George Vason , Nottingham's real life Robinson Crusoe


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Probably a greater story than Robinson Crusoe but this actually happened  . 

24 year old George Vason , son of butcher Richard Vason of North Muskham  had come to Nottingham to work as a builder but in 1798 joined with a group of Baptist missionaries to the South Seas on the ship "Duff" . 

After a scary eventful journey outward , they landed in Tonga and initially were treated well by the natives . The main early troubles were caused by a couple of resident British sailors who had earlier mutinied from a ship and probably resented the newcomers . 

 

Vason stopped trying to convert the savages and went native . Forsaking European clothes he had many tattoos and also practiced polygamy , one of his wives being a chiefs daughter .   

After a peaceful few years in which Vason got his own land and taught the natives some cultivation , there were a series of bloody civil wars , culminating in Vason managing to escape with his life by diving from a canoe pursued by the natives .

Despite forgetting his English language , after so many years , a waiting British ship picked him up , amazed to find a tattoed Englishman in native dress on their deck. He was dropped off in New York eventually and worked as a sailor on American ships before returning to Nottingham  .

Amazingly he became governor of the Nottingham Jail , a position he held for 18 years until his death in 1838 . He and his wife Mary (Leivers) were both buried in a grave at the old Mount St Cemetery . All the graves were removed from this cemetery in the 1930s to make way for a new road .

 

Fuller story here using newspaper reports ...... would make a good film !

 

https://djwilson22.wordpress.com/2020/10/02/george-vason-of-nottingham-c1773-1838-and-his-south-seas-adventures/

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Yes Cliff Ton but after further research extra info on this version :)

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