Michael Griffith and the Indian Rebellion

A watercolour of the rebellion of 1857 by British artist G F Atkinson.

On 27 April 1857 Michael Griffith made his attestation in the recruiting office of the East India Company in Liverpool.   While Michael was getting used to his new uniform and the drills of the Bengal Artillery, a mutiny of Sepoys, who refused to use the new pork or beef grease-wrapped bullets for their Enfield Rifles, took place at the garrison town of Meerat, 40 miles northeast of Delhi.  The East India Company cracked down on the mutineers, but the dissafection spread and a period of rebellion, battles and massacres brought the East India Company to its knees.  Great Britain brought in its own troops in to quell the unrest.  It was the end of the East India Company after 250 years of domination in India, and the beginning of the British Raj.

From 1853 the Bengal Sappers and Miners had been stationed at Roorkee in northern India in the state of Uttarakhand, with two artillery units attached. The Bengal Artillery was amongst the HEIC units which rebelled, and were disarmed and disbanded.   Not long before landing in India, Michael was transferred to the Sappers and Miners.

Later the Bengal Sappers was one of the few remaining regiments of the former Bengal Presidency Army which survived the Rebellion of 1857, doing sterling work in the recapture of Delhi from the rebels and other operations in 1857–58. 

Michael served with the Sappers from 19 April 1858 until 6 August 1861, and undoubtedly participated in some difficult field campaigns. As Michael was still a Gunner during his period with the Sappers,  he was presumably serving with the artillery companies.   On 1 November 1858, the British granted amnesty to all rebels not involved in murder, and declared the hostilities formally to have ended on 8 July 1859.

In the aftermath of the Rebellion, control of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown. The "European", units of the company's army were transferred to the British Army.

The Bazaar, Roorkee, where the Bengal Sappers and Miners were stationed in 1853.

Michael transferred to the Royal Artillery, and moved south to Barrackpore where the Royal Artillery was stationed for the rest of his period in India.  See  Stations of the Royal Artillery in India. 

Barrackpore is close to Calcutta, a destination which would provide added interest during Michael's time in India.

Bengal Artillery Mess House, Barrackpore. 

Hindoo Pagodas below Barrackpore on the Ganges. George Hunt. 1824. Courtesy: British Library.

Eastbourne Pier.

It must have amused Michael no end on his posting to Eastbourne in 1871 to find an Indian palace in miniature at the end of a pier!

And did Michael's niece, Mary Jane Griffith, know that her uncle had played his part in saving the Indian tea trade when she bought her tea at the local grocer's store?  This image was chosen by chance for a post back in February.

Gunner Griffith of the Royal Artillery

Gunner and Sergeant Major, Royal Artillery, 1861. Artist G H Thomas.  Source:  The British Empire.

The following timeline is constructed from dates included in Corporal Griffith's Chelsea Hospital Record, plus a few personal events:

22 April 1857    Attested.  Gunner  Bengal Artillery. Probably training in Essex
19 April 1858    Transferred Sappers.  Private
30 April 1858     India 22 Jan 1861     Gunner   to 5 Aug 1861
6 Aug 1861        Transferred Royal Artillery, 16th Brigade, Gunner  to 5 Apr 1863
12 Oct 1861       Boon granted by GOGG
                           Continued....Gunner in Royal Artillery 16th Brigade
1 Nov 1867        Transferred Depot Brigade  to 19 May 1869 (presume for return to Depot)
22 Nov 1867      Left India
24 Dec 1867       Re-engaged at Woolwich for 10 years  119 days
20 May 1869      Promoted  Bombardier  to  6 Oct 1870
 Dec Quarter       Emily born
7 Oct 1870          Promoted Corporal   to 31 Mar 1871
1 Apr 1871         Transferred Corporal Coast Brigade
Dec Qtr 1873      Alice Born
22 Feb 1875        Discharge from the Army
31 Mar 1875       *Further service from 23 Feb to 31 March 1875.
6 Apr 1875          Buried
Signed by D Anderson Captain 7th Division Coast Brigade
Total of  19 years 344 days.


