john west mallandaine + maria mccally
John was baptised on 3 October 1784 at St Botolph without Aldgate, the eldest child of John Mallandain and Sarah West. He was educated at the Christ’s Hospital Blue Coat School at Newgate, London having been admitted to the school on 10 May 1792 and left on 17 September 1798. The Blue Coat School was a charitable organization supported by local residents for the education of poor children in the area and the most famous of the Blue Coat schools was Christ’s Hospital at Newgate. The school was best known for its Tudor uniform complete with a long blue coat, knee-breeches, yellow socks, and bands at the neck for boys.
The day he left school he was bound apprentice to his father in the Musicians’ Company and although he had a life long love of music, he was not destined to be a musician by trade. In 1804, John was accepted as a cadet in the East India Company Army at Addiscombe, Surrey on the recommendation of William Gather Esq. and John Bibb. There must have been a strong family connection to Gather and Bibb as it was unusual for young men of John’s class to be admitted as a cadet.
The Honourable East India Company was a trading company that was granted a royal charter by Elizabeth I in 1600 giving it a monopoly of trade with India. The company’s main trade was in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, tea and opium. The East India Company fought off competition from the Dutch and Portuguese until it established full control of the Indian sub-continent and it created its own civil service and army to manage its operations and maintain control of trade routes and ports. At the height of its power, the East India Company commanded a fleet of 130 ships and an army of 200 000 troops and it controlled India until the British Crown assumed direct rule following the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
When John’s training was complete, he was assigned to the Madras Infantry, the 18th Native Infantry Regiment, on 25 April 1806 and sailed to India aboard the Streatham. He was later assigned to the Cadet Corp of Cuddalore as a Hindustanee Interpreter on 6 February 1810. In 1813, his army records note that he received ‘a favourable report of his examination in Hindustanee’ and received an honorary award from the government. John served in the East India Company Army for almost 30 years and rose through the ranks achieving Lieutenant in 1805, Captain in 1819, Major in 1824, and Lieutenant Colonel in 1829.
On 29 March 29 1808, John married his first wife Maria McCally while stationed in Cuddalore on the south east coast of India. Maria was the daughter of Robert McCally and Catherine Carty. She was born in Cuddalore in 1793 and her baptism was recorded in the India Office records:
17th November, 1793, at Cuddalore, was baptised Maria, daughter of Robert McCally and Catherine Carty, he being described Lieutenant in the 71st Regiment. The child was baptised by the Rev. Mr. Gericke, and at that time was aged five months.
Maria was only fifteen years old when she married 24 year old John and seventeen when her first child was born. Several years after their marriage, John and Maria moved south to the East India Company fort at Trichinopoly, now called Tiruchchiruppali, where their four children were baptised. John William was born in Cuddalore on 5 July 1810 but he was not baptised until five years later, on 6 July 1815. Eliza Maria was born 1 September 1812 in Bangalore and baptised on 23 May 1814 but sadly she died five days later on 28 May 1814 and was buried in Trichinopoly. George Robert was born on 30 May 1815 and baptised on the same day as his elder brother, on 6 July 1815. Emily Anne was born on 17 September 1817 and was baptised on 26 October 1817. There is no further mention of Emily in family notes or available records so it is presumed she died in India.
Between 1817 and 1821, John and his family transferred to Madras where the East India Company Headquarters were located. Sadly Maria died on 20 April 1821 at Poonamallee, just outside the city of Madras. She was three months shy of her 28th birthday and her burial was recorded in the East India Company records:
Poonamallee, 21st April, 1821, Maria Mallandaine, wife of Capt. Mallandaine of the Native Infantry, aged 27 years was buried by the Rev. J. Hough. (Certified)
Following Maria’s death, John was granted furlough to Europe for three years and sailed with his two young sons from Madras to England on 16 January 1822 on board the Commodore Hayes. After fifteen years in India, he returned to London and stayed with his parents, John and Sarah, in Stepney. His brother George was living in nearby Ratcliffe but his youngest brother Edward was 200 miles away in Lancashire.
Mallandaine - the final ’e’
John was the first to add the final ‘e’ to the family name and later took on the middle name, West. He was baptised ‘John Mallandain’ and his baptismal record was supplied directly to the East India Company. The story passed down through the generations tells that John’s surname was misspelled by the East India Company during an early promotion and John retained the incorrect spelling. It goes on to say that he added the middle name West to distinguish himself from the many other Johns in the family. This family story seems to be supported by the official documents as the East India Company records reflect inconsistent spellings of his surname until 1827 when it was consistently spelled with the final ‘e’. Also, no official records have been found that list ‘West’ as his legal middle name.
In October 1823, John married a second time to Mary Smith in Somersham, Huntingdonshire. Six months later, John returned to India along with his new wife but his two sons, aged 13 and 8, remained in London with their grandparents and they would not see their father again for ten years.