Mitchell family arrival on the Swan River 1838

On 4 August 1838, my fourth-great grandfather the Reverend William Mitchell (1803 – 1870), accompanied by his wife, four children, and a governess, arrived at Fremantle, on the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia.

They had left Portsmouth four months and three days before, sailing on the “Shepherd”. Their only intermediate port of call was Porto Praya off the west coast of Africa (now Praia, the the capital and largest city of Republic of Cabo Verde), where the ship took on supplies.

The Swan River Colony – now Perth – was established in 1829 following exploration of the region in 1827 by James Stirling, later Governor of Western Australia. Fremantle was the settlement’s main port.

Captain Stirling’s exploring party 50 miles up the Swan River, Western Australia, March, 1827. Oil painting by W. J. Huggins in the collection of the National Library of Australia retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-134156746

William Mitchell had been ordained a minister of the Church of England in 1825. In 1826 he married Mary Anne Holmes (1805 – 1831), and soon afterwards, the family moved to India, where Mitchell served as a missionary. They had two daughters and a son. The second girl, Susan Augusta, born on 11 April 1828 in Bombay, was my third great grandmother. Around 1830 Mary Anne became ill and the family returned to England, where she died in 1831. William married again, to Frances Tree Tatlock (1806 – 1879) and returned to India, where this second marriage produced three more sons. Frances and the children returned to England in 1834 and William returned in 1835. In 1838 William was appointed by the Western Australian Missionary Society to be clergyman for the residents of the Middle and Upper Swan regions of the new colony of Western Australia.

Reverend William Mitchell portrait from “Mitchell Amen” by Frank Nelder Greenslade

The oldest child of the Reverend William Mitchell, born to his first wife Mary, was Annie (1826 – 1917). She was 12 when the family arrived on the “Shepherd”. In her memoirs, written many years later, she described their arrival:

The ship “Shepherd” anchored off Garden Island on 4 August 1838, after a voyage of four months and three days. We landed at Fremantle by the ships boats. The first sight we witnessed was a very large whale lying on the sea beach at Fremantle, from which the natives were cutting large pieces and carrying them away on spears.

We lodged at Fremantle for a week and then proceeded to Government House where we were entertained by Sir James Stirling and Lady Stirling. It was usual practice at this time for new arrivals to call at Government House on arrival. We stayed at Judge Mackies house for a while (he was the first Judge in the Colony). After this we went to Henley Park, on the Upper Swan, by boat. Major Irwin was landlord at this time. He was Commandant of the troops in W.A. We stayed with him for a week or so then went to the Mission-house on the Middle Swan where we settled.

The whole of Perth at this time was all deep sand and scrub. There was no road or railway to Perth. All transport was done by water travel. The banks of the Swan River were a mass of green fields and flowers, with everlastings as far as the eye could see.

At the time of arrival, there were only two vessels, the “Shepherd” and the “Britomart” plying between London and Western Australia. When a ship arrived, a cannon was fired to let people know that a vessel had arrived. The people used to ride or row down to Fremantle to get their letters. There were then about seven or eight hundred people settled in W.A. mostly along the banks of the Swan.

There was no church in the colony at this time and the services were conducted in the Courthouse by the Revd John Wittenoom, the first colonial chaplain.

Panorama of the Swan River Settlement, ca. 1831 by Jane Eliza Currie (wife of explorer Mark John Currie)

The Mitchells lived at Middle Swan, now a Perth suburb, 12 miles from the city centre.

In 2000 we visited Mitchell’s church at Middle Swan. The original octagonal church, built in 1840, was replaced in 1868 by the present-day building.

St Mary’s Octagonal Church, Middle Swan, sketch published in “Mitchell Amen” page 14

St Mary’s Church, Middle Swan photographed 2006 by Wikipedia user Moondyne

William Mitchell died at Perth and is buried in the graveyard of St Mary’s Middle Swan with his second wife and his son Andrew (1846 – 1870).

William, Frances Tree & Andrew Forster Mitchell, gravestone at St Marys, Middle Swan. (Photograph provided by a 3rd great grand daughter of William Mitchell and used with permission)

Sources

• Greenslade, Frank Nelder Mitchell Amen : a biography on the life of Reverend William Mitchell and his family. F.N. Greenslade, Maylands, W.A, 1979.
• THE WESTERN AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL. (1838, August 11). The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal (WA : 1833 – 1847), p. 126. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article639437 
• Clergy of the Church of England database: https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/DisplayOrdination.jsp?CDBOrdRedID=139120 and https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/DisplayOrdination.jsp?CDBOrdRedID=139062
• Anglican Parish of Swan 
  • Octagon Church https://www.swananglicans.org.au/octagon-church
  • St Mary’s Church https://www.swananglicans.org.au/st-marys-church-cny2

Related post

• Remembering Susan Augusta Chauncy née Mitchell (1828-1867)

A Passage to India

On 20 April 1813 Emily Crespigny Hindes was baptised in the church of St Mary-le-Tower at Ipswich, Suffolk.

