Taylor/Gouch

[Mark Willis]

Wm. Taylor senior POTENTIAL BIRTH – Thomas Pte. H.M. 1st Btn. 34th Regt. and Elizabeth (Familysearch.org). If born 1814, he would be similar age as his wife, Eliza Gouch BUT a Wm. Taylor born in 1814 died in 1835 in Trichinopoly. There’s a number of potential Wm. Taylors.

My ultimate aim, which is probably impossible, is to find the parents of Wm Taylor Carnatic ordnance Artificer becaused I believe that he may have had a native Indian mother (my 1% DNA match). The artificers were supposdly made up from “sons of Europeans born in India…to come from the orphan asylum, the fort school, and other charitable institutions… providing employment for a portion of the Eurasian population”

I have no details about Elizabeth Gouch’s birth or parents but I’ve seen the name Gouch elsewhere, such as in the Artificers, possibly known to Wm. Taylor.

I’ve been up against the brick wall for some time now.

16 May 1832 Wm. Taylor pte. Carnatic ordnance artificer m. Eliz. Gouch in St Marys Church Madras
23 Dec 1833 William Taylor born, son of William Taylor, Private, Carnatic Ordnance Artificer and Elizabeth (and baptized 13 Feb 1834)
22 Nov 1839 Eliz. Taylor aged 24 (wife of Wm. Carnatic Ordnance Artificer) buried St Marys Church Madras
18 Mar 1842 Wm Taylor Artificer buried at Military Oratory(?) Madras

3 Jul 1855 Wm Taylor junior, compositor, sailed unassisted 1 of 5 in steerage for Sydney Australia on the ‘Blair’ from Calcutta (This is the only William Taylor that I can find who leaves India for Sydney, Australia. He arrives a year before marrying Elizabeth Hall – Marriage transcription matches age 22 and birth place Madras.) I’m surprised he wasn’t sent on the Palmyra or William Prowse (See below for more info).

Regards
Mark

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“A major shipment of Anglo-Indians was organised by Sir William Burton, a judge in Madras in 1844. Burton was president of the Madras East India Society and sought relief for those who “are Christians and look to England as the land of their origin”. The society sent two groups from Madras to Sydney in the William Prowse (1853) and the Palmyra (1854). (A similar scheme for Albany in Western Australia ended with a shipwreck.) Those settled by Burton were surveyed by the Anglo-Indian author Henry Cornish in 1875 and the results were published in his Under the Southern Cross (republished by Penguin in 1975). Twenty-four had been compositors on Henry Parkes’s newspaper, the Empire.”

http://angloindian.wordpress.com/history/

UNDER THE SOUTHERN CROSS – CHAPTER xviii. pp269-271 by Henry Cornish

Let us hope that in the emigration of able-bodied Eurasians of both sexes, may be found the means of stamping-out pauperism among the ” poor whites” in India.

One experiment has already been made in the emigration of Eurasians to the Australian Colonies, sufficiently encouraging, it may be said, to induce fui-ther efforts in the same direction. At the suggestion of Sir William Burton, one of the Puisne Judges of Madras, a batch of 124 East Indians was sent to Sydney in the year 1854, in the ship Palmyra. Twenty-four of these emigrants were Press compositors, who emigrated under a two years engagement with the Hon. Henry (now Sir Henry) Parkes, who was then the proprietor of the Sydney Empire newspaper, and received wages at the rate of ,£4 a week per man. The other emigrants were not classified according to trade or calling, but the records in the Government Office, Madras, give their names and some information as to their degrees of destitution. Sir William Burton’s Committee took upon themselves apparently to supply the emigrants with an outfit, for the remarks column is filled with explanations like the following : ” to be supplied in full,” ” partly supplied,” ” will supply himself,” ” very destitute, to be supplied in full with extra clothing.” The majority of the emigrants indeed had to be supplied in full. Over a dozen of the emigrants were lads brought up at the Military Orphan Asylum at Madras, and were supplied by the Asylum with everything except a hammock, bed, etc. Only five females were sent in the Palmyra; four were wives who accompanied their husbands, and one was a daughter of one of the compositors. In July 1875, the Madras Government, being desirous of ascertaining how the emigrants succeeded in Australia, addressed the following letter to the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales : —

” In or about the month of August 1854, under a movement organized by the late Sir William Burton, then a Judge of the Supreme Court of Madras, 124 East Indians, as per accompanying list, emigrated to Sydney in the ship Palmyra. It would be interesting to know whether these emigrants, generally, succeeded in establishing themselves in respectable situations, and whether there is room in the Colony for further batches of the same class. It is observed that twenty-four of them were Press Compositors; the others are believed to have been journeymen in various trades, shoemaking, tailoring, &c. Any information on these two points which can be readily obtained from your Municipal or Police authorities would be esteemed a favor by His Excellency in Council.”

On the 25th September last, the Colonial Secretary forwarded the following report to the Madras Government : —

From E. .Fosbery, Esq., Inspector-General of Police, to the Principal Under Secretary, Sydney, dated Sydney, 21st September 1878.

Inquiries have been made respecting the immigrants by the ship Palmyra, referred to in the attached paper, with the following result, viz. : — James Spooner at present in the employ of Messrs. Towns and Company, Sydney. H. Morean is keeping a Hairdresser’s Shop on the New Town Road. William Grogan, James Dias, and John L. Getting are now employed at Cunningham’s Printing Office in Pitt Street. Thomas Reynolds and James Baker are employed in the Brisbane Courier Office, Queensland. Benjamin Franz, John Hovenden, and Thomas E. P. Martin died some years ago, the two former in Sydney, the latter near Maitland. William Collins, Thomas Beare, Thomas Paul, John F. D’Costa, Baptist D’Costa, John H. Goolamier, Charles R. Star, William Evans, Henry W. Simmons, and John Larkins returned to Madras. Edward Franz, Thomas Philbert, and George Moncrieffe returned to Calcutta where Moncrieffe subsequently died. Henry F. Lefevre, Thomas DeSellas, Michael Rebeiro and a number of others whose names cannot be ascertained are also said to have returned to India, probably Madras or Calcutta. Nothing definite can be ascertained respecting the other immigrants who remained in this Colony, but it is supposed that many of them went into the interior, including the present Colony of Queensland, and have been lost sight of.

P. S. — I should think it advisable to encourage further immigration of a similar class.

E. F.

This report is sufficiently encouraging to make the Government consider the desirability of re-opening some system of emigration for the poorer classes of Eurasians. The men who emigrated in 1854 were generally well satisfied with the wages they received in the Colony, and saved money, but they felt the absence from their friends and relatives, which was the chief cause of their return to India. The mistake made in connection with the emigration of 1851 was in not sending more females. If the men had been married, they would probably have settled in the colonies. Seeing what a demand there is for needle-women and domestic servants, efforts should be made in any future scheme of emigration to encourage East Indian females to accompany their male relatives…”

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