The Builder Lelean

The Builder  Nicholas Lelean

There were 2 Leleans, Father and son, who were well known and respected ship Mevagissey     builders. It is most likely the son built the Freedom. The Lelean Shipyard is still partially in tack in the Mevagissey harbor and how houses the museum.

I am now in contact with a relative of Lelean who’s name is Maureen Musson. Maureen lives in Essex. Her grandfather moved to Essex when ship building declined in Mevagissey. The information below is from her.

Nicholas LELEAN  was born on 12^th July 1769 and baptised on 13^th August 1769 in Mevagissey, the third issue and second son of William LALEAN and SARAH (nee BARON), and he married at the age of 23 years on 14^th August, 1792 in Mevagissey to Catherine BASSETT, (Addendum 3) who was baptised on 1^st June 1767 in Mevagissey.  Nicholas and Catherine had six issues baptised in Mevagissey, four sons and two daughters: Ann (1793), Nicholas (1795), Thomas (1797), Peter (1799), William Bassett (1802) and Catherine (1804) who was affectionately known as “Kitty”.   According to the booklet John Wesley’s Silver Buckles written by Lilian Lelean Scholes, Nicholas and Catherine had seven children, but only six appear on the IGI.  On the 1974 Family Tree another Catherine is shown without any date of birth or baptism and mentions that she died as an infant.

Nicholas became a Sea Captain and was Master of the Brig named SEVEN BROTHERS, reputedly built in the Lelean shipyard.  One day in the summer of 1805, when England was still at war with France, the Seven Brothers sailed out of Mevagissey harbour and had hardly left the bay when a French privateer, a much larger ship, bore down upon her.  The Frenchmen boarded her and during hand to hand fighting, two of Nicholas’s crew was killed.  The Seven Brothers was taken as a prize to Brest, with Captain Nicholas Lelean and his surviving crew as prisoners of war.  From Brest, by stages, the prisoners were marched to Aaras, then later to Verdun.   There they had to spend nine long and weary years in a French military prison but, certainly they were not badly treated by the French.

Their captors were humane men, men of a religious outlook, Probably some of   them were Huguenots, and  they  recognized a similarity between their own form of worship and the simple, sincere Christianity of their prisoners.  The gentlemanly behavior of the Cornish men, their honesty and their reliability, did not fail to impress the French.  As Nicholas and his fellow prisoners won the respect of their captors, conditions became much better for them, but there was still no hope of getting home.  At one time there was talk of an exchange of prisoners and hopes rose high, only to be dashed to the ground and followed by bitter disappointment when nothing came of it.

Once, during the time when plans for exchanging prisoners were being discussed, Nicholas saw Napoleon Bonaparte, the Emperor of France, and he was surprised by the effect  that the Emperor’s magnetic personality made upon him.        He had often said before he was                                    captured that “he felt he could slay the tyrant”, yet such was the fascination of Napoleon’s     personality and majesty of his bearing that he now “felt he could have placed his hand under     Napoleon’s feet”.       All his hatred for the great enemy of England had melted away.

However, Nicholas, who was a devout Christian, was allowed to hold Religious Services, Prayer Meetings and Classes for his fellow prisoners, many of whom like himself were Methodists.  At home in Mevagissey, he had been a Class Leader and a Trustee of the local chapel, and next to his family and the free wind of the sea. It was the church that he missed the most. 

One of the privileges allowed to Nicholas was the writing of letters.  Certainly these were far from frequent; they averaged little more than one a year, and of course there was no guarantee of their safe delivery across the sea to England.  Another fortunate thing for Nicholas was that his wife was one of the few literate people on her part of Cornwall.  She could read and write, and during the time of her husband’s imprisonment, Catherine was able to put her education to good advantage by holding a little Dame school for the children of Mevagissey whose parents were glad to have them taught the ability to read and write that they themselves did not possess.  With the few pennies she earned by her teaching, Catherine was able to keep the family from hardship all the time her husband was away.

The letters of Nicholas are still extant.  The originals were distributed among different members of the Lelean family and are still treasured among them.  We have transcribed some of the letters spanning a five year period and they record in some details the conditions under which Nicholas was living in captivity. 

1841 census, Mevagissey:
 63 Lelean's Court,1,Nics. Lelean,45,,Ship Builder, In county,
 Sally Lelean,,40,,In county,
 Nicholas Lelean,12,,,In county,
 William Lelean,8,,,In county,
Samuel Lelean,3,,,In county,
 Lelean's Court,1,Nicholas Lelean,70,,Ship Builder, In county,
 Catherine Lelean,,75,,In county,