The name of Emily’s mother was given as Emily Hindes. The infant Emily’s second baptismal name was recorded as ‘Crespigny’, an allusion, it appears, to Charles Fox Crespigny (1785 – 1875), my 4th great grandfather. She was probably his illegitimate daughter and my half fourth great aunt.

Only a month before, on 20 March 1813, Charles Fox Crespigny had married Eliza Julia Trent (1797-1855) in London. The sequence of these events and their proximity is hard to interpret, but it appears that Crespigny was willing to acknowledge Emily Hindes as his daughter, for seventeen years later, on 14 July 1830, he stood surety for a bond on Emily’s behalf, underwriting her passage to Bengal in the so-called ‘fishing fleet’ of Englishwomen seeking a promising young man in the marriage market of the British Raj. Accompanying her was Mrs Eliza Blundell (c. 1807 – 1833), wife of George Snow Blundell, an officer in the army of the East India Company. Eliza Blundell acted as her guardian and chaperone. Eliza’s fare was probably also paid by Charles Crespigny.

The bond was issued in the names of Chas F Crespigny and Philip C Toker, a lawyer of Doctor’s Commons. Philip Champion Toker (1802 – 1882) was Charles Fox Crespigny’s nephew, daughter of his half-sister Clarissa (1776 – 1836) who had married Edward Toker.

“Our Ball” from “Curry & rice,” on forty plates; or, The ingredients of social life at “our station” in India by Captain George Francklin Atkinson (1822 – 1859)

On 1 December 1832 Emily Hindes married George Petre Wymer, a Major of the Honourable East India Company, at Neemuch, east of Udiapur, in Madya Pradesh. Their marriage certificate was witnessed by George Snow Blundell, Captain in the Fifty-first Regiment of Native Infantry.

Marriage record G P Wymer and Emily Crespigny Hindes married Neemuch 1832. Image retrieved from FindMyPast

The fishing expedition had been a success. Emily acquired a husband who,though twenty-five years older than herself, showed considerable promise as an army officer, and indeed, he rose to the rank of general and was knighted for his military service with the Order of the Bath. George Wymer, for his part, got a young wife who gave him five children. Four were born in India; the first two, a daughter and a son named George Crespigny Wymer, both died there in infancy.

Places associated with the Wymyer family. Red stars indicate where Emily married  at Neemuch and gave birth to her children at Kurnaul 1835 and 1836, Ferozepore 1839, and Mussoorie 1843. Her infant son George died at Simla in 1837. The purple stars indicate some of George Wymer’s military activities.

Overgrown with grasses, ferns and lichen, the grave of their son George Crespigny Wymer at Simla is described by Rudyard Kipling in “Out of Society”, an essay first published in the Civil and Military Gazette of 14 August 1886.

Simla from the Kalka Road photographed in the 1910s and published in Kipling’s India 1915

The road around Jakko Hill Simla from Kiplings India 1915. Jakko Road overlooks the little English cemetery described by Kipling several times in poems, stories and essays.

Returning to England about 1850, the family lived on the Isle of Wight and in London. There Sir George Wymer died in 1868, with obituaries in the Gentleman’s Magazine, the Morning Post, the Illustrated London News and elsewhere. These obituaries note that Sir George’s wife was the daughter of C F Champion Crespigny.

Obituary for General Wymer from the Illustrated London News, Saturday, Aug 29, 1868, page 211

The General’s Medals – a rare early Indian Campaign Group of five to General Sir George Petre Wymer KCB comprising Order of the Bath, KCB (Military) Knight Commanders Star (neck and breast badge), Army of Indin 1799-1826 with Nepaul clasp (Lieut G.P.Wymer, 3rd NI), Cabdahar Ghuznee Cabul 1842 and Order of the Dooranee Empire (central enamel missing) and two additional gold suspension bars. The medals were sold by Gorringes in 2013.

After her husband’s death Emily describes herself in the census returns as born in France. Given that she was baptised in Ipswich, Suffolk, this is most unlikely. She was possibly seeking to explain her unusual middle name or, perhaps deliberately, perhaps not, seeking to associate herself with her half-siblings who were in fact born in France.

In the census of 1861 an Emily Hindes, aged sixty-six, is listed as living alone in Aldeburgh High Street, Suffolk, maintained by “Annuity Property.” Born about 1795, this woman would have been of age to bear a child in 1812. It seems likely that she was Emily mother of Charles Fox Crespigny’s daughter Emily and that Charles had supported her thereafter. She died in 1870 aged 75 and was buried at the Anglican Church of St Peter and St Paul, Aldeburgh.

