Who Do You Think You Are - Olivia Colman 9th Jul
 

At 9 p.m. on BBC1; 10:45 p.m. in Wales. Repeated 11:40 p.m. Tuesday 17th Jul on BBC1.

I enjoyed that!

But.....was that really a wedding photo (1838) or did I misunderstand?

OC

I thoroughly enjoyed that too........one of my best.

Episode summary
Olivia Colman lives in London with her husband and children, but she grew up in Norfolk. She knew quite a lot about her father's side of the family as her paternal grandparents lived with her family when she was a child, but she didn't know much about her mother's side of the family (her mother's maiden name being Leakey, apart from being told that one of their female ancestors was French.

Olivia went to Norfolk to visit her parents, and her uncle Richard also visited to show them the family tree he had done. He said that the Colman side of the family were all from Norfolk, being agricultural labourers, postmen, and the like, but that the other side of the family was more varied. The tree he had done went back as far as the birth of Richard Campbell Bazett in 1766 on the island of St Helena. Uncle Richard showed Olivia portraits of Richard Campbell Bazett and his wife Sarah. He said that Richard Campbell Bazett worked in London for the East India Company in the early 1800's.

Olivia went to London to meet an historian who showed her a page from Richard Campbell Bazett's accounts book, which tallied large amounts of money. Richard had also worked in Calcutta some of the time, and in 1790 he married Margaret Ann Hampton, spinster, there. There was a church court case Bazett v Bazett dated 1808 in which Richard sued for a legal separation from Margaret, saying that she had had an affair with a musician called Frederick Dizi. The church court had granted the separation. Olivia then went to Westminster to find out whether Richard had gone on to have a private Act of Parliament passed to give him a divorce, allowing him to remarry, and she was shown in the Parliamentary Archives that such an Act was indeed passed in 1809. Richard's will, dated 17 Jan 1833, mentioned his wife Sarah and his five sons, all with the middle name Young. The eldest son, William Young Bazett, was baptised in Jan 1806, and the second son, Charles Young Bazett, Olivia's direct ancestor, was born on the 12th Sep 1807 according to his army papers, so both born before the legal separation from Margaret.

The 1871 census showed Charles Young Bazett in Reading, age 63, a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the Indian Army, born London, with wife Harriot, also 63, born East Indies Kissengunge (Kishanganj), and three servants. Olivia went to Kishanganj in North East India to find out more. It is now a city of over 100,000 people, but was a village in Harriot's time. Olivia went to the British Club and met an historian who showed her Charles and Harriot's marriage certificate, naming Harriot's father as William Slessor of the East India Company. William was born in 1778 and became a captain by 1804. The historian had not managed to find a record of William's marriage nor of Harriot's birth, which suggested that Harriot's mother might have been a native Indian woman. The historian showed Olivia an administrator's list of William's possessions, and a newspaper cutting which said that the Madras Courier had reported that Captain Slessor had accidentally shot himself in the head at Kissengunge and died, in 1810.

A lawyer's letter showed that William's mother, Harriot Elizabeth Slessor, had paid for Miss Harriot Slessor's voyage to England. Olivia went to Calcutta to see where Harriot would have sailed from, and met an historian who showed her a passenger list from 1811, with Miss Harriot Slessor, age 7, listed, and no servant named as her attendant. The Master of the ship was a James Fairfax. The voyage would have taken about six months, and the ship arrived in London on the 10th May 1812.

Olivia met another historian who showed her the will of Louisa Girardot, Harriot sr's sister, dated 1824, which left £300 to great-niece Harriot Slessor, "now residing with Miss Mills", who ran a boarding school in Bristol. A codicil dated four years later added an extra £500. A passenger list from 1832 showed that Harriot travelled back to India, arriving on the ship Orient. The historian thought that she was probably Anglo-Indian and travelled back to India to find a husband. He showed Olivia an 1832 marriage record between William Trigge Garrett and Harriot. William was a Lieutenant in the Bengal Artillery and also appeared on the passenger list of the Orient. A death record showed that William died on the 25th Jul 1833, age 29.

Olivia then went to St John's Church, Calcutta, and met another historian who showed her a letter written by Charles Young Bazett in Cheltenham in 1838, to his brother Richard jr, telling how he had met Harriot four years previously and fell in love with her, but was refused, and had recently met her again in England at her brother-in-law's house, and had been accepted this time. There was a photo of Charles and Harriot, and Harriot did look Anglo-Indian. Another letter to Richard, dated 21 Sep 1839, said that Harriot would soon give birth, and she had written part of the letter. The couple had four children: Richard, Mary, Charles, and Fanny. Harriot Elizabeth Slessor's will left £50 to "India Harriot". Olivia was shown a book about Harriot sr and the Slessor family which included documents owned by a descendant of the family who lived in the Scottish Highlands.

