My great uncle, William Marcher, was captain of a brig called the Shamrock. It may have been the schooner documented in Maritime Newspaper Articles from 1810-1819 by the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild.

William was married to an Annabelle B, who died on July 28, 1852 in the burning of the Steamer Henry Clay. According to a report in Maritime List 122: of the ten pound island book company: "Apparently a steamship of this name caught fire on the Hudson. Her captain drove her ashore, but nearly 100 aboard were trapped by the flames and died." Another account states that the Henry Clay exploded. (Did the Kingston Trio sing a song about this incident?)

A little history of the Henry Clay from Maritime History of the Great Lakes: "In 1825 there was still but one steamer on the lake [Erie], but the demand for transportation increased so rapidly, and the business was so profitable withal, that the very next year six steamboats, viz., the Superior, William Penn, Niagara, William Peacock, Enterprise, and Henry Clay, were running regularly between Buffalo and Detroit, and in May, 1831, steamboats were making daily trips."

Another angle of the Henry Clay's history from The 24th Infantry Division (Mech) and Fort Riley Web site:
"Company F, 4th Artillery Regiment was garrisoned at West Point, Fort Columbus, and Fort Hamilton, New York from 1827 until 1832. Starting in 1831, a band of over 500 Sac warriors, under Chief Black Hawk, began burning settlers' homes in Illinois in an attempt to re-establish themselves east of the Mississippi. On June 11, 1832, Company F was ordered to battle to help destroy the troublesome "Black Hawk" Indians. The journey from Fort Columbus was perilous. On July 1, 1832, the company embarked on the steamer Henry Clay, but was forced to land at Fort Gratiot, Michigan, due to a small pox and cholera epidemic, which spread among the men on the ship. Company F lost five men to disease. Our unit arrived in the area on September 29, 1832, after hostilities had ceased, and then returned to Fort Columbus."

William and Annabelle had two children: George Kerr, who died with his mother on the Henry Clay and Anna. George Kerr had a son, George B.

In May of 1820, George H. Marcher and his father-in-law, John Wilson, took William Marcher, as well as his presumed associates Charles Webb and Ralph E. Forrester, to county court in Baltimore, Maryland regarding a "contract to build a house and lease a lot on Howard St."

Captain William Marcher died around 1820 near Barbados.