The Fishing Fleet

From 1600, when the East India Company was incorporated by royal charter, foreign travel to and within India was controlled by the Company. British citizens who wished to travel there were required to have the authority of the Company and, in general, this was given only to its employees. Soldiers of the Company were excepted. Other travellers were required to sign a covenant of good behaviour. To enforce the terms of the covenant, guarantors were required. These (there were usually two) were required to issue bonds undertaking to pay a certain sum of money in the event that the person guaranteed broke the terms of the covenant.

In the late seventeenth century the East India Company paid for the passage of women to India in order that Company employees might find British brides to marry. From the nineteenth century women paid their own way but still travelled to India in search of husbands employed by the Company or in the British Army.

A popular account of the Raj white marriage-market is ‘The fishing fleet: husband-hunting in the Raj‘ by the journalist and biographer Anne de Courcy (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2012.)

de Courcy claims that ‘the bond became an affidavit of the girl’s social standing and, by extension, behaviour: if her parents could afford its cost, they were likely to be of a class that made their daughter a suitable bride for a high-up Company official’. The force of de Courcy’s claim is considerably weakened, however, by the fact that the the bond was imposed on all travellers to India, not just young ladies prospecting for a husband. The Company’s position of political and military dominance in India was extremely fragile, as the events of 1857 were to show. It had strong reasons for excluding troublemakers and riff-raff off all kinds, and the bond, was only incidentally a means of screening out sub-par sheilas. It was really a mechanism for protecting the security of British India.

The East India Company Act 1813 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which renewed the charter issued to the British East India Company, and continued the Company’s rule in India. From 1813 until the passage of the Government of India Act 1833 missionaries, tradesmen and women who wished to travel to India were required to provide bonds.

The wording of the bond was standard. The surety was £200 (at least £17,590 in present day value or $Au33,000). The surety was in addition to the fare.

The Families in British India Society have an index of 12,500 Bonds taken out by many ladies, cadets, ministers of religion and traders between 1814 and 1865. I don’t know if the bond actually had to be paid, if the bonds were paid, how and when were the bonds were redeemed? At, say, $AUS20,000 a pop, this comes to $AUS250 million. The interest on this would have been a nice little earner for the Company.

The bond allowed passage on an ‘Indiaman’ and ensured that the traveller would not be a charge on the East India Company.

East Indiamen “Madagascar”, circa 1837 In the collection of the National Maritime Museum

Anne de  Courcy writes that in the nineteenth century “India was seen as a marriage market for girls neither pretty nor rich enough to make at home what was known as ‘a good match’, [… ] indeed, perhaps not to make one at all.” As the illegitimate daughter, even of a wealthy man, Emily Hindes would seem to fall in the category or women unlikely to make a good marriage in England.

Given the 1830 bond for Emily’s passage to India it seems my 4th great grandfather accepted and took responsibility for his illegitimate daughter and sought to ensure she had a good marriage.

Sources

• The website ghgraham.org/georgepetrewymer1788.html has an account of George and Emily Wymer and their children, with extracts from censuses, obituaries and the probate of wills.
• De Courcy, Anne The fishing fleet : husband-hunting in the Raj (Large print ed). Windsor, Bath, 2013. Pages 4 – 5
• Bonds, Covenants, Indentures and Obligations, Etc. – FIBIwiki, Families in British India Society, 2018, wiki.fibis.org/w/Bonds,_Covenants,_Indentures_and_Obligations,_etc.
• FIBIS database results including:
  • Miscellaneous Bonds 1814-1865 Entry from Transcription of Miscellaneous Bonds Number of Bond 7769 Authority of Court 13 Jul 1830 Full Names Mrs. Eliza Blundell and Miss Emily Hindes Description Passengers Presidency Bengal Description of Instrument Bond Date 14 Jul 1830 Sureties Chas. F. Crespigny, Aldburgh, Suffolk, Esquire. Philip C. Toker, Doctors Commons, Esquire. IOR Reference Z/O/1/10 Source Name Miscellaneous Bonds, Nos. 5739-7915 1827-1830
• Ancestry.com and FindMyPast databases
  • England, select births and christenings
  • India, select marriages 1792 – 1948
  • English censuses 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891
• Kipling, Rudyard. “Out of Society.” The New Readers’ Guide to the Works of Rudyard Kipling, Kipling Society, www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/rg_sketches_31.htm. First publication: Civil and Military Gazette, 14 August 1886

I is for inn

My step grandfather George William Symes was born 12 January 1896 at Minterne Magna, Dorset. He was the son of George Symes (1859 – 1920) and Eliza Symes nee Paulley (1870 – 1946).

