Passenger Lists from New York to England for just after 20th February 1882

I checked Ancestry's database "UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960" but did not find any Webster passenger in the year 1882.

Ancestry includes this information regarding the records: "....many of the pre-1890 lists were irregularly destroyed by the Board of Trade in 1900. Therefore, there are not many lists included in this database that date from these earlier years."

Source of the Original data: Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Series BT26, 1,472 pieces.

What information are you trying to find from the passenger list?

I checked Ancestry's database "UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960" but did not find any Webster passenger in the year 1882.

Ancestry includes this information regarding the records: "....many of the pre-1890 lists were irregularly destroyed by the Board of Trade in 1900. Therefore, there are not many lists included in this database that date from these earlier years."

Source of the Original data: Board of Trade: Commercial and Statistical Department and successors: Inwards Passenger Lists. Kew, Surrey, England: The National Archives of the UK (TNA). Series BT26, 1,472 pieces.

What information are you trying to find from the passenger list?

Randal Eden Webster was the Colonial Secretary of Bermuda from 1877 and he absconded from Bermuda on the SS Orinoco in Feb 1882 with his family and the last records i can find of him were on the passenger arrivals list in New York on 20th Feb which said his final destination was England. He stole about 1,000 pounds from the British Crown in Bermuda before he absconded. He was a compulsive gambler and a newspaper reporter from Bermuda in 1882 said he left debts in both Bermuda and New York. He re-appears again in Durban, South Africa in about September 1882 under a new name John Webster. So I'm trying to figure out if he in fact left New York and travelled back to England straight away as Randal Eden Webster or did he live in New York (hence the debts he owed there?), then change his name in the USA to John Webster and travel directly to South Africa from the USA or indirectly eg. via South America. If there are no records of Webster's travelling from New York to England in 1882 then they must have stayed in New York and travelled from the USA to South Africa. I have a letter written by him on 2nd Feb 1883 in Durban, South Africa and a testimonial written by a Police Superintendent on 17th March 1883 that said he knew John Webster from when he arrived in South Africa " about 6 months ago" i.e. about Sept 1882. Ironically, John Webster worked for the Police in the British Colony of Natal, South Africa for many years and then as the Chief Clerk to the Master of the Natal Supreme Court for about 10 years until he retired in 1905. Even though the British Crown had a warrant out for the arrest of Randal Eden Webster in 1882, nobody ever connected him to John Webster. He died in Estcourt, South Africa in 1918 with his secret still intact. I have a researcher in South Africa checking arrivals in 1882. Unfortunately, passenger records were only kept in South Africa from 1890 so the only records of passenger arrivals pre-dating 1890 are newspaper records of arrivals which only list the cabin passengers names and no names of passengers in steerage. Hence my hope that i can find him and his family on a ship leaving the USA and track him that way to fill in what he was up to in the missing 7 months of 1882. He was my Great Grand Father on my Mom's side - she has been horrified by his past of which her family knew very little.              

Wow! That's interesting! You have your work cut out for you! If there are no records of his travelling to England, however, that does not prove he didn't travel there, since passenger records have been destroyed.

I wonder what the typical travel duration was from New York to England to South Africa in 1882...? but I guess that would depend on the route, of course...

According to this, Randal Webster was telling folks that he was going to Niagara Falls, so, given his criminal activity, I'm guessing that he did NOT go to Niagara Falls!

The steamship Assyrian Monarch owned by the Monarch Line which docked in New York on Tuesday 21st February 1882 (a day after the Webster family arrived in New York from Bermuda) would have been the quickest direct sailing to London as the Assyrian Monarch sailed this route regularly, taking about 2 weeks to complete the journey. It was scheduled to sail on the 25th but was delayed and finally sailed on the 28th Feb 1882 (New York Times - 1st March 1882). Docked 14th March 1882 in London at Gravesend (The Times London - 15th March). I can't find the passenger list anywhere. 

The sailing from the UK to South Africa took about 30 days in mail steamships and there were weekly sailings from a number of UK ports with some of the vessels calling all South African ports and other stopping in Cape Town on their way to Australia.

That newspaper clip is a fantastic find. So it appears that he did not sail to England with the family as the agent supposedly saw him after his family sailed to England. With Niagara Falls being on the Canadian border I  wonder if he did not cross into Canada and sail to the UK from somewhere like Halifax, maybe as his alias John Webster. Or, the Niagara story could have been a red herring to confuse as it would have been natural for the British authorities trying to trace him to start with the shipping line he used to sail from Bermuda. Which site did you use for the USA newspapers to find this clipping as i might join the site and trawl for other info. Newspapers are incredible sources as i found the only evidence of a wife (Ellen) he abandoned in Brisbane, Australia through a newspaper advert. I can't find a marriage certificate but he left her and found another wife in Sydney in 1868 that he had 10 children with.(no marriage certificate for her either). So, he left a trail of debt from England to Australia then Bermuda and USA finally ending up in South Africa - a truly global criminal which was quite a feat in the 1800's. He was born in Nice, France 1n 1837 and brought up there as a French speaker (probably an illegitimate child from a French mistress and his well to do British father) - no marriage certificate or even a birth certificate. He said he was closely related to Lord Alverston a British aristocrat (Richard Everard Webster) but I can't find a legitimate connection. This was mentioned in his obituary published in a newspaper in 1918.  His exploits would make an interesting book or period film.   

The Brisbane Courier Mail, 28th February 1866 & 5th April 1866

Empire Newspaper - Sydney, Saturday, 16 Jan 1875

New South Wales Police Gazette - Sydney,  20th January 1875

Success!!! I found the ship (SS Lessing) that the wife and children travelled on from New York through USA & UK newspapers from Newspaperarchives.com. They sailed on 24th Feb from NY arrived Plymouth on Mon 6th March 1882. The father was not on board so am still searching for him. The wife and kids disembarked in Plymouth because her Welsh mother was still alive (a widower) living in Powys, Wales. (1881 Census). I guess that's where the family lay low until moving to South Africa so the father would have joined them there at a later date. There were ships sailing from Plymouth to South Africa weekly so easy to sail from there.

Another unsolved mystery I have is: he had an older son Arthur who was 12 yrs old (probably left school and working) when they left Bermuda in Feb 1882. It appears the family left him behind as he's not on the passenger lists. Arthur, who was born in Sydney in Oct 1869 (baptism record), also ends up in South Africa but as yet I don't know his movements. - next project!!

Your newspaper clipping was the breakthrough I needed as I then knew I was looking for the wife and kids sailing without him. So thanks very much you are a STAR!!!