CRICH PARISH

which consists of the villages of Crich, Fritchley and Whatstandwell

William Falconbridge

With thanks to Prunella Bradshaw.

NEW YORK HERALD Friday November 21 1881

William Falconbridge

William Falconbridge died recently at Salt Lake City, in his 102nd year. He was born at Fritchley, Derbyshire, England, on October 24, 1780, and when a lad was apprenticed to a stocking maker at or near his native town. His employer aroused the wrath of the ignorant
populace by introducing machinery into his factory and his establishment was demolished by a mob. Shortly after this event Falconbridge was seized by the press gang and carried on board the Salvadora, of Lord Cochrane's fleet, in which he served as cabin boy in a cruise on the Spanish coast. He was then transferred to one of the ships of Lord Nelson's fleet and fought under him at the battle of Trafalgar. While in the naval service Falconbridge saw from the deck of his vessel the great Napoleon Bonaparte as he walked the deck of the Bellerophon a prisoner of war when about to be conveyed to the island of St. Helena. During long years of naval service Falconbridge had had no communications with his family, from whom he had been forcibly torn, after his discharge he joined the British army, enlisting in the Forty-third Regiment of Infantry. Here, to his great joy, he found his father, who, in the interim, had become a soldier. Falconbridge went to Utah twenty years ago, was highly esteemed for his kindly disposition.

SALT LAKE HERALD 11th November 1881
DIED
FALCONBRIDGE – In the Thirteenth Ward, Salt Lake City, on November 10th, 1881 of old age, William Falconbridge, born at Fritchley, near Croich, Derbyshire, England, on October 24th, 1780.

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