Chapter 8: Harry

     

                                                     Dave Kelly / St John the Baptist, Frome

Fact or fiction

When I first started writing this book I knew almost nothing about Nelsie Rossiter’s father, my 2nd great grandfather. My Grandmother had always said that he was called William Rossiter and was a tea planter from Silchar. There was also an unfortunate myth that he was mad. My notes say that he wanted to build a railroad going up a vertical hill and that he built a tea garden which was long and thin. He said he did this so that he would be able to ride along it, without getting off his horse, and see everything.

 After checking the India Office[1] records for the family, under an entry for Chas and Nelsie, I found a name for her father of Harry David. I later discovered that this was inaccurate and that his name was actually Harry Daniel. Through the collaboration with one of my Australian relatives I found a place to start discovering more about Harry’s family.

Origins

Harry Daniel was born on 11 December 1861 to Harry Daniel Rossiter (senior) and Hannah Rhodes. Harry had five brothers and one sister, with his brother William John being the eldest, until his death in 1872. The family lived in South Leverton, Nottinghamshire, and I would say that Harry had a good start in life, possibly better than either Chas or William.

Harry’s father Harry Daniel Rossiter (senior) (sometimes called Daniel or Henry) was born in Frome in Somerset, where the family were established. He was baptised in St John the Baptist Church in 1828 (pictured above). His father, William George, had been a very successful merchant (known as a woolstapler), owning woollen mills with his brother John.[2] Their father, another William, was a gentleman clothier in his own right in the 1780s and he was lucky enough to be named in his uncle Daniel’s will, when the latter died in 1787. The will made provision for Daniel’s three male nephews, but of the three, it was William who received the greatest benefit. While his cousins received small pieces of equipment, such as presses and horses, the will read,

to my nephew William ROSITER the piece of land in Frome Field called Long Mead and the piece behind HANCOCKs Building called RYALs and my property in the lease granted for 21 years by Mr Edward BULL and Mr THEOBALD;

On the death of Daniel’s widow (Mary Lawrence), William further received,

all the leasehold and land estates which I gave her for life, likewise my broad loombs;

 And also an equal share with his cousins, of any woollens and cloth.[3]

 The benefit of Daniel’s will clearly continued to be felt down the generations, and not squandered, making it possible for Harry’s father to study and qualify as a doctor of medicine. Harry Daniel (senior) worked for a while as a surgeon at the Royal London Hospital, in Whitechapel, before moving to South Leverton where he worked as General Practitioner. He retained his membership of the Royal College of Surgeons and was sometimes practicing as a surgeon as he is listed as such in regional directories. He lived in Gainsborough in Lincolnshire until his death in 1876. His wife Hannah Rhodes, who had already survived her first husband, continued to live in the area until her death 1897. I am sure Dad would have found it very interesting to know there was another medical man in the family and a surgeon at that!

 Harry (great, great grandfather)

The 1881 census listed Harry as an engineer’s apprentice (the same area in which Chas trained)[4]. I was unable to find him in the 1890 census and therefore, based on the reported year of Nelsie’s birth (1884), I have concluded that he must have arrived in India by 1883 and met Nelsie’s mother, who we are told by the family was a Khasi.

In 1895, Thacker’s Indian Directory listed Harry as an engineer with The Scottish Assam Tea Company Limited.[5] In 1902 the records show that he sailed from Calcutta to Sydney, Australia.[6] This is not unusual in the story of my great grandfathers as Chas also made several trips there. In Harry’s case we know the reason for his visit, to find his bride; he married Arundel Eleanor Rossiter, in Bengal in 1903.[7] When I first discovered this it seemed more than a coincidence and, looking at the family tree again, I realised that Harry and Arundel were in fact cousins. Arundel’s father Edward Davis Rossiter had emigrated to Australia in 1851 where he had met and married Annie Geoghagen[8]. By the time the cousins married, both fathers had died, however it is unlikely they would have objected to the match, as cousin marriage was not unusual at the time.

