Walter Key Haslewood was born on 19 November 1816 in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, the son of Reverend John Daniel Haselwood and Hannah his wife.  He was nominated to the East India Company for a Bengal Infantry cadetship in 1835 by Richard Jenkins at the recommendation of his father.

His first application for the 1835/6 season has an annotation in red ink that Haslewood had forfeited his appointment as he had not proceeded to India in line with a Standing Order of the Court dated 21 May 1828.  This order stipulated that cadets had to apply for embarkation orders within three months of being passed and sworn. However a second application submitted later in the same season was accepted and he was entered as a cadet for the Bengal Infantry.

In June 1836, prior to his departure for India as an ensign, he was presented as to King William IV by Lord Duncannon at the King’s Levée, the event being reported in the newspapers of the time.

Walter Haslewood arrived in Fort William on 7 December 1836.  Within a few weeks he had been appointed for duty with the 73rd Native Infantry before being transferred to the Left Wing of the 1st European Regiment of Fusiliers on 27 February 1837 and promoted to Lieutenant on 10 August 1838.

Bengal Army Service Record to 1841 for Walter Key Haslewood - British Library IOR/L/MIL/10/31, p.31

In 1839 the 1st European Regiment were involved in the capture of the fortress at Ghuznee.  Haslewood was severely wounded on 23 July 1839 by sabre cuts received from the enemy during the capture but recovered from his injuries sufficiently to continue serving in the Bengal Army.  He was described by his superiors as ‘an intelligent young officer’ and on 10 January 1840 was appointed Aide de Camp to the Governor-General Lord Auckland.  In February 1840 he was granted a Wound Pension, as his injuries were considered equivalent to the loss of a limb.

Announcement of the marriage of Walter Key Haslewood to Georgina Brice Ruggles-Brice, Bell's New Weekly Messenger 5 February 1843

On 13 January 1841 Haslewood applied for furlough to Europe, and whilst in England he was married on 31 January 1843 at Finchingfield, Essex, to Georgina Brise Ruggles-Brise, daughter of John Ruggles-Brice Esq. of Spain’s Hall in Essex.

Captain Walter Key Haslewood sailed once more for Europe on 6 February 1853 on medical furlough on board the Prince of Wales.  He may however have had more reasons than just the recovery of his health which prompted the return to England.

Notice of court proceedings for insolvent debtors, case of Walter Key Haslewood – Morning Herald 15 November 1853

On 17 September 1853 Haslewood was imprisoned in the Queen’s Prison as an insolvent debtor.  His case was heard before the Court on 14 November 1853 and he was discharged as a debtor the following day.  The report on his insolvency notes that his creditors had made inquiries as to whether the property left to his wife by her late father could be used to pay his debts, but the Court discounted this, along with an application for part of his pay as a Captain in the Bengal Invalid Establishment.

Haslewood continued to serve in the Invalid Establishment, rising to the rank of Major, until his death at Chandernagore on 29 August 1870.  Georgina returned to her family home of Spain’s Hall, where she died on 21 May 1880.

The Ruggles-Brice family had owned Spain’s Hall since Samuel Ruggles purchased it on 5 December 1760.  The estate remains in the family’s ownership to this day, although the manor house was sold in 2022 to the chef Jamie Oliver.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further Reading:
IOR/E/4/768, p.683 – request for wound pension by Walter Key Haslewood, 21 December 1841
IOR/L/MIL/9/183 ff.191-194 Cadet Papers of Walter Key Haslewood 1835 season (1)
IOR/B/181 Court 21 May 1828 – Standing Order concerning cadets’ embarkation
IOR/L/MIL/9/184 ff.495-498 Cadet Papers of Walter Key Haslewood 1835 season (2)
IOR/L/MIL/10/31/31 Bengal Service Army List, Walter Key Haslewood
British Newspaper Archive e.g.
South Eastern Gazette 21 June 1836, page 4 – announcement of Walter Key Haslewood’s presentation to the King
Bell’s New Weekly Messenger 5 February 1843, page 7 – announcement of the marriage of Walter Key Haslewood & Georgina Brice Ruggles-Brice
Morning Herald (London) 15 November 1853, page 6 – Court proceedings for Walter Key Haslewood, insolvent debtor

 

In July 1801, Richard Corbett joined the East India Company as a labourer in the London warehouses at the age of 31.  He gave his previous occupation as servant.  In May 1808 he became a baronet on the death of his father Charles, but he did not inherit any lands or wealth and continued working in the warehouses as Sir Richard.