George Symes senior was born in 1859 at Puncknowle Dorset, 6 miles east of Bridport. He was the oldest child of Daniel Symes (1834 – 1914), an agricultural labourer, and Sarah Symes nee Trevett (1836 – 1925).

Daniel and Sarah Symes, Bridport, Dorset. Photograph from Rod Rumble who received it from Brian Jeans, a Symes descendant

On 2 October 1878, aged 19, George Symes, then a labourer, enlisted in the Royal Artillery. He signed his attestation papers at Bridport on 2 October and joined at Portsmouth on 14 October.

He first served as a gunner, was promoted to bombadier (equivalent rank of corporal) in 1884, and then to sergeant later that same year. He was promoted to Company Sergeant Major in 1892 and discharged at that rank in 1899. He served in India from 1884 to 1892, retiring in 1899 on a pension of 30 pence for life. He was formally discharged at the Tower of London, and became a Chelsea Pensioner (he would have been an out-pensioner as he did not live at the Royal Hospital Chelsea). His character on discharge was “exemplary”.

photograph of George Symes at the Tower of London from Rod Rumble who in turn got the photograph from Brian Jeans, a Symes descendant

George first married Rosa or Rose Guppy (1860 – 1892) at Milborne Port, Somerset, in 1886. They had two children: William Hensley Symes (1887 – 1888) and Edward Daniel Symes (1890 – 1950). William was born 27 November 1887 and baptised 1 January 1888 at Milborne Port Somerset. He died, only four months old, at Agra, India on 1 April 1888 and was buried there on 2 April. Edward was born in 1890 at Campbellpore, present day Attock, Pakistan. Rose died of cholera in 1892 at Ferozepore.

In 1894 George married again, to Eliza Paulley (1870 – 1946) at Minterne Magna, Dorset. They had one son, George William Symes, born 12 January 1896 at Minterne Magna.

At the time of the 1901 census the family was at Puncknowle. George Symes was 42, with occupation of ‘military pensioner’. His wife Eliza was 31 and they had two sons, Edward aged 11 and George aged 5.

George William Symes, boy scout, aged about 13 in 1909

In 1911, George Symes, a ‘military pensioner and publican’ was living at 61 South Street Bridport. In the same house were his sons Edward aged 21, a cabinet maker, George aged 15, at school. Also living at that address was George’s brother-in-law, Lewis Paulley, age 25, a harness-maker. On census night Eliza was away, with her parents in Minterne Magna.

61 South Street was the pub. The 1911 census states it had 9 rooms, not including the shop, office, warehouse or bathrooms.

George Symes died at Weymouth, Dorset, 18 May 1920.

The building at 61 South Street Bridport is still there and still operates as a pub; it is now called The Woodman Inn.

Woodman Inn Bridport in 2017

Sources

• Census records retrieved though ancestry.com
  • 1901: Class: RG13; Piece: 2012; Folio: 75; Page: 10.
  • 1911: Class: RG14; Piece: 12486; Schedule Number: 22
• Wo 97 – Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 retrieved through FindMyPast: George Symes Birth year 1859 Birth parish Puncknoll, Bridport, Dorset, England Royal Artillery Attestation date 02 Oct 1878 Attestation age 19 years 6 months Attestation service number 5286 Attestation corps Royal Artillery Discharge corps Royal Artillery

O is for Orfeur

Although “Orfeur” is an unusual forename, I have seven in my family tree, honouring my fifth great grandfather Captain John Orfeur (1695-1753)

John Orfeur was a Captain in General Phinias Bowles’ regiment of horse, later known as  “the Carabiniers” or 6th Dragoon Guards.  His career is summarised by Charles Dalton in George The First’s Army 1714~1727 — Volume 2. Page 362

Son of Philip Orfeur and Mary, dau. of Col. Richard Kirkby, of Kirkby Ireleth, Lancashire, was gazetted lst Lieut, to his uncle (i.e. Maj.-Gen. John Orfeur) 10 Jan. 1708/9, in Visct. Shannon’s Regt. of Marines. In 1724 he joined Lord Shannon’s Regt. of Horse, the 3rd Dragoon Guards, on the Irish Establishment, now the 6th Dragoon Guards or Carabiniers. Retd. as Capt.-Lieut. in 1745. Settled in Ireland, where he d. in 1753. He married Juliana, dau. of Col. Thomas Palliser, of Portobello, co. Wexford.”—(Communicated by Col. W. O. Cavenagh.)

Captain John Orfeur was the father of Catherine Hyde Orfeur (1738-1814) who married Matthew Cavenagh (1740-1819) in about 1769.

