Capt. Robert Ashburner

Capt.Robert Ashburner was a certificated master (Cert.No. S 35288, a Certificate of Service) who had been born in 1816 at Ulverston. He had originally trained as a shipwright at the Petty & Postlethwaite shipyard at Ulverston, alongside his brothers William and Richard, who later opened a shipyard at Barrow. He later worked at the Naval Dockyard at Woolwich, and seems to have moved to Barrow in about 1848. He was away at sea during the 1851 Census. In 1860 he took command of the newly-lauched Mary Jane, built by his brothers at Barrow and named after his fourteen year old daughter. He owned twelve shares in the vessel.

The Captains Register for 1868 to 1873 lists the following vessels of which he had command: Isabella Fisher in 1859 (in the coasting trade), and the Mary Jane from 1860 to 1866, operating in the coasting and foreign trades (France, Spain, Portugal, Baltic and Mediterranean). One voyage in 1865  is recorded in Lloyd's List, from Newcastle to Landskrona and Halmstad in Sweden.

Capt. Ashburner seems to have retired in about 1866, thereafter running a sailmaking business at Barrow and managing a number of schooners, an enterprise that probably lead to his nephew Thomas Ashburner establishing himself as one of Barrow's leading shipowners. Robert Ashburner died in 1878.

Sources :

1. Captains Register 18567/1 at Lloyds Library, Guildhall Library, London
2. The Ashburner Schooners, ISBN 0-9516792-0-1