Category Archives: India

Death of Lieutenant Reveley in 1857

16 Thursday Jun 2022

Posted by in India, military

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Matthew Hugh Reveley, one of my second cousins five times removed, was born in 1829 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, the son of Algernon Reveley (1786 -1870) and Diana Reveley nee Betty (1806 – 1846), both British. His father had been a writer (clerk) in the Honourable East India Company in Bengal from 1803 to 1822.

Matthew grew up in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. He was schooled in classics, with some mathematics, at a private establishment at Shooters Hill, in southeast London.

In 1847, at the age of seventeen, Matthew joined the East India Company‘s Bengal Army as a cadet. In August 1853 he became a lieutenant in the 74th Regiment Native Infantry, at that time based in Cawnpore, an important commercial and military station, 500 kilometers southeast of Delhi. By 1857 the regiment had moved to Delhi, where on 11 May it mutinied in the revolt that became known as the Indian Mutiny.

From a map of Northern India showing the mutiny 1857 – 59. Retrieved from Luscombe, Stephen, “Indian Mutiny.” The British Empire

Bengal Native Infantry regiments typically consisted of 800 privates (sepoys), 120 non-commissioned officers (havildars and naiks), 20 native commissioned officers (subedars and jemadars), 2 British sergeants and 26 British commissioned officers. Regiments were commanded by a lieutenant-colonel and were divided into 10 companies, each assigned 2 British officers and 2 native officers. Each regiment was assigned an adjutant, an interpreter and a quartermaster. In 1857 there were 74 Bengal Native Infantry regiments.

The Sepoys at Rifle Practice: The Enfield Rifle was introduced in India towards the close of 1856. From “1857 : A Pictorial Presentation.”  Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1957, page 3 retrieved from Internet Archive.

The Indian mutiny began—or so it is said—when sepoys refused to use new rifle cartridges, which were rumoured to be lubricated with grease containing a mixture of pig and cow lard, religiously impure for Muslims and Hindus. In May 1857 85 sepoys of the Company’s army in the garrison town of Meerut, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Delhi refused to accept the new cartridge. They were court-martialled and found guilty of disobedience and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment with hard labour. On Saturday, May 9, the entire garrison was paraded to witness the sentences being put into effect. On 10 May Indian troops there, led by the 3rd Cavalry, broke into revolt. Some British officers, their wives and some civilians, including 50 Indians, were killed.

Most of the sepoys and sowars from Meerut made for Delhi on the night of 10 May. Early on 11 May, the first parties of the 3rd Cavalry reached Delhi.

The 74th was one of three regiments of Bengal Native Infantry stationed in barracks a few kilometres northwest of the city. They provided guards, working parties and other contributions to a “Main Guard” building just inside the walls, near the Kashmiri Gate on the northern circuit of walls, and to the arsenal in the city and other buildings.

from The City of Delhi Before the Siege – The Illustrated London News Jan 16, 1858 showing:
14. Cashmere Gate, 25. English Church (St James’s Church), 26. Magazine and Store Houses
from an 1857 plan of Delhi retrieved from Luscombe, Stephen, “The Siege of Delhi.” The British Empire
“Kashmir Gate, Delhi, Punjab” taken by Samuel Bourne in the 1860s and showing the damage. In the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Edward Vibart, who at the time of the mutiny was a nineteen year old lieutenant with the 54th Native Infantry, described the Cashmere (Kashmiri) Gate in his 1898 account of the mutiny: 

…the Cashmere Gate, as this place was destined to be the scene of our operations for the remainder of this eventful day [11 May 1857]. This gate, like most fortified gates, is approached by two roadways cut through the glacis, one for entry and the other for exit, each of which, passing under a separate arched entrance, leads into a small fortified enclosure, called the Main Guard, which was always garrisoned by a detachment of fifty sepoys under a European officer. It consisted on this day of men of the 38th N.I., under Lieutenant Procter of that corps. This duty, which was taken in turn by each regiment in the
garrison, and lasted for a week at a time, was looked upon as a rather irksome one by the European officers, as the officer in command of the detachment was not allowed to quit the precincts of the Main Guard, and had always to be dressed in uniform.

