House’s historic links to important business of nation’s maritime trade
BEWCASTLE was a large house built on land at the top of Ruff Lane in the early 1890s.
The house was built for Cumberland-born Captain Henry Wilson Hewitt.
Born at St Bees, Whitehaven, in 1831, Captain Hewitt had a long distinguished career as a Merchant seaman.
Henry had gained his competency certificate as a First Mate in 1852, aged just 17.
By 1854 he had gained his Master’s competency certificate and became Captain Henry Wilson Hewitt.
On August 25, 1857 Henry married Mary Ann Jackson, the daughter of Robert Jackson Of Barngill House, Distington, Cumberland.
And by 1867, he was the joint owner of a threemasted iron sailing ship called Grace Gibson.
He jointly owned the Grace Gibson with Thomas H Ismay, who had acquired the flag of the White Star Line that same year.
Ismay was also born in Cumberland and was related by marriage to Henry’s mother, Ruth Hewitt née Wilson.
Ismay became the president of the White Star Line and Captain Hewitt became the marine superintendent of the White Star Line.
His eldest son was born at sea in June 1861 on board the Cambridge, the birth being registered at the Port of Liverpool in December 1861.
His second son, James Stanley Gibson, was born at Stanley Harbour, Falkland Islands in 1867 on board the Grace Gibson.
Henry’s appointment as marine superintendent for the White Star Line in May 1888, which also qualified him to become an Honorary Royal Naval Reserve Commander.
He must have shown incredible organisational and administrative skills to achieve the position at the White Star Line.
The role had many different aspects, from ensuring the safe, efficient and cost effective running of every ship in the line to liaising with stakeholders, carriers, port authorities, equipment suppliers and carriers.
In 1881 he was living in Station Road, Maghull.
His wife died after the birth of his youngest daughter and his older son, Robert J Hewitt, emigrated to Australia in the late 1880s, dying there in 1903.
The family moved to the newly built Bewcastle in the mid 1890s.
The large, family home had 10 rooms and it is probable that Henry chose the name himself as it is a Cumbrian place name.
Captain Henry Wilson Hewitt carried out his duties as a marine superintendent until just a few days before his unexpected death at Bewcastle in 1905.
As ever, there is a mystery.
In his will, he left 100 shares in the Asiatic Navigation Company to his son, John Hannay Watson, of Whitehaven.
The only John Hannay Watson found, who was also an executor of Henry’s will, was only two when Henry was born.
The Asiatic Steamship Navigation Company, set up to secure steamship navigation in the Bay of Bengal, was backed by Henry’s boss, Thomas Ismay, the father of Joseph Bruce Ismay, who inherited the White Star Line on Thomas’s death in 1899 and survived the sinking of the Titanic.
The next owner of Bewcastle was Burscough born steamship owner Henry Tyrer.
Henry Tyrer was a farmers’ son from Burscough but trained as a merchant as a young man.
He started working with a Liverpool broker in 1872 and then set up his business in 1879. He moved to Tranmere for a while as his Liverpool shipping business grew and then moved to Lydiate before settling at Bewcastle.
he set up another office in Church Street, Preston, before the docks opened there and then in 1893 he set up a temporary office on the docks.
Henry went into partnership with other Preston firms and bought a share in the Prestonian, which helped to build a huge business in importing wood pulp for the East Lancashire paper industry.
While living in Lathom he became involved in a number of local sporting events but his passion was for pigeon racing and he established one of the best “lofts” in the north of England during the 1920s and ’30s.
Henry Tyrer died at Bewcastle on Saturday June 20, 1936, aged 79.
His wife, Jane Elizabeth Tyrer, also died at Bewcastle just 35 days later, aged 81.