What Happened to George Brundrett?

By JANET H. TAYLOR
and DAVID CRAWFORD

History Mystery: How did our great-great grandfather meet his demise?

George Albert Brundrett Sr. was born in Scotland around 1795. After the death of his parents, he moved to Manchester, England, and became friends with the Peter Hollingsworth family. When the family sailed to Canada in 1828, George was with them. Subsequently, George and some of the Hollingsworths moved to Ecorse, Michigan, where George and Mary Hannah Hollingsworth were wed in 1835.

Around 1845, George and Hannah with their five children and Henry Motes, their adopted son, moved to Texas and settled in Corpus Christi. Two more children were born in Texas. George served as a commissioner in Nueces County in 1947.

Around that time he purchased and operated a sailboat that hauled freight along the Texas coast between Indianola and Point Isabel. In addition to being a ship captain, George also was a gunsmith and a machinist boilermaker. There are multiple theories about how George perished in November of 1848. Was he caught in a violent storm on his way to Indianola and drowned a few miles south of present day Rockport, or when sailing off Mud Island was George hit in the head by the mainmast which knocked him overboard perhaps killing him instantly or causing him to drown? It was also rumored a large amount of money, which the crew denied any knowledge of, was missing from the sailboat. Was it an accident or foul play? Unfortunately, because George’s body was never recovered, we will never know.