This brief diversion contains people who might have been the immediate ancestors of John Calland of Madras. Please click here to go back to the Families home page.
I looked for possible ancestors for John Calland of Madras. From the earliest records available online, the CALLAND name existed in Sussex, Kent, Scotland, Lancashire and Yorkshire in the 1550s-1580s. The largest early group was in Scotland but Lancashire later held the largest proportion of later hits when searching the IGI or the censuses on Ancestry.co.uk. I have consistently ignored all Lancs/Yorks CALLANDs in the following research.
Huguenots?
But Madras John later claimed a piece of land on Pall Mall which had been granted in a lease in 1758, when none of his immediate family was in London. And there had been an influx of Huguenot refugees to London in the 1680s. Even earlier, in 1655, Samuel Morland wrote from Geneva to Cromwell's Secretary of State Thurloe [British History Online] concerning relief funds being sent to the persecuted churches of Piemont, and the "£5,000 which Mr Caland had readie is almost all at Grenoble" [it was not clear where Mr Caland was, but he was called Mr not Monsieur, and £££ not francs, so he could have been in England]. In London's 1700s there were CALLENT/ CALLANT/ CALAND/ CALLANDs, all of which spellings were probably interchangeable. The Huguenot Society's website says that although many refugees to London used the French Huguenot church in Threadneedle Street (and an Isaac CAILLAND and his wife Marianne MOURGE baptised their son Jacob - the French version of James - there in 1732) many of the early refugees simply attended the local anglican church, which might explain these CALLANDs being baptised at St Martin's in the Fields in the 1700s ...
John of Alverstoke
John of Alverstoke (our John's father - I have a copy of his will) was the first CALLAND in Hampshire, as far as I can tell. He was comfortably-off, owned property, and either owned the India Arms in Gosport or used it to auction goods - the details are in the Madras story. It is possible that he moved to Hampshire from London's Westminster. Because the best match I have been able to find for John's parents are John and Mary Anne CALLAND, married April 1702 at St Martin-in-the-Fields and baptising a son John there in 1705 and Robert in 1708. This John was certainly in Gosport by 1741 because the London Gazette of 26th December carried a notice for the bankruptcy sale of several houses in Gosport, to be held 'at Mr John Calland's at the The India Arms in Gosport'. A similar sale was held there in April 1743. Being there on the spot (and having the catalogues beforehand) might explain how John acquired the various houses he later left to his son and daughter.
CALLANDs in London
I found some tantalising London-based references. Some CALLANTs were clustered around Croydon and Maidstone; these are self-consistent and, I think, are a separate group so I have not included them here. But consider these remaining hits from various internet sources - there were really not very many of them around:
- 1635 - a Mathew CALLAND sailed from the Port of London some time during the year up to December 1635 [Ancestry's list of Persons of Quality]
- In the 1582 London Subsidy Roll for Vintry Ward, St Martyn's parish, John CALLAND the Elder and Barbara his wyfe, strangers, were assessed as due to pay 4d. Vintry ward bordered the Thames and included the Vintners' Hall and Southwark Bridge and many guilds and posh houses. The district is described here
- 1655 - the already-mentioned Mr CALAND raising money for the protestant churches in France
- 1655 - an Abraham CALLANT - who married in Portsmouth in 1654 [IGI] - wrote from the HMS Vulture in Yarmouth Roads, desiring an order to the commander [Letters and Papers relating to the Navy - December 1658]
- 1664 - a John CALLAND baptised a son William on 25th August and daughter Elizabeth on 8th June 1669 - in Crondon Park, Essex; wife Elizabeth [Registers of Stock Harvard, Essex, on Google books]
- 1683 - Mary CALLANT petitioned on behalf of James CALLANT, a prisoner in Portugal [Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Charles II, 1683, British History Online]
- 1689 - Robert CALLAND's name appears in an index to the William & Mary State Papers Domestic for 1689-90 on British History Online]
- 1689 - a Treasury reference to the petition of John CALLANT, praying that 91 casks of French mallosses [molasses], which he bought of the Prizes Commissioners by inch of candle, may pay only the subsidy and 25 per cent. Customs 'and not the 8s. per cent. over and above the said subsidy etc., as is insisted on by the officers of the Customs.' [Calendar of Treasury Papers, Volume 1: 1556-1696, British History Online]
- 1694 - Unfortunately, I could not find any John Calland in any London parish in the 1694 Four Shillings in the Pound tax records on British history online. This is a bit of a nuisance, since I would have thought any merchant or tradesman would have been caught in this particular net.
- 1705 - a Robert CALLANT was employed by the East India Company as a trader and agent, and was paid compensation for lost belongings after his ship was seized off Scotland [Warrant Books: August 1707, in British History Online]
And then nothing until
- 1733 - when John and Mary CALLAND baptised their son John on 22nd March at Holy Trinity in Gosport [IGI]. They had baptised a son John previously, in 1727, but he must have died as a baby. They also baptised Mary in April 1730 and Sarah in 1732. The baptism of his brother Robert did not make it to the IGI films of parish baptism registers but he did exist because he got the bulk of the inheritance. The rootschat forum online looks at these Alverstoke CALLANDs and speculates about their connections; I can add nothing more.
- 1743 - an advertisement in the Daily Advertiser of 14th November, 1743, concerning a Robert CALLANT, grocer of Gracechurch St [in the City of London] who had to sell:
"all his Stock and Utensils in Trade for the benefit of his Creditors, : Teas, Chocolate, Sugars and other Grocery; "houshold furniture consisting of standing Beds, Bedding, Blankets, Quilts, Chests of Drawers, Buroes, Mahogony and other Tables, Chairs, Sconces, Stoves, &c and good Kitchen Furniture plus a large Beam and Scales, and a good Lead Cistern; the House is to be lett"
might this be the brother of John of Alverstoke? - this advertisement was in the Daily Advertiser of 1st October 1744. It concerns a Mary Callant who died 30th September 1739 - asking the finder please to return the diamond mourning ring in its Shagreen case to Mr Callant of Marsham Street, Westminster [half a mile south of Westminster Abbey and Abingdon Street].
- It is a pleasing coincidental find, but maybe no more than that. A well-off man, but maybe not the John of John and Mary Anne.
- And now the 1747 Gosport auction seems to fit into the same pattern.
- A final hit seems to match John of Alverstoke - the National Archives catalogue lists a 1748 letter from John CALLAND of Gosport to Captain Harrison, late Commander of the Royal George, about some tickets for men belonging to the Glasgow, which he received from Robert Cox, Captain Harrison's late clerk. This sounds to me like a ship's chandler chasing payment, and I think it must be our John's father.
All the dates above, the family name of Robert, and the connection of importing foodstuffs and the grocery trade, could be made to fit into an ancestry for Madras John. I cannot take the data any further, and include this digging just in case it helps anyone else.