The Berwick Shipyard site (http://www.berwickshipyard.com/) gives some of the early history of shipbuilding in this town which began when a qualified carpenter and boat builder, Arthur Byram (the author's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather) arrived in 1751, perhaps from Whitby, and opened a shipyard on the Berwick side of the river outside the Elizabethan walls. Thereafter the Byram-Gowan family built an average of about four sailing vessels per year here on the Tweed, representing an important contribution to the town's economy and source of employment, until the yard closed 127 years later in 1878. [Production was revived by a different company in 1950, only to shut down again in 1979.]
The business must have prospered in the first thirty years because by 1782 Arthur Byram was able to have a large house constructed for himself and his second wife in 25/27 Palace Street, not far from the quay and the site of his shipyard. There is a stone above the door of no. 25 which is inscribed with the shipbuilder's initials and the year 1782.The Familytraits website presents this undated pencil drawing by L.S. Lowry of Palace Street and states:
"Arthur Byram, a shipbuilder, lived in one of the houses with a stone dated 1782. Ships built by Byram were reckoned to be the fastest sailing vessels of their day. One such vessel completed the voyage from Berwick to the heart of London in just 44 hours. His house was restored by the Berwick-upon-Tweed Preservation Trust in 1982."
The Preservation Trust's website shows the photograph at right of 25 Palace St before its restoration. The photos below (courtesy Jamie Thompson) show the property after its refurbishment. (Click to enlarge.)Arthur Byram's first wife was Elizabeth Lyster. They married 22 June 1753 in Chillingham, Northumberland. Two sons, both born in Berwick, James in 1754 and Arthur in 1756, died in infancy. A daughter, Elizabeth, was baptised on 20 Aug 1757. When she was under two years of age, her mother died and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard on 11 Mar 1759. Seven years later, on 5 Apr 1766 in Holy Trinity, Arthur Byram married Rosamond Mowbray, a spinster in her late thirties.
Daughter Elizabeth, on 9 March 1781 in Holy Trinity, Berwick, married a Robert Gowans (born c. 1756 in Dunbar Scotland, died 22 Sep 1802, buried 25 Sep 1802), described as a "ship's carpenter" (so he may have been an employee of the Byram yard). Gowans subsequently dropped the final 's' and the family was thereafter known as Gowan.
Much of the information which follows was provided by Joanne Marsh (née Gowan) who has carried out extensive research on the family. The first table, reconstructed from the parish record of baptisms, lists the children of the Robert Gowan(s) -Elizabeth Byram marriage. (A daughter Elizabeth is said to have died in 1787.)
Arthur Byram continued to run the shipyard until 1789. Shortly before his death in the same year he handed responsibility for management of the yard to his son-in-law, Robert Gowan(s). Early in 1789 Gowan(s), stating that Arthur Byram was now "very unfirm" and unable to carry on his business, petitioned the Guild for the reassignment to himself of the piece of ground Byram held of the Corporation. This was granted in May of that year.
The male line continued with a series of A.B. Gowans. Lieutenant Arthur Blackwood Gowan of 1st/3rd Battalion Durham Field Company Regiment Royal Engineers (Territorial) was killed in action in World War I on 14 July 1916, aged 19. He was the son of A. B. Gowan of Newcastle-on-Tyne who at the time was manager of Palmer Shipbuilders in Jarrow. The Jarrow Ferry A.B. Gowan was named after the dead soldier. This was the last Jarrow ferry and made its final trip in 1967 when the Tyne Tunnel was opened.