William Knowles Bird

William and Sarah Bird were buried in the old Adamsdown cemetery. Roath Churchyard has memorial inscriptions to John Bird 1761 to 1840 and his nephew John Bird 1816 to 1874, mayor of Cardiff 1862/3, son of James Bird and Sarah Young, also his wife Jemima who died in 1858 and his mother-in law Mary Ann Strutt who died in 1865. There is an obelisk for the first mentioned.
Regarding ships, John Bird the alderman, channel pilot etc. had a share in a schooner named 'Diana'. His grandson John Williams Bird was a mariner who died at sea off Spain in 1848. He had been educated in Guernsey acc. to the diary, so the family had a continuing association with the C.I. Elizabeth Thomas must have had good advice re. ships, because young children often failed to survive the journey to Australia.After 1852 the ships started to improve, but I have always thought she was brave. She was actually 50 years old, although the manifest of the "Africa" states her age as 45, and the youngest child was 5. Her cousin Elizabeth Grierson, daughter of William Knowles Bird who was mayor of Cardiff in 1850, migrated with husband and a large family to NewZealand in 1860.
It is possible William Knowles Bird inherited a ship or ships from his wife's family, the Stonehewers of Carmarthen.His son Hugh Bird traded in just about everything acc. to the trade directories, and was deputy mayor under his cousin John, 1862/3.
William Knowles Bird died in 1881, he had been a printer and bookseller in earlier life.