Catherine and Matthew Cavenagh had fifteen children. Their fourth child was named Mary Orfeur Cavenagh (1779-1823). Their tenth child was Orfeur John Howard Cavenagh who died sometime before his father’s death in 1819.

James Gordon Cavenagh (1770-1844), the oldest child of Matthew and Catherine, had seven children. His fourth child was named Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891).

Orfeur Cavenagh had two sons, the elder was named Orfeur James Cavenagh (1849-1931). He in turn had a son named Orfeur.

My great great grandfather Wentworth Cavenagh-Mainwaring named one of his sons Orfeur. I have a second cousin once removed with the middle name Orfeur.

Family tree showing those with the name Orfeur

General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh

Sir Orfeur Cavenagh gives his own account of his career in a letter of 1868 included in his private letter book number 11:

Statement Of Major General Cavenagh’s Service

Passed the examination at Addiscombe on the 12th June 1837 and early in 1838 joined the 32nd Regt. N.I. In 1840 passed the prescribed examination at the College of Fort William. Appointed as Interpreter and Quartermaster to the 41st Regt. N.I. Attached to the Force employed in watching the Nepaul frontier 1840/41.

In 1842 appointed as Adjutant to the 2nd Regt. Irregular Cavalry employed against the insurgents in the Saugor and Nerbuddah Territories. Susequently transferred to the 4th Regt. Irregular Cavalry.

In 1843 engaged at the Battle of Maharajpore. Left leg carried away by a round shot, and otherwise severely injured by his charger, which was killed, falling on him.

For upwards of a year compelled to use crutches. Continued however to perform all his duties even those of parade, being placed upon his horse and taken off again by his orderlies. During this period compiled the Abstract of General Orders, for a long while the standing book of reference for the Army, the profits of the compilation made over to the Lawrence Asylum. Appointed 2nd in command of the 4th Regt. Irregular Cavalry, and, for a short time officiated as Pension Paymaster at Meerut.

In 1845-46 employed with the Army of the Sutledge, and, at the relief of Loodianah by the Division under Sir Harry Smith again severely wounded losing the partial use of his left arm. Whilst still on the Sick List and unable to sit on his horse without being held, at the particular request of the late Sir Hugh Wheeler, took charge of the whole of the native sick and wounded, many of whom were in great distress, owing to the want of proper food and clothing. Drew and issued the requisite advances, visited the hospitals and personally conducted the accounts of several hundred of men of various corps.

Appointed Superintendent of the Mysore Princes and subsequently of the Ex-Ameers of Scinde [Sindh] and Seikh Sirdars, as well as of the Ex-Governor of Kerman, the Persian nobleman, Agha Khan Mehlatee.

In 1850 selected for the political charge of the Nepaulese Embassy. On his return from England accompanied it to Kathmandoo, and afterwards prepared a report on the State of Nepal. Received the thanks of the late Court of Directors and of the Supreme Government.

For many years a Director of the military and Orphans Funds. Compiled and edited the Bengal Army List, containing the services and dates of commissions of every officer — the profits of this work made over to the Orphan Society.

In 1854, at the special request of the then Governor General Lord Dalhousie, accepted the appointment on his staff of Town Major of Fort William [the fort in Calcutta]. In this capacity as the Governor General’s representative, recommended the numerous alterations in the European Barracks and other buildings as well as general sanitary improvements, which have led to the ordinarily satisfactory state of health of the Garrison.

On the 26th January, 1857, frustrated the design of the Mutineers to seize Fort William (vide statement of Jemadar Durrion Sing, 34th Regiment, N.I.).

Throughout the Mutiny discharged all the arduous duties connected with the command of Fort William and Calcutta, including the charge of the state prisoners, the raising a Corps of Volunteers, the organisation of a body of Native Servants for the use of the troops arriving from England, the management of a large Military Canteen, the protection of the town, the control of all Public Departments, Military Buildings, Hospitals, etc., and the entire charge (arming, clothing and victualling) of all European invalids and recruits, numbering several thousands, of the company’s service. On four occasions received the thanks and commendation of the Supreme Government.

At the close of the mutiny, appointed Governor of the Straits Settlements. In addition to the ordinary duties connected with the Government, specified in the report forwarded to the India Office, obtained from the Sultan of Acheen an apology for the insult offered to the Governor General’s Envoy, Major Haughton; prepared a special report upon the resources of the State of Sarawak and carried out the secret instructions for preventing the exportation of arms and ammunition to Japan and the North of China. For the efficient performance of these duties received the thanks of the Secretary of State and the Governor General of India.

