My best guess is that Charlotte was four when her father died so I think Seraphina took her with her to Calcutta but, when she met Slessor and moved to Kishanganj, she left her in Calcutta with perhaps Mordaunt Ricketts and Bridget Watson to wait until she was seven so she could take a free passage under the supervision of Mrs Hayes (probably a destitute widow returning to UK) and the two Stewart children (probably orphans). Army regulations don't change very fast and I too remember being sent, aged seven, in a troopship from UK to New Zealand. It was full of returning soldiers, POWs, destitute immigrants and refugee camp survivors. My mother and younger siblings were in a cabin but, as I was just seven, I had to sleep in a bunk bed in the mens' dormitory in the bilges with the other men and boys seven or more. I loved it! Naturally, given where many of the passengers came from, we had lots of sickness on board and were in quarantine the whole trip. Me and my buddies liked the burials at sea the best!
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