Henry Bailey Ella

Henry Bailey Ella (November 3, 1826 - February 16, 1873) was a captain and mate on Hudson's Bay Company ships and a pilot for the Vancouver Island, today part of British Columbia.

Henry Bailey Ella was born on Tower Hill, London on November 3, 1826. He ran away to sea in 1835 at the age of 9. In 1840, at age 14, he became apprenticed to William Edwards for a period of 5 years. (Document of Indenture, January 1, 1840, BC Archives, PR-2199 Ella family fonds, E/B/El51.9, folder 5) Between 1840 and 1845, Henry served aboard the 145-ton schooner, Gil Blas. (Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, 1847-2, p.14) Henry’s Second-Class Seaman certificate was issued by the Trinity Board examining house in London on September 17, 1846. He was 20 years old. (ibid.)

On October 28th, 1846, Henry entered the service of the Hudson’s Bay Company. (Abstracts of Accounts, N. & W. Depts, HBC) In 1847 he was appointed 2nd Mate of the brig Mary Dare (HBC online record) and sailed from England to Fort Victoria via the HBC trading station in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) with Captain James Cooper in command. Soon thereafter, Henry sailed to all the HBC forts in the Pacific Northwest, as far north as Fort Taku, at 60 degrees latitude. (Henry Bailey Ella’s letter to his brother, Samuel Ella, in Samoa, December 31, 1848, State Library NSW, Sydney A202: S. Ella corresp. Vol. 1)

In April 1848, Henry was promoted from the brigantine Mary Dare to service aboard the barque Cowlitz. (ibid.)

On March 25, 1850 Henry returned to Fort Victoria from London as 2nd Mate on the Norman Morison during its first voyage. (Cleghorn, Joan McIlmoyl, U.E. The Norman Morison 150th Celebration Committee Presents a Compendium: Being Reflections and Anecdotes of the Company of Adventurers’ Servants’ Voyages to the Colony of Vancouver Island and Thereafter, 1849-1850, 1851-1851, 1852-1853, Victoria, 2003) Henry obtained his First Mate's certificate of competency in London on May 16th, 1851 (Figure HBE6, from BC Archives, PR-2199 Ella family fonds, E/B/El51.9, folder 4), which indicates that he had returned home to London around the same time as the Norman Morison. He was chief officer on the 2nd voyage of the Norman Morison, but only for the first leg of the voyage: departing England on May 24, 1851 and arriving at Fort Victoria on October 30, 1851. (Ship’s Log records at HBC Archives (C. 1/614, fos. 1-1d, 2, and a crew list in the BC Archives J/G/N78).

In June 1852, Henry was appointed 1st Mate on the Recovery in the Columbia Shipping Department. (M. of C. – N. H. -- June 1852, HBC)

Henry served on the Norman Morison once again, on the return leg of the 3rd voyage: departing Fort Victoria on March 16, 1953 and arriving in London on August 1, 1853. His brother-in-law, William Bull, who was married to Henry’s sister, Louisa Hannah Ella, referenced this event in his Nov 3rd, 1853 letter to Samuel Ella in Samoa. (Additional sources: HBC Archives online record, BC Archives record W/E14R, Certificate of Discharge and Certificate of Character from London, signed by Captain David Wishart, August 15, 1853, PR-2199 Ella family fonds, E/B/El51.9, folder 6)

Henry received his master’s certificate on October 14th, 1853. (ibid.)

From 1853 to 1859 Henry also served as Mate aboard the HBC vessels Otter, Recovery, and Beaver. (Martha Cheney's Diary, BC Archives, Martha Ella fonds PR-1542, E/B/El5)

Henry married Martha Beeton Cheney, nine years his junior, at Bilston Farm in Metchosin, a few miles west of Fort Victoria, on July 19th, 1855. (Victoria, A History in Architecture, Segger & Franklin, p.257, Heritage Architectural Guides, Victoria, British Columbia, 1979, and Martha Cheney's diary, BC Archives, Martha Ella fonds PR-1542, E/B/El5) Martha had accompanied her uncle and aunt, Thomas and Ann Blinkhorn, to Fort Victoria aboard the sailing barque Tory in late 1850. (The Pioneer Women of Vancouver Island, N. de Bertrand Lugin, p. 123, The Women's Canadian Club, Victoria, British Columbia, 1928) Captain James Cooper had convinced Thomas Blinkhorn to join him in a farming venture. In June of 1851 Captain Cooper gave the HBC a down payment on an un-surveyed, 385-acre plot of land in Metchosin, on the overland route from Sooke to the Fort. Blinkhorn was the superintendent of Bilston Farm.