The reference to Michael's attestation with the Bengal Artillery indicates that he served his first couple of years with the Honourable East India Company.   The HEIC maintained a recruiting depot in Liverpool, so I am assuming the attestation occurred in Liverpool.

We don't know Michael's actual movements after making his attestation, but most likely he spent some months training at the East India Company barracks at Warley in Essex.  Wikipedia says that "In 1842 the East India Company's barracks at Chatham became inadequate, and they purchased the land [at Little Warley] to move their troops in. Accommodation was created for 785 recruits and 20 sergeants with new buildings for the officers. Married family housing was also provided, and a chapel."

So Mary may have accompanied Michael while he was training at Warley, and stayed in the married quarters.   Whether Michael's young bride went with him to India is unknown, but it seems likely that when he went abroad, Mary stayed behind.  There don't seem to be any children born of the union in this early period, either in England or India.

My DNA match - Corporal Michael Griffith

Sir Thomas Buildings (now Sir Thomas Street). Shows Sir Thomas Street and building of Municipal Buildings, 1858. Painting by W G Herdman, from liverpoolpicturebook.com

We have found the marriage record of Michael Griffith and Mary Taylor at the St Nicholas church  in Liverpool in 1856.  Michael's father was another Michael Griffith, and his occupation was bootmaker.    Mary's father was William Taylor, a watchmaker.   The Griffiths resided at Gay St at this time, and the Taylors in Lionel St. The marriage occurred on 11th August 1856. The bride and groom were minors. Mary signed with her mark, but Michael signed his name.  His occupation at that time was book keeper, and Mary recorded none.

From my previously constructed Excel spreadsheet I knew that Michael Griffith senior had a child called George, born in 1824, but I went back to the records to confirm it.

The above extract was taken from the Bishop's Transcripts showing the baptism took place at St Peter's Church, Liverpool on 5 September 1824. ( Reference Number: Drl 2/284).   It lists George, son of Michael and Catherine Griffith, of Sir Thomas' Buildings, cordwainer.

Cordwainer refers to Michael's occupation, and is an an old term for shoemaker.  Sir Thomas's Buildings was later renamed Sir Thomas Street.

Looking carefully through Liverpool church records for the children of Michael and Catherine, the following family emerged:  Mary, bap 1822, George  bap 1824, Michael bap 1828 (buried at the Non Conformist Church in 1835 aged 7, of consumption), Catherine bap 1829, Richard James, bap 1831, Thomas bap 1835 and Michael bap 1837.  Mary, George, Richard and Thomas were all baptised at St Peters, Liverpool.  Catherine was baptised  at St Martins in the Field, Liverpool, and the youngest  Michael turns up in the Bishops Transcripts for Liverpool.  In each case Michael senior's occupation is given as some variation of shoemaker.


I did not locate the family in the 1841 Census at all.  Michael senior died in Liverpool in 1841 a few weeks after the census, but even he is not around in a hospital somewhere. Of course they could be lurking somewhere with a badly misspelt surname. But the remaining family reappears in Liverpool in the 1851 Census. 

The paper trail for George as a member of that family tenuous, but the paper trail for Michael, son of Michael and husband of Mary Taylor is strong.  What links them is the dna trail.

George and Michael junior were brothers.  Their daughters Mary Jane and Alice were first cousins.   My dna match had dna in the right range for a third cousin once removed - at the top of the range, really, which made him more noticeable in the results list.    A chart showing the expected shared centimorgans from specific degrees of relationships showed that the range for a third cousin once removed is 0-156, with the average being 56 cMs.   My dna match shared 113 cMs, twice the average,  with the longest shared block at 45.

The known facts about George (born in Liverpool in 1824, father was a bootmaker) fits the son of Michael and Catherine.  Knowing George went to sea in 1841 explains why I could not find the usual genealogical records for my George - no 1841 ad 1851 censuses, no passenger records to Victoria and New Zealand.  I hesitate to mention spelling, which is so often an unreliable indicator, but George Griffith was very consistent with his own spelling of his name without the s at the end, and the family of Michael Griffith seems to be the only family in Liverpool using that spelling.  It is suggestive rather than proof.


