Maclean Family Tree
George Wharrie
(1787-1875)

Rawdon Maclean
(1788-1863)

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George Wharrie plays an incidental but important role in the youth of William Maclean. At some point between the mid-1840s and 1850, William was "adopted" by George Wharrie, and on the night of the 1861 Census, William and George Wharrie were visitors at the home of Mary Darling, a relative by marriage to the Lockwood family for whom William was soon to work. Later William named his first daughter Catherine after Wharrie. George Wharrie himself makes only fleeting appearances in the public record. In the 1871 census, he can be found living with his unmarried niece Elizabeth Wharrie, and his occupation is described as "retired chemist". He died 2nd April 1875 age 88.

Who was George Wharrie and what was the family connection? 

Wharrie was a Yorkshireman, born on 14th May 1787, according to a memorial plaque in Liverpool cemetery. We know from the same plaque that he served in his youth as a midshipman in the Royal Navy. In 1805, he served on the HMS Colossus in the Battle of Trafalgar, at which Admiral Nelson was killed. Also wounded at the battle was another Colossus midshipman by the name of Rawdon Maclean. I can find no record of the birth of Rawdon Maclean or of any specific connection to my Maclean family, but it is tempting to see this as the connection between William Maclean and George Wharrie. Did Rawdon Maclean ask his good friend George Wharrie to look after his - what? nephew? - William? 

Despite his wounds (he lost his left arm on the Colossus), Rawdon Maclean went on to have a long and important career in the Royal Navy. Here is his obituary from the United Service Magazine (ref) in 1863:

"Captain Rawdon Maclean died suddenly at Dublin on November 8, aged 75. He entered the Navy, October 24, 1798, as First-Class Volunteer, on board Terpsichore, 32, Captain W. H. Gage, employed in the Mediterranean and then in the Channel, where, from October 1800 until April 1802, he served as Midshipman in Atlas, 98, Captain T. Jones. In October, 1803, he re-embarked on board Leopard, 60, Captain J. N. Morris ; on accompanying whom into Colossus, 74, he received, in the battle of Trafalgar, a severe wound ; a gratuity from the Patriotic Fund was his reward. He removed, in December, 1805, to Camilla, 20, Captain J. Tower, but had not been many months in that vessel before he was promoted, July 7, 1800, to the rank of Lieutenant, and re-appointed to Colossus, commanded at first by Capt. Morris, and subsequently by Capt. T. Alexander. In November, 1808, we find him serving on shore under Earl Dundonald, at the celebrated defence of the fortress of Rosas, on the north-eastern extremity of Spain. He commanded a gun-boat also during the siege of Cadiz by the French; and on December 1, 1811, he assisted at the capture and destruction of part of an enemy's convoy, protected by several armed vessels, near Rochelle. His health at length obliging him to leave Colossus in September, 1813, after he has been altogether for nearly nine years attached to her, he was next appointed to—January 31, and October 31, 1814, to the Royal Sovereign, 100, Captains T. G. Caulfield, Chas. T. Smith, and R. Lambert, and Stork, sloop, Captain R. Lisle Coulson, in which vessels he served in the Mediterranean and North Sea until September 18, 1815—and, November 26, 1822, as Senior, to Gloucester, 74, bearing the broad pendant of Sir Edward W. C. R. Owen in the West Indies. He was there promoted to the command, July 1, 1823, of Bustard, 10. He removed, in the following October, to Carnation, 18, and after cruising with activity in the suppression of piracy, returned home, and was paid off in July, 1825. From October 1, 1841, until December 1, 1843, Com. Maclean was Superintendent of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in the West Indies; and at the time of his death he was the Examiner at the Dublin Marine Board."

According to the British Naval Biographical Dictionary of 1849, he married in Sept 1829 and had one son and one daughter. His son appears to have been Charles Rawden Maclean (1815-1880) later a celebrated adventurer and writer (under the name "John Ross"). Having joined the merchant navy at the age of 10, the boy was shipwrecked off the coast of Southern Africa and became the favourite of a Zulu king. That story is summarised here

 

  Do you have further information on any of the other people mentioned on this page? Please contact me at simon@tesler.co.uk. My full family tree, which contains almost 1500 individuals, is posted at GenesReunited and Ancestry. Contact me for access.