Georgiana Duins was born 30
August 1808 at Plymouth Dock, Stoke Damerel Parish, Plymouth District, Devonshire,
England. She was the first born child of
Thomas Parlby Duins and his wife Mary Withecombe, both of the parish of Stoke
Damarel in southwest Devonshire. They
had been married just two years earlier on 7 June 1806 at Stoke Damerel. Thomas was trained in medicine and was a
surgeon. He provided surgical services
for the Royal Navy (Familae Minorum Gentium, vol 1). The link between the Duins family and the Royal Navy was probably forged a generation earlier by Georgiana’s grandfather Robert Duins, gentleman. Grandfather Duins was a first clerk to the
master shipwright at His Majesty’s Dock Yard in Plymouth Dock before Georgiana
was born. When she was an infant, her
grandfather Robert Duins was living in London, where he would eventually die in about 1815. Thomas Parlby Duins’ brother, Uncle Robert
Duins, attended Lincoln College at Oxford in 1799. Thomas also had a brother George Parlby Duins
who served in the Royal Navy and would eventually reach the position of
lieutenant.
By 1700, the Royal Navy set up a
dock yard in the Plymouth District of Devonshire. The town that grew up around the dock yard housed
the families of men working at the Navy dock yard and was known as Plymouth
Dock. In 1823, the name of the town,
including the dock yard, was changed to Devonport. "Dock Yard" is notated in this early map in yellow.
Stoke Damerel (yellow) is a parish in Plymouth district and
includes Devonport town and dockyard, Morice Town, New Passage, Keyham Docks,
Ford, Swilly, and the north-western suburbs of Plymouth. This is a map showing Stoke Damerel in
1765. A majority of the area shown on
that side of the Hamoaze is in the Stoke Damerel Parish.
A rosewood box found in 2018 at a Scotland auction. The box belonged to Georgiana Duin's Aunt Anne Duins, wife of her uncle George Parlby Duins, her father's brother.
Georgiana was the only daughter
in her upper class family. She had at
least three brothers – Robert, Henry, and George.
Georgiana Duins – born 30 August 1808,
baptized 9 August 1812 Devonshire
Robert Nepean Duins – baptized 25 July 1818
Devonshire
George Boydell Duins – born 31 October 1820, baptized 30 July 1823 Cornwall
Henry Frith Duins – born 13 December 1822,
baptized 30 July 1823 Cornwall
Princes Street (yellow) in
Devonport in an 1860 map
Georgiana was baptized when she
was four years old at the Church of Christ, Princes Street-Independent Chapel,
Devonport on 9 August 1812 (IGI LDS FHC).
Because her family was well-to-do, Thomas Duins was able send his
daughter away to complete advanced education studies in both France and England
(Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Vol 6). The Duins family was living at Perranuthnoe
by 1823, a coastal city on the English Channel in the most extreme southwest
corner of Cornwallshire, England. In the
same year, Georgiana’s father died at the age of thirty eight. Georgiana was about 15 and her little brothers were all under 5.
Perranuthnoe, Cornwallshire and
Crediton, Devonshire are both parishes in southwest England
In 1830, twenty two year old Georgiana
Duins was being courted by twenty eight year old Edward Warren Nias in
Devonshire. Their marriage took place 5
October 1830 at Crediton in central Devonshire on the River Creedy (IGI LDS
FHC). The following announcement was
found:
Articles for the town of Crediton taken
from Trewman’s Exeter Flying Post 1821-1840
Thursday 16 September 1830, Issue 3386 –
Gale Document No Y3200664956
Exeter, Wednesday 13 October
Married – At Crediton, by the Rev, John Russell,
E. W. Nias, Esq. of Bridgwater, to Georgiana Duins, only daughter of the late
Thomas Duins, Esq., surgeon, R. N.
Edward Warren Nias was born in Soho,
London, England (IGI, LDS FHC & 1851 England census) on 31 December
1801. He was the third child of William
Nias, esquire, and Elizabeth Warren, who were married on 14 March 1798 at Saint
Anne’s Church in Soho, London, England (IGI LDS FHC).
Young Edward was baptized within
a month of his birth at the same location as each of his siblings – Blackfriars
Presbytery at the corner of Carter Lane and Knightrider Court in London,
England (IGI LDS FHC). This church was
identified as an independent chapel.
Elizabeth Warren Nias, Edward’s mother, was baptized, like her children,
at Carter Lane in London (IGI LDS FHC). Edward
Nias lived later in Bridgwater then Lyncombe & Widcombe, Somersetshire where
he was raised to adulthood. For more information, see the Nias family historical account (Click here).
Christ Church Chapel in
Bridgwater, Somersetshire
Just prior to the Nias-Duins marriage, Edward Warren Nias’
name was included on a 5 February 1830 lease of Christ Church Chapel or Meetinghouse
with Vestry in Bridgwater, Somersetshire.
Many other men were included in the lease description, all being
important and high class men who held titles of esquire, gentleman, elder, and
merchant. Edward Nias was listed as
Edward Warren Nias, gentleman. The lease
took place in Somersetshire.
The year after the Duins-Nias
marriage, the newspaper reported dissolved partnerships in the Commercial and
Bankruptcy Register of the 30 August 1831 edition of the Law Chronicle in
England. In Bridgwater, Somersetshire on
19 August 1831, a group of iron founders and engineers ended their work together
because of debts accrued by several of the partners, namely Thomas Howell
Watson (Edward’s brother-in-law) and Edward Warren Nias. Edward would certainly recall that at the age
of 10, his father also went through a bankruptcy.
Two years after their marriage,
Edward and Georgiana were in Bridgwater, Somersetshire (Familiae Minorum
Gentium, vol 1), located on the River Parrett 10 miles from the Bristol Channel
that separates southwest England from Wales.
Their son Raymond Nias was born in Bridgwater on 25 September 1832 (IGI
LDS FHC). Note: Raymond was likely named after Edward Nias' grandmother Mary Raymond-Warren (his mother's mother). Within the next few years the
small family was in Wales where child number two was born – Henry Nias (born
circa 1834 in Wales from census records).
Their movements may have been the result of Edward Nias’ profession – he
was a merchant (1836 emigration record occupation). In 1835, Edward was found on Lower Market
Street in Carmarthen, South Wales working in the “ironmonger and plumber”
profession. Other sources state Edward
was indeed an ironmonger (Familiae Minorum Gentium, volume 1) like his
grandfather and great-grandfather.
During the short time Georgiana
and Edward had been married, they agreed to take care of a young girl named
Fanny Staples. Fanny was born in England
to parents of a large family. Her
parents were unable to care for her and placed her in the care of the Nias
family. Fanny became primarily the ward
of Georgiana Nias and would be a part of the family, raised almost as an
adopted child (Fanny Staples obituary – Cambridge Chronicle and Cambridge Tribune).
The Packet Ship Europe (bottom) left
Liverpool, England in 1836 and arrived in New York City harbor 1837
A decision was made soon after
the birth of Henry – they would move to America. After Edward secured passage on a ship
leaving Liverpool, the family began their two month trip across the Atlantic
Ocean. The packet ship, named Europe,
left Liverpool 26 December 1836 bound for New York City (New York Passenger
Lists, 1820-1957). It appears that
Georgiana traveled pregnant as shortly after the Nias family arrived in
America, a son was born. He was named
Howard Nias. (An excerpt in Publications of the Rhode Island Historical Society,
Volume 6 stated that Georgiana both separated from her husband and had a third
child prior to emigration however, the emigration record listed Edward,
Georgiana, Raymond, Henry, and Fanny only).
Within four years of landing in
New York City, the small Nias clan would lose two family members.