One of the East India Company London warehouses at Jewry Street – British Library IOR/H/763

Corbett was related to the branch of the family based at Longnor in Shropshire.  His father Charles, a London bookseller, was set to inherit the baronetcy and estates under the terms of a will written in November 1764 by his kinsman Sir Richard Corbett of Longnor.  However Charles fell into debt and on 9 June 1771 Sir Richard added a codicil to his will, stating Charles ‘has absented himself from his Business and is become Insolvent and is much distressed in his situation and Circumstances and his Creditors might have great benefit of the Devise to him and his Heirs Male in and by my said Will’.  Sir Richard decided to pass the land to another kinsman, Robert Flint, leaving Charles and his heirs with just an annuity of £100 per annum and the right to use the title ‘Sir’.  When Sir Richard died in September 1774, Robert Flint inherited, having obeyed instructions to change his name to Corbett.

The Daily Advertiser, Oracle and True Briton 14 June 1809 British Newspaper Archive

After his father’s death, Sir Richard Corbett took steps to try to reclaim the estates granted to the Flint branch of the family.  It was claimed that Sir Richard of Longnor had been unfairly influenced to change his will.  On 14 June 1809 an advertisement appeared in The Daily Advertiser, Oracle and True Briton asking for subscriptions ‘for the daughter of an English Baronet’ in a ‘singularly unfortunate situation’.  This was Sir Richard’s sister Elizabeth who received £20 per annum from the Shropshire estate.

Stamford Mercury 29 October 1813 British Newspaper Archive

Elizabeth married Reverend Charles Rogers Bond in May 1809, and he became Sir Richard’s agent in the legal action taken against the current holders of the Shropshire lands.  Bond placed more advertisements in newspapers to raise money, and in 1810 and 1813 he wrote to the East India Company asking for financial assistance, but nothing appears to have been forthcoming.

Minutes of East India Company Court of Directors 17 February 1813 - British Library IOR/B/156 p.1336

There was a Chancery case, but the matter was finally resolved at the Shrewsbury Spring Assizes in 1813.  The Court ruled that Sir Richard Corbett of Longnor had been perfectly competent when he wrote the codicil, and a verdict was given against the current Sir Richard.

The will of Sir Richard Corbett of St Ann Limehouse was written on 19 February 1814 when he was ‘very sick and weak in body’.  He left one shilling to his wife Elizabeth as a proof of his ‘disapprobation of her improper conduct’.  All his household goods and clothing were bequeathed to Elizabeth Harris otherwise Corbett.  She lived with him and they had two children: Ann Thomas Harris or Corbett (born January 1810), and Richard Charles Harris or Corbett (born April 1813).  The residue of Sir Richard’s estate was left to his sister Elizabeth and her husband.

Sir Richard Corbett’s death on 4 November 1814 was reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine.  He was described as ‘many years reduced to an inferior station in the employ of the Hon. East India Company’.  The baronetcy expired as there was no surviving legitimate male heir.

Margaret Makepeace
Lead Curator, East India Company Records

Further reading:
British Newspaper Archive.
Minutes of the East India Company Court of Directors - British Library, IOR/B.
Register of East India Company warehouse labourers appointed 1801-1832 - British Library, IOR/L/AG/30/5.
PCC wills at The National Archives – Sir Richard Corbett of Longnor, probate 1774, PROB 11/1002/280: Sir Richard Corbett of St Anne Limehouse, probate 1815, PROB 11/1565/40.
The Gentleman’s Magazine July-December 1814 p.509.

Whilst working through some Lord Clive Fund Pension records, the application for a pension from Mrs Maria Johnston, widow of Captain Leathes Johnston, caught my eye because the wording of her husband’s rank and title were not written in the usual manner.