The events at the Cashmere Gate in Delhi on the afternoon of 11 May including Reveley’s death are told in “The Tale of the Great Mutiny” which includes an eyewitness report by Edward Vibart:

Matters quickly came to a crisis at the Cashmere Gate. About four o'clock in the afternoon there came in quick succession the sound of guns from the magazine. This was followed by a deep, sullen, and prolonged blast that shook the very walls of the main-guard itself, while up into the blue sky slowly climbed a mighty cloud of smoke. Willoughby had blown up the great powder-magazine ; and the sound shook both the nerves and the loyalty of the Sepoys who crowded the main-guard. There was kindled amongst them the maddest agitation, not lessened by the sudden appearance of Willoughby and Forrest, scorched and blackened by the explosion from which they had in some marvellous fashion escaped.

Brigadier Graves, from the Ridge, now summoned Abbott and the men of the 74th back to that post. After some delay they commenced then' march, two guns being sent in advance. But the first sound of their marching feet acted as a match to the human powder-magazine. The leading files of Abbott's men had passed through the Cashmere Gate when the Sepoys of the 38th suddenly rushed at it and closed it, and commenced to fire on their officers. In a moment the main-guard was a scene of terror and massacre. It was filled with eddying smoke, with shouts, with the sound of crackling muskets, of swearing men and shrieking women. Here is Colonel Vibart's description of the scene : —

The horrible truth now flashed on me — we were being massacred right and left, without any means of escape ! Scarcely knowing what I was doing, I made for the ramp which leads from the courtyard to the bastion above. Every one appeared to be doing the same. Twice I was knocked over as we all frantically rushed up the slope, the bullets whistling past us like hail, and flattening themselves against the parapet with a frightful hiss. To this day it is a perfect marvel to me how any one of us escaped being hit. Poor Smith and Reveley, both of the 74th, were killed close beside me. The latter was carrying a loaded gun, and, raising himself with a dying effort, he discharged both barrels into a knot of Sepoys, and the next moment expired.

The death of Lieutenant Matthew H. Reveley of the 74th N.I. was reported in the London Gazette of 10 February 1858 as killed at Delhi on 11 May 1857.

Reveley’s name is recorded on a tablet in St. James’ Church, Delhi, which is situated near the Kashmiri Gate –

Lieutenant M.H. Reveley. Killed at the Cashmere Gate Delhi 11th May 1857.

St James’s Church, known as Skinner’s Church photographed by Robert and Harriet Tytler in 1858. Retrieved through the British Library.

Related post and reading:

  • O is for Orfeur – another cousin on a different branch of the tree, Orfeur Cavenagh (1820 – 1891), also was a British officer during the mutiny

Wikitree:

  • Matthew Hugh Reveley (1829 – 1857)
    • Matthew was a grandson of Jane (Champion Crespigny) Reveley (1742 – 1829) and great grandson of Philip Champion de Crespigny and Anne (Fonnereau) Champion de Crespigny

Mainwaring younger sons go to India

27 Thursday Jan 2022

Posted by in army, India, Mainwaring, younger son

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Rowland Mainwaring (1745 – 1817), one of my fifth great grandfathers, was the fourth of the five sons of Edward Mainwaring (1709 – 1795) and his wife Sarah Mainwaring nee Bunbury (1709 – 1798). As a younger son, Rowland was unlikely to inherit the Mainwaring estates. Expected to make his own way in the world, he joined the army, becoming a captain in the 1st Regiment (Royal Scots) and later a major in the Staffordshire Militia.

