Lage near Corunna in Spain, when 16 persons, constituting with but one exception the whole crew and passengers of the ship "Adelaide", found a watery grave. Captn. Dovell, the bereaved survivor of this mournful event, who was most miraculously rescued, now a widower and childless, here records his enduring grief". William Dovell Captain William Dovell was born in the parish of Parracombe in Devon on 30 October 1806. His wife Frances Quartly (1803-1850) was a daughter of Henry Quartly (1755-1840) (whose mural monument also exists within St Mary's Church in Molland), one of that family famous for having established during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the breed of Devon Cattle at Great Champson and West Molland Barton, both within the parish of Molland, as tenants of the Throckmorton family. Ten years after the shipwreck he remarried to a certain Mary. The Dovell family had been tenants in Molland since at least 1701, as the following deed dated 12 May 1701 is summarised: Counterpart of lease for 99 years from John Courtenay of West Molland, Esq. to William Dovell alias Blackford of Molland, yeoman, of a messuage and lands called Ford in Molland. Later Courtenay/Paston/Throckmorton Molland deeds in Warwickshire archives show the Dovell family as resident in High Bray (1734), West Anstey (1761), Dolworthy (sic, should be Holworthy) in the parish of Parracombe (1801), Martinhoe (1808) and Countisbury (1814), all in North Devon. References Further reading Campos, Juan, Náufragos de Antaño, published Spain, circa 2003 (a book on 19th century shipwrecks on the coast of Galicia, Spain). North Devon Journal, 2003, 2 articles on the ship and the research of Juan Campos. Juan Campos Calvo-Sotelo, Tras la pista de un naufragio: La historia de William Dovell El autor rememora tras una investigación el hundimiento en 1850 del barco del capitán Dovell frente a Laxe en el que perdió a su familia y su tripulación, published in: La Voz de Galicia, 2003/06/10 Shipwrecks in the Atlantic Ocean Victorian-era ships of the United Kingdom Shipwrecks of the United Kingdom