John Timmings 1799-1884
Is there a repository or repositories I can contact to request the military file on a cabin boy, John Timmings or Temmings, age 15, serving in the War of 1812 in the Royal Navy in 1814 - 1816. His ship, the Linnet, was captured during the battle on Lake Champlain in New York State in September 1814 . He was then held by the Americans at Pittsfield, Maryland, until he was returned to England in 1815. I am looking for his parents or guardian in England that helped him join the Navy.
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@LaurieHill53 I have search through the military records that I could find I have found a John Timmings https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:68S7-4B15. I am not sure this is your John. This is just a muster roll. I am going to reach out to another leader to see if he can help. @Graham Buckell can you see if you can find something that I missed?
Kind Regards,
Shannon
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I am not very knowledgeable on military records. Certainly the record that @Shannon Potter Wilcox has found looks very promising. The original image is only available in a FamilySearch Centre.
Where did you find the information that you quoted?
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The best summary that I know of is on the UK National Archive's site on https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/royal-navy-ratings-up-to-1913/
The headline quote from there is
The Royal Navy did not keep individual service records on ratings before 1853, nor did it maintain comprehensive registers of personnel, so for service during this period you are largely confined to the following records (advice on how to search for them appears later on in this guide):
Ships’ musters and pay books: among the best records for a full picture of a ratings’ time in the Royal Navy. Once you have located a seaman in a muster roll or pay book you can trace his service both backwards and forwards from that date using other musters. Before you start you will need to know the name of at least one ship on which a rating served, with a rough date.
Certificates of Service: compiled by the Navy Pay Office from ships’ pay books to support applications for pensions, gratuities and medals.
Pension records: in the early 1800s pensions were more likely to be paid to warrant officers than ordinary seamen, but after 1834 pensions become more commonplace. Some Royal Navy pensioners lived at Greenwich Hospital – they are known as in-pensioners.
Allotment registers: from 1795, seamen could allot a portion of their wages to be paid directly to their families. These registers record the details.
(You need to look at the rest of the guide for other sources).
It seems to me that the entry found by @Shannon Potter Wilcox is a Ship's Muster. Whether it's the one that you need, we don't know. Assuming your story is correct, then the most obvious way to my thinking is to look for stuff for the Linnet in 1814. The National Archives catalogue has (e.g.) ADM 35/3543 Pay Book (not Muster) for Linnet for 1812-1815 and ADM 37/5637 Muster for the Linnet for Jan 1814 - 30 June 1814 (what's the betting that the next one was captured by the Yankees and never made it back? 😉) There are earlier books and lists. The idea is to find a book/list with the person in and hope that it says where they came from and where they're going to. Then hope you can hit pay dirt somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, I see nothing about availability online.
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Beware - I should have checked first - there are two Linnets at nearly the same time. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Linnet
@LaurieHill53 would appear to be interested in the 1813 one ("a 16-gun brig that operated on the Canadian Lakes"). The earlier one was captured off Madeira in 1813 - some of those TNA references may therefore describe the earlier one. It is almost certainly vital to get your head round the ships in question before looking for muster and pay lists that may or may not be relevant.
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I also found muster lists for the three ships he sailed on (the Linnet, the Psyche, and the Confiance) and researched the birthplace listed on one of the muster rolls ( Summerset County). He is not listed in any parish baptisms in that county in England around 1899-1902. I will do more research on these ships military records at the National Archives as you suggest. Thank you for your advice and suggestions.
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