Rowland married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth Mills of Barlaston, died soon after their marriage in 1777. There were no children. In 1780, three years later, he married Jane Latham, daughter of Captain Latham (d. 1762) of the Royal Navy. From this second marriage there were seven children, with four sons:

  • Edward Henry Mainwaring 1781–1807
  • Rowland Mainwaring 1782–1862
  • Thomas Mainwaring 1784–1834
  • Charlotte Margaretta Mainwaring 1785–1836
  • Elizabeth Mainwaring 1787–1869
  • Susannah Jane Mainwaring 1788–1871
  • George Mainwaring 1791–1865

Three of the sons joined the Honourable East India Company. Rowland (junior) enlisted in the navy.

Edward Henry Mainwaring

Edward Henry Mainwaring began his military career in the Staffordshire militia. In 1795, at the age of fourteen he became an ensign without purchase in the 13th Regiment of Foot (Light Dragoons). He became a lieutenant by purchase in 1796 but retired 9 months later. He is recorded as a cadet in the Bengal Army, appointed ensign from 23 September 1797. On 10 September 1798 he was made a lieutenant. He died unmarried in 1807.

Deaths

July 22 1807 At Dacca, in the East Indies, Lieut. Edward Henry Mainwaring, of the 3d Regiment of Native Infantry, eldest son of Rowland M. esq. of Northampton. While out at exercise he complained of a sudden attack in the head, and died in a few minutes, in consequence of a rupture of a blood-vessel in his brain.

Death notice in The Gentleman’s Magazine of 1808

Rowland Mainwaring

I have written elsewhere about Rowland’s career:

Thomas Mainwaring

Thomas Mainwaring was educated at Mr Kelly’s Northampton Academy, with emphasis on writing and accounts. In late 1800 or early 1801, at the age of sixteen, Thomas petitioned to become an East India Company Writer, the organisation’s most junior rank. He arrived in India on 23 August 1801.

A view of Calcutta from Fort William (1807). Aquatint from a set of prints published by Edward Orme. New arrivals sailing to the city first passed Fort William. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
The Writer’s Building Calcutta in about 1860 photographed by Francis Frith. The building was where the writers (clerks) worked in Calcutta). Image from Wikimedia Commons.

At this time, a considerable part of the revenue of the British East India Company derived from its monopoly on salt. In the 1780s salt was its second largest revenue source, and in 1858 10% of its income was still from salt. Many of Thomas Mainwaring’s appointments were in the Company’s Salt and Opium Department.

  • 1804, 15 March Second Assistant to the Superintendent of the Western Salt Chowkies. (Chowkies are stations for collecting customs on all branches of trade)
  • 1805, 20 May Assistant to the Superintendent of Eastern Salt Chowkies
  • 1808, 2 August In Charge of the Office of Superintendent of the Eastern Salt Chowkies
  • 1810, 5 July In Charge of the Office of Superintendent of the Salt Golahs at Sulkea (A golah is a warehouse. Sulkea was opposite Calcutta on the west bank of Hooghly River; Sulkea was originally a place where salt was brought and stored in warehouses. Present day Salkia)
  • 1811, 1 November Sub-Secretary to the Board of Trade, Salt and Opium Department
  • 1814, April Nominated to Endorse Stamp Papers
  • 1815, 11 March Collector of Tipperah (the princely state of Tripura now located in the present-day Indian state of Tripura.)
  • 1815, 21 March Acting Superintendent of the Western Salt Chowkies
  • 1819, 1 March Collector of Juanpore (present day Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh)
  • 1824, 19 March Collector of Inland Customs and Town Duties of Calcutta
  • 1824, 8 July One of the Magistrates of the Town of Calcutta
  • 1831, 15 February Commercial Resident at Cossimbazar
  • 1835, 22 January Acting Salt Agent at Tumlook (present day Tamluk)
  • 1835 He was granted furlough to Mauritius and died on the way there on 6 May.

