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Samuel McCormick (1789 - 1819)

Samuel McCormick
Born in Edinburgh, Scotlandmap
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[sibling(s) unknown]
[spouse(s) unknown]
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Died at age 30 in At Seamap
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Profile last modified | Created 14 Nov 2011
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Biography

Samuel was born in 1789. Samuel McCormick ... He passed away in 1819. [1]

Samuel McCormick was the only son and eldest child of William McCormick, a Scottish merchant, and his wife Elizabeth (née Crawford). William had emigrated in 1761 to North Carolina, but as a loyalist during the American revolution he ended up leaving and having all his property confiscated. By 1779 he was back in Britain, but it was several more years before – on 26 June 1788 – he married Elizabeth in Edinburgh. Samuel was born 11 months later on 25 May 1789. He was baptized on 18 July 1789 by his uncle (by marriage) the Rev. Dr. James MacKnight, and the witnesses were his uncle Edward McCormick, and his father’s former business partner Thomas MacKnight. Samuel was to have three younger sisters: Janet (born 1790), Helen (1792), and Elizabeth (1795).

In 1804, at the age of about 15, Samuel was appointed as a cadet with the East India Company. This traced its roots back to 1600, starting out as a trading company that assumed more administrative powers with time, and ruled British India between the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and the Indian Mutiny of 1857. The company—widely known as John Company, or in India as Company Bahadur—experienced resistance from local rulers during its expansion, the region of Mysore (where Samuel would be stationed) only finally falling to Company forces in 1799.

The Company established a capital at Calcutta in 1772, and Warren Hastings was appointed as the first Governor-General (1773-85). It ruled through a combination of direct annexation of territory and the signing of treaties with rulers who recognized its hegemony in return for limited internal autonomy. Prominent among the princely states were Mysore and Cochin. To support its authority, the Company maintained an army divided between three presidencies: Madras, Bengal and Bombay. This had grown rapidly in the second half of the eighteenth century, to the point where it was bigger than the peacetime British Army. In 1806 the Madras presidency had 11,000 British troops and 53,000 Indian troops.

On 17 April 1805, just before his 16th birthday, and probably after spending time at the Company’s military cadet training establishment at Addiscombe, near Croydon, Samuel was nominated as a cadet with the EIC by one Richard Plowden. He was posted to the Madras Establishment, sailing to India aboard the East Indiaman Preston, a ship licensed or chartered by the EIC. It would probably have set sail from the new East India Docks then under construction in London; one of the biggest investors in the new docks was Henry Bonham, owner of the Preston, which made six voyages to India between 1798 and 1809.

The voyage would have gone around the southern cape of Africa, taking several months, and almost certianly stopping off at the Company-owned island of St Helena. East Indiamen were designed to carry both passengers and goods and to defend themselves against piracy, and so constituted a special class of ship. Due to the need to carry heavy cannon, the hull of the East Indiamen—in common with most warships of the time—was wider at the waterline than at the upper deck, so that guns carried on the upper deck were closer to the centre-line to aid stability. On 17 July 1805, presumably just before his arrival in India, Samuel was appointed to the rank of lieutenant. He was most likely stationed in Bangalore (he was definitely there in 1810) with the 1st Battalion of the 17th Regiment of Native Infantry.

In 1806, his cousin Alexander McCormick (born 19 March 1792, the son of Samuel's uncle Edward McCormick, an advocate in Edinburgh) was also posted to the Madras Establishment, becoming a lieutenant on 29 July 1809. Alexander was with the 15th NI at Masulipatam (now Bandar), opposite Hyderabad on the east coast—he died there on 20 September 1813 at the age of 21.