Received through the Secretary of State, the thanks on two occasions of the Emperor of France for assistance rendered to French vessels, and also the thanks of the Secretary of State for the Colonies for the valuable aid afforded in effecting the transfer of the Straits Settlement.

An account of the Indian Mutiny by Colonel G.B. Malleson described the part played by Orfeur Cavenagh in 1856 and 1857 in frustrating the mutineers efforts to seize the fort:

Major Orfeur Cavenagh, an officer of great shrewdness and perspicacity, who filled the important office of Town-Major of Fort William in Calcutta, visited, October and November 1856, the districts just beyond Agra. He had been struck everywhere by the altered demeanour of the sipáhís [sepoys], and loyal natives had reported to him the great change which had taken place in the feelings of the natives generally towards the English. Disaffection, he was assured, was now the rule in all classes. To the clear vision of this able officer it was evident that, unless precautions were taken, some great disaster would ensue.” … “one of the sergeants attached to Fort William reported to Cavenagh a remarkable conversation, between two sipáhís, which he had overheard …

…

Cavenagh, who, as Town-Major, was responsible to the Governor-General for the safety of Fort William, took at once measures to baffle the designs of which he had been informed, and then drove straight to Lord Canning to report the circumstance to him. Lord Canning listened to Cavenagh with the deepest interest, and sanctioned the measures he proposed. These were to transfer from Dam-Dam, where one wing of the regiment which was responsible for the safety of the Presidency, the 53rd Foot, was located, one company to Fort William. For the moment the outbreak was deferred.

In recognition of his services during the Indian Mutiny Orfeur Cavenagh was offered the post of Governor of the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Malaya and Penang): he governed there from 1859 to 1867. Cavenagh Bridge in Singapore is named in his honour.

In 1881 Orfeur Cavenagh was appointed KCSI, Knight-Commander of the Order of the Star of India.

On 3 July 1891 Sir Orfeur Cavenagh died in Surrey, England, aged 70.

Sir Orfeur Cavenagh

Sources

• Col. W. O. Cavenagh who provided information to Charles Dalton was Wentworth Odiarne Cavenagh 1856-1935,the son of Orfeur Cavenagh 1820-1891 and my first cousin three times removed. He undertook considerable research on the Cavenagh family history.
• I am grateful to my cousin Diana Beckett for the pictures in this post.
• Sir Orfeur Cavenagh’s private letterbooks from his time as Governor of the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Malaya and Penang) have been transcribed and digitised copies are available through the website of the the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada at https://www.uvic.ca/library/locations/home/spcoll/book/cavenagh.php
• Sir Orfeur Cavenagh published his reminiscenses in 1884: Sir Orfeur Cavenagh (1884). Reminiscences of an Indian Official. Allen.
• Malleson, CSI, Colonel G. B. (1891). “Chapter III: The first mutterings of the storm”. The Indian Mutiny of 1857. London: Seely and Co Ltd (republished on the web by the HyperWar Foundation). pp. 34, 36.
• Entry for Orfeur Cavenagh in Dictionary of Indian Biography. Ardent Media. p. 76.

20 June 1756 Black Hole of Calcutta

On 20 June 1756 Patrick Johnston(e) (1737-1756), my 7th great uncle, died in the prison of the Nawab Siraj-ud-daulah, later known as the “Black Hole of Calcutta” in India.

Three years previously, at the age of sixteen, Patrick had joined the East India Company as an accountant. He was eighteen when he died.

Memorial to the victims, St John’s Church Calcutta Photograph in 2011 by Pdr123 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Patrick’s name is listed on a memorial to victims.

One of the prisoners, J. Z. Holwell, wrote an account of the incident. He reported that 146 were imprisoned and in a room only 4.30m. x 5.50 m (14 feet x 18 feet) 123 died overnight from overcrowding. It is suggested that Howell exaggerated these numbers and that probably only 69 men were imprisoned. Howell listed P. [Patrick] Johnston in his account.

Patrick was the thirteenth of the fourteen children of Sir James Johnston.

In 1753 Patrick Johnstone petitioned to be admitted as a writer, that is, a junior clerk, in the East India Company and on 31 October 1753 he was approved as a writer for Bengal.

In his petition to join the company Patrick stated that he had been “educated in writing and Accompts,” and he presented a certificate showing he had undergone “a complete course of Mathematick and Book keeping” with a teacher in Edinburgh.

Also at the age of sixteen, Patrick’s older brother John (1734-1795) had been admitted as a writer in 1750.  Two of John’s maternal uncles gave their security for his appointment. John’s teacher in Edinburgh certified his capacity to be able to discharge his duties as a clerk. John arrived in India in 1751.

