Location
On the north wall of the Chapel of St. Thomas (see Cathedral Plan).
 

Memorial
Memorial to Captain John Kitson
Inscription
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
JOHN SYKES KITSON
CAPTAIN ROYAL ENGINEERS
WHO DIED AT NASSAU NP
ON THE 14TH SEPTR. 1835
ALSO OF
ELIZABETH KITSON
WIDOW OF THE ABOVE
AND DAUGHTER OF
GEORGE GRANT ESQUIRE
OF THIS TOWN
WHO
WITH HER THREE INFANT CHILDREN
PERISHED BY SHIPWRECK
NEAR THE ISLAND OF ABACO
ON THEIR PASSAGE FROM THE
BAHAMAS
ABOUT 26TH MARCH 1836
HER SORROWING FAMILY ERECT THIS TABLET
TO DEPARTED WORTH


 
Further Information

John Sykes Kitson was born 27 Feb 1792, son of John and Elizabeth Kitson. He was baptised 25 Feb 1793 in St. George in the East, Tower Hamlets, London. His father's profession is given as mariner. The family may originally have come from Huddersfield in Yorkshire, where they still had relatives and had inherited property from an uncle. In the mid-1790ties, the family moved from London to Liverpool, probably because of commercial reason.
 
On 16 Feb 1830, John Sykes Kitson married Elizabeth Grant, eldest daughter of George Grant, a banker in Portsmouth.
 
John's sister Martha Sykes Cleeves, born Kitson married Andrew Cleeves in Portsea on 25 August 1814. Andrew was artillery officer and finally Lieutenant Colonel in the Hanoverian King's German Legion. The artillery of the KGL was based near Portchester Castle from 1804 until 1814. Andrew took part in the Peninsular Wars and fought at Waterloo. After 1815, the Cleeves lived in Hanover, Andrew Cleeves died in Selby in 1830, having visited his brother-in-law in Liverpool; Martha died in Hanover in 1850. Andrew's son William Cleeves was born in Titchfield and later settled down in Duisburg-Ruhrort, where he started his own business.
 
John was Captain of the Royal Engineers and promoted to 2nd Captain in 1819. From 1826 until 1831, he was in charge of building the fortification New Brighton Rock just outside Liverpool (Wirral), apparently with sandstone from his own pit, which reduced the total cost considerably.
 
The foundation stone reads: "This foundation stone of the Rock Perch Battery, projected by and under the direction of John Sikes Kitson, Esquire, Captain in the Royal Engineers, for the defence of the port" was laid on 31st March 1826 by Peter Bourne, Esquire, Mayor of Liverpool in the 7th year of the reign of His Majesty George IV. His Grace, the Duke of Wellington, Master General of the Ordnance.
 
He is also said to have made the design for Napier House in Chester.
 
He was then stationed as officer in Nassau, Bahamas, where he died in 1835, probably of yellow fever. His wife Elizabeth and their 3 children had gone with him and after his death wanted to return to England. Their ship, however, was shipwrecked in a storm and the whole family lost their lives.
 
William's aunt in Hanover mentiones this fatal accident in a letter of 23 June 1836: "I have to tell you of another catastrophe. Martha's sister-in-law together with her 3 children drowned in the sea on their return from the West Indies on March 6. Nobody was rescued, all papers and money are lost and I have to do what I can to comfort Martha and her sister Mary, it is so hard on them, especially, because they live in a foreign country ..."
 
[Research by Gabriele and Hans Eilert-Ebke from Düsseldorf]

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