in 1930.

George Pyman was born in May 1822 in Sandsend, North Yorkshire. He went to sea as an apprentice and by 1843 he was Master of the vessel Nameless.

He married Elizabeth English in 1843 and they had two daughters and seven sons.

In 1850 he left the sea and the family settled in West Hartlepool where he went into partnership with his brother-in-law Francis English, as grocers and ship chandlers. In about 1854 he changed direction and went into partnership with Thomas Scurr as shipbrokers for the local collieries. They owned shares in a number of sailing vessels. Other shareholders included Francis English, John Smurthwaite, Thomas Wood & Ralph Ward Jackson.

Thomas Scurr died in 1861 and George then formed his own company as George Pyman & Co. In 1865 he purchased his first steamship, the George Pyman, and gradually shares in the brigs were sold off. Eventually the company became the largest owners of steamships in the north of the U.K.

In 1873 Thomas Bell of Newcastle joined as a partner in the firm. From 1879 the company opened branches in Hull, Grimsby, Immingham and Glasgow. When George retired in 1882 the Bell family took over the running of the company.

Pyman, Watson & Co. was set up in Cardiff in 1874 by John, one of George’s sons along with Thomas Edward Watson and Francis and Frederick, another two of his sons, set up Pyman Bros. in London in 1903. Some of these companies ships were registered in West Hartlepool.

George was elected a Poor Law Guardian in 1861, an Improvement Commissioner in 1868, and was sitting on the Durham County Bench from 1872. In 1879 he was appointed Vice Consul for Belgium and in 1888 was elected the second Mayor of West Hartlepool. In 1895 he received the honour of being made a Freeman of the Borough. George died in November 1900 at his home, Raithwaite Hall.

There is a wealth of further information in Peter Hogg’s book ‘The Pyman Story’.