Patrick’s appointment in 1753 was on the security of two London merchants: Peter Linehup of St George’s Hanover Square and Alexander Grant of London, Merchant. Lord Elibank, the brothers’ maternal uncle, seems to have declined to provide security for Patrick. Lord Elibank had previously provided security for Patrick’s older brother John.

From 1741–1846 the East India Company required a bond for faithful service. Becoming a Writer was the passport to great riches but riches were not always acquired without dubious dealing and corruption. A young man who survived ten years, exiled in a trying and dangerous climate, expected to go home rich and the East India Company allowed leeway for creative personal trading as long as its own profits were not affected.

In September 1755 Patrick wrote to his brother William (1729-1805):

My very worthy brother Johny & I are trying to establish & carry on a Good Trade Tho We want Money to make it an extensive one. (Rothschild, The inner life of empires, page 27)

When the fighting began in 1756 in the so-called ‘Carnatic Wars’, a three-way conflict between the local rulers of the Moghul Empire and the French and British East India Companies, John and Patrick were captured. Patrick was imprisoned and died. John, however, was in Dhaka in East Bengal, and was released into the custody of the French.

John later fought in the 1757 battle of Plassey in which the British East India Company under Robert Clive defeated the Nawab of Bengal.

Further reading

• A short analysis of the incident http://murshidabad.net/history/history-topic-black-hole.htm
• Rothschild, Emma The inner life of empires : an eighteenth-century history. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J. ; Woodstock, 2011.
• A guide to St John’s Church, Kolkata: https://indianvagabond.com/2017/06/05/st-johns-church-kolkata-a-complete-guide/

I is for interested in India

Eyre Nicholas Champion de Crespigny was born on 7 May 1821 at Vevey, near Montreaux, Switzerland, the son of the Reverend Heaton Champion de Crespigny (1796-1858) and Caroline née Bathurst (1797-1861). He was my third cousin four times removed.

Eyre’s father, Heaton, was involved in various scandals and by the late 1820s the family was destitute. In 1832 Heaton was committed to a debtors’ prison. (A story for another blog post.)

In 1834 Eyre was at school at Segrave House, Cheltenham. There he received a book prize for 2nd class, Classical. (Leamington Spa Courier 28 June 1834, page 3 retrieved from the British Newspaper Archive) On 2 March 1835 Eyre, aged 13, son of Heaton de Crespigny, clergyman, 27, Queen Street, Grosvenor Square, was admitted to St Paul’s School, London.

In the late 1830s Caroline left Heaton and moved with her children, including Eyre, to Heidelberg in Germany. In 1842 at the age of 21 Eyre graduated from the Heidelberg University with a medical degree.

His obituary in the 1895 issue of the Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, page 127 states

After receiving his diploma he returned to England, and went through Bartholomew’s and Guy’s Hospitals. In 1845 he received an Indian appointment, and arrived in Bombay in September of that year. During his residence in India he was employed in the performance of various military, naval, and civil medical duties. In 1859 Dr. de Crespigny became Acting Conservator of Forests and Superintendent of the Government Botanical Gardens at Dapsorie, near Poonah ; but failing health compelled his return to England in 1862. During his residence in India he made a small but interesting collection of coloured drawings of plants, which were acquired for the Botanical Department of the British Museum.

On 5 November 1850 Eyre married Augusta Cunningham at Malligaum, Bombay.They had five children:

• Mary Augusta 1853–1930 (born Ahmedabad where Eyre was Assistant surgeon)
• Grace Caroline 1855–1905 (born Rutnagherry where Eyre was Assistant Surgeon)
• Augusta Margaret 1856–1935 (born Rutnagherry)
• Claude 1859–1860 (born and died Rutnagherry; at the time of his son’s death Eyre was Civil Surgeon)
• Herbert Frederick 1860–1941 (born Bombay)

I am not quite sure where the Government Botanical Gardens at Dapsorie near Poonah, now spelled ‘Pune’, are. The Empress Gardens at Pune, founded in 1830 and acquired by the British Government in 1838, are near the race course. Perhaps it was these gardens that Eyre was responsible for. However, I think Dapsorie is a mis-transcription and the gardens were most likely at Dapuri which is 370 kilometres north of Pune.

The “History of Botany in India”  in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, vol. 54, 1957, page 83, states

The line of botanists in charge of the Bombay forests was continued by the appointment of Eyre Champion de Crespigny (1821-96). He had reached India in 1845. The posts of Conservator of Forests and Superintendent of the Dapuri Garden were combined in his case. He made a herbarium which is now at Manchester.

The Dapuri Botanic Gardens were abandoned in 1865 not long after Eyre departed from India because of his ill health.

Eyre continued his enthusiasm for botany after his return to England and was a member of the Botanical Exchange Club, which later became the Botanical Society of the British Isles. In 1877 he published A new London flora.

