Maclean Family Tree
Catherine Share
(1815-1876)

my 3x great grandmother

return to index page

Catherine Share was the middle daughter of Thomas Taskes Share (1781-1855) and Elizabeth Ann Green (1784-1865). Thomas had been born in Penryn, Cornwall, but subsequently moved to London, where he met and married Elizabeth Green, and set up home in Bermondsey. Their first child was Clarissa (1813-1885), followed by Catherine and Lucretia (1821-1872). All three girls were born in London. At some point after Lucretia's birth, the family appears to have moved to Ireland in connection with Thomas's work as chief officer of the coastguards. Later, probably after his retirement, the family moved to Tynemouth in Northumberland, and took up residence in Front Street. 

Catherine married Cuthbert Hogg in around 1839. I know nothing about Cuthbert, but he appears to have been a native of Tynemouth - there are a large number of other Hoggs resident in Tynemouth in the 1841 census. He was almost certainly some sort of marine officer, possibly a ship's pilot. He is himself absent from the 1841 census, at which point Catherine was living with her family in Front Street, along with her first child, Thomas Taskes Hogg (b 1840). Cuthbert Sr seems to have reappeared periodically. Cuthbert Hogg Jr was born in 1843 in Tynemouth, and then the family moved to Stepney in around 1844. Clara was born there in 1845, followed by George Joseph Henry Hogg in 1847. Family life was curtailed abruptly in 1848, when Cuthbert Sr died. 

Catherine returned to Tynemouth with the children, and moved into 42 Front Street. She is listed in the 1851 census as a lodging house keeper, and there are two resident visitors in the house as well as Clara and Joseph. Thomas and Cuthbert lived further down the street with their grandparents. She was living with her mother in 1861, along with son Cuthbert (now a mariner). Ten years later however, she was back in London, a patient at St Mary's Hospital in Stoke Newington, and described as a "pensioner from Trinity House". The Corporation of Trinity House was the authority which licensed all ships' pilots for London and certain other English ports, as well as the country's lighthouse keepers. It also provided charitable support to its licensees and their dependents, so presumably Catherine fell ill and required a medical procedure which was paid for by Trinity House. Catherine's eldest son Thomas was himself a licensed Trinity House Pilot. She died in 1876.

Lucretia Share: Catherine's younger sister Lucretia appears to have enjoyed the happiest, although also the briefest, life. In 1847 she married George Lockwood (1821-1877), the son and heir of a prosperous timber merchant in Stockton-on-Tees. They had a large family, including Anne Share Lockwood (1847-??), Barrett Share Lockwood (1848-1908), James George Lockwood (1850-1909), Elizabeth Barrett Lockwood (1852-??), Clara Share Lockwood (known as Daisy) (1853-1933), Emily Catherine Lockwood (1855-1924), Charles Barrett Lockwood (1856-1914) and Georgina Louisa Lockwood (1860-1923). Sadly, Lucretia died in 1872. However her most significant contribution to my family tree is that she engineered the introduction of her niece Clara to William Maclean, who had a position at the company firm.

Clarissa Share: Clarissa, known as Clara, never married. She seems to have lived at home in Tynemouth until the death of her mother, and at some point later went to live with her nieces Emily and Georgina Lockwood. In 1881, she was living with them in Cambridge Terrace, Norton, in Durham. She died in 1885 in Tynemouth.

Henry Share and James Share: The three girls had two brothers, but they make only fleeting appearances in surviving records. Henry Taskes Share was baptised in Feb 1917 in St Margaret's Westminster, but I can find no subsequent references to him. A letter by one of Catherine's children refers in passing to "Uncle Henry" who "perished ... in Franklin's Arctic Expedition". Sir John Franklin was a celebrated explorer whose final expedition to chart the Northwest Passage went missing in 1847 and was the subject of a celebrated mystery for many years. See here for further details. Was Henry Share part of this expedition?

The same letter refers to "Uncle Captain Share". This appears to be James Masters Share, born in Ireland in 1822. He joined the Royal Navy in 1847 as a navigator, and later became captain of the HMS Meacander, serving in the Ascension Islands. He was also a Fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Astronomical Society. However, he became ill during the winter of 1865/66 and his active service was cut short. He returned to England and after convalescing, was appointed as master and navigating lieutenant, and subsequently staff commander, of HMS St George. The same year, he married Harriet Agnes Lewis, the daughter of a fellow naval officer, in 1867. In 1871, they were living in Wyke Regis, Dorset, with Harriet's youngest sister Pera Lewis, and their own daughter Mabel Pera Gwendoline Share (b 1869). (One of the daughters of James' niece Clara Maclean nee Hogg was also named Mabel Pera in honour of her cousin). Two further daughters followed. James retired from the Navy and the family emigrated to South Africa in 1878. He died in 1895.

 

  Do you have any 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 5000 individuals, is posted at GenesReunited and Ancestry. Contact me for access.