Deaths: On the 6th of May, on board the ship the Duke of Roburgh, on his way to the Mauritius, where he was proceeding for the benefit of his health, Thomas Mainwaring, Esq. of the Bengal Civil Service

English Chronicle and Whitehall Evening Post of 24 October 1835
Map of Indian places mentioned in the careers of Edward, Thomas and George Mainwaring

George Mainwaring

George Mainwaring was accepted as a Writer in 1807. His petition to join the civil service of the Honourable East India Company was dated 23 December 1806. He was about fifteen years old. He attended Haileybury College from 1807 – 1809. He was appointed to the company in 1810 and arrived in India on 30 July 1810. Some of his early appointments also included the administration of salt:

  • 1815, July 18: Assistant to the Salt Agent at Tumlook.
  • 1815, Oct 27: Officiating Superintendent of Eastern Salt Chowkies.

He became a Civil and Session Judge of Benares and agent to the Lieutenant Governor of Benares. He retired in 1841 and died in England.

Benares, A Brahmin placing a garland on the holiest spot in the sacred city. 1832 Lithograph, by the Anglo-Indian scholar and mint assay master James Prinsep. Image taken from Benares illustrated, in a series of drawings. Calcutta : printed at the Baptist Mission Press, Circular Road, 1830-1834. Image retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.
In 1832 George Mainwaring was Officiating Judge of the Provincial Court of Appeal at Benares

Salt agents in Bengal

In Bengal salt was not made by solar evaporation—the usual process—but by boiling concentrated brine, extracted from salt-rich soil by washing with seawater. Bengal salt was known as panga. The Bengal method followed a boiling process because Bengal’s extreme humidity made it difficult to crystallize brine by solar power alone and readily available fuel such as grass and paddy straw made panga production possible there. The brine was boiled for long hours in small earthenware pots at low temperatures producing fine white salt.

The interior of a boiling house in Tamluk, with two malangis (salt labourers) boiling brine with grass or paddy straw. Source: Notes on the Manufacture of Salt in the Tamluk Agency, by H.C. Hamilton, Salt Agent, Dated September 23, 1852, Appendix B, BPP, vol. 26, 1856.

At the end of the 18th century, the East India Company divided the salt-producing areas of Bengal into six agencies run under salt agents — Hijli, Tamluk, the 24-Parganas, Raimangal, Bhulua and Chittagong. In the early 19th century, to make the salt tax more profitable and reduce smuggling, the East India Company established customs checkpoints throughout Bengal and an inland customs line was built across India from 1803 to prevent smuggling of salt from coastal regions in order to avoid the substantial salt tax; it was initially made from dead thorny material.

The agents would contract with the malangis, salt labourers, and pay advances to them as well as supervise the entire process of salt production, the storage of salt in the Company’s warehouses, and its delivery to merchants. Agents were also required to be on the lookout for illegal production and smuggling. A chain of native officers at different stages in the production process enabled a salt agent to manage the entire scope of commercial activities within his region. The salt agents were responsible for producing the authorized annual quota; success or failure in production would determine the Company’s salt revenues. Salt agents were active in production. For example, salt agents advanced money to the malangis, the salt labourers, and occasionally helped the malangis procure fuels in order to prevent delay to production.

Relatives in high places

When looking at the Writers’ petitions for Thomas and George, in both cases I noticed that in presenting the nomination to Henry Strachey the petitioner was a grandson of Lady Strachey. Jane Latham’s widowed mother Jane Latham nee Kelsall (1738 – 1824), had married Henry Strachey in 1770. Henry Strachey was private secretary to Lord Clive from 1764. Jane Strachey nee Kelsall, was first cousin to Margaret, wife of Lord Clive.

From the petition by Thomas Mainwaring to join the East India Company (file viewed through FindMyPast)
From the petition by George Mainwaring to join the East India Company (file viewed through FindMyPast); Henry Strachey was a baronet from 1801 and hence his wife was now Lady Strachey.
Sir Henry Strachey. Image from the University of Michigan which holds many of his papers including correspondence with his wife Jane.