Olivia then went to Scotland to meet her fourth cousin Geordie, who showed her a portrait of Harriot Elizabeth Slessor. Harriot sr lived most of her life in Portugal where her husband served in the army, and she wrote diaries and letters which have been typed up to form the book which Olivia had previously seen. There was a letter about her leaving her two eldest sons at school in England with her sister Louisa agreeing to have them for the school holidays. The letter also mentioned saying goodbye to Harriot sr's mother, Anne Judith Bristow, in England. Geordie had a picture of Anne Judith Bristow, the wife of John Bristow who was an MP in Norfolk. Anne Judith's naturalisation papers showed that she was born in France, the daughter of Paul Foissin, a French Huguenot. So she was the French ancestor who Olivia had heard rumours about.

That seemed to be what they said.

I would like to know how they know that William Young Bazett and Charles Young Bazett were children of Sarah's and not of Margaret Ann's, as they seemed to assume in the programme. Probably there is something we weren't shown? Or did William's baptism show his mother's name? I don't think I saw it although they gave the date.

I enjoyed that so much. I love Olivia anyway and the programme confirmed everything I've ever thought about her. I love that she thought she was more interesting than she believed before.

A fascinating story, I wondered about the photo as well.

Another thing - they kept going on about how Harriot left her mother behind in India, but how did they know that Harriot's mother didn't die before Harriot left India?

The very first photo of a clear human face was taken around 1839/40 by John William Draper. The earliest image to survive is of his sister, Dorothy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_William_Draper

This 1838 wedding photo looks (to me) like it was taken in a studio in the late 1850s or 1860s.

Loved, loved, loved it! It was very interesting and made all the more enjoyable by Olivia's enthusiasm and joy at what she found. My only disappointment was a personal one. I have a gt. gt. grandfather who was born on St Helena. His father went there as an apparently single 18 year old army recruit in 1815 but returned to Ireland in 1836 with a wife and 4 children. A cousin searched East India Company records but couldn't find a marriage record so I was hoping the programme would give some indication of where else we could look for St Helena records.

Thanks Merry, that's more or less what I thought. So not a wedding photo then.

OC

She, in particular, looks too young, if the photo was taken 20 years later.

Yes, that's strange. So maybe it's not her at all?

The photo certainly looked mid century to me, but what do I know?

I thoroughly enjoyed this programme but, as always, I thought there were loose ends that were glossed over. As the moral tide turned in the nineteenth century and it became less acceptable to consort with the indigenous population, these mixed race children were a nuisance and I don’t think Olivia can assume that ‘India Harriet’ was loved by her English family. If she had grown up with her mother she would probably have spoken very little English and it is more likely that she was immediately shipped off to school, where she would have been bullied for being different, and then married off as soon as was decent.

On a personal note, I would have loved it if they had gone inside the church in Kolkata, as that was where, dare I mention this, Joseph Bodycote was married in 1820.

I'm very surprised the experts who are involved in the production of the programme allowed themselves to think that was the correct date for the photo.

I have a book with a photograph of my 3xg-grandfather in it. He died in 1821 aged 72 and looks about 35 in the photo, so maybe it was taken in the 1780s :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Yes, I did wonder how soon after arriving in England she was packed off to boarding school. Even in those days it seems rather cruel and uncaring to put a four year old on a boat for six months without any kind of escort or caretaker. Sounds more like grim Christian duty than an act of love to me.

OC

Although the passenger list said she was 7 years old. Surely she could easily have knocked a few years off her age later in life.

So, even if we agree that the woman in the photo looks Anglo-Indian (I wasn't really sure about that), it seems dubious that it is Harriot. And the fact that no record has been found of William's marriage or Harriot's birth doesn't really prove anything, so we don't really know whether she was mixed race or not. I suppose "India Harriot" in her grandmother's will is a clue, if we know for sure that she was referring to the same person!

But "India Harriot" not "Indian Harriot".

I thought the woman in the photo did look as if she had some Indian blood, but what does that prove? Could she have been Harriot's daughter?

OC

Far from being the sweet family nickname Olivia ascribed to "India Harriot", I thought it could be taken - given the views at the time about mixed race children - as a derogatory description. There was no need to have made any reference to India or Indian at all.

I've rewatched the bit about Richard Campbell Bazett's two eldest sons being born before the separation from Margaret Ann, but I didn't spot an image of William's baptism record. I did have the sound off though. There was a pile of papers on the table underneath a census page, one of which was a parish register page from Waltham Holy Cross, Essex, but it looked to be post-1813.

I did note down some names from the family tree which they showed:
Olivia's parents are Keith Colman and Mary Anne Leakey, with "Uncle Richard" being Mary Anne's brother. Mary Anne's father was Alexander Graham Leakey 1911-1994, a navy surgeon, son of Alexander Bazett Leakey and Gwladys Elizabeth Thomas. Alexander Bazett Leakey's mother was Mary Bazett born 1841 (daughter of Charles and Harriot.)

