Yorktown, Virginia, Robert Jackson and Elizabeth Brett

[dcnicholls]

The family legend says (probably about her) that she was a Spanish "princess" (plausibly Portuguese).  If so she may have been one of two daughters of a (Scots?) sea captain and the daughter of a Spanish(?) landowner, who eloped. Somewhere in the families' collections of old photographs there is a portrait of a lady wearing a mantilla.  My (distant) memory of it is that she was European rather than part Indian.  We are trying to track down the portrait.

DN

[dcnicholls]

John,

Further thoughts. You said above, "John was sent to Sri Lanka to learn the tea trade but her name would indicate this would be an unlikely place to find her."  What records do you have for his presence in Ceylon?  There is a mention of him in the HEI Co's China bureau, in the The Asiatic Journal in the 1820s.

Ceylon was a Portuguese colony until 1658, so it is plausible that Maria H.P. and John J met there.  This would be consistent with her being the descendent of a local potentate and a Portuguese colonial administrator.  And translating "Ceylonese" to "Spanish", given a Portuguese connection, could be the family's way of "regularising" her ancestry.  Also, Spain and Portugal were a single country up to 1640.

All speculation but may offer some leads.

DN

[dcnicholls]

John

Have you examined the Henry Jackson papers in the National Library of NZ in Wellington?  They look very interesting indeed, but aren't digitised:

http://tapuhi.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/spydus/NAV/GLOBAL/OPHDR/1/12178

DN