Sotonopedia

Edward Rubie was a master mariner of Southampton and father of the shipbuilder John Rubie. He was baptized on 16 October 1757 in St Mary's Church, Portsea. He spent his early life, first as an apprentice and latterly as a shipwright, in HM Dockyard Portsmouth. He made a good dynastic marriage to Elizabeth Parsons, daughter of the famed shipbuilder George Parsons of Bursledon and Warsash. By 1790 Edward was in the merchant marine, listed in Lloyd's Register as captain of the 70-ton sloop Three Brothers, owned by George Parsons, trading between London, Southampton, Liverpool, Cork, Waterford and Rouen. In 1801/02 Edward Rubie became captain of the 92-ton sloop Elizabeth, also owned by George Parsons, sailing between London, Cork and Dublin. In February 1807, whilst on a voyage to Dublin, the Elizabeth was captured by a French privateer and carried as a prize into the port of Morlaix in Britanny (Lloyd's List, 20 February 1807). Rubie spent over seven years in a series of French prisons before being released in April 1814 during the short interval of peace following the surrender of the Emperor Napoleon. Whilst in prison at Longwy, in the department of Moselle in north-east France, Rubie wrote a will, dated 27 November 1812 and witnessed by other Southampton mariners who were fellow prisoners of war (http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/).

Edward Rubie is recorded as living in Bedford Place, Southampton in December 1832: voting for the radical candidates at the parliamentary election for the borough. In 1834 he is listed in Orchard Lane. His first wife, Elizabeth, died in 1830. He remarried the following year: on 5 April 1831 to Hannah Garnett. Edward died, aged 80, on 10 June 1838 in Winchester Street. He is buried in St Leonard's Church, Bursledon. His widow, Hannah, succeeded him, listed in street directories of 1845 and 1847 as a lodging house keeper at 11 Winchester Terrace. She died in 1847. There were six children by the first marriage: John (1781-1855), Ann (1783-1801), Elizabeth (1786-1796), Sarah (1789-1793), George (1793-1838) and Benjamin Parsons (1798-1846). George Rubie followed his father to sea, listed in Lloyd's Register between 1818 and 1829 as captain and part owner of the 76-ton schooner Britannia (built Topsham 1815) trading between London and Lisbon, Havre, Guernsey, Antwerp, Cork and Cadiz.

see also

• Rubie, John

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