Hearsey/Salmon family Hon East India Co

[crystalight]

I have an account of the tragic death of Miss Marian Salmon (below) The Hearsey family and William Broome Salmon were all well connected to the H.I.E.C. but were originally from England with other family members here.

My Query is that I have never been able to find an account/report of this death in newspapers or Gazettes - have I been looking in the wrong place or was it common for news of this kind not to reach home?

 The tragic journey began in the rains if 1827 when William and Marion Salmon and their daughter Marian met Mrs Salmon's brother John Hearsey in the Garhwal Hills of Ramnee. Mrs and Miss Salmon were ill at the start of the trip but soon recovered.
On the return journey in crossing the Nundakme River the log bridge broke in two, Marian Salmon and Sir John Hearsey were dashed into a boiling snow torrent from a considerable height. John tried in vain to save her, being all but drowned himself.
They stayed the bank of the torrent for 3 days, when the body of the drowned, young girl was recovered 14 miles lower down the torrent lodged by a broken tree and partly in the water.
A case was made for the body and her mother folded a cerement around it saturated with turpentine from a neighboring village, then laid in a mass of powdered charcoal and the case was carried before them in a funeral procession for five days until they arrived at the civil station Hawalpagh near Almorah where it was buried in Mrs Traill's garden there with a tomb erected over it.

I would be grateful for any information
with thanks

Crystal

[marione]

I was so interested to read this as I heard the same story from my grandparents who died in the 1970's.  I am a direct descendant of Mrs Hearsey, so the unfortunate Marian who perished in the torrent would have been some sort of great-great aunt.  I also read about this occurrence somewhere on the internet, though it was a different source as not exactly the same wording as you have used.

[crystalight]

Hello Marione

Welcome to rootschat 

I am glad someone else has heard of the story, I am still no nearer finding anything else about it, I thought maybe an English newspaper may have carried a report..

I am a descendant from the Hearsey family also, can I ask who your grandparents were so that I can see if they are on my tree?

Regards
Crystal 

[marione]

Dear Cousin Crystalight!
My grandfather was Lionel Mordaunt Broome Salmon, a twin born June 1888.  His father, who so sadly predeceased him having been killed playing polo, was Mordaunt Broome Salmon and his mother was Maud Hancock.
(Mordaunt's paternal grandmother was the said Marion Hearsey).
Are we on your extended family tree and may I ask where you fit in?
Marione.

[crystalight]

Well this gets more interesting! .............Dear cousin Marione, nice to meet you
here goes...........

Am I to assume said Marion Hearsey is the one I have born abt. 1790 in Barhampur Darbhanga Bihar, India and died 13 Jan 1844 in Calcutta? She was married to William Broome Salmon
daughter Marion died 1827 (I have no birth date or age at death - do you?)

If so............said Marion (not the daughter) had a sister Charlotte Maria Hearsey born 23 May 1788 who married Paris Bradshawe born 1764 in Dublin (we believe) Ireland making them my 4x Great Grand parents.

I have William and Marion on my tree with 4 children,
1) Marion who had the tragic accident
2) George Paris Salmon born 1813
3) Harry Hearsey Salmon born abt 1821
4) Mordaunt Money Salmon born 30 Oct 1823

I am assuming it was likely that Mordaunt Broome Salmon was the son of No 4 above?
At the moment I have no further details for Harry or Mordaunt - I will be making some more searches to see if I can fit any more pieces of the puzzle together! and then you will feature on my extended family tree.

Crystal 

ps If all of this is correct that makes us 5th cousins once removed!

[marione]

Dear Coz Chrystalight
My information is that my Great-Great-Grandfather was not Mordaunt Money Salmon as you very reasonably suggested.  Mordaunt Money apparently died childless in the Mutiny aged in his thirties.  In fact there was an eldest son, not mentioned in your list. another William Broome Salmon, born 1809, from whom we are descended (but doubtless my Great-grandfather was indeed named Mordaunt after his father's brother!)
Anyway this William Broome Salmon b 1809 married Sarah Welsh and they had 18 children.  Mordaunt was one of the youngest of the family but he lived into his thirties.  Sadly he was killed, as I mentioned before, playing polo only a few months after he married my great-grandmother, Maud Hancock.  She went on to produce his twin sons.  One twin, my great-uncle Max was married but died childless.  The elder twin was my grandfather, Lionel Salmon.
So actually Mordaunt was "never a father" but has produced 65 descendants!!
You say we are 5th cousins but I think it is perhaps "once removed".  I say this because of the two Hearsey sisters, Charlotte is your x4 great grandmother, whereas Marion is my x3 great grandmother. 
It is really, really touching, isn't it, that Marian who perished in the river should have brought us together?

[crystalight]

Dear Cousin Marione

Wow! thanks for the detailed information, I will be taking a better look at all this later this week when I have more time - its getting late now. 18 children - poor woman!

You are quite right about the once removed (as I did mention at the end ) )

Poor Marian, what a dreadful death, since I read about it, it has always haunted me a little. As you say it is touching.

Bye for now
Crystal 

[marione]

Dear Coz
Oops yes, you did mention the remove!!  But after all what's a remove in a generation or two? 
Do you remember your antecedents?  I find it helps such a lot.  For example I remember three of my great-grandparents well, and one of them I knew right until I was well grown-up, in other words she was not just a shadowy figure from when I was three or something like that.  If I take it back to her great-grandparents, I feel the link goes back for miles.
Sadly it is not the particular great-grandparents we have been discussing that I remember -  I just mean in general terms.
Would you like to know, though, that your 4th cousin twice removed - viz my father is going to be 91 years old tomorrow?!!  Now he can remember a good way back which brings the forebears to life, doesn't it?  He remembers his grandmother, Maud, who was born in India, the one who married Mordaunt the polo-player!
One more titbit, nothing to do with the Hearseys is:  that my papa's grandfather (not the one on your side) was borne in William IV's reign.  I mean my darling Daddy is still with us, going up to London, etc etc and yet his grandpa was born before Queen Victoria came to the throne - I was bowled over when I found out!!
Sorry it's late, I digress, Marione.

[crystalight]

Dear Cousin,

The remove is unimportant, what is amazing is that we have made contact in a way none of our Ancestors would have dreamed of............well apart from maybe Mary the grand daughter of Charlotte Maria Hearsey, she married Henry Babbage, son of the legendary Charles, pioneer of the modern day computer!

Please pass my birthday good wishes on to your father - 91 years old, now that is a great age and what a source of family history. I just wish that I had listened more carefully to my own grandparents tales of the family.

As for remembering........unfortunately not too much, a vague recollection of one great grandmother who died when I was about three, all my other great grandparents had already passed away by then as had the grandfather on my paternal side followed by his wife, my grandmother when I was five.
My other grandparents also died quite young but lived long enough to have known my own daughter for a very few years.
My own parents died very young as well, within two years of each other in 1995 and 1998. My father just reached 70 and my mother not quite 65. So many lost memories.

The family tree has enlightened me to my past but I just wonder how many of these people were known to my immediate family and how much of the history they themselves knew.

Crystal