As younger sons of a younger son, Thomas and George Mainwaring did not expect to inherit the estate. A career was necessary and it seems their maternal grandmother’s second husband, Henry Strachey, helped with their introduction to the East India Company.

References

Wikitree:

A Bombay wedding: George Symes and Katherine Lucas 1939

21 Saturday Aug 2021

Posted by in India, Symes, Wedding

≈ 1 Comment

On 10 August 1939 Katherine Lucas, future first wife of my step-grandfather George Symes, embarked on the Strathallan at Port Adelaide, bound for London. At the time, it was widely believed that another war was inevitable, and indeed, scarcely three weeks afterwards, World War II began with Hitler’s invasion of Poland on 1 September and the British response two days later.

The column ‘Lady Kitty Hears’ in the Adelaide Advertiser of 11 August 1939 announced:

On The Strathallan

ON BOARD the Strathallan yesterday, Mrs. Peter de Peterson passed through Adelaide on her way home to Bombay, after spending three months in Melbourne with her parents, Colonel and Mrs. P. W. Vaughan. Her husband will meet her at Colombo. Travelling in the same ship is Miss K. Lucas, who is bound for England.

Built in the previous year, the Strathallan was one of 5 ‘Strath’ liners designed for the Australia run. They were known as the ‘White sisters’, for P&O had them painted white with buff funnels, a colour scheme made possible by the fuel they used: coal had been replaced by oil, and though black paint had usefully concealed the dirt from coal-smoke, white was clean, modern, and much cooler in the tropics.

RMS Strathallan was the fifth and final vessel of the Strath-class liners, launched in September 1937 with her maiden voyage in March 1938. She was 23,722 gross registered tonnes, 664.5 feet long (202.5m), and could carry for 448 1st Class and 663 Tourist Class passengers.

On 3 September, during the voyage, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany. A letter back to South Australia published on 20 October 1939 in The Times and Northern Advertiser of Peterborough, South Australia described the voyage after war was declared. The Strathallan was :

… on their way to Suez when war was declared and the steamer had to return to Aden and await orders from the Admiralty. They left Aden on 2nd September, and that night all the passengers had to transfer to the first class cabins—as the ship was “all black out” it was rather an ordeal, but the passengers made the best of it and enjoyed the fun of bumping into each other in the dark with their goods and chattels. They had to attend boat drills, first aid classes, wear life belts, carry emergency outfits, practise disappearing below when the air raid and gun warnings were given and not returning until the “all clear” signal sounded. The men passengers, eight on each deck, kept two hourly watch from 6 p.m. until daybreak, the life boats were kept in readiness, and each passenger had his own appointed place therein, so that everything possible had been arranged for their safety.

The Strathallan did not arrive in London until 9 October. When the letter was written, on 12 September, the ship had “been touring continuously without sighting land” for 10 days.

It seems Katherine Lucas may have already disembarked in Bombay in late August, perhaps intending to continue her voyage later or to defer the trip to England because of the anticipated announcement of war.

On 2 December 1939 the column ‘Lady Kitty Hears’ in the Adelaide Advertiser announced:

BETROTHED

THE ENGAGEMENT is announced of Miss Katherine Bellairs Lucas, second daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. C. de N. Lucas, of Hyde Park, to Brevet Lieut.-Colonel George William Symes, of York and Lancaster Regiment, India. The marriage will take place in Bombay on December 11.

Katherine Lucas’s  portrait appeared in The Advertiser of 5 December.

Miss Katherine Bellairs Lucas, who recently announced her engagement to Brevet
Lieutenant-Colonel George William Symes. — Dickinson-Monteath portrait.

A report of the wedding was in the Adelaide News of 3 January 1940 in the column ‘Conducted by Candida’.

Adelaide Bride In Bombay

A WEDDING of interest to Adelaide folk was that of Miss Katherine Bellairs Lucas, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Claude de Neufville Lucas, formerly of South Australia, which was celebrated at the Afghan Memorial Church, Bombay, India, on December 11.

