Borrowdale
Specifications
18 or 19 October 1786 – Deptford Officers to Navy Board.
Borrowdale H. Read 27226/94 1.5 years 5’8” 5’9” 6’9” (TNA ADM 106/3321/94; TNA ADM 106/3364/77)
14 November 1786 - Navigation Act Pass:
Borrowdale 263 tons. 4 guns H. Reid 13/4 crew (TNA ADM7/104, No.3457)
21 April 1789 – In the Accounts of the Receiver of Sixpences for Greenwich Hospital, she was listed as 272 tons. (TNA ADM68/206)
Owner at First Fleet
William Leighton – The family was from County Durham. William was the son of George Leighton of Bishop Wearmouth, a merchant, and the grandson of William Leighton of Ryhope. He was born around 1750.
His father died in October 1774, and he seems to have moved to London around 1779, and in that year he seems to have lived in Wapping. He is listed among the subscribers following a fire at St John of Wapping. (Morning Chronicle & London Advertiser, 19 April 1779)
1786 is the first year in which we presently have a record of his home address at Charlton, Kent, a community close to the river at Greenwich. Throughout the 1780s and 1790s, his name in the ships’ registers is almost always ‘William Leighton of Charlton in the County of Kent, Merchant’. In 1800, Leighton acquired the lease of Kemnall House at Chislehurst in Kent, which had been the residence of Lord Chief Baron Macdonald of the Court of Exchequer. (Daniel Lysons, ‘The Environs of London’, 1811, p.443)
He was evidently deeply involved in the coal trade. His ships regularly sailed to and from Newcastle. Many of them were built at Whitby. In 1787, he was joint owner of the Arnold Polly with Benjamin Kennett, Junior, a coal merchant. And in 1790, Leighton’s address in the register for the William, was given as ‘The Coal Exchange, London’.
Leighton took up five Navy Board contracts for transportation to New South Wales, and after 1793, seems to have had several military transportation contracts with the Board.
23 April 1826 – William Leighton died at his residence, Kemnall House, in Kent, aged 74.
History of the Ship
1785 – Built at Sunderland.
12 April 1785 – The Borrowdale, Hobson Reed, entered the Port of London from Newcastle. (Public Advertiser, 14 April 1785)
22 May 1785 – The Borrowdale, Reed entered into the Port of London with the Fishburn, Woodcock and the Golden Grove, Thompson, from Newcastle. (Public Advertiser, 25 May 1785)
There is no mention of her in the London papers after that, so it is possible she was sent direct from Newcastle to some overseas port.
18 or 19 October 1786 – Deptford Officers to Navy Board.
Borrowdale H. Reach 27226/94 1.5 years 5’8” 5’9” 6’9” (TNA ADM 106/3321/94; TNA ADM 106/3364/77)
14 November 1786 - Navigation Act Pass:
Borrowdale 263 tons. 4 guns H. Reid 13/4 crew (TNA ADM7/104, No.3457)
13 May 1787 – Sailed from the Mother Bank with the First Fleet.
14 July 1788 – Sailed from Sydney Cove in company with the Alexander, Prince of Wales and Friendship. (Journal of the Borrowdale,TNA ADM51/4375)
1788 – Lloyd’s Register. Built at Sunderland in 1785. 340 tons. Sheathed in 1786. Owned by Leighton. Master: H. Reed. (Lloyd’s Register, 1789)
15 April 1789 – She moored abreast of the Red House at Deptford. (Journal)
18 April 1789 – The Borrowdale paid off her crew and the log closed. (Journal)
21 April 1789 – According to the Accounts of the Receiver of Sixpences for Greenwich Hospital, the last of the men left the ship on this date. She was listed as 272 tons, with a usual crew of 17. (TNA ADM68/206)
1 May 1789 – The Borrowdale, Reed, arrived at Sunderland to repair after her voyage to Botany Bay. (Caledonian Mercury, 11 May 1789, p.3)
31 October 1789 – The Borrowdale was lost at Yarmouth in a great storm that hit the English coast. (Navigation Pass, No.3457 of 1786, TNA ADM7/104)
4 November 1789 – Diary or Woodfall’s Register:
"The following vessels have suffered damage, &c. in Yarmouth Road, in the gale of wind on Friday night: The Borrowdale, Reed, of Sunderland, only one man saved. . ." (Diary or Woodfall’s Register, 4 November 1789)
7 November 1789 – Morning Post & Daily Advertiser:
"The following circumstance, however extraordinary, we have no doubt of being true: - before the Borrowdale left Newcastle last week, one of the boys belonging to her dreamed that the vessel would be lost in her passage to London, which impressed his mind so strongly, that he would not sail in her, but came in another ship that arrived safe. The Borrowdale was lost in the late storm." (Morning Post & Daily Advertiser, 7 November 1789)
A list of ships lost in the recent storm (Norfolk Chronicle, 7 November 1789):
"Borrowdale, Read, from Sunderland, totally lost on Cockle Sand, one man saved, captain and 15 men drowned." (p.2)
9 November 1789 – The Reading Mercury reported the following:
"One of the ships lost in the late storm was on her return from Botany Bay, but had put into Newcastle for a cargo of coal." (Reading Mercury, 9 November 1789, p.2)
