George died young and Hannah married again to become Hannah Clarke.

In the 1841 census, James Mackay, aged 15, is living with his mother, Hannah Clarke and his half brother William Clarke, aged 6, in Whitburn Street, Monkwearmouth, a district of Sunderland.

They share the address with a large Spraggon family.

James is a shipwrights apprentice.

Meanwhile, his future wife Mary Ann Scott aged 16, is living with her mother, Elizabeth and two of her brothers - Joseph, aged 14 and Thomas aged 9- in Barclay Street, Monkwearmouth.

Elizabeth had married William Scott in 1816 so there may have been older children who had already left home.

By 1845, however, when James Mackay and Mary Ann Scott married in St Peters Church, great improvements were being made to the area.

 see History Of Monkwearmouth page

The 1871 census shows him and Mary Ann with their children in Victor Street in Monkwearmouth but he moved his family to London around that time, to Deptford. (See 'Sheila's Memories')

He was the Ships Carpenter on the ship The Castle Howard.

In 1863/4 the ship sailed without James - he had fallen and broken his leg so could not go.

The Castle Howard was lost without trace. In 1865, James and Anne's daughter was born. In memory of his shipmates and in thanks for his fortunate escape, they named their daughter Emily Howard Mackay. Emily was the name of the Captain's (James Lamprell) wife who had also perished on the voyage.

Since that time, children in the family have been given the middle name Howard to remind us all that they we not exist if James had not broken his leg that day.

James and Mary Ann were happily married and later in life were still very much in love.

They had six children-

George born 1853

Bella born 1858

James and Mary-Ann (twins)  born 1860

Rose born 1863

Emily Howard born 1865

Their home was close to the River Thames and the children would spend a lot of time playing on the shore. Their favourite part was privately owned and they had to ask permission of the gate keeper to enter. Emily, and her twin brother and sister - James and Mary Ann (Polly) - were much of an age and so spent a lot of time together. Emily and James - like the McKay side of the family - were red haired and blue eyed but Polly was like her mother - dark haired and brown eyed.

The gate keeper would tease Polly until she cried, telling her she could not possibly be a McKay with hair the colour of hers!

One day the children found a battered bucket on the shore and filled it with winkles they gathered from the stones as a surprise for their mother, the next day being Sunday and they always had winkles and brown bread and butter for Sunday tea. They took the bucket home and hid it until the next day in the girls bedroom. In the morning they woke to find the walls and ceiling covered with crawling winkles!