Recently, I came upon this picture on a Facebook group:
Below the picture read: "A 282-year old East India trading company ship returns to London for the first time since 1787- in 2018".
Silly me took the photo and description as real. I'm feeling a bit silly after searching the story on Google. Turns out, it's a replica, made in 2002, of an 18th Century Swedish ship named the Gothenburg that sank on it's way back to Scandinavia. All the crew members lived but the cargo was never salvaged. The cargo and ship were claimed on insurance and it is believed that the cargo was sold in London and deliberately wrecked for the insurance money. You can view the article on BBC News Here.
But this got me thinking still, about the East India Trading Company.
My 14th Great-Grandfather was John Mildenhall Jr. and he worked for this company during the 16th and 17th centuries. I can't actually living and working on a ship such as the one pictured! How incredible AND hard!!!
Picture of John Mildenhall & Emporer, Courtesy of Google.com
John Mildenhall was born in 1560 in Little Bedwyn, England. He married Elizabeth Bates (1562-1602) and they had 2 sons: Thomas (b. 1580) and Robert (b. 1582).
Wikipedia depicts John as a trader to his English King. He apparently was a thief (or pirate if you will) and fled. He was hunted for many years but was on the run. He became ill in 1614 while in Agra, India and died in June 1614.
John is buried in the Agra Cemetery in Agra, India. His gravestone is the oldest Mendenhall burial site/gravestone and the first Englishman gravestone in India.
If the inscription is difficult to read, you can read it here:
HERE LIES JOHN MILDENHALL
ENGLISHMAN WHO LEFT LONDON IN
1599 AND TRAVEELLING TO INDIA THROUGH
PERSIA, REACHED AGRA IN 1603 AND
SPOKE WITH THE EMPEROR AKBAR.
ON A SECOND VISIT IN 1614, HE FELL
ILL AT LAHORE DIED AT AJMERE,
AND WAS BURIED HERE THROUGH
THE GOOD OFFICES OF THOMAS
KERRIDGE MERCHANT.
R.I.P.
John Mildenhall Jr. (1560-1614)
Thomas Mildenhall (1580-1639)
Thomas Mildenhall Jr. (1609-1673)
Thomas Mildenhall III (1630-1682)
John Mendenhall (1659-1743)
John Mendenhall Jr. (1688-1765)
Mordecai Mendenhall (1713-1803)
Richard Mendenhall (1737-1773) (Killed by Indians! Read Here)
Joseph Mendenhall (1770-1883)
Richard Mendenhall (1794-1871)
Aaron Mendenhall (1828-1894)
Richard Mendenhall (1852-1924)
Marion Richard Mendenhall (1873-1948)
Earl Dwight Mendenhall (1894-1972)
Harold Earl Mendenhall (1916-1989)
Bonnie Jean Mendenhall
Carrie Ann (Me)
Fascinating, thanks for sharing!
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