THE OUSELEYS – A FAMILY INVOLVEMENT WITH INDIA

Abstract

An account of how successive generations of a single family, the Ouseleys, were involved in the expansion and consolidation of British rule in India from the 1780s into the twentieth century. The various individual case histories illustrate general patterns of life and service for civilians and soldiers alike.

Notes

A fuller account of Ouseley antecedents can be found in John Debrett, The Baronetage of England, 1839. London: JG&F Rivington 7^th edition, p. 342.

The two marriages are recorded by Debrett; similarly, Parbury's Oriental Herald and Colonial Intelligencer records the death in 1838 at Limerick of Mary, widow of Ralph Ouseley Esq and step-mother of Sir Gore and Sir William Ouseley.

Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) 2008 online edition 20955. Gore was educated in Ireland with his cousin Gideon – DNB 20954.

See e.g. obituary in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. XXIII, January–June 1845, p. 200.

I have adhered, by and large, to ‘traditional’ colonialist spellings and transcriptions; and have in similar vein retained the term ‘Mutiny’ for the events of 1857–1858.

See e.g. online entries in Iranica and Wikipedia; also Major David Jackson and Captain C Rochfort Scott, The Military Life of Field Marshall the Duke of Wellington. London: Longmans, 1840, vol. 1 p. 237.

Hansard, 16 February 1858, vol. 148 col. 1489.

DNB 20953; Frederick founded St Michael's Church and Choral College in Tenbury, and was Professor of Music in Oxford University.

As well as the bequest mentioned in note 13, Gore made a further provision that, when no descendants of the bodies of himself and his wife existed, half his estate should go to William – the other half being divided between Gore's brothers and sisters.

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, 31 January 1822: “56th Foot: Ens. Ouseley, Lt by purchase, vice Brough, prom.”.

Quarterly Oriental Magazine, review and register: “30th Foot: Lieutenant William Ouseley, from halfpay 56th Foot, to be Lieutenant, vice John Roe, who exchanges, 11 Sep 1823”.

War Office, Military Promotions list of 13 February 1824, printed in the Connaught Journal, Galway, Monday 23 February 1824.

PROB 11/2011; in his will, Gore bequeathed to “Captain William Claude Ouseley, HM 96th Regiment half-pay, now living at Sydney, Cape Breton, Canada” the sum of £2,450 “which together with £2,250 advanced by me for the purchase of his commissions in the army and £300 lately advanced for the building of his house at Sydney make up the sum of £5,000 sterling which I originally destined for him”.

IOR/L/MIL/9/373/324-28; Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, January 1822.

Rev Henry Littleton Lyster Denny, Memorials of an Ancient House: A History of the Family of Lister or Lyster. Edinburgh: Ballantyne Hanson & Co, 1913, p. 66.

DNB 20957. The entry's assertion – followed by many other sources – that William was born in Monmouthshire seems based solely on his later residence there, and on his statement in his will that he was “formerly of Crickhowell”. He was in fact born and brought up with his siblings in Ireland, and was christened in the Cathedral of St Mary in Limerick on 12 May 1768.

Obituary in Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, June 1843; see also European Magazine and London Review, June 1811, pp. 403–408, and biography in Iranica.

All (except Frederick) are named in the will of his mother, Dame Julia Frances Ouseley – PROB 11/2110; made 25 October 1845, proved 14 March 1850.

Bond no. 3140 dated 17 October 1821.

IOR/L/MIL/10/36/105, 10/41/430, 10/67/532, 9/211/74–81. In addition, for this and subsequent appointments, see e.g. East India Registers and Directories, Bengal Civil Service Gradation Lists.

IOR/L/MIL/9/139/57-59, 17/12/466; Mss Eur D1057; obituary in The Times, 15 April 1889.

IOR/L/MIL/9/224/698-702, 9/210/303-314, 9/193, 10/41/430, also Army Lists in 10/52, 10/53 and 10/75; 1881–1901 censuses; death notice of William in The Times of 12 December 1877; memorial to George Septimus at St Peter & Paul Church, Tonbridge, Kent.

