There are only 4 Babbs that petitioned the Trinity House for special assistance. We have talked the last several days about Nicholas Babb, but moving on through the others we come next to Peter Babb of Chudleigh. We find in in 1788 Petitioning for assistance after a lifetime of work as a Mariner.

He is now 61 years old and unable to continue his work. The various posts he held did not provide a pension and he was now unable to support himself financially. His lengthy career is detailed on the first image below.

I am not able to tell if he received the assistance he requested from the available evidence. But I am able to draw a few conclusions from what I see.

There was never any other record of Peter after his Baptism and he looked for all intents and purposes to not have lived long afterwards. I can say that no Marriage Record for him has been found, nor any evidence of land ownership, which would make good sense for a sailor who was a mere Mate in his highest post.

He was “bred to the sea” as the document states and likely never married, never owned land or accumulated any sense of wealth given this role. So, as he was unable to work, he had nothing to fall back on, no rents from tenants, etc.

The Trinity House was known to be very generous and helped in many cases to ease the suffering.

Of note also is the locations of the ships he worked in. The vast majority of them are listed in Teignmouth and address that is just 8 miles/13 km away.

No death record is on file for Peter as well. As this is well before the advent of the UK Census there is nothing else to go on at this time.

Peter’s Ancestry

Peter hails from the line known as Devon Pedigree (Chudleigh 1665) 14, 17, 26. It is a sizeable tree with 156 current members.

Peter is on Page 2 in the 4th Generation. His Brother John had a large family, parts of which carried forward to at least 1900.