Hi Judy.
I am descended from John Bird Shadwell. When I was in touch with the descendants of his second wife some years ago, I think there was a mention that a couple of generations back their family was in touch with other Shadwells in the Calcutta area, descended from Henry Shipp Shadwell. I once did a google search for Shadwell on Indian websites - had to skip all the pages where 'Shadwell' refers to a birth place - and eventually did come across someone in that part of India with the surname Shadwell. But they could be descended from one other Shadwell's who were out there at the same time as John Augustus Shadwell and his children.
There is a property called something like 'Shadwell Villa' in Shillong.
John Bird Shadwell is the J B Shadwell who applied for a grant of 1000 acres of land for a tea plantation on Dec 17th 1855, from a table in the book "Socio-economic and political problems of tea garden workers: a study of Assam" By Shyam Narain Singh, Amarendra Narain, Purnendu Kumar. He is also quoted in one or two books - for example on the subject of white tigers (from website
http://www.messybeast.com/genetics/tigers-white.htm):
It says "Lt.-Col. FT Pollok wrote in his book "Wild Sports of Burmah and Assam" (1879) "Mr. Shadwell, Assistant Commissioner in the Cossyah and Jyntiah Hills, also had two skins quite white, but when turned about in a strong light just a faint mark or two could be seen to indicate that they belonged to a tiger at all." ..."
I have about 60 letters written by Emma and John Bird Shadwell to the older three children from when they were taken to the UK by their aunt, onwards. It must have been very hard to send your children so far and to see them so rarely - I am not certain if Emma saw them again before she died, but I think perhaps she went to the UK once. There is no mention of relatives in India in the letters. They are mostly about being good for their aunts, requesting that new 'likenesses' be sent (the damp presumably spoiled them quickly), and some chat about others living in Cherra or visiting. And much asking God to bless and keep her children safe. In one letter Emma says she has been making something like chicken soup for an unwell neighbour, but her husband is not happy that his wife is tiring herself with this as there are others who can do it, including the neighbour's servants.
It seems that sometimes they were struggling a bit with money - an apology for not being able to send more for the childrens' keep. As an Anglo-Indian John Bird's career in the East India Company would have had hit a specific ceiling.
There are one or two later letters, after Emma's death, in which John Bird asks about my grandmother, then a baby. He lived until about 1904 I think.
I was wondering what schools John Bird and Henry Shipp would have attended - do you have any idea? There might be archived records.
I have photos of John Bird Shadwell's daughters Emma and either Flora or Lily (when elderly), which I will try to get uploaded at some point soon.
My great aunts always claimed that our Shadwell ancestors were descended from the Poet Laureate, but I have never been able to make the connection. That Shadwell (who apparently may have invented the musical and was very talented in that field), claimed to be related to the aristocratic Shadwell family, and did get an official family crest etc on that basis, but I am not so sure. The Poet Laureate had many children, and not all lines of descent have been found.