The Madras native infantry regiments were organized between 1758 and 1767, with British officers and Indian rank and file, and were used to conduct operations, conquer territory, and force allegiance from local rulers. Samuel may have seen action in a dispute in 1808-09 in Travancore (a princely state on the southeast coast), sparked by the failure of the Rajah of Travancore to keep up with payments of his subsidy. The Resident, Lieutenant-Colonel Macaulay, dismissed the local Dewan or prime minister, thinking that he might be the source of the problem. The Dewan then organized an insurrection aimed at the murder of the Resident, and encouraged the Rajah of Cochin (now Kochi) to join the plot. The British immediately despatched troops, including Samuel’s regiment, which embarked from Tellicherry (now Thalassery, a few miles down the coast from Cannanore) for Cochin on 30 December 1808.

Several skirmishes followed between the British and the rebels, several hundred of whom were killed. On 19 January 1809 a major rebel attack was launched on Cochin, which was by then being defended by six companies of Samuel’s regiment and 50 men from the 12th Regiment of Foot, all under the command of a Major Hewitt of the 17th NI. The rebels were fought off with the loss of about 300 of their men, and 12 men from the defending forces killed and 59 wounded. Hewitt submitted the following report:

I have the honor to inform you that the detachment H.M.'s 12th regiment, and the six companies 1st battalion 17th regiment under my command, were attacked by three columns of the enemy on three different points about 6 o'clock this morning, and after a very severe engagement of three hours, we repulsed them on all sides with considerable slaughter, and captured their two guns. By the enclosed return you will observe that our loss is not trifling. Since your departure we are entirely cut off from all communication by sea, and I am given to understand fresh troops are coming in from all sides. From what I could observe in the field of action, the enemy's force appeared about 3,000 excellent disciplined troops, but from what I can collect from report, they amounted to much more. On the other side of the river, close to the month, they have erected a battery of two guns, which prevents vessels from coming in or going out, and which played upon us with some effect on our charging the enemy on the south side. I trust you will immediately dispatch the armed cruiser to keep the mouth of the river open, and recover our craft." (Signed) W. HEWITT, Major, CAMP COCHIN, Commanding, 19 January 1809.

The war continued until March 1809 when the Dewan committed suicide and the Rajah of Travancore agreed to pay his arrears and the cost of the war. The fight in Cochin appears to be the only one in which the 17th NI was involved, and unfortunately it is unknown whether or not Samuel was part of the force.

Samuel was promoted to Adjutant to the 1st Battalion on 20 October 1812. On 3 November 1814, his first son—Samuel jnr—was born. The mother, described on the baptismal certificate as a "Native Moorwoman", was named Chandaiya. Just over two months later, on 16 January 1815, his father William died in Scotland, most likely without knowing that he had (probably for the first time) become a grandfather. On 8 May, just six months after the birth of his first son, Samuel’s second son—John—was born in Cannanore. The mother was listed as a "Native Woman" named Curpee.

Samuel was promoted to Brevet Captain on 1 January 1819. (The term ‘brevet’ referred to a warrant authorizing a commissioned officer to hold a higher rank temporarily, but usually without receiving the pay of that higher rank except when actually serving in that role.) On 9 May both his sons were baptised at Palamcottah (now Palayamkottai, in Tiruneveli, Tamil Nadu, at the southern tip of India), and just over two weeks later Samuel celebrated his 30th birthday. On 3 December 1819, while aboard the Albinia (sic), he died. The cause of death is unknown, but it was most likely cholera. The world’s first known pandemic of cholera had broken out near Calcutta in 1817 and quickly spread through the rest of the country (and as far east as China). The final death toll is unknown, but at least 10,000 British troops died, and the number of EIC officers who made it home to Britain was small.

Samuel’s death was announced in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol VII, No. XXXVII, April 1820, p. 343, where he was listed as a captain in the 17th Native Infantry, Madras, and eldest son of William McCormick.

He died on board ship, off coast of India


Sources

  1. Entered by John McCormick, Nov 14, 2011


Acknowledgements





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It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Samuel by comparing test results with other carriers of his Y-chromosome or his mother's mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known yDNA or mtDNA test-takers in his direct paternal or maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Samuel:

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