The bridegroom was Lieut.-Col. G. W. Symes, M.C., York and Lancaster Regiment, attached to the General Staff of Bombay District Headquarters. He is the son of Mrs. G. Symes, of Swanage, Dorset, England.

Vice-Admiral H. Fitzherbert. Flag Officer commanding the Royal Indian Navy, and naval officers and their wives, officers attached to Bombay District Headquarters and military units in the garrison and their wives, the Bishop of Bombay and other friends of the bride and bridegroom filled the church, the sanctuary of which was simply decorated.

The bride walked to the altar on the arm of Major-Gen. G. de C. Glover, officer commanding Bombay District.

She wore a white chiffon dress with long sleeves, a full skirt, with flared godets, and an attached hood coming half-way over the head. She was attended by Mrs. P. de Peterson, who wore a dress similar to the bride’s but ice-blue in color.

The Rev. J. W. F. Ruddell, chaplain of Colaba, officiated.

The bride and bridegroom left the church, under an arch of swords provided by brother officers of the bridegroom.

A reception was held at the Gun House, Colaba, where Major-Gen. Glover proposed the health of the bride and bridegroom.

The honeymoon was spent in Agra and Delhi, and the bride wore a going away frock of powder blue flat crepe.

from a photo album compiled by George Symes. He has captioned the wedding party: Phyl de Peterson, ‘Toots’, Katherine, John Marshall, 11 December 1939

I notice that the bridesmaid, Mrs P de Peterson was mentioned as travelling on the Strathallan at the same time as Katherine.

On 7 February the News published a photo of the wedding.

 (1940, February 7). News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 – 1954), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article131545464

Katherine and George had no children. When George retired from the army, they moved to Adelaide, where Katherine had grown up.

Katherine Symes died 15 March 1961.

George married a second time, in 1967, to my grandmother, Kathleen Champion de Crespigny nee Cudmore.

He died in Adelaide on 26 August 1980, and was buried in Centennial Park cemetery with his first wife, Katherine.

Centennial Park cemetery Adelaide Location: Acacia B, Path BT, Grave 135A – photographed February 2014

Wikitree:

Frances Johnstone Sherburne (1768 – 1832)

13 Monday Jul 2020

Posted by in Dana, India, probate

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Frances Johnstone Sherborne née Dana (1768 – 1832), elder sister of William Pulteney Dana, was the aunt and godmother of my 3rd great grandmother Charlotte Frances Dana.

She was born in London on 3 September 1768, third of thirteen children of the Reverend Edmund Dana and his wife Helen. Her eldest sister, given the same name, died in infancy the previous year. Her sister Elizabeth Caroline Dana, born in 1767, was the oldest surviving child of the ten siblings to survive infancy.

On 7 July 1793 Frances Johnstone Dana married Joseph Sherburn in Boston Massachusetts. Frances Dana’s father had been born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Frances, presumably, was visiting her relatives there.

Joseph Sherburne was born 1751 in Falmouth, Cornwall, England to Joseph Sherburn (c 1721 – 1763), captain of the packet “Hanover”. In 1767 Joseph Sherburn Jr aged 16 began a career in India with the East India Company rising to the rank of Senior Merchant. The 1788 India Calendar lists Joseph Sherburne as Collector of Beerbhoom & Bishenpore [Collector of taxes and Magistrate in West Bengal in present day Birbhum and Bishnapur]. In November 1788, however, after only eighteen months in office, he was recalled on suspicion of corruption.  This appears to have been unfounded, and Joseph Sherburne was again employed by the East India Company. In 1802 he was appointed Collector of Boglepore (present day Bhagalpur in Bihar north-east India).

Joseph and Frances Sherburne had two children, both baptised in Bhagalpur: a son Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne baptised on 16 December 1802, and a daughter Frances Henrietta Laura Sherburne baptised on 3 October 1803.