The couple had seven children: Elizabeth Annie, Louisa Martha Blinkhorn, Thomas Richards, Marion Florence Low, Frederick, Henry Reece, and Mary. (Footprints, Marion I. Helgesen, p.60, Metchosin School Museum Society, 1983)

In 1856 Henry sailed to the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i) numerous times onboard the Recovery under the command of Captain William “Billy” Mitchell. (The Reminiscences of Doctor John Sebastian Helmcken, Edited by Dorothy Blakey Smith, p. 132, University of British Columbia Press, 1975)

Shortly after Thomas Blinkhorn’s death in 1856, Mrs. Blinkhorn and the Ella's moved into a cottage just outside the Fort, at the northwest corner of Yates Street and Broad Street. (On the Street Where You Live, pp. 78-79, Danda Humphreys, Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd., Surrey, British Columbia)

HBC records indicate that from 1860 to 1863 Henry was employed as a clerk in Victoria. Captain John T. Walbran claimed that Henry assisted Captain George Henry Richards, R.N., as a pilot during Richards’ surveys aboard H.M.S. Plumper in 1858 and H.M.S. Hecate in 1862. (British Columbia Coast Names 1592-1906, Captain John T. Walbran, p. 167, Vancouver Public Library, 1971) As Dorothy Blakey Smith, former BC Archivist, notes, “Ella may have acted as unofficial pilot for Richards, but his “Pilot’s Special License”, for Hudson’s Bay Company ships only, was not granted until 1862, and his regular license as a British Columbia pilot, not until 1868.” (The Early History of Pilotage in British Columbia, Dorothy Blakey Smith) Captain Richards’ private journal for the years 1860-1862 (The Private Journal of Captain G.H. Richards: The Vancouver Island Survey (1860-1862), Dorricott and Cullon, 2012) makes no mention of Henry B. Ella, but Richards did name Blinkhorn Island and nearby Ella Point in 1861.

Mrs. Blinkhorn sold her cottage in December 1862. She had purchased a lot for a new home from the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1861. Henry purchased the lot beside it, to the east, in 1863. The lots fronted a narrow dirt track then known as “Cadboro Bay Road”, now Fort Street. Wentworth Villa was completed in the summer of 1863 and was one of the largest and most luxurious houses in Victoria, with an entrance hall featuring two faux marble statue niches, a large double-drawing room and eight fireplaces. (Echoes of Empire, Robin Ward, p245, Harbour Publishing, Madiera Park, British Columbia, 1996) The house was likely named as a gesture of respect for English MP, C. W. Wentworth-Fitzwilliam, who had been Lord of the Manor in Great Gidding, Cambridgeshire, where Ann Blinkhorn and Martha had lived and who had praised Thomas Blinkhorn before the Select Committee on the Hudson’s Bay Company, in 1857. [G.B., Parl., House of Commons paper, 1857 (session ii), 15, nos.224, 260, Report from the select committee on the Hudson’s Bay Company]

On July 5, 1862 a “Pilots Special License” was issued by the Hudson’s Bay Company to Henry Bailey Ella. This license was “granted to Mr. Ella while in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s service to enable him to take charge of any of their ships, but it [was] not a Pilot’s Certificate for general charge.” Dorothy Blakey Smith notes: “In order to avoid pilotage dues, companies such as the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Vancouver Coal Company would have the masters of their vessels examined and licensed as pilots for the ships of that company.” (The Early History of Pilotage in British Columbia, Dorothy Blakey Smith, BC Archives, WE14R)

On April 2, 1863, Henry was a clerk aboard the SS Enterprise. When Captain Mouat was attacked by a passenger over a disagreement about a dog in the cabin, Henry and the steward intervened and saved the Captain from a beating. (British Colonist, April 1, 1863, Victoria)

