WAS FLETCHER CHRISTIAN A MANXMAN?

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 18 September 1937, Page 20

WAS FLETCHER CHRISTIAN A MANXMAN?

TO THE EDITOH OE TUB PiIESS. Sir, —In to-day’s issue of your paper “Inquirer” asks if Fletcher Christian was a Manxman. Fletcher was born in Cumberland, where his forebears had settled some generations previously, upon their leaving the Isle of Man. Some years ago I saw a film entitled “In the Wake of the Bounty.” It was a superior production to another film I saw in Christchurch within the last 12 months; in fact, the former film caused me to purchase from a leading bookseller the book written by the producers of the film. In it, the author, who lived on Pitcairn for some weeks, gives part of the genealogy of Christian. Fletcher was a fourteenth cousin of George 111 and was related to the Cliffords. I think, if my memory does not fail me, that Fletcher's father was a lawver. If “Inquirer” wants to know more of the settlement he can purchase the book “In the Wake of the Bounty” for 2s (previously it was 6s). —Yours, etc., EDWARD TRUEMAN. September 16, 1937. (CO TUB BDITOB OB THB PRBSP. Sir, —In Thursday’s correspondence column, “Inquirer” raised an interesting question—whether Fletcher Christian was a Manxman or a man from Cumberland. He was both. According to the “Dictionary of National Biography,” a very reliable source of information edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee, Christian was descended from the family of Christian of Milntown in the Isle of Man. but who had dwelt for Hired generations In Cumberland. The Rev. Thomas Boyles Murray, in his “Pitcairn,” states that Fletcher Christian was murdered in 1793 by Otaheitan men whom he had brought to the island. R. M. Ballantyne, in “The Lonely Island.” expresses a similar opinion. Nevertheless, Murray mentions that Captain Peter Heywood claimed to have seen Christian in Fore street, Plymouth. The “Dictionary of National Biography” substantiates this by stating that Christian, escaped to England,

either in Captain Folger's ship in 1808, or in some more venturesome way. He is said to have visited his relatidhs in Cumberland in 1808-9, and was seen hv Captain Heywood in Devonport streets. The film version of the story contained a character called Roger Byam, a young midshipman, who seemed to have occupied in the film the part played by Peter Heywood, who, if I remember rightly, was not mentioned in the film version, -whereas Roger Byam's name does not appear anywhere on the list of the ship's company in any account that 1 have read. Heywood was a Manxman, his father being the deemster of the Isle of Man. Heywood, himself, was born at Nunnery, near Douglas, on June 6, 1773. and the mutiny took place on April 28. 1789, thus making Heywood almost 16 years at the time, although Bligh's personnel of those left on the Bounty —"a rare but authentic document," according to Murray—gives Heywood's age as 17, and mentions, "On his right leg tattooed the three legs of the Isle of Man, as upon the coin."—Yours, etc.. H. E. COCKS. " September 17, 1937.