While exploring my Earle family line I came across someone on Ancestry.com who saved a page from a book as a profile picture for my 4th great grandfather, Reuben Samms (1799 - December 11, 1870). The page came from a book called "Outrageous Seas: Shipwreck and Survival in the Waters off Newfoundland, 1583-1893" by Rainer K. Baehre, published for Carleton University by McGill-Queen's University Press in Montreal, Quebec in 1999, which I have now purchased and added to my personal library.
Chapter 11 of the book discusses the journal of a missionary sent to Newfoundland, Edward Wix (1802-1866), and his encounters with residents of the island. His journal is a valuable document providing insight into the life of a missionary in the 17th century but also into the lives of early Newfoundland settlers and the challenges they endured in such a remote location. The actual primary resource, "Six Months of a Newfoundland Missionary's Journal, from February to August, 1835", or at least a transcription of the missionary's journal, is available online though AnglicanHistory.org (https://anglicanhistory.org/canada/nf/wix_six.html) and Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/b29349746/page/148/mode/2up).
Baehre quotes from Wix's journal about his experience in the home of Reuben Samms and his wife Sarah. MY 4th great grandparents! The journal itself is much more detailed than the secondary source which distills the information about the Samms family members but indeed presents accurate quotes from the journal entries.
The entry for Tuesday, April 28, 1835 reads:
"Walked at six A.M., accompanied by my hostess and another person from Rencontre, upon the hard snow by some very mountainous hills, to Bay Chaleur, four miles. The French islands of St. Peter's, and Miquelon could be seen from the hills. At Bay Chaleur was the residence of Reuben and Sarah Samms, a poor but worthy couple."
That's my poor but worthy couple!! Wix goes on to write about the wreck of the William Ashton, and the work my family did to rescue it's passengers.
"The barque "William Ashton", of Newcastle, had struck on the rocks at Lance Cove, on her way from Dublin to Quebec, with sixty-three souls on board, at two, A.M., of August 9, 1830. Reuben and Sarah entertained fifteen of the crew and passengers in their present little dwelling, and each day supplied the remaining forty-eight persons with provisions in the tilt, which they built for shelter at Lance Cove, the scene of the wreck, three miles from Bay Chaleur. A captain John Stoyte, of the 24th Regiment, with his wife and her child and nurse were among those who were inmates of Reuben's house..."
Wix lends more detail about the character of Reuben. Then goes on to highlight the baptism of some of the Samms family members:
"...The conduct of Reuben Samms, contrasts well with the less creditable conduct of many upon this shore, as regards wrecks. Before the wreck of the "William Ashton", he had been instrumental with his brother, in saving persons at different times from five other wrecks. On one occasion, he had observed signs of a wreck and discovered footmarks upon the rugged shore, and tracked them several miles into the interior, where he found seven men from the "Mary", which belonged to Mr. Broom, the present senior magistrate of St. John's. The poor fellows had been three days and nights without food, and, but for his exertions in pursuing their tracks, must have perished. The simple description which he gave me of the joy which was depicted upon the haggard countenances of these starving and lost seamen, when they first caught sight of him in the interior, was most affecting, and reminded me of the experience of the lost sinner, when he first makes discovery of a Saviour!...
"When I had performed full service at Bay Chaleur, and baptized his four children, his wife humbly offered herself also for baptism, as did also his mother-in-law, who was sixty-two years of age, but had never before had an opportunity, though well read and instructed, and of pious conversation--of thus solemnly dedicating herself in this scriptural method to the service of CHRIST."
I was able to find that baptismal record on Ancestry which helped me to determine who the "mother-in-law" was. She was the 62 year-old Catherine Poole, listed as the widow of John Young and wife Thomas Samms.
So I am a little confused about Sarah Samms's maiden name. Sarah Samms, who according to Wix's journal was also baptized with her four children [Sarah Samms (age 8), Rueben Samms (5), Catherine Samms (3), and Marianne Samms (1)] and Catherine, does not appear in the register.
If Catherine was Rueben's mother-in-law, that would make Catherine Sarah Samms's mother. Catherine, though, was also married to a Samms according to the register. Catherine's first husband was John Young and her second husband was Thomas Samms.
If Catherine is Sarah's mother, was Sarah's maiden name and married name both Samms?
Wouldn't be the first time that has happened in my family tree but I think the journal entry is wrong. I think Catherine Poole-Samms was Sarah's mother-in-law, not Rueben's. I think Catherine was Reuben's mother. That would make more sense since a few lines above you can see an entry for Rueben's baptism on April 27, 1835, just the day before Catherine and Rueben's four children were baptized. The parents listed for Rueben are Thomas Samms and Catherine. You can also see on that page that Rev. Wix baptized Rueben's younger brother, Benjamin Samms, and his parents are also Thomas Samms and Catherine.
I am tremendously grateful to Edward Wix's account of his service, and to Rainer Baehre's gathering of stories regarding shipwrecks, as well as the individual who shared it on Ancestry, and countless unnamed caretakers of the original 1835 resource. God bless the stewards.
Below is an image I found online of who may be Edward Wix.
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