In 1863, Henry was dismissed from the HBC and fined 50 pounds sterling by the magistrate at New Westminster for submitting incorrect reports on the number of paid passengers aboard the Enterprise when another clerk, Therete Chadford, reported inconsistencies and accused him of defrauding the Revenue. Henry had made a return to the Custom House of the number of paying passengers which was greater than the revenue he turned in. This was more an error of accounting than an attempt to defraud, as Dorothy Blakey Smith stated: “...as W.H. Hamley [the Collector of Customs] made clear, it was for furnishing these incorrect reports and not for defrauding the Revenue, that Ella was fined £50 by Magistrate Chartres Brew…” (The Early History of Pilotage in British Columbia, Dorothy Blakey Smith, BC Archives, WE14R)

Forced to look for employment outside of the HBC, Henry sent out letters of application for various maritime positions over the next few years. The first letter went to the Colonial Secretary, William Alexander George Young, on February 11, 1864. (BC Archives F35715)

In November 1865 Henry acted as pilot for the Russian steamer Alexander II from Nanaimo to Victoria. (British Colonist, November 25, 1865, p. 3)

Henry Bailey Ella was placed in command of the schooner, Premier. in March 1866 he sailed it from Nanaimo to Victoria where it was loaded with cargo bound for Honolulu. (British Colonist, March 2, 1866, p. 3)

Henry commanded the HBC schooner, Mink, to the Sandwich Islands in October 1866. (British Colonist, October 19, 1866, p. 3) The voyage did not go well. The ship was beset with calms, contrary winds, and storms, and did not arrive in Honolulu until late November. (British Colonist, January 19, 1867 p. 3) The Mink was sold and renamed the Kohala. (British Colonist, January 20, 1867 p. 3) Henry and his mate then made their way home aboard the barque Metropolis, under the command of Captain Howard. (British Colonist, January 29, 1867 p. 2)

On September 1, 1867, Henry Ella wrote of the impending launch of the newly built ship Robert Cowan in a letter to his eldest daughter, Elizabeth Annie, from the Muir’s Woodside farm in Sooke. The Robert Cowan was towed from Sooke to the Janion, Green & Rhodes wharf in Victoria on the morning of October 6th, 1867. (British Colonist, October 7, 1867 p. 3) The ship’s cargo included timber and cedar shakes for the Muir’s from their sawmill operation in Sooke. Before it could depart for the Sandwich Islands, the Robert Cowan had to pick up a cargo of lumber from one of the mills in Burrard Inlet. (British Colonist, October 19, 1867) The Robert Cowan must have encountered a severe storm on route to Victoria from Burrard Inlet, or while awaiting departure at Victoria, because now there was a delay while the ship underwent repairs, apparently resulting from being dismasted. (British Colonist, November 2, 1867) Finally, on November 24th, the Robert Cowan sailed for Honolulu. (British Colonist, November 25, 1867) The ship did not return to Victoria until February 23, 1868.

Henry’s pilot license was granted on July 24.(margin note on Ella’s Pilot’s license request letter, July 23, 1868, BC Archives F35715)

On February 16, 1873, while continuing his work as a licensed pilot, Captain Henry Bailey Ella was drowned while crossing Burrard Inlet in a canoe with a Chinese paddler. They departed Moodyville Mill and docks on the north shore, near the mouth of Lynn Creek, headed for Hastings Mill on the south shore. The conditions were very rough: the canoe half-filled with water and overturned. Although the paddler was able to cling to the floating hull and survived, Henry sank without a trace. Henry’s body was never recovered: only a parcel of his clothing. (Martha Beeton Ella letter to Samuel Ella, March 2, 1873, p.1, State Library NSW, Sydney A202: S. Ella corresp. and the British Colonist, February 20, 1873 p. 3) He was 47 years old.

A memorial to Captain Henry Bailey Ella still stands in Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. His home, Wentworth Villa, has been fully restored and is now a museum of Pacific Northwest heritage architecture.

External links

This article "Henry Bailey Ella" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Henry Bailey Ella. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

Henry Bailey Ella

External links

📰 Article(s) of the same category(ies)