dedication

This notebook has just recently come to light and is a booklet which he wrote while incarcerated in France for 10 years 1808 - 1818. There he records twenty five steps for the building a" Marchant ship" (I guess he didn't want to forget the skills that he had learned.) Also, there is a listing of many ships build by the British Navy and their details; and what he calls his" Catechism", which is nothing more than his Masonic Ritual.

You may recall that he had been indentured for 5 years at Paspébiac where he learned the trade of shipbuilding. He learned his skills from Mr. James Day, Master shipbuilder for Charles Robin at Paspébiac. In an 1808 letter of which we have a copy, his father warned him not to attempt to return to Jersey as he might be captured and spend years in a prison camp in France. The young lad disregarded his father’s advice and attempted a return to Jersey; was captured by the French and imprisoned. However, before leaving Gaspé he saw a young girl, Margaret Coffin, still in the cradle, and the oral story is that he said he would be back to marry her.

Effectively, when released from prison he did return to Gaspé and must have reconnected with her very quickly, for we have a copy of what is called her "Account Book" which is not an account book at all but a textbook on calculation of weights and measures. When she wrote that booklet, and I presume she did it, she was only 12 years old (1820). They waited until she was 16; in1824 before getting a license to marry.