Another reference to Captain Stephen Trowbridge

Here is another reference to Captain Stephen Trowbridge from Historical Sketches of the Town of Milford Historical sketches of the town of Milford by George Hare Ford Compiled by George Hare Ford published by Press of the Tuttle, Morehouse and Taylor, 1914.

Abigail Trowbridge and Eli Townsend

In review, The Mediterranean Passport, commonly called a ship's passport, was a document printed on vellum allowing American vessels to sail and conduct business in the Mediterranean without interference.

The Mediterranean Passport mystery continues as we search for information about why this document was placed or left at the Hagaman Library. The Passport here at the library bears the name Captain Stephen Trowbridge and can be viewed on earlier posts.

From an unexpected and heretofore unheard of source, at least by this librarian, comes information from "The World Bride Index," see below:


TROWBRIDGE Abigail Date of birth: 15 Feb 1783
Father: Captain Stephen Trowbridge
Mother: Margaret Hall
Husband: Eli Townsend Date of marriage: 10 Jun 1804

http://http//brideindex.info/t-surnames/trowbridge.html

I am wondering now, if this marriage is the link to providing the answer of why the document is in the library. The library has a number of books that belonged to the prominent Townsend (or with the variant spelling Townshend) family. Could Captain Trowbridge's son-in-law, Eli Townsend have passed this document down through the family until it was given to the library?

Inquiry to the Milford Historical Society

I e-mailed the Milford Historical Society http://milfordhistoricalsociety.angelfire.com/index.html in reference to the mention of Stephen Trowbridge as a "native of Milford" in the book called Thirty-Six Voyages Various Parts of the World made between the years 1799 and 1841 by George Coggeshall. The page is displayed in the Tuesday March 24th, 2009 post.

General Doublett?

This past week I sent an inquiry on the Mediterranean Passport to the National Archives, Pittsfield. It was forwarded to Mr. Horace Waters, an Archivist Technician at the Northeast Regional office. Mr. Waters magnified the document in PhotoShop and stated that the vessel appears to be the schooner "Genl (General) Doublett", or perhaps "Genl Donblatt". The master's name looks like "...bridge". This gives strength to my thought that the master and commander may be Stephen Trowbridge.

Stephen Trowbridge of Milford?

Today I found on Google book search, a book called Thirty-Six Voyages Various Parts of the World made between the years 1799 and 1841 by George Coggeshall. The title page is below.



The entry that contained information about Stephen Trowbridge
was in Chapter Four "Voyage in the Schooner Thomas with Captain Henry Turner from Milford, Connecticut to Berbice and the West India Islands and back again to Milford in the years 1802 and 1803" as seen below.



The entry concerning Stephen Trowbridge is:





This would fall within the time frame if Trowbridge was Captain in 1860, it would not be surprising that he was a seaman on board a schooner in 1802 to 1803.

Stephen Trowbridge

I spoke today with Kelly Drake of Mystic Seaport's Museum of America and the Sea, concerning the Mediterranean Passport. I was hoping to be able to use the numerical entry on the document, shown on the left, in order to identify the ship's name and commander. Both are listed on the Passport, but difficult to read. Kelly informed me that the number indicated where the passport was issued, rather than being an index number- so the number will not be of help. I said the name of the master and commander appeared to be "Stephen Trowbridge." Kelley said there was research being done on a Trowbridge who had a ship called "The Gem." A number of Trowbridges were listed in the Museum's digital "Ship Register- search for the Ship Master" Index. None of them however had the first name of Stephen. Kelly's knowledge about a Trowbridge as a ship master prompted me to look further. On http://www.immigrantships.net The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild website, (the group transcribes ship manifests for genealogical purposes) I found a "Stephen Trowbridge" listed as master of a schooner called Horatio, 1827. Could this be the Stephen Trowbridge listed on the Mediterranean Passport?

In Search of an Index!

March 18, 2009

I looked on Wikipedia and found further information about Mediterranean Passports:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_pass

This led me to a National Archives 2005 newsletter that had featured a Mediterranean Passport listed in a footnote of the article.

I have e-mailed the Eastern office of the National Archives to see if they know if these documents were indexed. I am hoping they were, and that an index exists. I cannot read the name of the schooner or that of the master of the ship on the document. An index with this information may give us a clue as to why this document "landed" in the library!