Recent family history took us to Gainsborough, so we called at the church to view the Rollett stone again, and we were delighted to see how it has been transformed by the information notice above.

Richard Rollett sailed on Cook’s Second Voyage in Resolution as Sailmaker.¹  After the voyage, Rollett married Susanna Hart on 16 October, 1777, in Boston in eastern Lincolnshire.  They had several children, and moved to Gainsborough in western Lincolnshire.  Rollett died on 20 January, 1824.  He was buried in All Saints Church, Gainsborough. 

Richard Rollett’s gravestone used to be sited between the first and second lime trees on the right on entering the main West gates.²  When the tombstones were cleared from the churchyard, Rollett’s stone was fastened to the wall just inside the main door of the Tower entrance.  Some photographs of the tombstone in this position appeared in Cook’s Log in 2008,³ and a probable portrait of him in 2013.⁴ 

On an information notice appear extracts from the Boston Marriage Register, Boston Marriage Bonds, and the Gainsborough Burial Register.

The Marriage Register shows that both Richard Rollett and Susanna Hart signed their names; the vicar was John Calthrop.  The Marriage Bond shows their sponser [sic] as George Ingram of Boston, Butcher. 

The Burial Register shows Rollett was living in Bridge Street at the time of his death; the vicar was George Beckett. 

Mike Surr

References

1. Cook’s Log, page 37, vol. 40, no. 1 (2017). 
2. Cook’s Log, page 1506, vol. 21, no. 2 (1998). 
3. Cook’s Log, page 3, vol. 31, no. 1 (2008). 
4. Cook’s Log, page 31, vol. 36, no. 3 (2013). 

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 33, volume 42, number 2 (2019).