The paper record has failed, but all the known facts are corroborated.  What connects the dots is that the descendants of George Griffith, musician,  of Liverpool and Michael Griffith, soldier, of Liverpool share dna at a higher than average level that is expected for the degree of relationship described of third cousins once removed.

I think we are good here.

And of course there is more to come!

Alice by the seaside

Eastbourne beach and seafront hotels.

Alice Griffiths, the grandmother of my dna match, was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, on the south coast of England in 1873. While still awaiting contact from my match I found a family tree at Genealogy.com which showed that she had married Emanuel Beeney in Eastbourne in 1895.  This allowed me to find her in the 1901 Census where she was residing at 11 Hanover St, Eastbourne with Emanuel, a cab driver, their child Matthew, aged 2, and her mother Mary Griffiths, a widow.  Both Alice and Mary were working as laundresses.   Mary Griffith, hallelujah, was recorded as having been born in Liverpool, Lancashire.  That took that family line back to the very area where I needed them to be.

Eastbourne, in the latter part of the 19th century, was no seaside village.  The railway arrived in 1849, and thereafter the major landowner in the area had developed the seafront as a tourist destination with lavish hotels dominating the seafront, and an enticing pier devoted to entertainment.

Eastbourne Pier

The development of the resort provided work, though some of it must have been seasonal.  The Beeneys were a family of Travellers, though Emanuel seems to have settled happily enough in Eastbourne. I will need further advice on that.

But what were the Griffiths gals doing in Eastbourne?  Tracing them back through the censuses was a bit trickier than you would think, even with their age and birthplaces, but with persistence I found Mary and Alice together in the 1891 Census, Mary a widow, and both working as laundresses.  In the 1881 census another bonus occurred in the shape of an older sister for Alice called Emily. They were located in Eastbourne, but Emily had been born in Woolwich, Kent.  I wouldn't have been able to identify Mary in the 1871 census without that clue, seeing that Alice hadn't been born yet.  I was hoping to find Mary with her husband.

I found Mary aged 33 and Emily aged 1 in the 1871 census.  Mary was a Wife, so her husband was still alive though not with them on the night.  They were recorded living in the Sheerness Barracks, Kent.  Emily had been born in 1869 in Woolwich, another military town, so it looked like Mary's husband was a soldier.  My dna contact later confirmed that Alice's 1897 marriage record showed her father as Michael Griffiths, Corporal (deceased).

Trying to locate Emily and Alice in the General Register Office index of births was again not as straightforward as you would think - probably because I had a too narrow time range in trying to identify them from all the other Griffiths with the same names.  Their ages given in the census tended to skew their birth years - presumably late in the year, after the census.  I had some help with that from other folk with Emily as their Ancestry tree starting point, and along with their correct birth year was able to pinpoint Mary's maiden name as TAYLOR.

Before following that up I looked for the death a male Griffith in Eastbourne between 1871 and 1881, and found only one,  Michael Griffith, who died in 1875 aged 38.  By putting his age and death place into the Ancestry search engine, and then narrowing the results down to Military, I found a Royal Hospital Chelsea Pensioner Admissions and Discharges, 1715-1925 entry for Michael Griffith.  He was examined on 6 Apr 1875, and was attached to the Royal Artillery Coast Brigade.

In 1793, following a survey of coastal defences in the southeast, approval was given for the positioning of infantry and artillery to defend the bay between Beachy Head and Hastings from attack by the French. Fourteen Martello Towers were constructed along the western shore of Pevensey Bay, continuing as far as Tower 73, the Wish Tower at Eastbourne. ("Eastbourne", Wikipedia: accessed 12/7/2017).

At the time of his retirement from the army, Michael Griffith was  a part of the coastal defence.  

