MAILBOAT NAME: S/V Mary Jane
PAST NAMES: not known (may not have been any)
DIMENSIONS: schooner, 41 tons, call sign RVLG, Official #36365
CONSTRUCTION: wood
YEAR BUILT: 1853, probably at Harbour Island by Albury shipbuilders there
EARLY CAREER: Harbour Island, Spanish Wells, Nassau
BAHAMAS CAREER: Harbour Island – Nassau via Spanish Wells
OWNERS: John Cleare, Harbour Island, Eleuthera
CAPTAINS: not known
It would seem that the vessel was named after the wife of John Clear, who was the daughter of Albury, from the following last will & testament of William Thomas Albury of Harbour Island, dated 5 September, 1884:
“….I give and bequeath unto my said Children..: William Alonzo Albury, Melissa Eneas, Joseph Johnson Albury, Mary Jane Cleare and Sophia Ann Albury. to share and share alike….”
This would make sense, as she would have been a daughter of the family of builders and wife of the owner. It could only have been a second name, however, since the vessel was built 7 years before she was born…. so the theory is not conclusive.
Mary Jane Albury was born about 1860 in Harbour Island per http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=caj1937&id=I10422, her mother was Eliza Ann Johnson b. 1809.
Source: http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=caj1937&id=I10420
Sources: http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsnumview.php?OfficialNumber=36365, http://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/vesselsnumview.php?OfficialNumber=36365