In 1819 Captain John Vivian was named as one of the trustees of the will of his father-in-law John Rosewarne of Gwinear.
In 1851 John Vivian, aged 67, born in Phillack Cornwall, and wife Elizabeth Vivian, aged 64, born in Gwinear Cornwall, were living at Foundry, St. Erth, Cornwall. With them were daughter Elizabeth (26) of Gwinear, grandson John Vivian (12) of Clifton Gloucestershire.
In 1861 John Vivian, aged 76, born in Phillack, retired shipmaster, and wife Elizabeth Vivian, aged 74, born in Gwinear, were living at Hayle Foundry, St. Erth. With them was grandson John Vivian (22) of Bristol Somerset, merchant's clerk.
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John Vivian of St. Erth Hayle died aged 87 years (burial record).
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THE LATE CAPTAIN JOHN VIVIAN OF HAYLE.
BIRTH
Few men were better known or more generally respected in the West of Cornwall than the late Captain John Vivian, of his Majesty's mail packet service. He was born at Trevassick, in Cornwall, on the 17th January, 1784. When twelve years old he lost his father, and his uncle, the late Captain Andrew Vivian, banker, of Camborne, sent him to Truro and Penzance to receive his education. Preferring Neptune to Murray, he went to sea from 1798 until 1802. Arriving in London at a time when "crimps" were in full operation, he, to escape the tender mercies of these legalized decoys, joined Captain Trevithick and Mr. Wm. West, who were then endeavouring to complete a locomotive at Limehouse. The engine had one cylinder and three wheels, the two driving wheels, which were eight feet in diameter, being placed behind, between which were placed the boiler and engine. To this part of the concern Messrs. Trevithick and West attended. The steering and smaller wheel was placed in front guided by a tiller.
EXPERIENCES AS AN ENGINE DRIVER.
Owing to his nautical experience Captain Vivian was assigned to this post, so that he may safely be said to have been the first locomotive engine-driver. The carriage for the passengers was supposed to accommodate eight or ten. Owing to a vagary of the builders the funnel was made in the form of a negro, out of whose mouth belched the smoke. They started about four o'clock one morning in the beginning of 1803, along the Tottenham Court-road and the New-road, presenting a generally diabolic appearance. For four or five miles they ran steadily enough, at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour. At last a toll-gate hove in sight, and here a difficulty presented itself—what was the toll? An interview with the toll-keeper was suggested and acted on, and as the smoking, grinding, shrieking monster drew up in front of the toll-gate, the keeper, roused from a warm bed, straightway imagined that he was receiving a morning visitor from a still warmer region, and with shaking knees and trembling voice entreated his supposed satanic majesty to drive on, with a reiterated assurance that there was "nothing to pay." This was not destined to be their last appearance in a Plutonic character, for shortly after Captain Trevithick shouted, "Put down the helm, John." Down went the helm, and down went six or seven yards of paling, being the garden boundary of a respectable suburban mansion. Its owner, hearing the crash, put his nightcapped head out of the window, inquirying testily, "What the devil are you doint there?" when catching sight of the same terrible vision that had so scared the toll-keeper, he imagined that his invocation had produced a tangible result, and disappeared incontinently.
CAPT. VIVIAN'S EXPLOITS AT SEA.
Passing over Captain Vivian's successful voyages to Cronstadt during the blockade of the Baltic, about 1811, we come to an occurrence unique in the history of any man. On 15th March, 1813, he received the command of H.M. armed mail packet, the brig "Little Catherine," and whilst returning with the mails from Corunna, having also on board wounded officers from the Peninsula, was borne down upon and snapped up by two French frigates, the "Soultan" and the "Etoile." The "Soultan" took Capt. Vivian and half the crew, and the "Etoile" the sailing master and the remaining moiety, the "Little Catherine" being scuttled and left to sink.
It may here be necessary to mention that Napoleon, in his determination to cover the seas with his cruisers, had fitted out old ships whose only proper use was firewood, and manned them with "land lubbers," and had given their command to army officers or retired naval commanders who had long been laid up as sheer hulks. Such a vessel, with such a complement, was the "Soultan."
Shortly after the capture a storm came on, and as she rose and fell in the trough of the boiling sea, the terror, incapacity, and general illness of the French crew became something either pitiable or ludicrous. The aged commander of the "Soultan" at length, in his extremity, appealed to the honour and goodness of heart of le Capitaine Anglais, offered him in very broken English the command of his ship, having his word of honour that he would not attempt a recapture. To this Captain Vivian consented, the English sailors were taken out of irons, put the ship about, and lay to until the gale had blown over. So great was the gratitude of the French captain that he promised unconditionally to make over to Capt. Vivian his next prize, were it a West Indiaman. Shortly after they fell in with the "Duke of Montrose," mail packet from Brazil ; she was captured, an exchange of crews made, and a deed of gift drawn up on the high seas, signed by the Frenchman and witnessed by the officers mentioned. The "Duke of Montrose" arrived safely ; the deed of gift was presented to the authorities and declared invalid ! Had the vessel been taken into a French port, it was explained to him, she would have been a prize, but as she was not French property she could not legally have been made over to Capt. Vivian. The value of the "Duke of Montrose" was £8,000 ; as compensation £100 were presented to him, and the deed of gift placed in the archives of the Post-office, where it remains until this day. The moral value of the affair consists in the fact that the captain of the French frigate put himself unnecessarily in the hands of Captain Vivian and his men, enemies, who might have taken them to the nearest English port, or betrayed them in some manner, which betokened the highest respect for Captain Vivian's honour, and is a moral achievement that should not die.
HIS CONNECTION WITH CORNISH STEAM NAVIGATION.
Making only a passing reference to Captain Vivian's command of the "Grace," H.M.M.P., his voyage to the West Indies and America, his inspection of the American frigate, "Chesapeake," off Boston harbour, with Captain Broke, of H.M.S. "Shannon," the captures, imprisonments and escapes from French prisons of his brother James, the further adventures of the "Catherine," we come to speak of the third most important event in his life, the origination of the first steam navigation company in Cornwall. After retiring from the mail packet service in 1817, he turned his attention to the communication between Hayle and Bristol.
Until 1832 there were three sailing traders, but in that year Captain Vivian, with Mr. Harvey, Mr. Pendarves, and other influential men, turned their attention to establishing a steam communication between these two ports. Arrangements were made with John Scott and Son, of Grenock, the "Herald" steamship was brought to Hayle, and to Sept. 1832, the command of the first steamer ever used on the Cornish coast was given to Captain Vivian. He was identified with the "Cornwall" in 1842, the "Cornubia" in 1850 up to 1860, when the "Cornubia" was sold. At this date his official life closed.
In person Capt. Vivian was of a manly and athletic form, standing upwards of six feet ; in character brave, true, honest, and upright, with the pleasantest appreciation of and capabilities for humour.
The Cornish Telegraph, Wednesday, 25 Jan 1871, p. 3
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The Will with a codicil of John Vivian late of the parish of St. Erth in the county of Cornwall, gentleman, who died 7 January 1871 at St. Erth, was proved 3 April at Bodmin by John Vivian of St. Erth, accountant, the grandson, one of the surviving executors. Effects under £800. 3
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