Voyage: 1845
Ship: Belize
Lydia Bates was the daughter of James Bates and Hannah Walker of Pembroke, MA. In 1836 she married Capt. Allen Dawes (1812-1857) of Duxbury. Three Dawes brothers, Allen, Josephus, and James, all became master mariners, and all brought their wives to sea at least once. Lydia accompanied her husband on a voyage in 1845 on the brig Belize to Haiti. Sally Freeman Dawes wrote to her husband of the trip, “I asked your Mother what Allen’s object was in carrying Lydia she said he wanted she should know how hard he ernt his money I guess you will have to carry me for the same purpose.” While away with her husband, Lydia left two children with her mother and one with her mother-in-law. Her husband’s later voyages at sea are described in Down East Captain by W. J. Moore. Unfortunately, Capt. Dawes went insane and died in 1857; Lydia died in Cambridge, MA in 1897.
Lydia’s three sisters-in-law appear on this list: Sally Freeman Dawes, Abby Chandler Dawes, and Lydia Sampson Dawes.
Sources:
Dawes Family Collection, DAL.MSS.004, Drew Archival Library
Moore. W. J. Down East Captain. Devon, UK: Arthur H. Stockwell, 1967.
