Olivia has discovered that her great-great great-grandmother Harriet,
was born in Kishen ganj in the Indian state of Bihar in 1807 to get to Kishen
Ganj Olivia has traveled to the northeast of
India close to the border with Nepal
it's very misty at the moment
much greener than I imagined bat sheesh what farms are these venom so cool thick
this is all darjeeling tea
it would appear that you can overtake on either side of the road and a lot of
horn Tooting I think that's probably the most used bit of the car Rosie on mr.
Joel carriageway
the thought that members of my family have lived here it's amazing just such a
love way to come Olivia's great-great great-grandmother
Harriet was born in the early 1800s before British imperial rule in India at
the time British involvement in India was through the East India Company a
corporation with a monopoly on exotic goods from the east with regional
headquarters in Calcutta the East India Company used an extensive fleet of ships
minted its own coins and had its own armies which grew to be twice the size
of the regular British army by the time of Harriet's birth the company's
Authority stretched deep into the interior of Ilia sons Mara
it's much busier than I thought it would be fruit vegetable I think my
great-great-great grandmother Harriet was born here 200 years ago today
kitchen ganj is a city of over 100,000 people when Olivia's ancestors were here
it was a village
Olivia has come to the former British club in kitchen ganj to meet historian
and arada Chatterjee with Chatterjee welcome to kitchen girl thank you very
much I have some papers to show you should we take a look at them thank you
please thank you well the first thing we have is a
marriage certificate Harriet's marriage certificate and it's got a father's name
celesta yes Williams lesser so she was Harriet's lessor before she married
Charles Bizet yes and this tells you more about Williams lesser bone in 1778
so as you can see traveled a lot around India with the army belonging to the
East India Company he was involved in various Wars and at by 1804 he becomes a
captain right and ultimately we know that came here to kitchen guns okay and
Harriet was born here yes so do you know anything about Williams domestic life
here who he married well that's the strange thing is we could not find
either a marriage certificate for William or a birth certificate for
Harriet okay so what does that mean the strong possibility is that Harriet's
mother was not British and that very likely very probably she was a local
lady in the early 19th century I don't think British women would have
come to the interior of India this would be way too far out so it was very common
that Easter your company officials would actually
live with local women seem to be coming to find records about English people
from but not my great-great-great great-great-great great-grandmother is
Indian mm-hmm yes that's so exciting from here yes Asian Games
yes very probably she's indigent fighting was more interesting than I
thought I was it's estimated that in the later part of the 18th century the third
of British men in India were living with and often having children with Indian
women it's an administrative list of Williams letters possessions telling us
about their lives here Wow one small writing deficit one paper slice one rule
it's so detailed two papers of ink powder hookup pipe yes do you know what
hook toys is that the big the pipe tobacco through water swords 27 pairs of
pantaloons so I suppose it's a different time isn't it quarks were silver tops
Bible and prayer book Hindustani grammar and the volumes of Shakespeare's works
it's just amazing isn't it bottle of Madeira and a hookah pipe
sounds lovely doesn't it yes quite near the bottom of the list one elephant real
elephant a real elephant are you kidding this gives me an amazing picture of the
of the life a Harriet was born into two languages bits of silver on corks and an
elephant brood mixture yeah written in India yeah it was beautiful it does but
it doesn't last very long okay the madras career of february last
contains the following article we are extremely concerned to relate in
melancholy accident that happened to captain's lesser sats William at
Kissingen a captain's letter was out shooting his gun having misfired
he had just read primed with the gun went off and its contents passing
through his head he was killed on the spot
so this is 18:10 how old would Harriet have been three or four years old oh yes
some really young so considering we think they weren't married what happens
doing anything about what happens to Harriet or and her mum will be don't to
know what happened to her mummy but about Harriet we do have some
information there's a letter from a lawyer
they say encash paid out on account of miss Harriet's lesser captain Fairfax
for Miss letters voyage to England Oh fourteen hundred securities in fact her
grandmother William's mother who was also called Harriet actually paid for
Harriet to be taken from India and brought to England Wow aged three or
four age three or four did the mother have any say in the matter I think it
most unlikely that her mother would have had any rights over her on the other
hand she might have been happy that Harriet was going somewhere where she
would have a good life yeah we don't know yeah I just find sad
is a she's so little it's not far off the edge of my youngest go to the other
side of the world wondering where daddy was gone without
your mummy Oh hopefully hopefully she has a happy time and they'll love her so
we don't know but how it's mum we don't know what happened tell me you don't
know specifically what happened to her mother no know so little Harriet is here
in kitchen games and the grandmother wants to get her back to England
how does she start who how does that work well she'd have to go to Calcutta
which is almost 500 kilometers from here gosh that's such a thing to do isn't it
thought that Harriet's mum came from here so I might have relatives here it's
really exciting but then little Harriet's life it's a proper bittersweet
thing fellows died and the intervention of Harriet's grandmother I suppose
obviously obviously makes sense let's give her a better life in England
and I'm so pleased somebody wants to love her the thing I feel most sad about
is that we don't know Harriet's mummy we don't know her name
we'll never know if she had much say in it but she she gave up her daughter for
hopefully for the best reasons knowing that she would know she was here again
so next what to find out about how its journey I want to know that she's okay
Olivia now knows that little Harriet following her father's death in 1810 was
sent from Kishen ganj to England her grandmother also called Harriet paid
for her passage
you