The records of the Committee for the Management and Application of the Military (Lord Clive) Fund discuss the application of Mrs Maria Johnston and describe her as the ‘Widow of Mr Leathes Johnston, who died a Captain the Company’s Service at Bombay’.

Record of the admission of Mrs Maria Johnston to a pension from the Lord Clive Fund, 11 August 1773 - IOR/L/AG/23/2/3, p.68 

The wording for Leathes Johnston suggested he had not been in the Company’s employ for very long, so I decided to see what had brought him to Bombay at that time.

Leathes Johnston was born in County Antrim in about 1727 and was the only son of William Johnston and Jane Leathes.  Jane was the daughter of John Mussenden and his wife Jane, née Leathes, but following the death of her maternal uncle William Leathes, the family name was changed from Mussenden to Leathes to maintain the family title and inheritance.

Together with his cousin John, Leathes Johnston was educated at the Royal School in Armagh before going to live with his uncle Carteret Leathes, MP for Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk.  Carteret secured commissions in the Army for his nephews and Leathes was appointed a Lieutenant in the 14th Regiment of Foot on 31 October 1751.  In April 1755 the Admiralty decided that 50 new companies of marines needed to be raised, and appointed Leathes as one of the new Captains in command of them.  The 50 companies were divided into 3 divisions, and Leathes was assigned to the division based at Chatham in Kent.

Appointment of Leathes Johnston as Captain to a Company of Marines  -  The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Volume 25, April 1755

Alongside his army commission, Leathes also served as a Gentleman Usher Quarterly Waiter to King George II, being appointed on 21 November 1753.

According to the memoirs of his nephew John Johnston ‘Leathes married Mary, the daughter of the late Sir Benjamin Bloomfield’ and the couple had at least six children before Mary died in around 1768/9.

In early 1770 Leathes Johnston applied to the East India Company for a position as a Captain in their Army.  On 28 March 1770 his appointment as a Captain was announced by the Court of Directors, and on 30 March 1770 he was sworn in as a Captain of Infantry for Bombay.

Appointment of Leathes Johnston as Captain in the Bombay Army by the East India Company Court of Directors 28 March 1770 - IOR/B/85 p.494

Prior to departing for Bombay, Leathes was married for a second time on 10 May 1770 to Miss Maria Branch at St Martin in the Fields, London.

It seems that Leathes departed for Bombay without his wife, as on 5 September 1770 Maria petitioned the Company to be permitted to travel to Bombay and join her husband, which was granted (although the Company mistakenly records her name as Mrs Ann Johnston).  The couple had a son Thomas who was baptised in Darenth, Kent, in October 1770, and the birth of Leathes’ youngest son may well have been the reason Maria could not travel to Bombay with her husband and had to delay her journey until later in 1770.

Leathes Johnston died in Bombay on 20 May 1771 where as well as serving as a Captain of Infantry he was also Town Major.

His widow Maria, on returning to England in 1773, applied to the East India Company’s Lord Clive Fund for pension which she received until Christmas 1783.

Leathes’ eldest son William followed him into the King’s Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and serving in the West Indies; his youngest son Thomas became a priest and was Rector of Broughton in Huntingdonshire.

Karen Stapley
Curator, India Office Records

Further Reading:
IOR/B/85, 28 & 30 Mar 1770 – East India Company Court Minutes: Appointment of Leathes Johnston as a Captain in the East India Company’s Service.
IOR/B/86, 5 Sep 1770 – East India Company Court Minutes: application of Mrs Maria Johnston to travel to Bombay to be with her husband.
IOR/L/AG/23/2/3, p.68 – Records of the Committee for the Management and Application of the Military (Lord Clive) Fund: admission of Mrs Maria Johnston to a pension on the Lord Clive Fund, 11 Aug 1773.
250.e.1-26 The Gentleman’s Magazine and Historical Chronicle, Volume 25, April 1755
L.R.252.b.10. The history and antiquities of the County of Suffolk, Volume 2, Alfred Ingo Suckling, London: 1846-8
Historical Collections. Collections and Researches: Vol. XXXII, 1876, via Google Books