This is Harriot Elizabeth Slessor's will:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interacti...nSearchResults

There are several different Harriots mentioned in the will and codicil, and she didn't have it drawn up by a lawyer, so she had to figure out for herself how to distinguish them from each other. This is the wording of the bit of the codicil mentioning India Harriot:

The remaining £1000 I dispose of by leaving £300 to John Walsh brother to William Walsh and £50 to James Walsh for mourning To my Granddaughters Harriot Jane and Sophia Walsh I leave £100 to each and £200 to my Sons children To Charlotte Slessor I bequeath 50 pounds to India Harriot I leave 50 and the remaining 50 must be given to my daughter Louisa de Soza towards paying a Pension in a Convent in Portugal.

I wonder who Charlotte Slessor was?
Edit - it seems that she was the wife of Harriot Elizabeth's son John.

I take your point about her not having a lawyer to draw up the will in the normal terminology but I still think India Harriot was a rather derogatory description. The two Harriots didn't even have the same surname so all she had to do was call her Harriot Slessor.

Interesting to see that Margaret and Francois Dizi married in 1809. They don't seem to have had children either.

bit more info on Dizi

http://archmusicman.blogspot.com/201...is-joseph.html

An interesting episode. It was lovely to see Olivia discover she was more exotic than she'd thought but there's nowt wrong with Norfolk ancestry!

Harriot sr also had a daughter named Harriot Slessor.

I really enjoyed this episode, but I also had to do a double take at the "wedding" photograph.

I wonder what Olivia's DNA testing would have shown. I thought that they might have done that. I also thought she would go and find Harriot's grave, but they didn't tell us what happened to her after that census in Reading.

Oh wow, I've just seen that Berkshire Archives say that they have found out that Harriot's mother was called Seraphina Donclere who died in 1810 and that they have a copy of her will:

https://www.facebook.com/berkshirere...91269454217038

Apparently there is also a copy of the will on FMP - I'll post a link in a minute if I can find it.

Here are some links on FMP.

India Office records:
Seraphina's inventory:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...-AG-34-27/4637
Accounts of her estate:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...-AG-34-27/4639
which says that Harriot was brought up by a Mordaunt Riketts Esqr after the death of Captain Slessor.

Seraphina's will:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco...-29/WILL/71765
(I'll type out a transcription in a minute)

and an entry in the Index to Death Duty Registers 1884, showing Harriet Bazett as administrator:
https://search.findmypast.co.uk/reco.../DDUTY/1824564

A serious case of "did not do the research" on the part of the WDYTYA people!!!

While I was looking at India Office stuff on FMP, I saw in the accounts of William Slessor's estate that his mother Harriot Elizabeth Slessor was the administratrix of his estate in Europe, so maybe the money she sent for Harriot jr's travel to England came from that?

Oh, wow! Well found, Kate!

Seraphina Donclere does not sound like a native Indian name to me.

Yes, egg on face for the WDYTYA researchers, definitely.

OC

Makes me wonder how much of an accident William's death really was.

OC

I noticed that on Rootschat yesterday...........sure makes you think about the kind of research that is carried out by WDYTYA staff......

FMP don't seem to have indexed the places of residence on many of the Indian wills, so we can't just look for any Kissengunge ones to see whether any of these people are mentioned in them.

Do I recall this being mentioned....

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...lessor&f=false

Indeed. That struck me during the programme.

I wonder if Seraphina died during childbirth. The baby doesn't appear to have survived either.

I did wonder if William had committed suicide but it seems very likely that he did, given the short interval between Seraphina's death and his, too much of a coincidence.

Was Mordaunt Ricketts a friend? I have a similar scenario in my tree where a trusted friend took care of illegitimate children...presumably to spare the family's blushes.

OC

It looks as though Mordaunt Ricketts Esqr was a local bigwig, and he also had at least one illegitimate child, according to the British in India cards on FMP. I haven't figured out whether he was related to Seraphina or William yet.

I went back to the episode and looked at the passenger list which they showed for Harriot's journey to England in 1811 - remember they were saying there was no servant shown as looking after her, so maybe one of the mothers on the voyage was asked to keep an eye on her? Well, it could just be a coincidence, but she is shown as landing at Longreach 20th May, along with three Hunter children (Oswald 5, Jacob 2, and Andrew 1). And there is a servant, Massey Williams, listed as looking after the "Hunters". Could they be related to Seraphina's daughter Charlotte Hunter? There are also some Crommelins listed, and Mordaunt Ricketts married a Crommelin in 1811. So I should think there were some people on board who knew Harriot quite well.

I haven't managed to find that passenger list online yet to view it in full. Nor the records of who paid for passage - would like to see who paid for the Hunter children.