john west mallandaine + mary smith
Following the death of his first wife, Maria McCally, John married a second time to Mary Smith at St John the Baptist in Somersham, Huntingtonshire on 27 October 1823. Following his marriage, he left his two sons in England with his parents and returned to India with his new wife. They left England on board the William Money on 20 March 1824 and arrived in Cuddalore on 19 July. John would not see his sons again until ten years later when he returned home from India for the last time although family notes indicate that he sent money home to support his children but he suspected that not all of it was used for their care.
On his return to India, John was assigned to the Detachment of European Recruits at Poonamallee but by 1825, he had been transferred back to Trichinopoly. Their first two children were also born in Trichi - Caroline was born on 1 September 1824 and baptised at Trichinopoly on 14 February 1825 and Harriet was born on 23 January 1826. Shortly after Harriet’s birth, John was transferred to Prince of Wales Island, the East India Company Army headquarters for the Straits Settlement; the island, now called Penang, lies off the north-west coast of Malaysia.
Several months later, John was transferred again, to Singapore, and his family sailed from Penang on 9 April. Their arrival in Singapore was reported in the Singapore Chronicle on 15 April 1827:
Major Mallandaine of the 35th Regiment Madras Native Infantry having reported his arrival on HCS Hastings with a Detachment of Troops destined for the relief of those at present serving in Singapore. The Troops are accordingly to be landed tomorrow morning at daylight on Boats to be furnished by the Master Attendants Department and will proceed to occupy the Tents to be erected for them, in the front of the Singapore Institution house. Major Vincent 25 Regiment NI Volunteers will be pleased to make over the Command of the Troops tomorrow morning to Major Mallandaine as Senior Officer.
Their first son, Edward, was born in Singapore on 10 August 1827 and his birth was reported in The Singapore Chronicle on 16 August 1827: BIRTH On the 10th instant, the Lady of Major Mallandaine, Commanding Singapore, of a son, Edward. In 1828, the Garrison troops at Singapore were changed ending John’s command in Singapore. The family left Singapore on 25 January on board The Speke and returned to Madras and shortly after their return to India, their second son, Charles, was born but sadly, he only lived for five days. They were still in Madras when their last child, Charlotte, was born on 2 December 1830.
The Madras Army List notes that John was transferred from the 27th to the 17th Native Infantry in January 1831 and while the record does not include details on where he was posted, the family spent time in Hassan, east of Bangalore, as Mary died there in 1832. Her son Edward recounted her death in his memoirs:
My mother was attacked in the middle of the night with Asiatic cholera and died in my father’s arms about four to five hours afterwards. I just remember our dear mother in a pale yellow dress: she was carried off at the age of 36! She was a deeply religious woman and no doubt converted my father. Infants as we were, she began to inculcate the infant Catechisms. A strict Sabbatarian she would not even punish a child on the Sabbath.
John was granted one year’s furlough on 21 December 1832 and set sail for England with his four children on 10 January 1833 aboard the Resource, commanded by Captain Thomas Warren. The voyage took five months with stops at the Cape and St Helena before arriving in London in June 1833 and John once again returned to his parent’s home on Heath Street off Commercial Road in Stepney. His sister Mary helped care for his young children and and was largely responsible for their early education but there is no indication of whether his sons from his first marriage — 23 year old John and 18 year old George — were still living with their grandparents or whether he saw them on his his return.
Less than two months after returning to London, John married a third time to Cecilia Hawkes at St Dunstan, Stepney on 21 August 1833 and within weeks of their marriage, John and his new wife rented a large country home in Shipbourne, Kent and moved there along with his four young children. On 20 October 1833, all four children were baptised at the local parish church.
They remained in Shipbourne for almost three years before moving to France to take advantage of a lower cost of living. The family settled in Dinan and John ensured that all of his children, both sons and daughters, received a classical eduation. Caroline left home in 1842 to take a position as governess Angers almost 200kms away but later moved back to England as did her sisters and brother.
In 1851, Harriet was living at 2 Albert Buildings in Weston Super Mare, a seaside resort town in north Somerset, where she worked as a school assistant and her sister Caroline was working as French teacher in nearby Bath. Charlotte has not been found in the 1851 census in England so it is possible she was still in France. In 1861, Caroline left England to join her brother Edward in Canada but there is no sign of either Harriet or Charlotte in the census until 1871 when they appear together in a lodging house in Malvern near Worcester. The census does not list their occupation so it’s not known if they continued to work as teachers or if they were able to live on the legacy left to them by their father.
Five years later, Harriet died at her residence at 58 Cowper Road in Stoke Newington on 30 July 1876 only six months after celebrating her fiftieth birthday. She died intestate and her sister Charlotte, who lived at 47 Catherine Street in Liverpool, was granted administration of her £300 estate. Before moving to north London, Harriet lived at 23 Albert Terrace, Southampton Street, in Camberwell, Surrey.
Charlotte hasn’t been located in the 1881 census but in 1891, she was living in Newport on the Isle of Wight and boarding at the Home for Training Servants on St Paul’s Road. The home appears to have been a residence for retired servants and governesses as well as a training school for young women hoping to gain employment as house maids, cooks, and launderesses. Sixty year old Charlotte was listed as a boarder living on her own means and also in residence was her 56 year old, half-sister Frances who was a retired companion.
In 1911, she was lodging in one room in a house on the High Street in Tenterden, Kent and was again listed as living on her own means. The previous census return relates to George and Catherine Mary Bishop and the subsequent return to Sarah Dumpster, a lodging house keeper so it is likely Charlotte was lodging with one of them. She died at Yew Tree House on Ashford Road in Tenterden on 28 July 1919 and left an estate worth £61. She appointed her friends, Margaret Agnes Babington and George Bishop as executors of her estate and left only two legacies: her French marble clock to her niece Lucy Mallandaine and the remainder of her estate to her friend Catherine Mary Bishop, wife of her executor George.
Little is known of John’s relationship with his daughters from his second marriage or the extent of their relationship with their half-siblings by John’s third wife, Cecilia Hawkes.