The Eastbourne Wish Tower, 1890s. The name 'Wish' comes from the  marshy area called the 'wish' or 'wash' where the old Shomer Dyke entered the sea. The Tower was built in 1804 to counter the threat of invasion by Napoleon.  After the Peninsula war ended in 1815 it was disused until 1830 when coastguards occupied it for a period.   Courtesy of Prof Robert Pearl, Old UK Photos

At this point I did a search for the marriage record of Mary Taylor and a Mr Griffith. The only one that popped up was a marriage which occurred in Liverpool in 1856.  Both parties were minors.  As it was so long prior to the birth of Emily in 1869, and no other births apparent (though not necessarily non-existent) I went to bed thinking that couldn't be it.  I woke up thinking, "That could be it", and from that point it was a very short path to Ancestry trees with a Michael Griffith born in 1838 - but not George.

The marriage record shows that Michael Griffith was a bookkeeper residing at Gay St, Liverpool, father's name Michael Griffith, boot maker.  Mary was the daughter of William Taylor, watch maker, residing at Lionel St.  They married at St Nicholas Church in the Parish of Liverpool.  Mary signed with her mark.   (Liverpool Registers; Reference Number: 283 NIC/3/51)

So now we have my dna matches Griffith family back in Liverpool. Exactly where I want him to be.

Ten years sailing before the mast

Liverpool docks, 1875.

Young George Griffith had the world at his feet as he grew up in Liverpool, with sailing ships from every point of the globe coming through the massive dock system not very far from his home.  Despite a couple of generations of tradesmen in his family, George allowed the excitement of new places and new faces to lure him towards a life of adventure at sea.  In 1841, at the age of 17, George signed on as a ship's boy, and went to sea.

We know this from his Merchant Seaman's Ticket from 3 July 1845, courtesy of a researcher with the ID WayneSeymour.  The ticket also described George as a cook, born in Liverpool.  His hair was brown, eyes hazel, complexion fresh, and his height was 5' 7¾". He had a scar on his right leg, and cuts on his left forefinger.  

This previously unknown fact certainly explains why it was that he was not in Liverpool for the 1841 Census, nor the 1851 Census, nor did he appear in passenger lists to Melbourne, nor on passenger lists when he travelled from Melbourne to New Zealand to the goldrushes in Hokitika.   

It was an astounding career change from Ship's cook to Professor of Music, and yet idle hours on board ship would allow him to practice his instrument.  I think I would assume that by the time he left Liverpool at the age of 17 he had a solid grounding in musical education so that he was able to continue learning until he could earn a living by it.  We will look at this in a later post, though I am not sure there will be a lot of evidence to find.

It seems likely that he jumped ship in Melbourne as so many crewmen did in the 1850s, leaving their vessels to languish for months with no crew to sail them back to their home port.  I am hopeful I will find a warrant for him as a deserter which will narrow down the time frame in which he arrived.

It is a completely unexpected solution to some really puzzling absences from the record.

Got you! DNA test collars George Griffith

Liverpool Landing Stage, 1864. George Griffith's home town.  Print by W G Herdman.

I don’t suppose this is a record, but a power-boost from my recent dna test results enabled me to nail my ancestor George Griffith within four days of them being posted online.  I was able to pick him up in the paper record, but it could not be proven without the aid of the dna test. 

I received my results last Sunday evening.  My first inkling that the results had been posted was an email in my inbox from Carol Wilkes, a second cousin on my father’s side of the family.  She very kindly pinpointed each of her (and my) relations which appeared at the top of my results list.  Using the buttons provided at FTDNA to separate the results into two camps – those in common with that Carol on my dad's side, and those not in common, I could identify which side of the family my other  results came from.

My Griffith match, Dennis Beeney, appeared quite high up in the list of matches, with 94 cMs and the longest block at 44 segments.   Using the “Not in common with” button on Carol Wilkes, I came up with a list of matches on my mother’s side of the family.  It was my great good fortune that at the top of that list was Graham Johnston, someone whom I knew to be a second cousin  from my mother’s maternal family. My Griffith match was not far behind him, but using the “in common with” button, he disappeared.  So he was not from my mother’s mother’s side of the family.  He had to be from my mother’s father’s side of the family where the Griffith line does occur. And he had Griffith in his list of  family names.  Perfect!

