Person:Samuel Duncan (8)

In the short biography of his son, Robert Duncan, published in Memorial and Biographical Record of Turner, Lincoln, Union, and Clay Counties, South Dakota in 1897, when Robert was still alive, it is stated that Samuel Duncan "emigrated to Canada in 1846 and on the voyage was shipwrecked off the coast of St. Johns, narrowly escaping death." Presumably, the ship was the Ida, whose wreck is described here in a contemporary newspaper account:

The Ida was commissioned by government for the conveyance of stores to Canada, and left the Thames on the 18th of last December for Portsmouth, where she took in the stores,and finally sailed for St. John's, New Brunswick, on the 4th of January. There were onboard, besides the crew (eighteen in number,including the master, Capt. William Chamber), thirty-eight passengers, male and female. After her departure, nothing was heard of her until Monday last, when the intelligence of her fate was received. A letter, stated to be written by Mr. Sherwood, the British consul at Portland, thus describes her loss : " On the 20th of January, being in lat. 44'N., long. 52' 30° W., the barque broached to, while scudding before a severe gale from S.S.E., and was thrown on her beam ends. Orders were given to cut away the foremast, but before they had time to do so the barque righted, full of water. The captain then ordered the long-boat to be got under the lee, the other boat having been lost. The passengers immediately rushed into her promiscuously, followed by the captain and crew, to the number of forty-five. The painter parted, and the boat dropped astern. The land bore N.N.E., distant about thirty leagues by observation. The boat got about two cables length from the vessel, when she shipped a sea, filled, and all in her perished. The mate, nine men, and one young woman remained on the wreck, in the tops, from Monday morning until Friday morning, when they were taken off by the schooner Three Sisters, of Eden, when they were landed much frozen, and in destitute circumstances, the mate being the only one able to travel." The Ida was not registered at Lloyd's, and the inquiries made to ascertain who were her owners, and to know the names of the passengers, have not been successful.

(in The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser of 19 Aug 1846, reprinted from The Britannia of 21 March.) http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/683858

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/sd/state/tluc/page77.html

1. ↑ Ontario, Canada. Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-ongoing. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario).
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 General Register Office for Scotland. 1841 Scotland Census. (Edinburgh).
3. ↑ Canada. 1871 Census of Canada. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada)
   Ontario, Huron South, Goderich, f 45.
4. ↑ Ontario, Canada. Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928. (Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Archives of Ontario).
5. ↑ ^5.0 5.1 United Province of Canada. 1851 Census of Canada. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada)
   Canada West (Ontario), Wentworth County, Barton, 59.

   Samuel Duncan, Black Smith, born Scotland, religion Free Church, age next birthday 47

6. ↑ ^6.0 6.1 Canada. 1861 Census of Canada. (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada).
7. ↑ International Genealogical Index. ( The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, 1999-2008).
8. ↑ Memorial and Biographical Record of Turner, Lincoln, Union and Clay Counties, South Dakota
   1897.

   http://genealogytrails.com/sdak/union/bio2.html#duncan_archibald

9. ↑ Samuel's parents are given as "Samuel and Janet Duncan" in the record for his marriage to Elizabeth Fluckherd.