English Admiral William Saltonstall Wiseman

Source: St. Joseph Gazette June 24, 1934

Sir William Saltonstall Wiseman Died Suddenly at the Old Saunders House

The stone pedestal bears the words: "Sir William Saltonstall Wiseman, Bart, Rear Admiral in the British Navy K.C.B. Born Aug 4,1814, died July 15, 1874." Some of the letters are so weather beaten that it is difficult to make them out. There is nothing on the stone which indicates the family history of this man who sailed the seas in the warships of the English, at the time that Britain ruled the waves. Dr. James Runcie, former rector of Christ Episcopal Church, made the arrangements for placing the simple memorial over the grave and officiated at the burial of the former admiral. Burke's "Peerage and Baronetage," which is regarded as an authority on English royalty and which work is on the shelves of Central Public Library, contains the name of this eighth baronet of the Wiseman family, and states that the present baronet, Sir William George Eden Wiseman, the tenth, followed his forebears in the military service of this country; serving in the Duke of Cornwall's L.I. (the duke is the Prince of Wales), and who was on the M.I. staff during the peace conference in 1917, and was chief adviser on American affairs to the British delegation in Paris, 1918-19. This grandson may have learned something about American affairs in studying his family history, because his grandfather, who passed away so suddenly in St. Joseph, had taken out his first American naturalization papers in 1872 and had a home on the Nebraska prairie near Fairfield at the time of his death. There he was known as William Chambers, and it was as William Chambers, Lincoln, Neb. that he registered at the old Saunders House here a few hours before his death. The account of his death appeared in the St. Joseph Herald, the morning after it occurred, but it was four or five days later that his real identity was established. In the account of his death, it was stated that "he had informed Richard Saunders, proprietor of the hotel upon registering, that he had just got in from New York, making the trip in three days, and he was tired. He asked for a room and was being shown to it by a bellboy when he suddenly sank to the hall floor, within a few feet of his door, and before a doctor arrived, he was dead. The coroner returned a verdict of death by heart disease. It was thought that "Mr. Chambers" was a resident of Lincoln. Inquiry was made there and a few days later William Edmund Downing wrote from Fairfield, Neb. that he was the agent for Sir William, that he had been in this country two years from England and that the British admiral was on his way back to Nebraska from England at the time of his death. In the meantime, it was learned that the stranger had $85 in cash on his person, and that his trunk which came a day or so later, had private letters indicating who he was, and the trunk also contained the uniform of an admiral of the British navy. At the time of his death the stranger was described as a man who was "portly, well dressed and affable." This was borne out by what was learned later.

British Rear Admiral Wiseman, Bart was the eighth baronet of Canfield Hall in Suffolk County, K.C.B. He joined the Naval Academy in 1827, and was appointed Commander and Chief, Australia Station in 1863. In 1874 he registered at the Saunders House in St. Joseph on Third Street under the name of William Chambers of Lincoln, NE and started up the stairs to his room when he fell dead of heart disease.