Before attempting the dna solution, I had created an excel database of known George Griffiths from Liverpool – I had 21 Georges on that list, and not one of them pretending to be a musician.  I couldn’t tell if he had stayed in Liverpool after he was born there as he was nowhere to be found in the 1841 and 1851 censuses.  That just increased the degree of difficulty.  I still cannot make the link with a paper trail but my brand new cousin Dennis Beeney’s grandmother Alice Griffith’s mother was born in Liverpool.  Going flat out on Alice’s available records I was able to create a rough family tree, but the clincher came from her father’s name  on her marriage certificate – Corporal Michael Griffith.  Her mother was Mary Taylor.  The only marriage in England for a Michael Griffith and Mary Taylor occurred in Liverpool in 1856.  That marriage showed his father was also a Michael Griffith, and a cordwainer (or shoemaker).  The only shoemaker I could find who was named Griffith was Michael Griffith. And that Michael Griffith senior had a son called George Griffith.

The whole family did not appear in the 1841 Census. Where the heck were they?  Don’t know.  Given that his whole family did not appear in the census, it seems I was wasting my time trying to figure out which whitesmith, grocer’s apprentice, engineer’s apprentice, labourer or warehouseman was my George Griffith.  In all likelihood, none of them.

In 1851 Michael Griffith senior’s wife Catherine was back in Liverpool, the head of the house, and still described as Married.  Her husband was not in the household, nor was her son George, but her youngest son Michael who went on to marry Mary Taylor was  in the house.   His occupation at the time was errand boy. When he married his occupation was bookkeeper, but when he died, he was a Chelsea Pensioner, formerly a Corporal in the Royal Artillery Coast Brigade.  He died in Eastbourne in 1875, where Alice was born in 1873.  It was a long time after their marriage in 1856, but whether there were other siblings beside her sister Emily born in Woolwich in 1869, we don't yet know.

Dennis’s connection to the family from Liverpool now has a paper chain.  My paper chain is made of  very fine tissue paper, virtually not there at all.  George’s daughter, my great grandmother Mary Jane, didn't know either of her grandparents' names, but remembered her grandfather’s occupation of bootmaker. I didn’t take it as being reliable proof of relationship to the shoemaker, but the dna chain shows that Dennis and I are related, and so I have to rely on the very basic facts –George's name, his birthplace, his birth year, and the uncertainly remembered fact that his father was a bootmaker - plus the dna evidence - to show that I have found his right family. 

   

George, you may consider yourself well and truly collared.  I told you I was coming to get you!

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to my second cousin Carole Wilkes who kindly contacted me with a list of her (and my) relations whom she had encouraged to be dna tested.  This enabled me to quickly separate my father’s and my mother’s families.

Thanks also to my second cousin Graham Johnston who had himself dna tested.  This enabled me to differentiate between my maternal grandmother’s and maternal grandfather’s lines and identify Dennis Beeney as being likely related to me through the Griffith family which he had named in his FTDNA profile.

Thanks to my friend Jenny Coates who patiently coached me through my abject ignorance of dna tests and helped me figure out what I was doing.

Very great thanks to my third cousin once removed Dennis Beeney who had put a detailed family tree online showing his grandmother Alice Griffith (a first cousin to Mary Jane) and came up with the first name of Alice’s father, Michael, which enabled me to put together a family tree which would include George Griffith; and who very kindly had his DNA  tested and put the results where I could readily find them.

Thank you everybody - you’ve all been Very Good!

There will be some future posts coming up looking at the family in Liverpool.  Can't wait to do the work!

PS  And thank you to a Benevolent Universe which provided me with a set of dna results which did not include my husband as a match.  Given that some of our brick wall families come from the same part of Tasmania, and that our colouring is very similar, I was suddenly struck with some trepidation that when I looked at my matches he might possibly turn up there.  But thankfully not.  How would I explain THAT to the children?

PPS  I should add, by the way, that I had my husband do a dna test back in 2012 to try and break down the brick wall of his Tasmanian family, the paper record being totally inadequate, but there has not been any movement at all in terms of solving that problem – so not all dna results are equal, I am afraid. In his case we just have to keep waiting.