Deveraux, Esther

 







Esther Deveraux and her husband John Deveraux embarked on the voyage to America on a ship named the Enoch Train. Their daughter Harriet Richins was also aboard with her husband and small child. The Enoch Train left on Mar. 23, 1856 from Liverpool, England and arrived in Boston on May 1, 1856. There was a company of 534 members of the church aboard. Their appointed Church Leader was Elder James Ferguson.
Though we don’t have the actual words of Esther Deveraux, luckily she spoke with other people on the ship who kept journals and so we have their accounts of things she said.
The journal of one passenger recorded, “On Monday, the thirty-first [of March], Esther Deveraux died of consumption.”
From the journal of Mary Powell Sabin: “When we had been on the ocean three weeks, Mrs. Deveroe [Deveraux] died. They sewed her up in a sheet and buried her in the sea. In the commencement of the voyage, she remarked to my mother, “I’ll go on board the ship and start my husband to Utah. If I should die, he will journey on. If we do not commence the journey, perhaps my husband and children will not reach Utah.”
From the diary of Andrew Smith: “We had very little sickness except seasickness. Several births and 2 deaths, 1 child and an aged sister (Devereux) from the Hertfordshire Conference. She died April 1st. [She actually died Mar. 31.] She was afflicted with asthma. It appears she had the desires of her heart. She did not seem to think of reaching the valley herself but wished to see her family on the way, and the Lord’s will be done. On the 2nd her body was committed to the deep. The captain, as a token of respect, caused the flag to hoisted upon the occasion, which is not customary, only when an officer is buried.”


(Once again, some of this is taken from Dad’s family history book, page 257. Thanks, Dad! Also, at the time Dad wrote this, he did not know their daughter was also on the ship with them.)