Joseph died on 15 July 1805. His death notice in the English Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser of 10 February 1806 stated he was late Judge Magistrate of Purneah and Senior Merchant on the Bengal Establishment now known as Purnia it was a district of the Baghalpur Division of Bengal) .Joseph died intestate and administration was given to his widow.

After the death of her husband, Frances returned to England with her children.

In 1813 Frances’s son Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne joined the army, as an ensign with South Hants Regiment Of Militia from 1813. On 27 July 1815, barely a month after the Battle of Waterloo, Volunteer Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne was commissioned as an Ensign (without purchase) in the First Regiment of Foot. [I will write about his career separately.] He died on 28 June 1831 as a Lieutenant in Berbice in present-day Guyana in the West Indies.

Miniature portrait of Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherburne

Frances’s daughter Frances Henrietta Laura Sherburne, seventeen years old, died on 8 November 1819 at Leyton, Essex (now a suburb of London, about five miles northeast of the City), and was buried there in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin. The churchyard, now in poor repair, once had an altar-tomb surmounted by an oval urn erected to the memory of Frances Sherburne, signed by Thomas Mocock of Leyton (presumably the mason). I do not know if it has survived.

In 1832 Frances Johnstone Sherburne died in Chelsea, London. She was also buried at Leyton.

Frances Johnstone Sherburne’s will dated 19 October 1831 has a detailed
list of bequests. To her god-daughter Charlotte Frances Dana she left

  • her large Bible
  • gold watch chain loop and seals complete
  • a real sable tippet
  • a pair of gold Hindustani earrings
  • amethyst broach set round with whole pearls
  • a pair of ??? clasps ??? in ??? set round with pearls
  • a white carnelian ??? Broach and a bracelets single row
  • two rings one with hair and small pearls the other with a Emerald and Ruby Gold Buckle with garnets for Both Garnet chain bracelets and earrings with Drops
  • Also the face of my sainted child Frances Henrietta Laura Sherbourne on no account to be parted with the miniature picture of my son Pulteney Johnstone Poole Sherbourne
  • Sandal wood work box fitted up with silver containing gold thimble in gold ??? ??? and ??? silver ??? basket and yard and Tortoiseshell window ??? hair chain
  • and two pair of bracelets to ??? Black cut bracelets and ??? to
    match with Black snaps cut coral earrings
  • Red morocco trinket box
  • A pair of plain B??? Earrings without drops
  • Tortoiseshell ??otting box
  • More’s Practical Piety 2 vols of Elegant Extracts in Prose and Verse More’s Sacred Dramas [Hannah More was an English writer, philanthropist and leading member of the Blue Stockings Society; Jane Austen mentioned Elegant Extracts in her novel Emma]
snippet from the will of Frances Johnstone Sherbourne with the bequest to her niece Charlotte Frances Dana – any transcription suggestions gratefully received

Other people mentioned in the will were her nieces Penelope Dana [Anna Penelope], Helen Kinnaird Dana, daughter of William Pulteney Dana; her niece Harriete Gibbons, daughter of her sister Helen Gordon Gibbons née Dana; her sister Gibbons; her sister Charlotte Dana [probably her sister in law, wife of William Pulteney Dana]; her sister Armstrong; her niece Frances Harriette Wood [daughter of her brother Charles Patrick Dana]; her nephew Charles Edmund Dana [son of Charles Patrick Dana]; her nephew Henry Edmund Dana [son of William Pulteney Dana]; her cousin the Honourable Lady Hope [Georgiana daughter of George Lord Kinnaird, her mother’s brother]; her daughter Eliza Hope; some friends and servants.

The family Bible came to my father from his grandfather Constantine Trent Champion de Crespigny. An inscription in the front describes how it was given to him in 1892 by his grandmother Charlotte Frances Champion Crespigny nee Dana (1820- 1904). An inscription above this reads:

The Gift of Mrs Frances Johnstone Sherborne to her niece and God-daughter Charlotte Frances Dana by her will –

My father also has the miniature of Frances’s son Pulteney Sherburne.

