John Fea: Lock Keeper / Uncertainties and Inaccuracies / Parents of John Fea

John Fea and Mary Alexander

The IGI indicates John Fea and Mary Alexander had at least two sons:

• Cornelius Fea (Fay per IGI) c. 7th Sep 1765, North Leith

• John Fea (Fae per IGI) c. 9th June 1767, North Leith

It is not known what became of Cornelius Fea. John Fea could possibly be the lock keeper in Falkirk who died in 1862. However, there are a number of points both for and against this and it is likely to remain conjecture.

For:

• If John Fea died in 1862 in Falkirk, aged 95 according to both his death record and obituary then he would have been born in 1767. North Leith is not that far removed from Falkirk and Fea is not that common a surname.

• John Fea, the lock keeper, had a son named Alexander Fea, which could have been his mother's maiden surname

• The death record for the lock keeper gives his father as John Fea, Seaman Royal Navy. Leith is the port for Edinburgh and many Orcadians lived there at one time, being from a seafaring community and having arrived there by sea.

There certainly was a John Fea who was a seaman at around this time. Anthony Farrington's Catalogue of East India Company Ships' Journals and Logs 1600-1834 (London: British Library, 1999) lists a John Fea (c 1747): seaman HMS Cormorant 6m; seaman Diana to Tenerife, 9m; seaman Vansittart (2) 1763/4; midshipman Hampshire (2) 1765/6; midshipman ASIA (2) 1767/8; 4th mate Greenwich (2) 1769/70; 3rd mate Greenwich (s) 1771/2 (approved 18 Oct 1771, aged 24); mate and master in country trade 3y; 1st mate Contractor 1779/80.

Against:

• The age of the lock keeper per earlier records are more likely to be correct. The must list of the Indefatigable in 1804 would have indicated that John Fea was born around 1777 rather than 1767.

• His mother's surname per his death register is given as Sutherland not Alexander. It is possible and not that uncommon for the death register entry to be incorrect in this regard, particularly where the informant (a grandchild) has never known the grandparent and they are living in a different part of the country.

Further conjecture could be made in respect of the parents of John Fea who married Mary Alexander. There is certainly likely to be an Orkney connection due to the strong ties between Orkney and Leith. A possibility is the son of Mitchel Fea who was born in Stronsay in 1747. It should be noted that this is the probably year of birth of the seaman above although there is no verifiable evidence that he is the John Fea to marry Mary Alexander.

There could have been other John Feas born in the area around this time. It is noted that John Fea, the manager to John Fea VII of Clestrain at Stove in Sanday, had a son James in 1745 and a daughter Mary in 1759. It is always possible that he also had a son, named after himself, who does not appear on the Old Parish Records. This would give some more credence to the obituary of the lock keeper being a great grandson of John Fea VII of Clestrain. The parents of the manger at Stove are not known. John Fea VII of Clestrain did despone, shortly before his death on 29th August 1760, the farm of Seatter in Sanday to his namesake, the manager at Stove.