Thanks RTL !
Just a little bit more. I'm sure Linda knows it all, but it's nice to have a bit more of the story.
Margaret Meldram, nee Shepherd, remarried to James Bilson in early 1836, as mentioned. There were also one or two death announcements in the Shields papers in 1858 saying that she was the wife of James.
Of Newcastle Street.
Published a little while after the relict of Thomas Meldram junior announcement, curiously it now states that she died on the 1st inst (July)
Her death was registered in the June quarter
Anyway, it seems that James Bilson was a Baptist minister.
They were in Whitehaven, Cumberland, in 1841. And what must be her daughter Margaret (Mildram), 19, is with them, and also an elderly Catherine Shepherd.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M73V-XXN1851 in Yorkshire, just James and Margaret
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:SPMF-XDWNow rewind back to 1837, and a death announcement in the Durham Chronicle of 12 May. They seem to have got James' name wrong!
At Jamaica, in the West Indies, and late of North Shields, on the 7th of March, Mr Thomas Meldram, chief mate of the ship London, and son-in-law to the Rev. James Bilsra, independent minister.
And from 1835 in the merchant seamen's records (BT 112) there is a T Meldram, 21, North Shields.
Names the London, and also says "Died at Jamaica 7th March 1837".
Thomas was baptized 18 January 1815, at South Shields. Parents Thomas + Margaret, father a Mariner.
BT here
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-6SN3-Y3L?i=574&cc=1309819&cat=1810087I kind of think that the Thomas who died in Calcutta in 1828 was Thomas junior, the husband of Margaret*. And it's Thomas senior who is the mystery man. Not forgetting his wife of course! One sighting of him in the parish registers may be that burial of young Jane in 1806, father Thomas, a Mariner. Again, no baptism for her.
*Has the parish register entry for their marriage been seen?