 Two years after they are married, Harry is listed in the 1905 edition of Thacker’s as the manager of The Scottish Assam Tea Company’s Lukwah Tea Company Limited in Sibsagar, in Assam.[9] Again this move from engineer to tea estate manager is not unusual if we remember that Chas also went to engineer, but ended up as Manager of Jutlibari and Superintendent of the nearby Bijlibari.

After 1905 the next record we have for Harry and Arundel is them arriving in London in 1909, having travelled from Victoria, Australia.[10] In 1911 the couple travelled back to Australia and it is interesting to note that Harry’s occupation is listed as a tea planter.[11] The records seem to indicate that the couple did a lot of travelling but it has not been possible to get a complete picture. In 1922 they arrived in London from Bombay and Harry is now listed as an engineer;[12] in 1924 they travelled back to Australia and he is again listed as a tea planter.[13] In 1925 Harry and Arundel returned to London and this time they are accompanied by a Miss Rossiter, who later records indicate was Arundel’s sister Florence Ann.[14]

From 1930 to 1933 the three cousins live together, we can only assume, quite happily in Stroud in Gloucestershire.[15] At some point after this they must have moved, as on 15 February 1936, Arundel died at 5 Kitson Road, in Barnes.[16] On 12 September 1936 the Harry and Florence are recorded as a married couple sailing from Southampton back to Australia and the UK address for both is Kitson Road.[17] It appears they were married in about July of that year and, while marrying someone’s sibling after their death would not have been unusual, the time elapsed may have been.[18]

If the records are to be believed the couple then went to Boston in the United States, before returning to the Port of Liverpool on 2 June 1938. Their stay here appears to be very short as they sailed from London back to Australia on 24 September.

The final record I have found lists the peaceful death of Harry in his sleep on 29 October 1940. Florence died a about month later on 20 November. By this time the couple are living in Newton Abbot in Devon.

Legacy

Harry’s marriages to Arundel and Florence did not produce any children, and no beneficiaries were named in the wills of Harry or Florence. Dying within a month of each other meant that their effects were treated as if the couple had died intestate. Probate records indicate that Grindlay and Company Ltd, the family bankers, completed probate for both within 2 days of each other. Harry left £15349 17s and Florence £821 11s 2 d. [19]

Based on the laws of intestacy both sums would be dealt with separately and would pass to living relatives in a specified list. In Florence’s case there were none, as her parents, siblings, grandparents and father’s siblings were all deceased; based on my investigations her mother appeared to have been an only child. This means that her estate would have passed to the Treasury.

Harry was survived by his daughter Nelsie, but there is no indication that there had been any contact between the two since her birth, and it is very unlikely that this would have happened once he married to Arundel. We know Harry would no longer have been in India by the time Chas married Nelsie under “Scotch” law, however the two men may have met at some point.

With no issue Harry’s estate therefore passed to his brother Ernest William and would become part of his estate when he died on 27 September 1941.[20]

 

 

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[1] British Library, India Office, Family History Search. N/1/585 f.4.

[2] Research into this side of the family is ongoing.

[3] England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858.

[4] 1881 England Census.

[5] Thacker’s Press & Directories Ltd. (1895). Thacker’s Indian Directory.

[6] Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839-1923.

[7] India, Select Marriages, 1792-1948.

[8] Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950.

[9] Thacker’s Press & Directories Ltd. (1905). Thacker’s Indian Directory.

[10] Web: Victoria, Australia, Outward Passenger Index, 1852-1915.

[11] Fremantle, Western Australia, Passenger Lists, 1897-1963.

[12] UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960.

[13] UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.

[14] UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960.

[15] Gloucestershire, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1974.

[16] England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966.

[17] UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960.

[18] England & Wales, Marriage Index: 1984-2005.

[19] England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966.

[20] Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968.