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Old Photographs, Recognition, Handwriting Deciphering => Handwriting Deciphering & Recognition => Topic started by: esseco on Sunday 13 January 19 05:43 GMT (UK)
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Hi gurus,
In the image below is a George Esse 4th down from top - I don't know what is meant by Captain Hamilton's Company also, I can't decipher what the writing on the side means.
Is anyone able to help me please.
If this is in the wrong forum, please let me know.
Thanks,
Di
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It looks like George Esse was buried 09 Dec 1809, and was a soldier/navy under the command of Captain Hamilton. I'm just sifting through old newspapers which mentions Captain Hamilton's Company, and so far it looks like soldiers. Will post again if I find something that confirms this!
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From the look of this page I suspect it is from St Helena?
There are a couple of slave burials on the page, which also matches St Helena.
Whether it is St Helena or not, it is clearly a place with a significant military presence.
The entry is saying that George Esse belonged to a Company of soldiers under the command of a Captain Hamilton.
The next four entries are men from other Companies under different command.
Further down, Richard Evans is from the 84th Regiment.
I'm going a bit out on a limb here, but I think the Companies identified by the Captain's name are East India Company units, as opposed to official British Army Regiments.
The East India Company maintained a significant military force organized in much the same way as the army of a nation state.
George may have been an infantryman, an artilleryman or potentially an artisan of some type. There was at least one Company of Artificers on St Helena at the time, although under different command.
You would have to search on the internet for the Captain's name & the place to (with luck) find more.
If it's not a place run by the East India Company then disregard this last section (the out on a limb bit).
The note at the side reads:
in former Entry - with Exception of John Perkins
vide Page 71
My guess is that the entries constrained by the bracket have been transcribed from another source. You could go back to Page 71 to see what he is referring to (vide means see here).
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I'm just sifting through old newspapers which mentions Captain Hamilton's Company, and so far it looks like soldiers. Will post again if I find something that confirms this!
The East India Company Family History site has confirmed this is from St Helena.
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Horselydown is bang on. I just found the index for this, and the burial is St. Helena, and is from the record set British India Office Deaths & Burials.
From the newspapers, it was some kind of artillery battalion (sorry, I don't have a good grasp on military units). Captain Hamilton's Command shows for decades more after this burial, with mentions it was the 12th battalion in later years, but there is very little written for the time frame you need.
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The note at the side reads:
in former Entry - with Exception of John Perkins
vide Page 71
My guess is that the entries constrained by the bracket have been transcribed from another source. You could go back to Page 71 to see what he is referring to (vide means see here).
I was curious, so I took a look at page 71... the entry for George is the same: Dec 9 1809, George Esse, Captain Hamilton's Company. The only difference is the page title; it is Continent Continued instead of Burials., referring to the title of Burials from a previous page.
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Thanks, bbart.
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Thank you to bbart and horselydown, so much information. Now to put it into a readable text for the family file.
I wonder what the difference is between Continent and Burials - thank you bbart for looking that up.
Thanks once again,
Di
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I goofed, and edited my post. It says Continued. (old eyes!)
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bbart,
You are not alone with the old eyes.
I couldn't read it either.
Cheers,
Di
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Just in case anyone interested in St Helena has found this thread I just want to leave a signpost to a remarkable resource here:
https://archive.org/stream/sthelenawhoswhoo00chapuoft/sthelenawhoswhoo00chapuoft_djvu.txt (https://archive.org/stream/sthelenawhoswhoo00chapuoft/sthelenawhoswhoo00chapuoft_djvu.txt)
This is a link to an online version of a book A St Helena Who’s Who; or A directory of the Island during the captivity of Napoleon.
Obviously this starts in 1815 and doesn’t seem to refer to Captain Hamilton’s Company so it is of no direct relevance to this thread except that it reveals that at the time of this death (1809) St Helena actually belonged to the East India Company.
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Hello Alan,
Thanks for your post - very interesting - I have forwarded it to a friend for his information.
Cheers,
Di
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Don't know if this helps, but I adjusted the text to make it easier to read.