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Archiver > INDIA > 2000-04 > 0956360960


From: "Joy Chase" <>
Subject: Re: Young ladies traveling to India (1670 long continued)
Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2000 23:49:20 GMT


Continuation from the History of Madras (for those interested!)...
"A strange old fort it was even to the English gentlewomen of that
time...Warehouse piled high with...silks, muslins, coloured calicoes...then
there was the little Chapel where every man ...was compelled to attend the
daily reading of Morning and Evening Prayers... There was the Reflection
Room...where on certain afternoons in the week the younger men were taught
some one or other of the languages of the country, being stimulated
thereunto by the promise of large rewards for proficiency,--twenty pounds
being given for the knowledge of an Indian language, and ten pounds for a
knowledge of Persian. ...

"Our readers however may possibly be getting anxious for the welfare of
the ladies to whom we introduced them at the commencement of this chapter.
But alas, having brought them prominently forward on their first appearance
in Madras, we have but little further to say respecting them though that
little may as well be said at once. There is nothing further about them in
the Records, saving that some years afterwards, two of them still remained
unmarried, and were living in the Fort on a small allowance granted by the
Company....

"Fort St. George and White town were thus synonymous terms. In Europe the
quarter was known as Fort St. George; but in India it was called white town,
from its being occupied by Europeans....To the north of White town was the
much larger quarter which was occupied by the Natives, and which for the
sake of distinction was called Black Town....Two or three miles off were the
little Native villages of Nungumbaukum, Egmore, Persewarkum, and Perambore,
which were too far off to be often visited by the Europeans of that day."

An interesting question posed in the Appendix states "Why are so many
Portuguez permitted to dwell in the English Town and pay no rent, nor any
acknowledgement for their houses, whilst many English are necessitated to
take houses in the Black Town and pay for the same?" This would indicate
that there was more mixing of peoples than at first seems probable. Hope
this is helpful to those wanting more atmosphere around their lists of
ancestors. Joy


>From: "Aaron Caesarowicz" <>
>To: "Joy Chase" <>
>Subject: Re: Young ladies traveling to India
>Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2000 23:48:02 +0930
>
>Hello Joy,
>
>Your email about the book that your father had regarding women who came to

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