Frances Sherborne also gave her niece and god-daughter a small sandalwood box with a silver plaque engraved with a shield and a motto. The box is a family heirloom which was owned by my great aunt Nancy Movius née Champion de Crespigny and has since been passed to Nancy Movius’ grand-daughter. The heraldry on that box is described at my father’s post at A search for the arms of the Dana family.

The box left in her 1831 will by Frances Johnstone Sherbourne to her niece and god-daughter Charlotte Frances Dana and now in the possession of Charlotte’s 3rd great grand daughter; the 5th great niece of Frances.

Sources

  • Sherborn, Charles Davies (1901). A history of the family of Sherborn. Mitchell and Hughes, London. Page 184 retrieved through archive.org
  • East India Company List – A List of the Company’s Civil Servants, at their Settlements in the East-Indies; Reference Number: b22610911 retrieved through ancestry.com
  • Hunter, W. Wilson. (1868). The annals of rural Bengal. London: Smith, Elder. Pp 16-18. Retrieved through Hathitrust. 
  • The Asiatic annual register, or, A View of the history of Hindustan, and of the politics, commerce and literature of Asia. volume 4 (1802). p. 96. Retrieved through Hathitrust.
  • Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908), v. 20, p. 412. Retrieved through FIBIS
  • ‘Leyton: Churches’, in A History of the County of Essex: Volume 6, ed. W R Powell (London, 1973), pp. 214-223. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/essex/vol6/pp214-223 . “An altar-tomb in the churchyard, surmounted by an oval urn, to Frances Sherburne (1819) is signed by Thomas Mocock of Leyton.”
  • The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 1801 retrieved through ancestry.com
  • Asiatic Journal. Parbury, Allen, and Company. 1832. P.124. Death notice.
  • Ford, Susan Allen (2007). “Reading Elegant Extracts in Emma: Very Entertaining!” Persuasions on-Line, Jane Austen Society of North America, jasna.org/persuasions/on-line/vol28no1/ford.htm.

Related posts

Mitchell family arrival on the Swan River 1838

14 Tuesday Jan 2020

Posted by in clergy, immigration, India, Mitchell, Sepia Saturday, Western Australia

≈ 8 Comments

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.

Swan River 1827 nla.obj-134156746-1

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.

Rev._William_Mitchell

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.

Jane_Eliza_Currie_-_Panorama_of_the_Swan_River_Settlement,_1831

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

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

St._Mary's_Church,_Middle_Swan

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).

Mitchell gravestone Middle Swan

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

Related post

A Passage to India

27 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Champion de Crespigny, India

≈ 2 Comments

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.

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 Wymer Hindes

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.

India Wymer places

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.

Kipling's_India_(1915)_(14594371710)

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

Kipling's_India_(1915)_(14800956603)

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.

Wymer G obit Illustrated London News 1868

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

General Wymer medals

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

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

10 Wednesday Apr 2019

Posted by in A to Z 2019, army, Dorset, India, Somerset, Symes

≈ 10 Comments

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).

Symes Daniel and Sarah

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”.

Symes George Tower of London

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.

G W Symes 1909 scout

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 geograph-5511774-by-Jaggery

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

17 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in A to Z 2018, Cavenagh, India, Ireland, military, Orfeur, Singapore

≈ 15 Comments

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

1 Captain Orfeur, father of Catherine, Mrs Matthew Cavenagh

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.

Orfeur diagram

Family tree showing those with the name Orfeur

Gen Sir Orfeur Cavenagh

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.

General Sir Orfeur Cavenagh

Sir Orfeur Cavenagh

Sources

20 June 1756 Black Hole of Calcutta

19 Sunday Jun 2016

Posted by in India, Johnstone

≈ 1 Comment

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

I is for interested in India

10 Sunday Apr 2016

Posted by in A to Z 2016, Champion de Crespigny, India

≈ 8 Comments

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

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