Indian Princess Clutterbuck?

The mystery of the Indian Princess of Tasmania

by Kirstin Duffield, Clutterbuck Genealogy Researcher

There has been a rush on queries in the last few months about a lady by the name of Ann(e) Clutterbuck who lived and died in Tasmania.

It appears many descendants have been told a story of Anne being the unwanted daughter of an Indian Maharajah or an Indian Princess. The English/Indian Aristocracy is fairly well documented and any reference she may have used to refer to herself as Anglo/Indian may be purely down to having grown up there. At the age of 19 she travels as a servant to a Ship’s Captain’s Wife – not a great standing of a lady or Princess. And all other evidence goes a great way to undermining any such story as being based on truth and may merely be a fanciful tail once told that was taken as fact and passed down.

What is known is:

1. An Ann listed as Anglo/Indian arrived on the barque “Research” from Calcutta, India on 14 Dec 1831. This was a convict ship from Fort William in Bengal. It would be very odd for any lady to be on board unless she was connected as a companion or in the employ of a senior ranking officer. Ann (who was listed on her journey as Anglo/Indian), along with two others, was listed as a servant to a Captain Davidson who was accompanied by his wife.

The manifest clearly states that “Passengers from India were Mrs Davidson and Servant”

So this is how Ann came to Hobart. As all Indian servants were listed as “Native Servant” we can assume combined with the name Clutterbuck, Ann stands very very little chance of being anything other than English, and most certainly not a daughter of a member of the Aristocracy unless she had in some way disgraced herself from her English Family. She may have been born in India, or be the daughter of a stationed officer, but why she should then take off to Hobart and almost immediately fall in love and marry a convict is perhaps still to be clarified.

There was a Clutterbuck Family in West Bengal Samuel and Sarah who had a daughter Dorthea in 1818.

2. A William Kingston was transported by The Adrian Ship from England (Convicted in Buckinghamshire on 27 July 1829) leaving to New South Wales 27 Apr 1830 from Portsmouth arriving NSW 20 AUG 1830 with 169 men embarking sailing for 115 days with Wm sadler as master and G H Weatherhead as Surgeon.

http://www.historyaustralia.org.au/twconvic/Adrian+1830

OR
but some entry states William Kingston came to Australia aboard WOODMAN in 1826 as a convict but there is no record of this on the NSW Government State records.

3. Ann Married William Kingston who was born in 29 MAY 1803 in Staffordshire. They married in Hobart Town by William Bedford, Senior Chaplin on 21 May 1832.

4. William was a convict at the time of the marriage but received a pardon and the couple settled on a farm he purchased at Bream Creek. Ann ran the farm for a while William went to the Goldfields in Victoria and is listed as a shareholder of the Ballarat Mine, Victoria in 1868 (Source: Government Gazettes in the Genealogy Society of Victoria)

5. They had children

a. William George 21 OCT 1835-29 APR 1917 who married Elizabeth Dunbabin 28 JUL 1856 (1839-1909) daughter of John and Anna (Eccles)

b. Stephen 25 SEP 1837- 15 APR 1881 m Jane Williams b1843 (8 Children)

c. Lucy Ann 1841-1888 m Harry Smith 6 OCT 1857 (12 Children)

d. Charles 1 FEB 1844-31 OCT 1922

Sadly noting there was only a month between the death of William Kingston and his daughter Lucy Ann and as her last child would only have been 6 at the time it would have also left Harry with a great deal of children and no wife. Then Stephen who dies in 1881 left his wife Jane with their children prematurely with the youngest of the 8 being only 2 years old. It was surely hard times.

6. Ann died of Debilitus 11 Aug 1879 in Sorell, Tasmania, Australia, and is buried with her husband in Marion Bay Cemetery. William died 10 Aug 1888.

So it is well documented what happened to Ann and William After they arrived in Australia, and some of William’s past, however the mystery is where was Ann from.

However other sources make a connection with the English Royal Family. In fact a John Clutterbuck married Mary Anne Lyon, daughter of the Hon Thomas Lyon and Mary Elizabeth Wren on 31 OCT 1821. He lived at Warkworth, Northumberland. There is a well-documented connection of Thomas Lyon and the current Queen’s Mother through the Bowes Lyon line. However this John was born in 1784 which is along time to have a sister born 1811. There is an Anne in his siblings but it appears she was born in the 1780’s. And for Anne to be a servant to a Ship’s Captain’s wife would be a fall in society somewhat!

There is no connection of Clutterbuck’s women or men in India at the time for Anne to be born. The Indian records are surprisingly good especially in respect of the military and the English living there.

So what other Anne’s do we have in England:

1810 daughter of Thomas and Eleanor in Watford Northumberland, through tracking other records I don’t find a death/burial nor a marriage nor a census return for this Anne, which if she were to leave the UK somehow than maybe that would be a reason.

My conclusion is that she is either the daughter of Thomas and Eleanor, but how she came to be in India is still a mystery or she is the daughter of Samuel and Sarah who we do at least know were in India at around the right time. There is a Samuel Clutterbuck who married Sarah Bishop in 1797, it would be possible Sarah was still having children in 1818 i.e Dorthea (and Anne along the way in 1811.)

For more information on this and all other Clutterbuck Lines please email me direct: treemad@btinterent.com