Ambrose Sackett

Ambrose Sackett, shipwright and lighter builder, son of John Sackett and Mary Austin, was baptized at St John in Thanet, Kent^G, on 24 April 1743.¹ He died aged 70 on 25 August 1813 and was buried there on 1 September 1813.^2,3 He was unmarried.
     Ambrose Sackett established, with his brother Henry, the firm of A & H Sackett, Lighterbuilders, of Rotherhithe. The business was evidently very successful. The brothers accumulated significant wealth and were to describe themselves in later life as "gentlemen". They were both much involved in the Company of Shipwrights.
     Ambrose began his working life in 1757 at the age of 14 as an apprentice to Meridith Bishop, a shipwright and citizen of London. The fee paid for his apprenticeship was a nominal one penny, suggesting a family or other strong connection with the Bishops. He would have completed his seven-year apprenticeship at age 21. Five years later, in 1769, he was made free by servitude, becoming a citizen and shipwright of the City of London.⁴ Once qualified, Ambrose himself took a number of apprentices, the first of these, in 1777, being his cousin Thomas Sackett.⁵ On 15 July 1779 he took Henry Stokes of St Lawrence as an apprentice.⁶
     The records of the Shipwrights' Company show Ambrose paying quarterage (membership fees) from 1777 to 1810. He was elected an Assistant of the Company in 1784 and, in 1791, was elected as Steward for the next Lord Major's Day. Ambrose and Henry were listed in the Universal British Directory of 1791 under Livery of London, Shipwright's Company, as lighter builders of 52 Rotherhithe.⁷ After the brothers' deaths the business was carried on under the name of Sackett & Stokes, "near the Church", Rotherhithe^G.⁸
     Ambrose was named as a beneficiary in his brother Henry's will made in Kennington Green, Lambeth, Surrey^G, on 15 June 1807. He was left a sum of £200 and was appointed an executor of Henry's will and trustee of various funds. In the event, Ambrose predeceased his brother.⁹
     Ambrose made his will in St John in Thanet^G on 6 February 1808, naming as beneficiaries his brother (and business partner) Henry, his nephew John Henry Sackett, his nieces Ann Sackett and Mary Sackett, and his great nephews Henry John Preston and Henry Benjamin Walmsley.¹⁰ Ambrose left a substantial estate of nearly £2,500 in personalty as well as his real estate. The main beneficiary was his brother Henry—Ambrose's only surviving sibling, but who was himself to survive Ambrose by less than 18 months. He was left all Ambrose's real estate and £800 in Government stock. Henry was left a further £500 in stock for the benefit of his son John Henry Sackett "to set him up in business". Each of Henry's surviving daughters, Ann and Mary, was also left an amount of £500 in stocks. Ambrose remembered with bequests of £20 his great nephews, Henry Preston and Henry Walmsley, respectively the sons of Ann and Mary.