Frederick became Rector of Wheathill in Shropshire before retiring to Dorset: 1861–1901 censuses.

Sir Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland. London: Harrison, 1862, p. 792; Thomas Nicholas, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales, 1991, p. 305. Frances' father, William Walter Jones, married Frances, the daughter of Captain Place of Neath Abbey, Glamorgan; after Richard's death, Frances remarried in 1870 to Sir Atwell King Lake, who was Lieutenant later Captain in the 104th Foot.

IOR/L/MIL/10/42/238, 10/66/238; 1861 census.

PROB 6/212 – “Frederick Ouseley 10 June 1836 of the Island of Mauritius Esq, bachelor, to Daniel Lister Esq the Attorney of Sir William Ouseley Kt, the father, now residing at Boulogne, France, £450”.

IOR/L/MIL/10/41, 10/43/390, 10/66/390; 1881 census.

Foremost among these was Sir William Gore Ouseley (1797–1866), diplomat and author: see DNB 20958.

IOR/L/MIL/9/130/81–86, 10/42/112, 10/66/112.

IOR/L/MIL/9/397/91-93,232,235–236, 10/77; IOR/V/23/121 pt.36 art.3 – Dr D. Hood, Reports on the ‘Typhoid continued fever’ which lately attacked the inhabitants of Mouza Chatunga Khoord, Pergunnah Jewur. Allahabad: Government Press, 1862.

1871–1881 censuses.

IOR/J/1/89/137–148, IOR/L/PJ/6. Many papers relating to the Elliots were collected by John Ouseley, Marcia's brother; they are now to be found in the Elliot Ouseley Collection in the National Library of Scotland.

E.g. 1891–1901 censuses; IOR/L/MIL/9/301/22.

See India Office Mss Eur D908.

PROB 11/2011; proved 29 January 1845.

Will proved 23 November 1889.

IOR/L/MIL/9/133/274–277.

Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, March 1823, pp. 268–269.

Letter of appointment dated 11 July 1838 signed by H. J. Prinsep, secretary to the government of Bengal. In a letter of 20 June 1838 Prinsep refers to Joseph's “eminent attainments in Oriental literature” as making it essential to retain his services for the examination of Fort William students and Maulvees.

IOR/L/MIL/10/42/97, 10/66/97.

E.g. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, The British Almanac. London: Knight & Co, 1856, p. 69; East India Register and Army List 1855; 1861–1881 censuses; Post Office London Directory, 47th edition, June 1846, London: W Kelly & Co, pp. 33, 48.

IOR/J/1/69/116–126, 78/295–303.

1881 census.

1871–1891 censuses.

IOR/L/MIL/9/210/118–125, 10/43/555, 10/67/555.

See for example Adelaide Case, Day by Day at Lucknow: A Journal of the Siege of Lucknow. London: Richard Bentley 1858, pp. 67, 144, 279; Martin Richard Gubbins, An Account of the Mutinies in Oudh and the Siege of the Lucknow Residency. London: R. Bentley, 1858, p. 234; Bulletins and Other State Intelligence complied by T. L. Behan. London: Harrison & Sons. 1860, p.887. Henry Palmer's son Charles, only nine at the time of the siege, was awarded the Lucknow medal for his role in defending the Residency; he later became chief engineer in the Indian public works department, and one of his sons served in the Indian army.

1881 census.

See eg. Captain George Hutchinson, A Narrative of the Mutinies in Oude. London: Smith Elder & Co, 1859, p. 110.

IOR/L/MIL/9/232/191–201, 10/65/643. William's subsequent fate remains unknown; it seems he never returned to England, and is not mentioned in his father's will.

IOR/F/4/1487/58662.

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1846, p. xcviii.

Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1845, pp. 354–357 and Proceedings, p. 1.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Mitchiner

John Mitchiner has a PhD in South Asian history from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and has held post-doctoral fellowships in India. He recently retired from the British Diplomatic Service, where his assignments included Ambassador to Armenia and Deputy High Commissioner to eastern India.