Retrieved from http://www.biodiversityheritagelibrary.org/bibliography/32388#/summary

As mentioned in his obituary in the Journal of Botany,

This is a handy little pocket volume, and was reviewed in this Journal (1877, pp. 311-314) by Mr. Reginald Pryor, whose singularly exact mind found a good deal to criticize both as to matter and manner.

The obituary goes on to note “Beyond this Dr. de Crespigny did not publish, but devoted himself quietly to the study which had for many years been his chief interest. “

Eyre de Crespigny died in 1895.

After his death his widow donated his herbarium collection and a collection of Indian snake skins to the Manchester Museum. There were 42 skins in the collection.

Carex distans herbarium specimen from Faversham, VC15 East Kent in 1883 by Dr Eyre Champion de Crespigny. The item is in the collection of the University of Birmingham and includes the biographical details of Eyre, the collector. Retrieved from http://herbariaunited.org/specimen/305571/?image

“Eyre” is not a forename used much by the de Crespigny family. In looking at Eyre’s mother’s relations, however, I found that Eyre’s great-uncle on his mother’s side was Sir Eyre Coote (KB (1762-1863) and that Eyre’s mother, Caroline Bathurst, had a cousin called Eyre Tilson Coote (1793-1827). 

Sources and further reading

•  Middleton, Richard. “De Crespigny, Eyre Nicholas Champion (1821 – 1895).” Natural History Biographies. Natstand- Richard Middleton & James R Middleton, 18 Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.natstand.org.uk/time/DeCrespignyECtime.htm>.
• Fordoński, Krzysztof. “Caroline De Crespigny Translates Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski: Forgotten Romantic Poetess as Translator of Neo-Latin Verse.” Grażyna Bystydzieńska and Emma Harris (eds.) From Queen Anne to Queen Victoria. Readings in 18th and 19th Century British Literature and Culture. 4 (2014): 121-30. Academia. Academia.edu. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://www.academia.edu/5120526/Caroline_de_Crespigny_Translates_Maciej_Kazimierz_Sarbiewski_Forgotten_Romantic_Poetess_as_Translator_of_Neo-Latin_Verse>. 
• “The Weird and Wonderful World of Collecting.” Conservation at the Manchester Museum. The Manchester Museum, 18 Apr. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <https://conservationmanchester.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/the-weird-and-wonderful-world-of-collecting>.  
• From the Botanical Society of the British Isles the biographical details of Eyre Champion de Crespigny are noted on a Carex distans [Distant sedge] herbarium specimen from Faversham, VC15 East Kent in 1883 by Dr Eyre Champion de Crespigny. 
• “Empress Garden.” Discovered India. Discoveredindia.com, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.discoveredindia.com/maharashtra/attractions/parks-and-gardens/empress-garden.htm>.  
• “The Dapuri Drawings.” Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Inverleith House Archive. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 2002. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.rbge.org.uk/the-gardens/edinburgh/inverleith-house/archive/inverleith-house-archive-main-programme/2002/the-dapuri-drawings>.  

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Portrait of Wentworth Cavenagh, Commissioner of Public Works of South Australia from 4 March 1872 to 22 July 1873 from the State Library of South Australia

Browsing the National Library of Australia’s ‘Trove’ digitised newspaper collection recently, I came across a shipping departure notice which gives a succinct family history of my Cavenagh and Mainwaring great great and great great great grandparents. The Cavenagh-Mainwaring family were about to sail for England on the Ballaarat.

The Ballaarat was a P & O ship of 4752 tons built in 1882, designed for service between the United Kingdom and Australia. The P&O history site remarks that “Her dining saloon was considered particularly fine, and patent iron beds replaced bunks for her first class passengers.”

Ballaarat – 1882 Greenock retrieved from http://www.findboatpics.com.au/sppo2.html

 

Latest News. (1892, April 27). Evening Journal (Adelaide, SA : 1869 – 1912), p. 2 Edition: SECOND EDITION. Retrieved  from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article204477375

Lots of information to follow up and facts to check.

Until I came across this information I did not know that James Gordon Cavenagh, my great great great grandfather, an army surgeon with the Royal Staff Corps, was at Waterloo. He is listed on page 20 in the list of officers as a surgeon in the Royal Staff Corps in John Booth’s 1816 book of The Battle of Waterloo. He is also listed in The Bloody Fields of Waterloo: Medical Support at Wellington’s Greatest Battle by Michael Crumplin published in 2013.

I also didn’t know very much about his son, my great great grandfather, Wentworth Cavenagh. It appears that he was educated at Ferns Diocesan School in Wexford, Ireland. When he was 18 years old he went to Canada, Ceylon, and Calcutta and from there to the Bendigo diggings.