Colvin family
The Colvin family, for the purposes of this article, are that group of people descended from James Colquhoun Colvin (1768–1847) the son of Alexander Colvin (1718–1791) and Elizabeth 'Bettie' née Kennedy (1714–1795). James was a merchant trading between London and Calcutta during the East India Company. This Anglo-Indian family was intimately involved with the British Raj, first as traders and then as administrators and soldiers. Their descendants continued in service to the British Empire and later in some of its constituent countries, e.g. one was an Australian admiral.
In 1776 James married Maria Jackson (1778–1834) at Fort William. Among their children were:
- Elizabeth Jackson Colvin (1803–1856) who married her cousin Alexander Colvin (1787–1864)
- Anna Maria Colvin (1804–1867) who married Robert Colquhoun (East India Company officer) (1786–1838)
- Bazett David Colvin JP (1805–1871) see below
- John Russell Colvin (1807–1857) see below
- Binny James Colvin (1809–1895) who married Helen Catherine née Best (1818–1910) daughter of John Rycroft Best of Barbados
- Henrietta Hall Colvin (1812–1841) who married Rev. Ellis Walford (1803–1881)
- James Edward Colvin (1814–1814)
- Edward Thomas Colvin (1815–1857)
- Margaret Matilda Colvin (1817–1894) who married Walker Pitcairn (1808–1857)
Bazett David Colvin
Bazett David Colvin (1805–1871)[1] was the eldest son of James. In 1847 he inherited his father's estate at The Grove, Little Bealing, near Ipswich,[2] which thus became the childhood home of his son Sidney Colvin (1845–1927),[3] who grew up to be a critic, curator, and great friend of Robert Louis Stevenson.
John Russell Colvin
John Russell Colvin (1807 – 1857), the second son, rose to be lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces of British India during the mutiny of 1857, at the height of which he died.
JRC's children
He married Emma Sophia, daughter of Wetenhall Sneyd, a vicar in England; they had ten children,[4] many of whom continued the family connection with India. Bazett Wetenhall, Elliott Graham, and Walter Mytton all passed distinguished careers in India, and a fourth, Clement Sneyd, C.S.I., was secretary of the public works department of the India Office in London. The third son, Auckland (1838–1908), was lieutenant-governor of the North-West Provinces and Oudh, and also served in Egypt. He co-founded the Colvin Taluqdars' College in Lucknow; he also published a biography of his father in 1895.[5]
Further generations
Elliott Graham's daughter Brenda (1897–1981)[6] was an important landscape architect, author of standard works in the field and a force behind its professionalisation.
One of Clement Sneyd's sons became Admiral Sir Ragnar Colvin, KBE, CB, and fathered John Horace Ragnar Colvin,[7] the Cold War diplomat. Another son Sir C. Preston Colvin had much involvement in railway administration in Burma and India.[8]
The most recent generation is the Australian journalist Mark Colvin.
References
- ^ ONDB article on Sidney
- ^ Village history
- ^ The Times obituary on Wikisource.
- ^ ONDB
- ^ http://www.earl-soham.suffolk.gov.uk/history/romance2.htm
- ^ ONDB
- ^ [1] Archived 2010-01-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "COLVIN, Sir C. Preston". Who Was Who. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press. October 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.(subscription required)
Further reading
- Colvin, Sir Auckland. John Russell Colvin. The Last Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Under The Company. Rulers of India series. Oxford at the Clarendon Press, 1895.Cloth. 214pp. Has been digitised by Google Books.