Author: Pounder, Robert
Biography:
POUNDER, Robert (1799-1822: findmypast.co.uk)
He was born on 9 Nov. 1799 and baptised on 14 Oct. at St. Hilda’s, Hartlepool, Durham, the eldest of nine children of Jonathan Pounder (1773-1822), fisherman and pilot, and Jane Chilton (1774-1832), who married on 12 Nov. 1798. He had little education but improved himself by reading and playing music. He was first clarinet player in the Hartlepool band and was a chorister. He may have married Margaret Parnaby (1803-43) on 15 Dec. 1818 at St. Hilda’s, Hartlepool. He went out fishing and trawling with his father on Wednesday, 26 June 1822, and did not return. Debris but no bodies were initially found. Since weather conditions were good it was thought they had been struck by a ship in the darkness. They were given a burial on 30 July 1822 at St. Hilda’s, Hartlepool, after Robert’s body was found on 23 July. His band played at his funeral, which was attended by a large crowd. £30 was raised for his family. (Jonathan Pounder’s father and brother had also previously perished at sea.) Robert had resolved to give up fishing because of its dangers but had not yet managed to do so. His only known publication, Two Poems (1822), published posthumously for the benefit of his widow, somewhat ominously contains “On the Loss of Three Hartlepool Fishermen,” written to commemorate three men who had drowned the previous year. The other poem recorded his witnessing a shipwreck, “On Seeing the Ruby, of Yarmouth . . . Driven on the Rocks at Hartlepool,” a month before his death. (findmypast.co.uk 6 Mar.; durhamrecordsonline.com; Durham County Advertiser 20 and 27 July, 3 and 10 Aug. 1822) AA