Graham, I’ve discovered that there were 2 John Taggart mariners who were based in Cumberland of a similar birth year (1800-1805 range I think)----one was your John Taggart (48 yr old seaman in 1851, 58 yr old labourer shipping coals in 1861 and 69 yr old mariner in 1871) ----- b circa 1803 IOM, death registered Dec Q 1874 Whitehaven age 71.

The other John Taggart mariner was the one on the 1851 Masters and Mates Certificate “b 1803 Whitehaven”. I’m assuming that he was the Master Mariner “late of Harrington, Cumberland” who died at sea on 5th Jan 1871. This information comes from the probate index (image attached). I can’t find this master mariner in the censuses but he may have been away at sea each time.

I’ll also attach the 1851 census for your John Taggart to show that his age was probably 48, not 42. The second digit definitely isn’t a 2 (from looking at other instances of the number 2 on the same page). I still can’t see any cast iron evidence that he was the John Taggart b 1803 IOM, son of William Taggart and Isabel Christian. There were several other possibilities. Someone claiming to be 48/58/69 in 1851/61/71 could have been born 1798-1803.

Jean
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