| Nathaniel PORTLOCK's naval exploits have been well documented. http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html He sailed with Captains Cook and Bligh amongst others and corresponded widely including with Joseph Banks. His own work about his round the world voyage 1785 -1788 in available on demand from http://www.abebooks.com for a modest sum.  Public Advertiser (London, England), Wednesday April 8 1789 The book "Voyage Around the World : but More Particularly to the Northwest Coast of America" (London, 1789; ) is not so much a coherent narrative but is more a reproduction of the ship's log although at the time of publication it must have been widely read and appreciated. PORTLOCK is very important to the RUBIDGES as the sponsor of his nephews Robert Henry and Charles Rubige into the Royal Navy. We could argue that this sponsorship was crucially important to the lads' lives and apart from enabling adventure on an undreamed of scale, also enabled Robert and Charles to rise above their relatively humble backgrounds and to join an enterprising seafaring family which included the GILMOURs and the GOREs. Nathaniel Portlock was appointed one of the Captains of Greenwich Hospital in 1816 but he died on 12th September 1817. He was buried in the Hospital burial grounds and a memorial tablet erected which was destroyed in the bombing of London during WW2. He left a will naming his and Elizabeth's four surviving children.http://pages.quicksilver.net.nz/jcr/~cookmen9.html Elizabeth lived until 1843 and also left a will. In 1841 she is found on the census living in Rochester, Kent with her daughter Mary and son-in-law William DADSON, a drawing master. She had six children, three of whom survived to adulthood: Eliza b 1785, Joseph Ellison b 1795 and Mary Campbell b abt 1799 who married Mr Dadson above. Eliza married Brown COLLISON, and died in 1880 in Michigan, USA. Joseph Ellison became an geologist of renown and Major-General in the Royal Engineers. He married Julia BROWNE in Ireland in 1831. He died in 1864. | It has been thought that Elizabeth and Nathaniel Portlock cared for The two Rubidge boys after their mother died but from their navy records, it appears that their Royal Navy sponsorship started some years before Margaret Ann Rubidge died in 1800. Charles RUBIDGE, in his autobiographical sketch http://rubidge.googlepages.com/JAutobioSketch written in 1870, states that his mother died in 1795 aged 30 and that , "as she was a sister of the late Elizabeth Portlock,
the wife of Capt. Nathaniel Portlock, R.N.I was committed to their care for a short time, and sent to
school at Gosport".
Charles entered the Navy in 1796 and Robert Henry in 1799 which was before their mother died in 1800. This suggests that the two brothers did not accompany their parents to Dublin between 1791 and 1795, or at least not for the entire period, and that they either before or shortly after 1795 joined their aunt and their young Portlock cousins in Gosport. Part of the GILMOUR family were two naval officers, John, b 1779 son of Charles and Margaret GILMOUR, who was the first cousin of the Rubidge boys' mother Margaret Ann. Nathaniel GILMOUR, also of Gosport, Margaret Ann's uncle, had two children, Sarah b about 1777 and an adopted son David b1773. We know David was adopted as his father's will of 1808 refers to him as such. The only baptism certificates we have for John and David are those certified copies included in their navy records, specifically their passing for lieutenant files. John's copy shows his parents as Charles and Margaret Gilmour of the parish church of Abergavenny while David's show his father as Nathaniel Gilmour of the parish of Portsea, Southampton; his mother is not mentioned. These certified copies were not always accurate: Charles Rubidge's copy, for example, shows a birth in 1783 rahter than his true birth of 1787 which meant he could pass for lieutenant at age 20 from his certified copy rather than the true copy in he parish register. I am not suggesting that the copies of either David's or John's baptism is not accurate but we need to keep an open mind as to both place and date of birth if these are the only records we have.  |
